Pictures, video clips and some thoughts from my trip to visit 5 charter schools in Newark

I attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday for the newest KIPP school, Rise Academy Charter School in Newark.  While I was there, my two friends (Charlie Ledley, the latest addition to the board of Dems for Ed Reform, and Daniel Oscar, who was part of the original team with me that helped Wendy Kopp start Teach for America 17 years ago) and I visited four other outstanding charter schools: the first KIPP in Newark, TEAM Academy, two North Star Academies (part of the outstanding Uncommon Schools network) and the Greater Newark Charter School (Daniel was the founder of the school and remains on its board).  All of these are outstanding schools, with the scores to prove it.  An interesting (though not surprising fact: nearly all of the school leaders and teachers are Teach for America alums.

 

It was an AMAZING day -- I never tire of visiting great schools, and I always learn a ton.  To get some perspective on how important these schools are, consider the following statistics that TEAM principal Ryan Hill cited in his speech at the Rise ribbon-cutting ceremony: In Newark right now, there are 3,000 8th graders.  Assuming the current (disastrous) trends remain in place, only 100 (I kid you not -- 3.3%) will EVER graduate from college.  However, assuming the trends at KIPP continue, the two KIPP schools in Newark will, by themselves, DOUBLE that number!  He also noted that "we're not reducing the achievement gap, we're REVERSING it!"  It gives you goose bumps, doesn't it?

 

I brought my camera and took some pictures (www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Newarkcharters) and videos (www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Newarkcharterschools.wmv).  In the captions for each picture, I describe what's going on.  As for the video, I've spliced together four segments into one 2-minute, 36-second clip.  Here's what they are:

 

1) Rise Academy students learning geography via a chant about the states.

 

2) A math teacher at Rise using "um-pop-drop", another chant/game, to teach student how to multiply 430 x 7 (if I recall correctly).

 

3) TEAM students learning vocabulary words via funny gestures.

 

(In all of these cases, look how engaged the kids are and what fun they're having!)

 

4) All of the students at the North Star Academy doing what's called a Call-Response.  One student is leading the chant, in which every student is loudly proclaiming to work hard, go to college, be a community, etc.  Anyone who knows anything about psychology will understand how INCREDIBLY POWERFUL this is in influencing behavior. 

 

Almost all great schools I've ever seen -- in fact, almost all great organizations of ANY TYPE I've ever seen -- understand that the most powerful human motivator is the desire to BE PART OF A TIGHTLY-BONDED WINNING TEAM.  Think the Yankees (as much as it hurts to write that -- I'm a 4th generation die-hard Red Sox fan), the Marines (where men regularly risk (if not give) their lives for their "teammates"), Starbucks, JetBlue, Wal-Mart and Home Depot (in their heyday), etc.