Diluting academic standards, reducing cut scores or eliminating test-based performance measures altogether are tried-and-true features of administrations that want to give the appearance of progress without doing the often politically fraught work of actually advancing student learning. 

Proponents frame this as a move to reduce student stress or promote a more holistic education. But let鈥檚 call it what it is: a retreat from a commitment to educational equity.  

As a former New Jersey commissioner of education, superintendent of Newark Public Schools and New York City deputy schools chancellor, I have seen firsthand that the most radical, yet necessary, reform states can pursue is an unwavering insistence on equal and high standards for all children regardless of where they live or how much money their families have. Handing out diplomas disconnected from proficiency is a profound error. Students are more than capable of meeting high bars, and policies must reflect that belief.  

Across the country, the number of states requiring high school exit exams has plummeted from a peak of nearly 30 to fewer than 10 today. This quiet erosion of standards ignores a fundamental truth of human behavior: incentives matter.

A graduation exam aligns the interests of teachers, parents and students toward a clear, measurable goal. It also creates a necessary feedback loop, providing an early warning system that allows for targeted remediation before a student enters the workforce or higher education. Without a clearly measurable goal line, students will instead be measured by the courses they complete, a subjective metric that鈥檚 prone to the corrosive effects of grade inflation.

It鈥檚 odd that in other areas of high school, rigorous standards are implemented and adhered to with no pushback. There is a broad consensus around the value of Advanced Placement exams, the International Baccalaureate and the SAT. A student taking one of these standardized tests must demonstrate mastery to receive college credit or make a case for admission to higher education. There鈥檚 widespread agreement that those tests validate learning and ensure a student鈥檚 score has a certain value. It makes no sense at all that policymakers in New Jersey are so eager to deny the general population of New Jersey high schoolers the same objective validation from a graduation exam.

International comparisons offer a sobering perspective. Countries that consistently outperform the United States, such as France, with its rigorous Baccalaur茅at, maintain centralized exit examinations to ensure a high baseline of national competence. These countries understand that a high school diploma serves as a credible signal to employers that a graduate possesses the foundational skills in literacy and mathematics required for adult success. By moving in the opposite direction, New Jersey would be choosing to make students less competitive in a global economy.  

I鈥檝e grown weary of the argument that objective assessments like New Jersey鈥檚 graduation exam unfairly penalize young people from underserved communities. When policymakers eliminate a uniform metric, they don’t eliminate inequity. They hide it. They replace a transparent standard with subjective grading that often favors the privileged.

If policymakers feel the current system is too rigid, they could explore a two-tiered diploma system that distinguishes between various levels of mastery instead of abolishing the standard entirely. This would at least keep some objective measurement in place. What they shouldn’t do is write into state law that New Jersey’s students can鈥檛 do hard things. They can; but they need a system that expects excellence and refuses to lie to them about their readiness for the world. If they鈥檙e not ready, it鈥檚 the state’s responsibility to get them ready. 

As Mikie Sherrill begins her time in office, she has an opportunity to not only be a great governor, but also a transformational one when it comes to pre-K-12 education. 

Imagine how refreshing and powerful it would be if her core message was, 鈥淛udge me by how much children are learning, not by my allegiance to any particular policy, strategy or political orientation.鈥�    

And what better way to act on that belief than to make sure that a state-certified high school diploma continues to demonstrate that New Jersey鈥檚 students are truly prepared for success as they enter adulthood. 

New Jersey鈥檚 education department approved the renewal of five charter schools in Newark and the expansion of two schools, but denied an enrollment expansion for KIPP TEAM Academy in the South Ward after the city鈥檚 public school district raised objections.

Kevin Dehmer, the state鈥檚 education commissioner, renewed Great Oaks Legacy, LEAD, Robert Treat Academy, North Star Academy, and TEAM Academy charter schools to operate for the next five years, through Jan. 30, 2031, according to charter school decision letters obtained by Chalkbeat from the state education department.

Robert Treat Academy, with campuses in the North and Central wards, and North Star Academy, part of the Uncommon Schools network across Newark, received approval to boost their enrollment by the 2030-31 school year, but the state blocked TEAM Academy鈥檚 request to add just over 1,000 seats by 2030-31.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

Kevin Dehmer, the state鈥檚 education commissioner, sent charter school decision letters on Jan. 16, before Gov. Mikie Sherrill was sworn in. The letters were sent to schools statewide that sought renewals or amendments to their charter agreements, including requests to renew charter applications, add a grade level, or increase seats. The education department evaluates requests by reviewing a charter school鈥檚 academic, operational, and fiscal standing, outlined by state guidelines.

State laws allow charter schools to be renewed for a maximum of five years, but signed this month, the education commissioner can grant 10-year renewals to charter schools that meet high-performing standards.

This year, 22 charter school requests were approved statewide, including the five in Newark. New Jersey renewed charter agreements for schools in Jersey City, Paterson, Hoboken, and Camden, and denied the expansion of Thomas Edison EnergySmart School in Somerset. Overall, nine charter school enrollment expansions were approved across the state.

The decisions charter school determinations made under former Gov. Phil Murphy to approve charter schools and deny expansions. Sherrill has not explicitly stated her plans for charter schools in New Jersey, but during , she generally opposed expanding school choice through vouchers or new charter schools. She has said she would support expanding the state鈥檚 program.

Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger Leon asked the state to renew TEAM Academy鈥檚 charter without an enrollment expansion, citing the 鈥渇iscal impact鈥� on the district, according to the state letter. Leon alleged that 鈥渢he school does not enroll a proportional share of multilingual learners and students with disabilities,鈥� according to a letter he submitted.

Leon also opposed expansions for North Star Academy and Robert Treat Academy, citing the same reasons.

The charter school decisions come as Leon continues to reclaim Newark public school buildings lost under the state鈥檚 25-year takeover of the district. He has vowed to slow the spread of charter schools in the city. In 2024, the district that forced People鈥檚 Preparatory Charter School out of the Bard Early College High School. with Achieve Community Charter School to create a new K-12 school called BRICK Gateway Academy.

Newark Public Schools opposes charter school expansion

Founded in 2002, TEAM Academy was the first school operated by KIPP, a national charter network, in Newark. The school enrolls grades five through eight and requested to expand enrollment from 7,920 seats to 9,010 seats by the 2030-31 school year, according to its state decision letter this year.

After reviewing the school鈥檚 academic, organizational, and financial performance, the state found that TEAM Academy partially met standards in board capacity, school climate and culture, and access and equity. According to annual reports submitted to the state, the charter school board had not conducted formal evaluations. The board is expected to complete them during the next five years, according to the state letter.

The school also reported a 17% out-of-school suspension rate for school years 2021-22 through 2023-24, during which several kindergarten through second grade students received out-of-school suspension each year, the state letter read.

State officials said the high number of suspensions created 鈥渟ignificant concerns鈥� in the school鈥檚 ability to adhere to state law, which restricts out-of-school suspensions for those grade levels, TEAM Academy鈥檚 decision letter stated.

But the state found the charter school met standards in educating students with disabilities and multilingual learners, contradicting Leon鈥檚 allegations. TEAM Academy has roughly 939 students with Individualized Education Programs, with an average of 80 to 90 students with existing IEPs or Section 504 Plans enrolled annually, according to the state letter.

John Abeigon, the president of the Newark Teachers Union, the American Federation of Teachers, and the City Association of Supervisors and Administrators, among other unions and groups, also submitted comments opposing TEAM Academy鈥檚 enrollment expansion.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, along with council members Patrick Council and Anibal Ramos, submitted comments in support of TEAM Academy, expressing support for the charter renewal due to the school鈥檚 鈥渟trong academic record and the educational choice it provides to the Newark community,鈥� according to the state letter.

By the 2030-31 school year, Robert Treat Academy will expand from 860 seats to 1,620 seats, while North Star Academy, with schools in the Central and West Wards, will boost enrollment from 7,792 seats to 8,556 seats after receiving approval this year.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

A state Senate panel advanced a bill Monday that would聽聽to businesses聽with at least 15 workers, a change from the current threshold of 30 employees.

has seen some changes since it passed the Assembly in February. It had initially lowered the worker threshold to five, to widespread criticism from the business community. Business groups remain opposed, saying that encompassing businesses with fewer than 30 employees would deter hiring and potentially force small businesses to close their doors.

鈥淣ew Jersey small businesses are already shouldering some of the highest operating costs in the country, including labor, insurance, property taxes, and compliance obligations,鈥� said Amirah Hussain of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. 鈥淚mposing these mandates introduces a new layer of risk and unpredictability.鈥�

Yarrow Willman-Cole, with consumer advocacy group New Jersey Citizen Action, testified in favor of the bill, saying 1.7 million workers are not covered by the state鈥檚 current family leave law.

鈥淲e passed paid family leave 17 years ago. It took us 10 years to improve it. It should not take another decade to get this right,鈥� Willman-Cole said. 鈥淥ur laws should reflect our society鈥檚 growing caregiving needs. New Jersey is, in fact, not keeping up.鈥�

The Senate Judiciary Committee鈥檚 Republicans and Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), the panel鈥檚 chair, voted against advancing the bill.

New Jersey law requires that businesses provide eligible workers with up to 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with a new child or to care for a loved one. Workers pay into the fund that pays out benefits, and the benefits are based on a worker鈥檚 earnings. Workers鈥� jobs are protected until their leave ends.

The committee amended the bill Monday to include employees who have worked for a company for six months 鈥� current law says 12 months 鈥� and for 500 hours, down from 1,000 hours. The bill would take two years to phase in.

Elizabeth Zuckerman of the state chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association said that whatever 鈥渟mall burden鈥� the bill puts on an employer is justified to keep parents from choosing between bonding with their children or keeping their job.

鈥淲e are a pro-family country. We should support our families by allowing employers or encouraging employers to give employees time off when they need to care for a child or a family member,鈥� Zuckerman said.

Businesses remain concerned that the bill would put an 鈥渦nsustainable burden鈥� on small employers, said Frank Jones with Big I New Jersey, which advises independent and locally owned insurance agencies.

Jones said he supports the goal of the bill to give more workers access to family leave, but when businesses with 15 employees lose one person, it鈥檚 difficult for the remaining workers to juggle the work. He also said it would drive up liability insurance costs. He stressed that paid benefits and job-protected reinstatement should be separate issues.

鈥淭he mandatory reinstatement requirement, regardless of business conditions, removes the flexibility small business employers need to survive,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淎gencies may be forced to permanently restructure or hire to maintain client service, only to face liability for not reinstating later, even if decisions were made in good faith.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

Senate lawmakers on Monday advanced legislation that would launch the most comprehensive overhaul of New Jersey鈥檚 regulation of charter schools in 30 years.

advanced by the Senate Education Committee on Monday would outright ban for-profit charter schools, require them to post a range of documents online, and impose residency requirements for some charter school trustees.

鈥淲e have not looked at charter schools as a whole legislatively in this committee since the 1990s, so this is an opportunity where we鈥檙e trying to do that,鈥� said Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), the panel鈥檚 chair and the bill鈥檚 prime sponsor.

The bill comes as New Jersey charter schools have faced scrutiny after reporting revealed top officials were paid at traditional public schools, including, among others, a Newark charter school CEO who was paid nearly $800,000 in 2024.

The proposal, which Gopal said was the product of a year of negotiations, would require charter schools to post user-friendly budgets that include the compensation paid to charter school leaders and school business administrators. They must also post existing contracts.

Charters would be required to post meeting notices, annual reports, board members鈥� identities, and facility locations online. Some critics have charged that charter schools routinely fail to provide notice of their public meetings.

The legislation would also require the state to create a dedicated charter school transparency website to host plain language budgets, 990 disclosure forms filed with the IRS, contracts with charter management organizations, and a list of charter schools on probation, among other things.

It would also ban fully virtual charter schools.

鈥淲e support the bills as a step forward in holding all public schools in our state accountable for fiscal and transparency requirements that will ultimately best serve our students,鈥� said Debbie Bradley, director of government relations for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association.

The two sides remained at odds over the membership of charter school boards.

Charter critics argued residency for those positions 鈥� which, unlike traditional public school boards, are largely appointed rather than elected 鈥� should mirror those imposed on regular public schools.

In New Jersey, school board members must live in the district they serve. That鈥檚 not the case for charter schools, whose trustees face no residency or qualification limits under existing law.

The bill would only impose a residency requirement on one-third of a charter school鈥檚 trustees, and rather than forcing them to live in the district, the bill would require charter trustees to live in the school鈥檚 county or within 30 miles of the school.

That language was criticized by statewide teachers union the New Jersey Education Association, which has called existing law governing charter schools outdated and flawed.

鈥淪chool board representation should remain primarily local, and when we mean local, we don鈥檛 mean within a 30-mile radius. A 30-mile radius of Newark could include Maplewood, South Orange, communities that don鈥檛 necessarily represent what Newark looks like as a community,鈥� said Deb Cornavaca, the union鈥檚 director of government relations.

Charter school supporters said their boards need flexibility because their leadership has broader responsibilities than counterparts in traditional public schools.

鈥淩unning a charter is a little different than running a traditional district. You need experience in school finance. You need to fundraise a bunch of money on the front end because you鈥檙e not getting paid on the front end,鈥� said New Jersey Charter School Association President Harry Lee, adding they also needed familiarity with real estate and community experience.

Amendments removed provisions that would have required charter school board members to be approved by the state commissioner of education, though the commissioner retains sole power over whether to allow the formation of a new charter, a power that gives the commissioner some veto power over a charter鈥檚 board.

Gopal acknowledged the 30-mile residency rule was a sticking point and said legislators would discuss it before the measure comes before the Senate Budget Committee. Earlier, he warned the bill was likely to see more changes as it moved through the Legislature.

Some argued enrollment in charter schools should be more limited by geography, arguing that out-of-district enrollments that are common at New Jersey charters could place financial strain on the students鈥� former district.

Most per-pupil state and local funding follows students who enroll in charter schools, even if their departure does not actually decrease the original district鈥檚 expenses because, for example, those schools still require the same number of teachers and administrators.

Charter operators said that would make New Jersey a national outlier and argued that a separate provision that would bar new charter schools when there are empty seats in existing area charters should come out of the bill.

鈥淚t could be read as a moratorium on charters, so we want to revisit that provision,鈥� Lee said.

Such vacancies could exist for various reasons, they argued, including student age distributions.

Alongside that measure, the panel approved separate legislation that would bar charter schools from setting criteria to enroll students, ban them from imposing other requirements on a student randomly selected to attend, and place new limits on how such schools can enroll children from outside their district.

That bill would also bar charter schools from encouraging students to break with the district. Some opponents have charged that charter schools push out low-performing students to boost their metrics.

The committee approved the bills in unanimous votes, though Sens. Owen Henry (R-Ocean) and Kristin Corrado (R-Passaic) abstained from votes on both bills, saying they are broadly supportive but need more time to review amendments.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

I grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, raised by a single Black teenage mother. She worked long hours and still found the energy to keep me focused. She signed me up for summer academic programs. She made sure homework came before anything else. We didn鈥檛 have much, but she never let me think education was optional. For her, education was the one way forward.

Today, when I walk into a classroom at College Achieve Public Schools, where I work, I see faces that remind me of my own, both in the students and the educators teaching them. This was intentional. We realized our scholars would learn best from teachers who know their neighborhoods, understand their challenges and see their potential. So we built a system to achieve that goal. 

Our educators reflect the community we serve. More than half are people of color, with significant representation from Black, Latino, Bengali, Arabic and Asian educators. Black male teachers, a group often underrepresented nationally in education, make up roughly 20% of the faculty, an exceptionally high percentage when compared with the national average of 1%. The team is stable and growing, with a cohort of educators recently hitting the five-year mark and earning tenure. We are proud of these figures, and we know why it鈥檚 working.

Our approach is straightforward and replicable. We recruit from the community, pay people as they train, coach them well and show a clear path forward so they stay. 

We partnered with nearby St. Elizabeth and Montclair State universities to hire qualified college students as substitute teachers, pairing each with a veteran mentor. They work as subs while completing their degrees, gaining classroom experience. Once they graduate, they can earn a full teaching certificate through and return as certified teachers. 

Through grants from the New Jersey Department of Education in partnership with Rutgers University, we have helped college students earn their teacher certifications while building direct recruitment pipelines. Paraprofessionals taking part in the program can typically earn their state teaching certification in two to four years, depending on their level of experience and education when they enroll. The program targets fields that have been disproportionately impacted by staff shortages, such as special education, science, math, English as a second language and bilingual education.

Our school also works with Gateway U, a workforce development initiative offering online college degrees, and has partnered with Teach for America to recruit educators. 

We also created a summer co-teacher program in hard-to-staff subjects so aspiring educators can teach in their subject with the help of seasoned educators before working full time the following school year. This past summer, 15 college students participated, and while some have gone to complete their degrees, some have stayed on as substitute teachers at CAPS or volunteered to lead clubs or special programs like robotics. I feel confident that at least half of these students will eventually join full time.

For late-career aspiring educators already in the workforce, we built routes to finish credentials while earning credit, including online degree options and targeted certification support.

In total, our partnerships with teacher-pipeline programs helped the certification cohort grow from 18 in 2018 to 35 in 2025, a 94% increase.

Retention is built into the design. New teachers get scheduled coaching time focused on practice. We reimburse tuition in exchange for a commitment of two full school years after they complete their degree or certificate, and provide leadership development so strong teachers can grow without leaving their classrooms. Many of our school leaders began here as teachers. People stay when they feel seen, improve their craft and can picture the next step. 

Since opening in 2017, College Achieve Public Schools has grown to nearly 200 staff across its five campuses in Paterson. Retention has improved each year, culminating in 86.6% teacher retention and 92.8% overall staff retention and 88% of teachers reporting satisfaction with leadership and school environment for the 2024-25 school year.

This model of development, supported certification and long-term career support can be replicated in any school or district willing to invest in its own community as the future of its teaching force. 

Seeing take similar steps by raising salaries, removing licensing hurdles and encouraging paraprofessionals and aides to pursue teaching credentials is refreshing. These changes open the door for more people from different backgrounds to become teachers and stay in the profession.

Education is about more than academics; it can redirect the course of a child’s life, like mine. Representation matters not just for diversity鈥檚 sake, but because it is proven to make . 

A school full of teachers who reflect its community doesn鈥檛 happen by accident. It happened because we chose to invest in people. We make it easier for future teachers to see themselves in the classroom and achieve success for our students. As my mother understood, education has the power to open doors I didn鈥檛 even know existed. Now, I am proud to do the same for other teachers.

New Jersey鈥檚 largest school system will receive nearly half a million dollars in new federal funding to strengthen reading instruction and engage families in literacy as part of a first-year $13.6 million initiative announced this week by the state鈥檚 Education Department.

Two grants will support Newark Public Schools鈥� literacy work, with $400,000 to update instructional materials and train teachers in evidence-based practices and $60,000 to create home-based literacy programs for parents and children under age 3.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

鈥淟iteracy is the tool that unlocks the opportunities education creates for our students. These grant awards will help sustain our efforts to infuse best practices into classrooms across our state, uplifting our school communities with crucial tools and resources,鈥� said Gov. Phil Murphy in a Wednesday.

The new investments come as Newark continues to face challenges in helping students recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Across Newark, less than 40% of the city鈥檚 traditional public and charter school students scored proficient in English language arts last year, and just under 24% did so in math, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of .

This year, 34% of students in Newark Public Schools passed the English language arts test, while 21.1% passed math, according to the district鈥檚 overview of .

The state Education Department has not yet released statewide scores for this year, which will include the latest charter school results.

The new literacy funding comes from the federal Comprehensive Literacy State Development grants, a $50 million investment to be used over five years. The grants, which will be disbursed by the state Education Department, will build upon the , the state鈥檚 new plan to refine literacy practices in schools.

That framework requires schools across the state this year to start new training on reading instruction for prekindergarten-6 staff, implement literacy screenings for students in K-3, and create reading intervention plans.

The district has said it , an AI-powered literacy screener, to help identify students who may be struggling to read, as part of the framework.

Newark charter schools also received literacy funding from the state鈥檚 new grant.

Marion P. Thomas Charter School and Philip鈥檚 Academy Charter School received $150,000 and $124,999, respectively, to hire literacy coaches.

Marion P. Thomas also received $50,000, while Discovery Charter School got $20,000, to expand reading intervention for middle and high school students.

For Newark, the new grants could mean more support for teachers and families working to help students learn to read.

School leaders in Newark identified early literacy as a key part of the city鈥檚 academic recovery plan post-pandemic. In 2023, Mayor Ras Baraka declared an urgent literacy crisis in Newark and The city鈥檚 its summer school and tutoring programs and adopted an and charter schools 鈥� to provide high-dosage tutoring in math and reading.

Superintendent Roger Le贸n has previously said that federal dollars were the district鈥檚 in expanding academic recovery programs, including high-impact tutoring, a research-based practice with three or more sessions per week with the same tutor in small group settings.

Le贸n has also said district teachers are providing that type of tutoring as a way to support academic recovery, but more details about those efforts have not been shared publicly.

In a statement, Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz, whose district includes Newark, said she hopes that the new grants can improve classroom instruction by taking 鈥渁 holistic approach to strengthening literacy 鈥� training educators to deliver effective instruction, equipping schools with evidence-based resources, and fostering meaningful familial connections through reading at home.鈥�

Michael Duffy, president of GO Tutor Corps, a nonprofit that partners with schools in New Jersey and across the country to provide high-impact tutoring, said in a recent interview with Chalkbeat that tutoring works but added that 鈥渢he question isn鈥檛 whether high-dosage tutoring can move the needle for kids, it鈥檚 who has access to it.鈥�

Liz Cohen, vice president of policy at 50can and author of a new book, 鈥淭he Future of Tutoring,鈥� said academic recovery efforts should no longer be viewed as a short-term pandemic solution but should shape education long-term.

鈥淚t鈥檚 less about recovering now and it鈥檚 more about what do we want education to look like in the 21st century and going forward,鈥� Cohen said.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

He鈥檚 right about the underrepresentation.  But ending gifted programs doesn鈥檛 fix inequity; it removes one of the few formal routes to advanced learning. Wealthier families replace it with tutoring and private schools, while low-income parents are left with fewer options. Eliminating public gifted programs doesn鈥檛 level the field; it tilts it.

Even more concerning, it narrows the very top of the nation鈥檚 talent funnel 鈥� exactly the opposite of what should be happening. True equity comes from identifying more talent earlier, broadening how it is identified and ensuring every child has a pathway into demanding coursework.

When I moved my family from Newark to Moorestown, New Jersey, an affluent suburb outside Philadelphia, I saw how wealthier school systems deliberately nurture talent. In kindergarten, children took a standardized test; the top scorers entered gifted programs in first grade. By fourth grade, they were tracked into advanced classes. It was systematic and designed to nurture academic potential.

I鈥檝e seen that kind of cultivation in another field entirely: sports. When I was a middle school principal in Newark, one of my students was an average basketball player in sixth grade. Two years later, scouts were at our games; Dariq Whitehead went on to Duke and then the NBA. Athletics systems are relentless about finding and developing talent early. Academic systems rarely are.

At Thrive Scholars, we identify thousands of high-achieving teens from low-income backgrounds 鈥� through a national selection process that looks for exceptional academic performance and persistence 鈥� and give them the sustained help they need to excel in rigorous colleges and high-growth careers. These are remarkable young people who made it from kindergarten all the way to high school largely unnoticed. During the summers after their junior and senior years, they spend six weeks taking three hours of calculus and three hours of academic writing each day 鈥� the kind of deep preparation wealthier peers often access through private programs. Throughout college, they receive four years of one-on-one career coaching, so academic gains translate into opportunity. 

Some 95% of our scholars graduate from college, many in STEM fields; their average GPA rivals that of their wealthiest peers, and their starting salaries are roughly twice their families鈥� household income.

But providing academic catch-up and economic mobility, while essential, are not the same as cultivating excellence. Charters and programs like mine help more students reach and finish college, and that is progress. But it is not the same as moving more students into the most influential seats in American life. Look at , elite research labs, federal clerkships, venture capital firms and tenured STEM faculties: they still overwhelmingly come from affluent, largely white pipelines. While getting more low-income students to college is necessary, it isn鈥檛 sufficient for diversifying who leads, invents and allocates capital.

You can see the structural gap in our intake. Even exceptional scholars arrive having had uneven access to advanced math and writing. We compress years of enrichment into two pre-college summers. If gifted students were identified and nurtured earlier, far more would enter college ready to lead rather than catch up 鈥� and programs like Thrive could help them accelerate instead of remediate.

That鈥檚 why the top of the funnel matters. The fewer districts that identify and challenge high-achieving students early, the fewer promising high schoolers organizations like mine will have to work with. Some charter school networks have raised expectations for all students from the earliest grades 鈥� but many lack gifted-and-talented programs. In focusing so heavily on bringing everyone to grade level, they fail to push advanced students further. The unintended message is that low-income students of color aren鈥檛 gifted 鈥� or aren’t in ways that merit cultivation. That isn鈥檛 equity; it鈥檚 a missed opportunity.

America needs an ecosystem that does both: lift every student and accelerate the most advanced learners. I鈥檓 encouraged by newer initiatives like 鈥� which finds mathematically gifted students as early as second grade and surrounds them with advanced coursework, mentorship and competitive opportunities 鈥攁nd by established programs like the , which identifies exceptional middle schoolers and supports them through college. These programs show what鈥檚 possible when talent discovery is treated as a national priority. The country needs many more like them.

The blueprint already exists. The challenge is scale and scope. Policymakers and education leaders can act now by requiring early talent identification in Title I schools and reporting on advanced achievement, not just proficiency; funding advanced learning from the early grades, including acceleration, enrichment and summer study; and backing partnerships among schools, nonprofits and universities that place promising students in rigorous academic settings early and sustain them through college and into careers.

This is more than an equity issue; it鈥檚 about America’s competitiveness. The shows that only about a quarter of eighth-graders are proficient in math, and gaps by race and income remain wide. By , Americans who are now labeled minorities will collectively be the majority. If the nation keeps overlooking talent in the communities growing fastest, it will be choosing decline over dynamism.

The nation’s talent is its greatest asset 鈥� but only if it is found and developed wherever it lives. Strength will come not from shrinking advanced opportunities, but from expanding them so every child with potential has a fair chance to reach the top.

New Jersey鈥檚 gubernatorial candidates both want school districts to consolidate as a cost-saving maneuver, but they differ on whether the state should force districts to merge with their neighbors.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, said during that she would first incentivize mergers but added that compulsory consolidation was an option.

鈥淚鈥檇 start by offering the carrot to help the areas that want to consolidate, but when there are areas that are not putting enough money into students, into educators, into the buildings, and then they are taking a lot of money in property taxes and from the state level, then we鈥檒l have to start to look at compulsory movements,鈥� Sherrill said.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman, likewise said he would seek to boost incentives and assistance to municipalities and school districts seeking mergers, but he pledged not to force them.

鈥淚 do not believe that our state government should force consolidation. That鈥檚 up to the locals,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I鈥檒l tell you what, if you do consolidate or you do regionalize, Governor Ciattarelli will help incentivize that to make it easier.鈥�

Sherrill and Ciattarelli are vying to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who cannot seek a third term in November.

Officials have long hailed school consolidation as a means of easing local property taxes by reducing duplicative administrative and facilities costs, but uptake has been slow.

New Jersey had 590 operating school districts during the 2024-2025 school year, according to state data, down from 599 in the 2020-2021 school year.

The number of non-operating districts 鈥� districts that have a board of education but send all their students to schools in outlying districts 鈥� fell from 17 to 16 over that same time period. Sherrill signaled those districts could be the first merged if she wins the governor鈥檚 race.

鈥淲e have some school districts who have the whole administrative cost, all of the buildings, and yet they鈥檙e not even running a K-12 school system, so we do need to merge some of these school districts,鈥� she said.

Schools consume a majority of local property taxes 鈥� 52% of all those collected in 2024, according to property tax tables published by the Department of Community Affairs 鈥� and the more than $15.1 billion in school aid approved in the current state budget accounted for more than a quarter of all spending approved in the annual appropriations bill for the current July-to-June fiscal year. That total includes more than $4 billion in combined special education, transportation, and other categories of aid separate from the state鈥檚 school funding formula.

Ciattarelli suggested school vouchers 鈥� which allow property tax dollars to follow a student to a private school, a public school outside their district, or a charter school 鈥� could be a fix for ailing districts.

鈥淲hen a school system is failing 鈥� and there鈥檚 some reasonable metrics that tell us whether or not a school system is failing 鈥� there鈥檚 got to be choice,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat choice comes in the form of vouchers. That choice comes in the form of charter schools.鈥�

Because vouchers typically draw from school district funding, they could cause funding to decline at in-district public schools as students seek education elsewhere.

New Jersey lawmakers have considered聽聽or shared service agreements, but to date, such mergers have been entirely voluntary.

Murphy, who has generally favored school mergers, last year said he was 鈥渘ot wild about compulsory鈥� consolidation, cautioning that home rule, a constitutional framework that gives local governments broad authority over the administration of school and other municipal services, could limit forced mergers.

A law he signed in 2022 created grants for districts to study whether consolidation was feasible, though only a handful of districts have explored such mergers since.

Cape May City Elementary School and West Cape May Elementary School are the latest to receive grants to explore a merger. Together, the two Cape May County schools have just 241 students.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

With this toxic stew of factors both internal and external, I fear America may be entering a dangerous period for K-12 public education, with an increased risk of corruption and malfeasance.

Look at what鈥檚 happening in Illinois. The state Board of Education recently voted to for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, the standardized test used in the public schools. The result: 53% of students will now be judged to be proficient in reading, rather than 38%. It appears to be a blatant effort to lower standards in order to make the public schools in Illinois look better.

The board claims that it has to do this, because so many of those students are going on to college despite falling short of proficiency. But talk to anyone who works with incoming university freshmen and you will realize that, in the current era, college enrollment is of college readiness.

The K-12 school system is embattled: Enrollment just keep coming, and public support is at an . Since the pandemic, has gone from stagnant to declining, especially when compared with that of other wealthy countries. Many districts have unfunded pension plans that will add even more financial strain. And the current workforce, especially in the big urban districts, is about the future of public education.

K-12 districts are largely controlled by local politicians 鈥� school board members 鈥� who often have strong incentives to keep powerful interest groups happy in the short term, whether they are parent organizations or union leaders, instead of making difficult decisions that would protect their school system’s long-term integrity. These include closing schools, reducing administrative positions or redrawing (or eliminating) attendance zone lines. These board members control hundreds of in taxpayer funding every year and what may be over a trillion dollars worth of underutilized real estate assets.

This is a powder keg of risk with vast amounts of money at stake, not to mention the public trust and the educational opportunities of a generation of children.

Adding to the problem, local journalism has deteriorated in the last two decades, as newspapers around the country have gone out of business or cut their news desks. The education beat seems to have . What鈥檚 more, after being gutted by the Trump administration, it鈥檚 unlikely that the federal Department of Education is going to be able to play much of a watchdog role in coming years.

The legal oversight of the public schools mainly falls to state legislatures. But most Republican lawmakers have other fish to fry, focusing on culture war issues and giving families escape routes from the system in the form of tax credit scholarships or educational savings accounts.

Democrats, reeling from recent electoral losses and paralyzed by internal divisions, are reluctant to even acknowledge the potential for bad behavior in the school system, as the public districts and their unions are a tremendous store of political power for them 鈥� even in red states. As Dana Goldstein in The New York Times, 鈥淒emocrats, for their part, often find themselves standing up for a status quo that seems to satisfy no one.鈥�

As a result, powerful interest groups can often exert their influence over the system and extract special privileges or take advantage of wasteful spending. Here are just a handful of recent stories, many of which received little to no coverage in the mainstream press:

• In Chicago, the district , which could be worth tens of millions of dollars. But, in a classic case of anti-competitive behavior, the district prohibits future owners from operating charter schools there, meaning the properties will go for millions below their true market value. 鈥淥ur goal is not to sell them for the highest dollar amount,鈥� admits a district spokesperson.

• In New Jersey, the state teachers union to fund the gubernatorial campaign of a candidate 鈥� the union’s president 鈥� who finishes fifth in the Democratic primary.
  
• In Tampa, the district , a failing school serving African-American students. The nearest school for many of these families is A-rated Gorrie Elementary, which primarily serves wealthy white families. But not one of the Just students is allowed to enroll in Gorrie, instead getting bused to C-rated schools farther from their homes.
  
• In Los Angeles, the district spends to increase permanent capacity at Ivanhoe Elementary School, one of the most coveted in the district, despite thousands of empty seats in schools just five to six minutes away.

• Outside Sacramento, the Center Joint Unified School District fights efforts of local families to be allowed to that is just blocks from their home, because the district fears losing funding if its archaic district boundaries are redrawn.聽

Strong investigative journalists are needed to step into this void, for there will be important stories to tell. Nonprofit watchdogs, like my organization, Available to All, will play a role, too.

Most importantly, state legislators need to step up their oversight of local districts. Legislators need to ensure they do not lower our academic standards to make their schools look better. There also need to be strong transparency laws, and districts should be subject to external audits of their financials and real estate holdings.

Public education can survive the current crisis and emerge stronger than ever, but only if those of us who believe in public education work together to ensure that trust in the system is restored.

The pathway to higher education brought me to Rutgers University-Camden in 1981, where I am now a professor and director of the Community Leadership Center. Enrolling there helped me build the social and political capital to establish LEAP Academy 鈥� Camden鈥檚 first charter school 鈥� in 1997. Since then, the school has grown from five trailers on an abandoned lot to a complex of transformed historic buildings along Cooper Street. 

Thousands of students have passed through our doors, and we have maintained 100% high school and college graduation rates. That has been our mission for 30 years. It is an ambitious goal, especially in a city like Camden, where nearly 30% of residents live below the poverty line and the district鈥檚 high school graduation rate hovers around 65%. Many young people in the city are left without a diploma and few opportunities ahead.

I am incredibly proud of what LEAP Academy has achieved for Camden鈥檚 students, families and educators. But K-12 education alone is not enough. Real generational change 鈥� especially for Black and Hispanic students 鈥� comes from obtaining a college degree and the financial support necessary to make that possible.

While a strong K-12 education provides essential groundwork, access to quality post-secondary education, career training and a broader approach to addressing systemic inequalities are all necessary to truly break the cycle of poverty.

This past June, I watched 160 students 鈥� all Black or Hispanic, many first-generation college-goers 鈥� walk across LEAP鈥檚 graduation stage. Each one took a step toward a degree, a career and a brighter future. For them, college is more than an academic achievement, it is a generational breakthrough.

So how does LEAP鈥檚 approach to college access work?

We set high expectations at an early age, remove financial barriers for families and challenge high school seniors to complete a full schedule of college courses.

At LEAP, getting ready for college starts in pre-K. With sponsorship from Rutgers University, young children can attend an early learning program that continues into LEAP鈥檚 K-12 school. Parents volunteer 40 hours each year, helping to make the school stronger for everyone. Even in the early grades, students at LEAP spend 10 more days in school than those attending neighboring public schools. We also serve as a community hub, opening our buildings at 7:15 a.m. for breakfast and keeping them open until 6:15 p.m. to provide students with additional instruction, tutoring, extracurricular clubs and intramural sports.

Each of our five buildings has a College Access Center. For students in K-8, center staffers  monitor their grades, explain how their academic progress connects to college readiness and update parents on how their children’s performance stacks up to college-ready skills. These services intensify in high school, as students prepare to apply to college. In addition, the team presents programs that introduce students to career possibilities in areas such as STEM, law, architecture, business and writing 鈥� all fields that can be pursued through college study.

In high school, students take real college classes taught by professors at Rutgers and Rowan universities. This helps these inner-city students build strong skills and feel more confident about life after high school. Graduate students from Rutgers-Camden, tutor LEAP students during the school day and after school when needed, for example, in tough classes like statistics.

Over 1,200 LEAP students have graduated with a full year of college credits, positioning them to finish college in three years and saving on tuition costs for families.

In addition, LEAP pays full tuition through the Alfredo and Gloria Bonilla-Santiago Endowed Scholarship for graduates who maintain a 3.5 GPA during their time at LEAP, have four or fewer unexcused absences during the year and need financial aid. Hundreds of students who maintain a 3.0 GPA at Rutgers University’s three campuses receive full tuition. 

An added benefit: As our students achieve college success, Camden receives a surge of intellectual capital.

Without an educated workforce, sustainable economic investment is unlikely. Companies will invest only if they believe they can find prepared, local talent. A city filled with college-educated citizens is not a dream 鈥� it is an economic imperative.

Today, Camden鈥檚 workforce is expanding, and residents are actively working to revitalize the city. From growing waterfront businesses to local hospitals and universities, LEAP graduates are shaping the city鈥檚 future while delivering valuable services to the broader community and helping to renew civic pride.

Yet troubling trends are emerging. Across the country, skepticism about the value of college is growing. One survey found that only have confidence in higher education. Another showed that believe earning a bachelor鈥檚 degree is important for getting a good-paying job.

This level of doubt is both misguided and dangerous. While some companies have removed degree requirements from job postings to demonstrate skills-based hiring, is still a criterion that managers use to determine whether a candidate brings the right skills to the table. College isn鈥檛 just about skills 鈥� it鈥檚 about learning to think critically, collaborate effectively and broaden perspectives. It鈥檚 where students meet peers from different backgrounds, build lasting relationships and expand their world views. Hiring managers compare job candidates against one another, and having a college degree weighs in favor of applicants who’ve earned one.

Undervaluing higher education risks breaking the very link that lifts up both students and cities. Disrupting the cycle of poverty requires year-round work and unwavering dedication. It takes educators who believe in their students, families who stay engaged and communities willing to invest.

Parents, educators and policymakers invested in K-12 education must never lose sight of what truly matters when transforming urban communities: helping every student envision a future beyond high school, and equipping them with the tools to reach it.

One could be forgiven if, upon reading the above, one thought that Spiller finished a close second or third in the Democratic primary 鈥� that he ran a strong campaign, connected with voters in New Jersey, parried attacks from a hostile press, and fought valiantly against his opponents, only to lose by a handful of votes. 

But that isn鈥檛 remotely what happened. 

Spiller finished fifth, earning less than 11 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, the winner, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, raked in 34 percent. And that was despite the union, through a combination of super PACs and independent expenditure organizations, spending to elect Spiller 鈥� about twice the amount spent by the second-highest-spending candidate in the race.

How did the largest teacher鈥檚 union in New Jersey take tens of millions of dollars of their members鈥� dues and essentially light them on fire in an abortive attempt to get its own president crowned as the Democratic candidate for governor? A number of explanations are possible, but one seems most compelling: simple incompetence. The more urgent question now is whether the union will learn from its mistakes 鈥� or whether it will continue to suffer in political obscurity.

It鈥檚 important to note the scale of NJEA鈥檚 failure. Politico that 鈥渘o other special interest group has ever spent as much in state history to promote a single candidate鈥� as the NJEA did with Spiller. The NJEA spent about $8 million more in one primary race in one state than the National Education Association, NJEA鈥檚 parent organization, spent at the national level between 2023 and 2024. (Spiller鈥檚 poor showing is a good reminder that it takes more than money to win an election 鈥� even in a post-Citizens United world.)

Another concerning stat: A lack of union turnout. The NJEA boasts around 200,000 members, yet Spiller received less than 90,000 votes total. Some back-of-the-envelope math suggests that, even if all of Spiller鈥檚 votes came from union members (a dubious assumption), he would have received fewer than half of their votes. John Napolitani, a local mayor and head of the teachers鈥� union in Asbury Park, : 鈥淚 think it was a very poorly calculated and piss-poor decision by the NJEA to blow that kind of money.鈥�

Indeed, Spiller seems to have been a uniquely bad candidate in this race. The proof is in Spiller鈥檚 fifth-place showing in his hometown of Montclair, where he was mayor from 2020-2024 (including during a of union-induced extended school closures). But this poor showing should not have necessarily been a surprise: In Montclair, Spiller was embroiled in a scandal involving potential health-insurance fraud, during which he suspiciously his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination over 400 times. (Spiller announced his intention to not run for a second term as mayor the transcript of his deposition became public.) If voters in your hometown reject you so thoroughly, then you鈥檙e probably not a great candidate in a statewide race.

It could also be the case that Spiller, as the public face of the largest teacher鈥檚 union in New Jersey, was a painful reminder of extended COVID-19 school closures in 2020-21. Indeed, the NJEA (of which Spiller was then the vice president) against Gov. Phil Murphy鈥檚 November 2020 for schools across the state to return to in-person instruction. At the time, one found that less than half of New Jersey parents were satisfied with virtual instruction. Today, almost nobody seems willing to defend the extended school closures during the pandemic, especially considering the growing body of showing that the more time students spent outside of the classroom, the more they fell behind academically. 

Five years after the pandemic, the NJEA might hope that New Jersey voters would have forgotten the school closures, or at least forgiven the union for them. But parents may have a longer memory of being locked out of classrooms while nearly every other school in America was back in session. 

Still, even if unpopular with New Jersey parents, the NJEA could have spent its money more wisely by supporting a candidate other than Spiller. A competent organization seeking to have a tangible political impact considers a variety of candidates, weighs their strengths and weaknesses, and supports the one it deems most likely to win the race. If the union had conducted such a process, it would have surely rejected Spiller outright, especially considering its knowledge of Spiller鈥檚 rocky mayoral tenure in Montclair. But instead, the NJEA funneled $40 million of teacher dues toward a candidate who earned a fifth-place finish in a gubernatorial primary.

A competent organization also learns from its failures. Which raises the question: What will the NJEA learn from its failure here? Will its leaders look carefully at the decisions they made so they can avoid a similar fate in the future, or will they bury their heads in the sand as they face uncomfortable headlines and inquiries from their members? 

In the long term, it鈥檚 deeper questions about influence and efficacy that may haunt them, such as: Can the NJEA still connect with voters? Will its leadership continue to waste tens of millions of union dues on long-shot primary campaigns? Is the largest teachers union in a deep-blue state like New Jersey losing political clout? 

Judging by the semi-triumphant tone of the statement released after Spiller鈥檚 resounding defeat, it seems that current NJEA leadership sees little to be concerned about. But refusing to take ownership of such a colossal defeat will likely only make things worse for NJEA and its members. 

If the union has any hope of remaining politically relevant in New Jersey, then it must treat the Spiller campaign 鈥� and collapse 鈥� as a $40 million wake-up call.

Newark Public Schools will pay over $300 million over 30 years for its new trade high school 鈥� but after many delays, the gym and auditorium may not be finished when it opens this fall.

The Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design is expected to welcome students in September, per an amended lease agreement that extended the deal from 20 to 30 years and was approved by the district鈥檚 Board of Education last month. But the deadline for the developer to finish those parts of the school isn鈥檛 until the middle of 2026.

The district also has the option to purchase the building for $1,000 at the end of the 30-year lease, according to the revised agreement obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

The amended lease agreement comes after the developer of the property and Summit Assets CEO Albert Nigri would be finished by the start of the upcoming school year.

When the lease for the new trade high school was first signed by the district in 2021, NPS agreed to a $160 million, 20-year lease. The following year, Superintendent Roger Le贸n in the city鈥檚 East Ward at an invite-only groundbreaking ceremony. He touted the school 鈥� the first of its kind in the district 鈥� as an opportunity for students to fast-track their technical careers and earn a contract to work with the district.

It was originally scheduled to open in the fall of 2022. But issued by the state鈥檚 Department of Labor and Workforce Development over wage complaints and changes in contractors have delayed the project.

The district鈥檚 communications director Paul Brubaker did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat about the project鈥檚 setbacks, how the district plans to pay the lease for the school, or its reasoning for extending the lease agreement. Nigri did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design is set to focus on three trades 鈥� plumbing, electricity, and HVAC 鈥� and allow students to study architecture and interior design. The curriculum will also give students a high school diploma and a license for trade work, district officials have previously said.

The new school is housed at the former St. James Hospital building that has stood vacant for years in the middle of the city鈥檚 Ironbound neighborhood. When it opens, the school will enroll 240 ninth grade students and add a grade level each year. Payments to Nigri, the property鈥檚 landlord and developer, are set to begin when the school opens this fall.

New high school delayed amid pay complaints

The latest version of the amended lease, approved by the school board in May, includes two new deadlines for the completion of the school.

By Aug. 1, 2025, the base of the school building must be completed, which includes new walls, roofs, and windows, elevators, restrooms, a courtyard, and landscaping. By June 1, 2026, the newly constructed gym and auditorium must be completed and the building must be finished, according to the lease amendment.

Those deadlines are later than those in approved by NPS in August 2024, which were for the base of the school building to be completed by Jan. 9, the new gym and auditorium to be finished by July 30, and the building to be completed by Sept. 1.

The amended lease also extends the deal from 20 to 30 years and bumps up the total lease to $295,979,990 over 30 years. The district must also pay a total of $20 million in additional payments to Nigri between year two and year six and year 26 and year 30 of the lease.

Union workers at the high school鈥檚 construction site also encountered poor working conditions that were making their jobs unsafe and many were being paid late or in cash. That resulted in the union filing wage complaints with the state.

In September 2022, the New Jersey Department of Labor issued stop-work orders to Summit Assets as well as the former general contractor and an ex-subcontractor. That order halted work on the site for months before Nigri hired a new contractor and subcontractor.

Days later, dozens of union workers demanding that Le贸n intervene after they were forced out of work and owed pay. Le贸n addressed laborers鈥� complaints and reiterated the district鈥檚 plan to open the school in September 2023.

, the Department of Labor issued a second stop-work order on the site and to the new contractors and subcontractors of the project. Although the work subsequently resumed, district leaders have not addressed the project鈥檚 delays or issues related to worker pay.

Instead, the district began to advertise a fall 2025 opening date, and this spring, it opened up enrollment to the school. Brubaker did not respond to a request for comment about the district鈥檚 contingency plan if the landlord fails to deliver part of the building by Aug. 1.

State remains responsible for new school construction in Newark

on the project, former assistant school business administrator Jason Ballard said that leasing a high school building is more affordable than building a new high school, which he said costs an average of $134 million. That鈥檚 less than half of what the district will pay on its lease for the new trade school, based on construction plans in other New Jersey cities.

The Schools Development Authority is the state agency responsible for paying construction projects in Newark and 30 other low-income school districts. According to its , the cost per square foot for a high school project was $369 at that time.

The agency鈥檚 largest and most expensive construction project is , which opened its doors last fall and cost $284 million to add room for nearly 3,300 students.

Over the years, the agency has promised the district it would pay for school repairs and provide new buildings. But despite efforts to address these challenges, including the allocation of $18 million in state funding for building upgrades over the last three fiscal years, the district estimates that it would need more than $2 billion to repair and update all schools.

The Newark school district has identified 33 out of its 64 total schools that need replacing and dozens more that need renovations. The state agency last summer promised to replace , but the deal still leaves out 20 schools that need replacements. The state agency also said it would spend a new University High School and relocate Hawthorne Avenue Elementary School, but the plan is still in its early stages.

In 2023, the Schools Development Authority purchased the former University Heights Charter School building and transferred it to the district to fulfill its promise to provide a new elementary school, now known as the

This story was originally by Chalkbeat,聽a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

On a recent Thursday morning, Michael Taubman asked his class of seniors at North Star Academy鈥檚 Washington Park High School: 鈥淲hat do you think AI鈥檚 role should be in your future career?鈥�

鈥淚n school, like how we use AI as a tool and we don鈥檛 use it to cheat on our work 鈥� that鈥檚 how it should be, like an assistant,鈥� said Amirah Falana, a 17-year-old interested in a career in real estate law.

Fernando Infante, an aspiring software developer, agreed that AI should be a tool to 鈥減rovide suggestions鈥� and inform the work.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

鈥淚t鈥檚 like having AI as a partner rather than it doing the work,鈥� said Infante during class.

Falana and Infante are students in Taubman鈥檚 class called The Summit, a yearlong program offered to 93 seniors this year and expanding to juniors next year that also includes a 10-week AI course developed by Taubman and Stanford University.

As part of the course, students use artificial intelligence tools 鈥� often viewed in a negative light due to privacy and other technical concerns 鈥� to explore their career interests and better understand how technology could shape the workforce. The class is also timely, as 92% of companies plan to invest in more AI over the next three years, according to a report by global consulting firm

The lessons provide students with hands-on exercises to better understand how AI works and how they can use it in their daily lives. They are also designed so teachers across subject areas can include them as part of their courses and help high school students earn a Google Career Certificate for AI Essentials, which introduces AI and teaches the basics of using AI tools.

Students like Infante have used the AI and coding skills they learned in class to create their own apps while others have used them to create school surveys and spark new thoughts about their future careers. Taubman says the goal is to also give students agency over AI so they can embrace technological changes and remain competitive in the workfield.

鈥淥ne of the key things for young people right now is to make sure they understand that this technology is not inevitable,鈥� Taubman told Chalkbeat last month. 鈥淧eople made this, people are making decisions about it, and there are pros and cons like with everything people make and we should be talking about this.鈥�

Students need to know the basics of AI, experts say

As Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, graduate high school and enter a workforce where AI is new, many are wondering how the technology will be used and to what extent.

Nearly half of Gen Z students polled by The Walton Family Foundation and Gallup said they , according to the newly released survey exploring how youth view AI. (The Walton Family Foundation is a supporter of Chalkbeat. See our funders list聽.) The same poll found that over 4 in 10 Gen Z students believe they will need to know AI in their future careers, and over half believe schools should be required to teach them how to use it.

This school year, Newark Public Schools students began using , which the district launched as a pilot program last year. Some Newark teachers reported that the tutoring tool was helpful in the classroom, but the district has not released data on whether it helped raise student performance and test scores. The district in 2024 also launched its multimillion across school buildings in an attempt to keep students safe.

But more than just using AI in school, students want to feel prepared to use it after graduating high school. Nearly 3 in 4 college students said their colleges or universities should be preparing them for AI in the workplace, from Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse鈥檚 Student Voice series.

Many of the challenges of using AI in education center on the type of learning approach used, accuracy, and building trust with the technology, said Nhon Ma, CEO of 鈥� an online learning assistant that uses AI and educators to help students learn STEM concepts. But that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important to immerse students in AI to help them understand the ways it could be used and when to spot issues, Ma added.

鈥淲e want to prepare our youth for this competitive world stage, especially on the technological front so they can build their own competence and confidence in their future paths. That could potentially lead towards higher earnings for them too,鈥� Ma said.

For Infante, the senior in Taubman鈥檚 class, AI has helped spark a love for computer science and deepened his understanding of coding. He used it to create an app that tracks personal milestones and goals and awards users with badges once they reach them. As an aspiring software developer, he feels he has an advantage over other students because he鈥檚 learning about AI in high school.

Taubman also says it鈥檚 especially important for students to understand how quickly the technology is advancing, especially for students like Infante looking towards a career in technology.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really important to help young people grapple with how this is new, but unlike other big new things, the pace is very fast, and the implications for career are almost immediate in a lot of cases,鈥� Taubman added.

Students learn that human emotions are important as AI grows

It鈥檚 also important to remember the limitations of AI, Taubman said, noting that students need the basic understanding of how AI works in order to question it, identify any mistakes, and use it accordingly in their careers.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want students to lose out on an internship or job because someone else knows how to use AI better than they do, but what I really want is for students to get the internship or the job because they鈥檙e skillful with AI,鈥� Taubman said.

Through Taubman鈥檚 class, students are also identifying how AI increases the demand for skills that require human emotion, such as empathy and ethics.

Daniel Akinyele, a 17-year-old senior, said he was interested in a career in industrial and organizational psychology, which focuses on human behavior in the workplace.

During Taubman鈥檚 class, he used a custom AI tool on his laptop to explore different scenarios where he could use AI in his career. Many involved talking to someone about their feelings or listening to vocal cues that might indicate a person is sad or angry. Ultimately, psychology is a career about human connection and 鈥渢hat鈥檚 where I come into play,鈥� Akinyele said.

鈥淚鈥檓 human, so I would understand how people are feeling, like the emotion that AI doesn鈥檛 see in people鈥檚 faces, I would see it and understand it,鈥� Akinyele added.

Falana, the aspiring real estate attorney, also used the custom AI tool to consider how much she should rely on AI when writing legal documents. Similar to writing essays in schools, Falana said professionals should use their original writing in their work but AI could serve as a launching pad.

鈥淚 feel like the legal field should definitely put regulations on AI use, like we shouldn鈥檛 be able to, draw up our entire case using AI,鈥� Falana said.

During Taubman鈥檚 class, students also discussed fake images and videos created by AI. Infante, who wants to be a software developer, added that he plans to use AI regularly on the job but believes it should also be regulated to limit disinformation online.

Taubman says it鈥檚 important for students to have a healthy level of skepticism when it comes to new technologies. He encourages students to think about how AI generates images, the larger questions around copyright infringement, and their training processes.

鈥淲e really want them to feel like they have agency in this world, both their capacity to use these systems,鈥� Taubman said, 鈥渂ut also to ask these broader questions about how they were designed.鈥�

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.聽Sign up for their newsletters at .

Normally, Virginia is the interesting off-year gubernatorial election, and New Jersey is pretty boring.

But not this year.

One reason is that Virginia has trended bluer across the last few presidential cycles, while New Jersey has gone in the other direction. Kamala Harris got a slightly higher share of the vote in the Old Dominion than in , which is a sign of a new era. Plus, Virginia Democrats have an uncontested primary, and the nomination is going to Abigail Spanberger, a sensible moderate Democrat who seems perfectly suited to winning the state. Virginia currently has a Republican governor, so the state鈥檚 soft Democrats don鈥檛 have to worry about any backlash. And not only is the president a Republican, he鈥檚 hammering the state with layoffs. Unless Spanberger screws up, she should win.

Virginia鈥檚 race is also not that interesting from a governance perspective. Even though Virginia is now pretty solidly blue, the Democratic Party has rarely held a trifecta, so the policy status quo is pretty clearly to the right of the electorate. Being a smart moderate Democrat in Virginia basically just means supporting the reasonable, politically viable progressive ideas and not the crazy ones, which requires good sense but not a ton of tough decision-making.

New Jersey is different.

The state is still solidly blue, and you鈥檇 expect the Democratic nominee to win, especially with Trump in office. But New Jersey Democrats face meaningful political headwinds, and if Kamala Harris were in office, they might be at real risk.

The question of what to do as governor of the state is also trickier. Phil Murphy is wrapping up his second term, and Democrats controlled the state legislature for both terms. A same-party successor always has a tougher job in a situation like this, because the low-hanging fruit of the Democratic agenda has already been picked. New Jersey has a minimum wage of $15.49, indexed to inflation. They have legal marijuana. They have a generous Medicaid program. New Jersey has the , according to the Tax Foundation鈥檚 rankings. It鈥檚 less obvious what the next Democratic governor is going to do here than in Virginia.

And the field is large, with six primary candidates running.

There are good choices in the mix. Mikie Sherrill is a smart, pragmatic member of Congress who鈥檚 and seems to be leading the pack. Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City, is a YIMBY champion who has walked the walk in a major way. Josh Gottheimer, another House member, is not my personal flavor of moderate, but he鈥檚 got support from colleagues like Ritchie Torres, Tom Suozzi, and Jared Golden, who I respect a lot. I feel torn between Sherrill and Fulop, but honestly, it鈥檚 an embarrassment of riches to have a field where Gottheimer is my No. 3 choice.

Another of the candidates is Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association 鈥� i.e. the state鈥檚 teachers union. The New York Times recently had a piece on how unusual this situation is, with and rendering the polite myth of non-coordination between campaigns and super PACs unusually untenable.

What the Times didn鈥檛 talk about, though, was the part that I find genuinely odd, which is that nobody in the crowded field is taking the opportunity to smartly differentiate themselves on education.

Democrats often seem reluctant to propose ideas that teachers unions don鈥檛 like, because they want their support (or at least non-hostility) in a primary. But I鈥檓 pretty sure the NJEA is going to back Spiller no matter what Sherrill or Gottheimer or Fulop say, so why not be bolder?

Democrats could use fresh thinking on education

As , one of the most underrated developments in recent political history is that Democrats have lost their traditionally large issue advantage on education.

I think it鈥檚 also worth noting that voters rate education as a pretty important issue 鈥� more important than the issues related to climate change, abortion and child care that have dominated the progressive agenda in recent years.

The other thing about education is that while of course Democrats can鈥檛, and shouldn鈥檛, give up on trying to come up with smart, politically appealing things to say about immigration and crime, those are longstanding areas of GOP issue advantage.

Fundamentally, voters want 鈥渢ough鈥� policies on these issues. , the number of people who said the criminal justice system is not tough enough outnumbered those who said it was too tough by a 2:1 ratio, and mass opinion was more right-wing than that in every year both before and after 2020. And Democrats are just not the party that鈥檚 seen as 鈥渢ough.鈥� 

Education, though, is a classic liberal issue, like health care. The hard part for Democrats should be persuading the public to care more about education than about immigration, not convincing them that Democrats can be trusted to handle education policy.

That loss of trust is multi-faceted, but I think it has to do not only with pandemic school closures per se, but with a larger vibe around school closures whereby Democrats started signaling that they don鈥檛 really think education is particularly important.

The prior cohort of Democrats wildly overpromised on education as a , which unfortunately led the party to completely . This was a mistake, because the evidence is overwhelming that .

Good schools don鈥檛 generate equal outcomes for everyone, because students differ in their innate abilities and their life circumstances. But good schools still generate better outcomes than we鈥檇 see without good schools. And while I believe in , we don鈥檛 face a sharp tradeoff at a systems level. During the era when education policy was overwhelmingly focused on low-end performance, students did better across the board. In the more recent era, low-end performance has declined precipitously and the performance of the top students is essentially flat.

Weaker students and students from poorer families are, in practice, the canaries in the coal mine, because they鈥檙e the ones who really depend on public policy rather than parental supplementation. But there鈥檚 clearly a problem here, and Democrats should re-engage, because I think there are some pretty obvious ways to make things better:

• Make sure advanced coursework is fair with , but don鈥檛 eliminate it in a misguided push for equality.
  
• : Raise entry-level pay, reduce regulatory barriers to entry, stop giving raises for low-value credentials, start giving raises to above-average teachers (and even bigger raises to above-average teachers who are willing to work in tough schools) and reduce job security for the weakest performers.
  
• Allow (indeed, encourage) the , while shutting down the least-effective ones.

More abstractly, though, I would love to see a return to the Obama-style message that education is important 鈥� certainly too important to trust to Republicans, who don鈥檛 care and just want to cut and privatize everything, but also too important to spend money on without asking about results.

A disappointing Garden State discourse

On education, the candidates I like in New Jersey are 鈥� fine.

Fulop, as a housing-forward candidate, is :

Despite being the most diverse state in the country, New Jersey has the dubious distinction of having some of the most segregated schools in the country. The next governor needs to address this issue head-on as a 鈥渇air & efficient education鈥� includes diversity. In Year 1, Gov. Fulop will impanel an independent board of educators, activists and state leaders tasked with producing a comprehensive, statewide plan to address segregation, including economic and social factors.

I agree with him that this is important and that it鈥檚 a noteworthy aspect of the New Jersey status quo. But an expert panel is going to tell him what he already knows, namely that school segregation is largely downstream of housing market dynamics. And Fulop knows the score on housing. But if anything, I think this linkage just goes to show that YIMBYs need to think more about K-12 education. The vast majority of anti-YIMBY arguments are nonsense. But a clearly true fact is that if more people lived in your town, some of them would send kids to your town鈥檚 public schools.

If the school system does a good job, this is a pure logistics issue 鈥� more students requires more classrooms and more buildings. But a lot of suburban Americans are relying on socioeconomic segregation as their de facto education policy.

Democrats in particular often seem more comfortable zoning low-income families out of whole communities than they do guaranteeing that schools will have reasonable discipline policies, ability-appropriate math coursework and . New Jersey needs better housing policy, but to get there, state officials need to take these questions of functioning public services seriously.

:

Across New Jersey, students in every district continue to face post-pandemic struggles with mental health and learning loss. That鈥檚 why I fought to bring back federal funding to safely reopen schools and get kids back on track, including by introducing legislation to provide high-quality tutoring to students. As governor, we鈥檒l expand on this progress by supporting effective programs 鈥� like high-impact tutoring 鈥� that address learning loss. We鈥檒l address the mental health crisis by increasing the number of school counselors, psychologists and mental health services in our schools. And as a mom of four, I know that kids learn better when their stomachs are full. I will make school meals available at no cost for every student in New Jersey because we know good nutrition is essential to academic achievement.

If a candidate asked me for a bunch of K-12 education ideas that make sense on the merits but won鈥檛 provoke any clashes with unions or the progressive education establishment, this list is basically what I鈥檇 give them.

But thinking about it seriously, if we鈥檙e talking about learning loss (and we should be), shouldn鈥檛 we be talking about the old education reform standbys of standards and accountability? High-dosage tutoring is a good idea, but it鈥檚 weird to put all the responsibilities for improving outcomes on tutors rather than everything else that happens in school buildings. More mental health inputs sounds like a good idea, but are we going to measure the outputs? We know that across the board in education, more inputs usually help. But just adding inputs is no substitute for measuring outcomes.

The centerpiece of Gottheimer鈥檚 whole campaign is that he wants to cut taxes and largely pay for it with government efficiency undertakings. He can鈥檛 do that without taking on some entrenched interests, and K-12 education is obviously one of the biggest line items. 鈥淐ut wasteful school spending so you can cut taxes鈥� is not my favorite brand of moderation (I would rather reinvest the money in making schools better), but it鈥檚 not an unreasonable idea. Again, though, Gottheimer doesn鈥檛 call out any specific education changes or cross any union red lines.

If not now, when?

The education reform spirit is not entirely dead within the Democratic Party.

Recently, Senators Cory Booker (whose star is back on the rise thanks to his talking filibuster), Brian Schatz (a leading contender to succeed Chuck Schumer) and Michael Bennet (who鈥檚 running for governor of Colorado) were the Democratic sponsors of a . Both and have made friendly visits to charter schools in the terrain they represent 鈥� they鈥檙e not wild ideologues on this issue or, as far as I can tell, any other. But the sense that it鈥檚 cool to occasionally be at odds with teachers unions has definitely vanished.

In the 2016 primary, Hillary Clinton broke with Barack Obama on education reform to , and Sanders lacked the creativity or ideological flexibility to make lemonade and present himself as more moderate than Clinton on this. In the 2020 primary cycle, , and he never really ran on it. Joe Biden seems to have sincerely disagreed with Obama about this and did not stand up for the Obama-Biden administration鈥檚 legacy on education. I thought Julian Castro, who was in the Obama cabinet, might pick up the baton, .

I was disappointed by the trajectory of education policy in both of those cycles, but I did understand what everyone was thinking.

The New Jersey gubernatorial primary, by contrast, seems like a situation where there is an objective incentive for someone to take some positions fearlessly, without regard for union politics.

For starters, it鈥檚 a six-candidate field. The , followed by Fulop at 14%, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at 12%t, Gottheimer at 11%, Spiller at 9% and former state senate leader Steve Sweeney at 8%. In a field that big, almost anything you can do to stand out from the pack can be helpful. You also don鈥檛 need to take positions that a majority of Democratic Party primary voters agree with. Of course, taking positions the general electorate finds toxic would be a bad idea, but that鈥檚 not what we鈥檙e talking about here.

And, again, to end where I began, the head of the teachers union is literally a candidate in the race. If the union is already committed to beating you, why not try to reap the upside by showing some refreshing boldness and independence of thought?

I think it was a mistake of Sanders not to seize this opportunity in 2016, but I get that he is literally Bernie Sanders, not someone who is inclined to take a heterodox position on a union issue, even if the relevant union is trying to beat him. But Fulop and Gottheimer and Sherrill are not Bernie Sanders 鈥� this seems more like passivity than ideological rigidity.

People forget that until recently, we had a lot of education reform Democrats, and it鈥檚 not as if they got knocked off in droves in primaries. The Obama legacy was abandoned at the presidential level for quirky, contingent reasons, and abandoning it hasn鈥檛 worked out well for the party. This weird Spiller ego trip is both a reminder that unions sometimes make bad calls due to weird leadership priorities and also an opportunity to assert a . You can respect public school teachers and labor unions and also understand that the job of the union is to advocate for the interests of the service providers, while the job of an elected official is to advocate for the partially overlapping interests of the people who use the services. In fact, I feel like the New Jersey field includes multiple candidates who almost certainly get this. So why not say it?

Attorneys representing a group of New Jersey parents and activist groups are asking a state appellate court to weigh in on a case that could reshape the state鈥檚 public education system.

At the center of the fight is whether New Jersey schools are unconstitutionally segregated by race and socioeconomic status. A lower court judge in October 2023 acknowledged the state鈥檚 public schools are segregated by race and that the state must act, but also found that the plaintiffs had failed to prove the entire system is segregated across all its districts.

The parents鈥� attorneys asking it to hear the case.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

鈥淚t is imperative that no more students be deprived of these rights by the trial court鈥檚 avoidance of the straightforward conclusion compelled by the facts and the law in this case 鈥� that the state defendants, who are legally obligated to take action to desegregate public schools regardless of the reasons for that segregation, have acted unconstitutionally by failing to do so,鈥� the attorneys wrote in the filing.

Gov. Phil Murphy and the state Department of Education have until April 28 to respond to the plaintiffs鈥� new filing. A spokesman for the Murphy administration declined to comment.

News of the new filing was .

The case dates to 2018, when the Latino Action Network, the NAACP New Jersey State Conference, and several other families and groups聽聽alleging New Jersey failed to address de facto segregation in public schools. The plaintiffs聽聽attend schools that are more than 90% non-white, in districts that are often just blocks from predominantly white districts.

In New Jersey, students typically attend schools in the municipality where they live. Plaintiffs argued that long-standing housing policies that led to segregated residential neighborhoods led to segregated schools also. New Jersey is the seventh-most segregated state for Black and Latino students, the plaintiffs say.

聽after Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy issued his ruling that acknowledged racial segregation in New Jersey schools but said it was not widespread, both sides entered mediation talks in hopes it would resolve more quickly than continued litigation.

Attorneys for the parties said聽 that it鈥檚 unlikely continuing the talks would 鈥渂e constructive.鈥�

The plaintiffs鈥� attorneys say the lower court鈥檚 October ruling should be reversed. They want a judge to review what they say are six errors in the 2023 order, like the fact that Lougy did not identify a disputed fact.

鈥淩ather than reach the only logical conclusion that followed 鈥� that the state defendants violated plaintiffs鈥� constitutional rights 鈥� the trial court left the question of liability for another day,鈥� the filing reads.

If the appellate court denies the motion, the case would return to the trial court, or could be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

Jennie Demizio, a special education teacher at Park Elementary School in Newark, stood in a crowd full of dozens of educators and union members and listened to speakers talk about the Trump administration鈥檚 threats to cut funding for education.

One by one, speakers listed the potential impacts of federal cuts on programs at New Jersey鈥檚 universities and colleges, health care, and research. Protesters yelled 鈥渟hame鈥� and 鈥渂oo鈥� after speakers detailed the effects of funding cuts on schools.

After the rally on Tuesday, Demizio held back tears and her voice cracked as she told Chalkbeat Newark how her students with disabilities rely on federal funding to get to school and for services such as speech therapy and classroom aides.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

鈥淗alf of my students arrive in ambulances. They鈥檙e on oxygen, they have seizure disorders, and just their transportation alone to get to school costs thousands of dollars a year,鈥� said Demizio as her voice cracked while holding back tears. 鈥淚鈥檓 just so worried we鈥檙e going to lose this funding.鈥�

Demizio鈥檚 fears echo those of many educators in Newark and across the state who feel that students will lose essential resources because of the administration鈥檚 threats to education. The protesters hope school districts, higher education institutions, and local leaders will band together to fight looming cuts and protect students and staff.

The protest in Newark was part of the 鈥溾�� demonstration, a national day of action with protests in over 30 cities across the country. About 50 city educators and labor unions gathered in front of a bust of John F. Kennedy at Military Park on the windy Tuesday afternoon, where they held signs that read 鈥渉ands off my students鈥� and chanted 鈥渟tand up, fight back.鈥�

The protest in Newark centered on threats to health care, immigrants, research, and the Trump administration鈥檚 threat to withhold federal funding from school districts and universities that don鈥檛 eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs deemed unlawful by the administration.

Last week, federal officials gave the elimination of DEI efforts in schools or risk losing federal funding. That directive threatens for New Jersey schools, including $77 million for Newark Public Schools, the state鈥檚 largest district. That funding makes up around 5% of the district鈥檚 for the upcoming school year.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no way that municipalities can totally foot that bill,鈥� said Demizio.鈥淚鈥檓 in a classroom where there are nurses, aides, and, you know, I think I feel like special education teachers, especially, are vulnerable at this moment.鈥�

Last week鈥檚 attack on DEI programs in schools comes days after federal education officials also announced they would revoke deadline extensions to spend federal COVID aid that had been approved by the Biden administration.

As a result, 20 school districts across New Jersey could lose an additional $85 million in federal funding for infrastructure projects already in progress. That includes Newark Public Schools, which was to finish installing artificial intelligence cameras last fall. Paul Brubaker, the district鈥檚 director of communications, did not respond to questions about the status of the district鈥檚 AI cameras project or budget plans if federal funds are cut.

For Shelby Wardlaw, a professor and vice president of non-tenure track faculty at Rutgers University, the attacks feel personal. International students are worried about getting their visas revoked, and immigrant students fear they might be targeted due to their legal status, Wardlaw said.

In recent days, roughly a dozen Rutgers students 鈥渋n good academic standing鈥� learned their visas were revoked 鈥渨ithout explanation,鈥� according to from Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway. Across the country, international students and recent graduates have had their legal status changed by the federal government.

Additionally, some Rutgers faculty members are concerned about cuts to DEI initiatives and the impact that could have on teaching and learning.

Melissa Rodgers, a professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, spoke to the crowd on Tuesday about the devastating effects funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health and anti-DEI initiatives will have on medical and scientific research. Rodgers, a biomedical professor, has been investigating the impacts of sex on kidney disease, research that鈥檚 now at risk under proposed cuts, Rodgers said.

Wardlaw and her colleagues want Rutgers and other universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Conference to band together to share legal resources and funds to combat federal funding threats to higher education. Last month, the Rutgers University Senate passed a resolution calling on those universities to form a 鈥淢utual Defense Compact鈥� to protect and defend 鈥渁cademic freedom, institutional integrity and the research enterprise,鈥� according to , Rutgers student-run newspaper.

鈥淯niversities are bastions of knowledge and resistance that would oppose an authoritarian overreach, and they鈥檙e going to come after us first,鈥� Wardlaw told Chalkbeat on Tuesday. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e trying to break us as a potential site of resistance.鈥�

Protesters at the Newark rally also heard from union leaders, civil rights activist Larry Hamm, and gubernatorial candidates Sean Spiller and Mayor Ras Baraka, who urged educators, laborers, and immigrant rights activists to band together to fight federal threats.

鈥淲e must resist,鈥� all three speakers urged the crowd on Tuesday.

鈥淭he same people that were trying to stop [workers] from having fair working conditions and a rise in their wages were the same people who were opposed to ending Jim Crow Laws, opposed to civil rights, and opposed to democracy and justice,鈥� Baraka told protesters.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, also spoke on Tuesday and called the Trump administration鈥檚 move to cancel funding for and $400 million in grants to an assault on education. The AFT is a party to eight lawsuits against the Trump administration鈥檚 attacks on education, access to records, and public health, according to the group.

鈥淲e have young people engage in critical thinking and problem solving so they can discern fact from fiction, so they can stand up for themselves, so they know how to think,鈥� Weingarten said. 鈥淭hat is what we do and what this administration is so fearful about.鈥�

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Rachel Hodge worked as a housekeeper at a hospital and was earning an online degree in social work when schools shut their doors due to COVID. Spending hours in front of a laptop with a 5-year-old just didn鈥檛 fit into the picture.

But in the fall of 2020, her daughter Vanessa was set to start kindergarten at KIPP Upper Roseville Academy in Newark, New Jersey. With Hodge working and school still remote, Vanessa spent her days with a babysitter, who cared for multiple kids and struggled to manage the technology for virtual learning.

By November, Vanessa was one of 24 kindergartners in Newark鈥檚 KIPP charter network listed as missing from remote school.

That鈥檚 when KIPP staff created the , a condensed school day that accommodated parents鈥� upended schedules. The program, which ran weeknights from 5:30 to 8 p.m, remained in place until the end of the school year.

鈥淚t was really a sad and scary time,鈥� Hodge said. 鈥淏ut I was like, 鈥楾he kid鈥檚 got to learn.鈥� 鈥�

As Hodge worked on her own assignments from Rutgers University, kindergarten teacher Meredith Eger led Vanessa and classmates in songs and games, and through the reading and math they鈥檇 missed since August. 

鈥淚t was fun and it was kind of weird,鈥� Vanessa, now 9, recalls. 鈥淲hen class was over, I didn’t have to pack up, because all my stuff was at home.鈥�

The program is a rare example of a school that moved quickly to keep children from missing out on their first year of school 鈥� a critical transition period in which they typically start developing academic and social skills. At a time when hundreds of thousands of parents struggled to balance work and Zoom, or held their children out of school until first grade, KIPP鈥檚 after-hours program offered families some consistency in the midst of turmoil. 

But nationally, many students who missed out on a normal kindergarten are still feeling the lingering effects of that lost year. released this month documented how the pandemic鈥檚 youngest learners experienced significant declines in general knowledge, cognitive development, and language and social skills compared with their peers before COVID. Academically, these students are still performing below pre-pandemic math and reading levels. 

Five years later, Vanessa is one of 11 night-school kindergartners who still attends KIPP Newark schools. She 鈥渨rites up a storm,鈥� Eger said, and often draws during lunch. Others prefer math. Parents notice their kids sometimes keep to themselves at home 鈥� a preference they blame on a shortage of playtime with peers during lockdowns. The educators who ran the program, which served students up to third grade, enjoy a special bond with the kids they nurtured through that trying period, grabbing hugs in the hallway or cafeteria when they can. 

鈥淭hey were falling drastically behind,鈥� said Rebecca Fletcher, the charter network鈥檚 director of school operations. 鈥淚t was a bright spot in such a dark time.鈥�

鈥楾hey weren’t coming to school鈥�

Thomas Dee, an education professor at Stanford University who tracked in kindergarten enrollment during school closures, called KIPP鈥檚 night school 鈥渁 creative way to meet the needs of parents during the crisis and one that wasn’t common in traditional public schools.鈥� Such flexibility may have also kept families from pursuing options, like pods or private schools that were in-person, he said. 

KIPP leaders didn鈥檛 compare the performance of the evening kindergartners to students who logged in during the day, making it difficult to measure student outcomes. But the program was born of necessity, Fletcher said: The abbreviated school day was better than no kindergarten at all. 

鈥淭hey weren’t coming to school,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was about meeting families where they were.鈥� 

Parents turned to night kindergarten for a variety of reasons.

Nateesha St. Claire had just had her third child and couldn鈥檛 juggle an infant daughter and online school for Omari, her kindergartner.

鈥淎t night, there were really no distractions,鈥� she said. The baby was asleep. But it was still a struggle to keep Omari focused on his teacher. If St. Claire didn鈥檛 sit close, he鈥檇 walk away from the screen. He frequently asked why he couldn鈥檛 go to school.

Now in fourth grade, Omari is 鈥渢hriving鈥� in math, growing in reading and getting help in speech class to pronounce words more clearly, his mother said.

鈥楢 labor of love鈥� 

One advantage of the evening sessions were smaller classes, which allowed staff to identify students who had learning delays or qualified for special education services. Such needs might have gone undetected in a larger online group, said Kaneshia Clifford, who was principal of the program. 

Two children were on the autism spectrum and others, she said, were nonverbal or 鈥渕ildly verbal.鈥� She recruited special education teachers to the team who broke lessons down into smaller segments and organized separate Zoom groups for more targeted support. But keeping the kids鈥� attention while trying to assess their skills proved daunting. Teacher Adrienne Rodriguez Liriano rewarded students who focused on lessons by putting her dog Harlem on her lap in front of the camera. 

鈥淭eachers had to keep a lot of things on their brain,鈥� said Clifford, who had her own kindergartner at home at the time. 鈥淭hey’re looking at screens, asking kids to hold up white boards. They’re trying to monitor engagement in a virtual space, while also collecting data.鈥�

And that was after a full school day of teaching online and sometimes delivering laptops and hotspots to students鈥� homes. Fletcher described the schedule as 鈥済rueling,鈥� but also 鈥渁 labor of love and devotion.鈥� 

Because of the late hour, some students showed up on Zoom with wet hair and wearing pajamas. Others ate dinner during class. Some nodded off.

Beatriz Warren, who worked during the day as a home health aide in New York City, welcomed the evening option, which allowed her to attend to her son Josiah.

鈥淚t’s a mom thing, I guess,鈥� she said. 

Ear infections and surgeries caused Josiah鈥檚 learning to be delayed. He received therapy at home before the pandemic, but as kindergarten approached, Warren worried about whether to put him in a general or special education class. Night kindergarten offered a welcome mix of individualized support and as-close-to-normal a classroom experience as possible. 

鈥淗e bonded with the kids and the teachers,鈥� she said. And when schools reopened, Warren enrolled him in KIPP Upper Roseville Academy, where Liriano, his teacher, worked 鈥� even though it was a half hour away. Liriano now teaches outside of the KIPP network, but still Facetimes with Josiah and his mom.

鈥淗e asks about my daughter,鈥� Liriano said. 鈥淲e became invested in each other’s lives because of the environment we set for them.鈥�

鈥楬e lost a year鈥�

With their children nearing the end of elementary school, parents continue to see the ripple effects of a year without in-person learning. 

Josiah has overcome most learning delays and 鈥渄oes not stop talking,鈥� his mother said. But he often spends time alone rather than playing with friends or toys. And Hodge described Vanessa as a 鈥渉ermit鈥� who often retreats to her room.

鈥淭he kids were so young, they were conditioned to be inside because of COVID,鈥� Hodge said. 鈥淚 feel like a lot of the kids still are behind socially 鈥� because they couldn’t have normal interactions.鈥� 

Aminah Cooley鈥檚 grandson Ayden, also part of the evening kindergarten program, didn鈥檛 hold a pencil correctly until nearly second grade, she said.

鈥淭hey were looking at the screen. A lot of times, they weren’t using a pencil,鈥� she said. Now a fourth grader, Ayden loves math and enjoys the popular Dog Man series of graphic novels by Dav Pilkey. But academically, he鈥檚 not where he should be.

鈥淗e’s behind,鈥� Cooley said. 鈥淗e lost a year.鈥�

In the fall of 2020, Ayden often missed out on daytime virtual school. His mother was looking for work, internet access was spotty and the 鈥渄ynamics of the household,鈥� Cooley said, weren鈥檛 conducive to keeping a 5-year-old in front of the computer.

Cooley shopped on Facebook Marketplace for a table and chair set so he could do his work and called his house every evening to make sure he logged into class. 

鈥淚 knew I had to step in,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e’s in the fourth grade, and I’m still stepping in.鈥�

When KIPP opened an optional hybrid program in March 2021, Ayden was there.

鈥淗e recognized me, and he was like 鈥榊ou came to my house!鈥� 鈥� Fletcher said. 鈥淭o this day, I’ll see him in the hallway, and he’ll just give me a hug.鈥�

Many stories also picked up on the fact that achievement gaps are growing, as lower-performing students have fallen further behind. For instance, in eighth grade math, the scores for the top 10% of students rose 3 points, while the bottom 10% fell 5 points.

But these national numbers are hiding the fact that achievement gaps are growing in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. While they vary in magnitude, the extent of the divergence playing out in schools across the country is alarming. 

Before going into those state-level results, it鈥檚 important to acknowledge that this is a uniquely American problem. The separation between the higher- and lower-performing students in the United States has over the last decade, and there鈥檚 no signs yet of that slowing down. 

Last spring, I did an analysis that showed that before 2013, achievement scores were rising, and those gains were broadly shared across student performance levels. 

Consider the left side of the graph below, which shows the NAEP results in eighth grade math, updated through 2024. It is clear that something happened around 2013: On average, scores fell a little bit, but lower-performing students (in red) fell off a cliff. 

Meanwhile, the scores of higher-performing students (in blue) suffered a bit in the wake of COVID-19, but they improved noticeably last year, while the lowest performers did not.

A similar pattern shows up across a wide range of national and international tests, grade levels and subject areas. 

It is also evident in state after state. After the latest results came out, I looked to see how these gaps were changing at the state level. I looked specifically at eighth grade math, and the numbers were shockingly bad. In fact, in every state, the achievement gap has grown over the last two years. 

But those short-term changes don鈥檛 explain the full extent of what has happened to American children over the last decade. Each state has seen its achievement gap increase significantly.

To see the full state-level results, check out the table below, which shows the changes from 2013 to 2024. It breaks down the gains (or losses) for students at the 90^th percentile, the midpoint of all students in the state (the median) and the bottom 10^th percentile. It also shows how much these groups have diverged over time and the gap that has grown. 

And those gaps have increased in every state, most dramatically in Massachusetts, California, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In all of these, the gap widened by 20 points or more.

How meaningful are these changes? Depending on the year, the average student gains about 10 points per year on the NAEP math tests. As a rough comparison, that means  achievement gaps have grown by the equivalent of one to two years鈥� worth of schooling. That鈥檚 substantial.

These gaps may seem daunting, and policymakers might be tempted to throw up their hands. But they should take heart from the fact that this recent period of academic stagnation is unusual. Until about a decade ago, small but steady gains were the norm. When researchers M. Danish Shakeel of the University of Buckingham and Paul Peterson from Harvard University looked at this question a few years ago, they that, 鈥渁verage student achievement has been increasing for half a century. Across 7 million tests taken by U.S. students born between 1954 and 2007, math scores have grown by 95% of a standard deviation, or nearly four years鈥� worth of learning.鈥� They found smaller but still positive results for reading and a narrowing of gaps across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic status. 

In other words, progress is possible. At the moment, American achievement scores are falling and gaps are growing, but it wasn鈥檛 that long ago when the data were going in a much more positive direction.

Editor鈥檚 note: This story, and a draft report linked to in the story, include references to racist, Islamophobic language and bigoted views that are violent in nature.

Newark Public Schools leaders failed to 鈥渜uickly and consistently鈥� respond to racist and bigoted incidents against Black students and teachers at a city school designed to embrace world cultures, according to a draft of a scathing report that district officials have sought to keep private.

A , obtained by Chalkbeat Newark, details harrowing examples of how Black students and teachers at the Newark School of Global Studies were 鈥渟ubjected to acts of anti-Blackness and anti-Black racism.鈥� The review also highlighted how the school鈥檚 response failed to address the problems, and in some cases, magnified racial issues.

The May 2023 draft of the report written by the consulting firm Creed Strategies is the public鈥檚 first look into the firm鈥檚 review of the cultural, racial, and religious dynamics at Global Studies that pushed some Black students to transfer and teachers to resign. The draft obtained by Chalkbeat is not the latest version of the report. But the district has fought to keep all versions of the report private, nearly two years after Newark school board leaders commissioned it.

Attorneys for the district have argued in court filings that the report is a 鈥減redecisional draft document鈥� and therefore exempt from the state鈥檚 public records law. If portions of the report were disclosed, 鈥渋t would have a chilling effect鈥� on the district鈥檚 ongoing efforts 鈥渢o improve dialogue and sensitivity practices鈥� at Global Studies and other schools, according to a court record outlining the district鈥檚 opposition to the Newark Teachers Union lawsuit seeking the release of the report.

In 2023, the Newark Teachers Union filed two lawsuits against the district over the release of the report, but the union agreed to  without its release.

The draft report paints a picture of a campus where Black students and teachers reported being called racial slurs by Latino students, the N-word was commonly used among non-Black students, and where complaints by Black students were often dismissed or minimized by administrators and non-Black staff. A male student was repeatedly called an anti-gay slur in class while a teacher was present, and other students made threats to 鈥渢ake off鈥� and 鈥渟tomp on鈥� the hijabs of Black and Arab Muslim female teachers, according to the review.

Read takeaways from .

Many of the allegations in the draft report have  substantiated in , and are mentioned in lawsuits against the district. The issues also caught the attention of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who hosted a town hall to discuss unity among Black and brown communities months after students spoke publicly about their experiences.

Former Global Studies teachers filed a lawsuit against the district alleging that school and district leaders created a hostile work environment where they experienced racial discrimination and retaliation, according to the lawsuit filed in Essex County Superior Court last spring. The lawsuit is ongoing.

The former teachers also filed claims with the U.S. 鈥嬧�婦epartment of Education鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights. The department opened an investigation into the claim on Dec. 21, 2023, and it is ongoing.

Paul Brubaker, the district鈥檚 communications director, did not respond to Chalkbeat鈥檚 request to provide a copy of the full Global Studies report. Instead, in an emailed response, he reiterated the district鈥檚 stance that the report is 鈥減rivileged and confidential.鈥� Brubaker said the school board 鈥渞eserves the right to take any and all appropriate action to prevent or redress injury to itself,鈥� district staff, school or students.

Brubaker did not respond to questions about the district鈥檚 efforts to fix the problems at the high school, how it changed its policies to address racial problems, and the professional support it has provided teachers with since the incidents at the school surfaced.

Superintendent Roger Le贸n promised to fix the problems

Staff, parents, and students were interviewed by Creed Strategies鈥� six-member review team about their experiences at the high school and were anonymously quoted throughout the draft report. The research team was made up of professors and education experts with experience in school leadership and representative of the demographics at Global Studies.

In interviews with Creed researchers, Black students described a 鈥渟ense of betrayal鈥� when their peers and adults used racial slurs, according to the draft report. Most Black students 鈥渇elt stunned, at a loss for words, or angry鈥� when the incidents occurred, the report read.

When asked by researchers about the reported incidents, some of the staff responded defensively, while others said they did not know about the issues until students spoke publicly in 2022, the review found. Teachers reported that the lack of transparency about the issues at Global Studies limited their ability to understand what was happening and eroded morale, the report read. Other staff said the aftermath of the issues becoming public caused 鈥渟ome upheaval鈥� at Global Studies with 鈥渧ery few鈥� attributing the chaos to the racist incidents Black students and teachers had described in 2022, the draft report stated.

But  revealed that school administrators had known about the issues before they became public, and a parent begged state and district officials for an end to the harassment against her son. School leaders missed an opportunity 鈥渢o address the professional learning needs鈥� of teachers to be responsive to the incidents and create 鈥渃ulturally responsive鈥� learning, according to the draft.

Some interviewees cited in the report also framed 鈥淏lack women and girls鈥� as 鈥渆asily triggered and angry鈥� when discussing the incidents at the school, the review notes. 鈥淚nstead of focusing on the systemic racism that Black women and girls are speaking up against, there was a sense of defensiveness,鈥� the draft report says. In claims filed by former , they alleged they 鈥渟uffered harassment and racial hostility by students and supervisors鈥� and felt their 鈥渨orth as a teacher and human being has been diminished.鈥�

Newark school board leaders commissioned the review of Global Studies at the start of 2023 in response to Black students speaking publicly about a pattern of racist harassment on campus. The May 2023 draft provided the district with three recommendations, which were released publicly, and meant to be 鈥減roactively implemented鈥� to tackle anti-Blackness and build Global Studies鈥� understanding of diversity, the draft read.

A mix of Global Studies parents, students, teachers, some board members, and community advocates have been calling on Superintendent Roger  the full report on the high school and address the problems. Le贸n promised students he would fix the problems at the school but he has not said what changes or efforts have been made at Global Studies, one of the district鈥檚 top magnet schools. Deborah Smith Gregory, president of NAACP Newark, is one of the advocates who has called on Le贸n to release the Global Studies report but has been ignored, she said during a school board .

鈥淚t seems that the rule of the superintendent is being sanctioned by the board with little oversight and question,鈥� said Smith Gregory in December.

Despite calls for transparency, the Newark school board last month quietly  to remove one of its longest-serving members after her daughter filed a legal claim against the district alleging racial harassment and discrimination during her time as a student at Global Studies. A New Jersey judge denied the petition but the state鈥檚 commissioner of education will issue a final decision by February.

School leaders did not communicate seriousness of harassment

Students reported racist incidents at the high school since  during remote learning in 2020, while the number of Black students has decreased steadily since then, according to the draft.

According to the draft report, Global Studies鈥� leaders had a 鈥渓imited response鈥� to the harassment reported by students and 鈥渃entered impact rather than intent鈥� of the incidents. Interviews found that some school staff learned about the incidents through their relationships with students and the teachers involved. A 鈥渧ery small group鈥� said 鈥渢hey had no knowledge of the incidents before the students鈥� public comments鈥� in November 2022, the report read.

Staff interviewees also said 鈥渢he effect of the public reports and media鈥� on the school environment led to 鈥渃haos鈥� and 鈥渋ll feelings,鈥� the draft states. Some suggested that the feelings were 鈥渋ntensified by the lack of clear communication about why students were complaining and leaving the school,鈥� the report read.

鈥淚 think that has made some students more like, upset, angry 鈥� Unraveled things a little bit. So that鈥檚 like an unfortunate thing that it鈥檚 like kind of causing some upheaval,鈥� said one interviewee in the report.

As part of the review, teachers and administrators told researchers about 11 reported incidents. Discipline for those incidents ranged from written apologies and cultural sensitivity training to mediation and suspensions, according to the draft. Of the consequences, 22 students had in-school detention, seven received out-of-school suspensions, seven had a parent conference, six received mediation, four participated in out-of-school counseling, three received after-school detention, and three more had a conflict resolution session, according to the draft.

With one exception, Black adult interviewees expressed their belief that Black students experienced racial harm at the high school, while six out of the seven non-Black, non-Latino adults interviewed said 鈥渢hey believed the students and expressed concern about their well-being,鈥� according to the report.

Some said they were also aware of racist incidents against Black and Asian American teachers in the building, the report found. The former teachers who filed a lawsuit against the district claimed they also suffered 鈥渟evere emotional problems鈥� leading them to seek 鈥減sychological counseling鈥� after experiencing racial harassment at the high school. But nine interviewees also suggested the reports of Black students and media coverage 鈥渨ere exaggerated and wanted to set the record straight,鈥� according to the report.

Others lamented the school鈥檚 approaches to addressing the incidents and 鈥渓ack of communication about them were eroding teacher morale,鈥� according to the draft. One teacher specifically suggested that because of the public scrutiny, 鈥渁dministrators started to backtrack reports stated about one of the formally reported incidents,鈥� the report read.

鈥淚 want to say that when I hear these recordings about what people are saying and including the students that are in the school, to me, it feels like they鈥檙e talking about another school. Because I do not see that. You know, I have not heard that,鈥� an interviewee told researchers.

Missed opportunity to support staff, teachers at Global Studies

One of the main draws of Global Studies was that it promised students would 鈥渄evelop a global perspective鈥� through second-language immersion, exploration of different cultures and career pathways that emphasized international relations in business and diplomacy.

But the overall environment at the school 鈥� and the way it was run 鈥� led to administrators 鈥渕issing the opportunity to represent the diversity of its students鈥� lived experiences and aspirations within the environment and their learning,鈥� according to the report.

When Global Studies opened its doors in 2021 following remote learning, the school was newly renovated and well maintained with college-related signs throughout hallways. But researchers found that the overall tone of the school lacked 鈥渢he spirit and vitality typical of a high school,鈥� with much of it resembling an elementary and middle school, according to the report.

Most classroom walls were decorated with word walls and inspirational posters or pictures, the report found. Wall displays 鈥渞arely demonstrated鈥� how students grappled with topics like geographical and linguistic diversity and global political institutions, the report found. The main theme of the school, which highlights students as global citizens, was often tied by staff to specific celebrations such as Hispanic Heritage and Black History months and notable figures, according to the report.

Additionally, most teachers lacked previous high school teaching experience, according to the report. Students spent 鈥渆xtended periods of time sitting silently鈥� and had a lack of dialogue in classrooms, the report found.

Early on, the school and district administration had not cultivated an environment that encouraged staff to examine and challenge their assumptions of implicit bias and other forms of racism, according to the report.

When Black students spoke about their experiences of racial harassment, school administrators hosted a staff discussion of a book called 鈥淐ourageous Conversations About Race,鈥� according to the report. But staff members weren鈥檛 clear about why they were attending the discussions and told Creed researchers the conversations felt 鈥渟urface-level鈥� and 鈥渓acked transparency and support, and limited their capacity to understand and address the issues鈥� that were happening, the report read.

鈥淭here was a missed opportunity to address the professional learning needs of instructional staff to be responsive to these issues as a part of student learning,鈥� the report said.

Response did more damage, leading to transfers, resignations

After Black students spoke out publicly, district leaders held assemblies largely viewed 鈥渁s insufficient and ineffective鈥� by others, according to the report.

During the 2022-23 school year, Global Studies principal Nelson Ruiz held an assembly for the entire school where he told all students not to use the N-word or they would be suspended, according to the report. The school鈥檚 zero-tolerance for the N-word was 鈥渘ot only viewed as harming victims, but it also policed the language and speaking practices of Black students,鈥� the report read.

Interviewees also discussed a pizza party for Black students that some students felt 鈥渨as an attempt to drive their attention away from the issue,鈥� according to the report. During the , a former Global Studies student said school administrators called members of the Black Student Union 鈥渁nd gave us pizza, candy and even soda,鈥� in what she felt was an attempt to silence students. Ruiz did not respond to calls, a text, or emailed questions from Chalkbeat about his response to the incidents.

Le贸n also held an assembly during the 2022-23 school year, specifically for the junior class, where students were told, 鈥淚f they don鈥檛 feel comfortable [at NSGS], basically they can leave,鈥� a student interviewee said. Students interpreted Le贸n鈥檚 comment as 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 like it, you can leave,鈥� according to the report. Student interviewees also felt as if school staff were not facilitating their transfer requests because of a lack of communication between Le贸n and the school, while others said it was because the school 鈥渄id not want to lose high-achieving Black students,鈥� the draft report stated.

Those findings echo what students had told Newark school board members. During the January 2023 board meeting,  they were being told by guidance counselors that they couldn鈥檛 transfer. One student told board members that Leon鈥檚 speech 鈥渄idn鈥檛 feel like it had any empathy and it gave very much, 鈥榠f you don鈥檛 like it, then go home.鈥� Another student said 鈥渁 vast amount of students鈥� lined up outside of the guidance counselors鈥� offices the day after Le贸n鈥檚 assembly. A third student said guidance counselors told her multiple times that she couldn鈥檛 transfer and if she left 鈥渉ow would that make us feel.鈥�

Staff interviewees also said high-performing Black students were the first students to try to transfer out and some considered how that would impact the school鈥檚 image, according to the draft report.

The transfer rates of Black students have 鈥渟ignificantly increased鈥� each year at Global Studies in comparison to all other student groups, according to data included in the draft report. Black students have been less likely to complete an academic year at the school than their peers at Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology, Newark Fashion and Design, and Newark Vocational, the report stated.

At the end of the 2021-22 school year, six Black students transferred out of Global Studies and in the following school year, another seven Black students had transferred as of March 15, 2023, according to the report. During the 2022-23 school year, three Black female teachers resigned, all from the same department, and two Latino students were transferred out, the report notes.

Throughout the report, researchers also found that the school鈥檚 restorative approach to the issues did not adequately address 鈥渢he persistence or saliency鈥� of racist comments by students. To address the incidents, administrators called for parent conferences and time of reflection with students that led Black students to feel emotionally unsafe about being forced to work with students who used racist language toward them and were allowed to remain in classes, according to the report.

The practices also 鈥渃reated an atmosphere where some Latino students felt they could use racist language toward Black students and teachers without consequence,鈥� the draft reads.

Staff members who were interviewed said they were following district policy and 鈥渆mploying a restorative approach鈥� to discipline students while others acknowledged they had an 鈥渆ducative role鈥� to address the use of racial language by non-Black students, the report found.

One teacher acknowledged that education 鈥渙n the background of why some of the things [students] say to each other are so hurtful鈥� would be useful.

鈥淚 think especially for recent immigrants, they come here, and they hear that kind of dialogue, and they adopt it thinking like they鈥檙e gonna be proud and part of American culture and have no background for it, and don鈥檛 realize that for them, it鈥檚 not appropriate to talk that way,鈥� according to the teacher.

The report  build school staff鈥檚 capacity to identify cultural gaps, create a racially conscious and inclusive environment, foster conversations about race, and assess the effects of anti-Blackness on the school system.

Researchers also noted that 鈥渢he courage and resilience鈥� of Black students at Global Studies who assumed leadership positions in school organizations, participated in extracurricular activities, and are high achievers demonstrated a level 鈥渙f social awareness and activism鈥� by challenging racial discrimination.

Their efforts were aligned with the Global Studies theme, the report found.

This was originally published on .

Updated Jan 22: As of Jan 21, the Department of Homeland Security has  its 鈥渟ensitive locations鈥� policy, allowing immigration raids where children gather including schools, hospitals and churches.

Parents showing their children where passports and other important legal documents are hidden at home. 

Mothers and fathers signing affidavits outlining who their childrens鈥� caregiver would be. 

Guardians making arrangements with schools for dismissal in the event they have been picked up by federal agents in a deportation sweep.

These are the daily conversations and heartbreaking realities mixed-status families 鈥� where not all kids, parents or grandparents hold American citizenship or legal status to reside in the U.S. 鈥� are rehearsing in case children come home to an empty house.

With Donald Trump鈥檚 border czar Tom Homan pledging to operate the largest deportation operation in American history in just days, parents, advocates, lawyers, and educators nationwide are working nonstop to protect and prepare families and school staff. 

鈥淪tudents can鈥檛 focus on learning when they鈥檙e worried about whether their parents will come home at the end of the day, when they see themselves dehumanized in the press, or when representatives of the federal government come to their city to say, 鈥榊ou鈥檒l be first in line for removal,鈥欌�� Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said last month. The union has rolled out a 鈥淪anctuary Training Series鈥� for staff and parents on how to protect kids from federal raids.  

麻豆精品 interviewed dozens of people working with some of the nearly six million families facing ongoing dehumanization and to understand how deportation plans are affecting schools and students. 

School leaders throughout the country have begun sharing : Ensuring bus drivers and front office staff are trained on legal policies; providing simple scripts for what to say when interacting with federal law enforcement; explaining what鈥檚 next if the worst happens and families .

Educators, like healthcare workers, are sharing tips on for interacting with federal agents. Immigrant coalitions and parents are leading “” trainings in schools. Some schools are increasing mental health offerings as widespread increases along with anti-immigrant hate. 

鈥淲e need to let you know, if you are a student who is undocumented or a family who is undocumented, we will take care of you,” former teacher and board member Scott Esserman vowed at a Denver school board meeting in . “That’s our responsibility.鈥�

When pressed on what the Trump administration’s plans would mean for millions of families with young children, officials have advised deported parents to take their American citizen children . If their home countries won鈥檛 accept them, the administration has reportedly where they will be permanently displaced 鈥� places where they may have no cultural, linguistic connection to.

Immigration enforcement operations will start in , Illinois and , Colorado, just outside of Denver, Trump administration officials have said.  

In response, school districts including , , , , and have reiterated resolutions passed during Trump鈥檚 first term and are training staff on how to protect families鈥� privacy in any interactions with immigration enforcement. 

, the nation鈥檚 largest, has a clear cut policy: If immigration enforcement officers do arrive at a school building, staff must keep them outside, notifying the districts鈥� legal counsel to first verify any warrants or subpoenas.

“Protecting immigrant students in and around school is not only moral 鈥� it’s the ,鈥� said Alejandra V谩zquez Baur, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network and fellow at The Century Foundation. Accessing free education, regardless of immigration status, has been protected as a constitutional right for 42 years. 

And like hospitals, schools, afterschool programs and chldrens鈥� bus stops have long been considered 鈥渟ensitive locations,鈥� protected from federal immigration raids without appropriate approval. Dozens of families sought refuge in while immigration arrests spread during the last Trump administration. 

Today, advocates are preparing for a different ballgame. The Trump administration鈥檚 include scrapping the Homeland Security鈥檚 sensitive locations policy, a move legal experts expect would be challenged. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want people with contagious diseases too scared to go to the hospital or children going uneducated because of poorly considered deportation policies,鈥� Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union told . 

While the legal logistical challenges to operate mass deportations are predictable and being planned for 鈥� Texas, for instance, has pledged for deportation centers – immigration law scholar Hiroshi Motomura expects a wildcard: the public鈥檚 political will. 

鈥淲hen you have the rhetoric and focus on the wall and on the border, it’s easy to stick with this idea that immigration law is to protect 鈥榰s鈥� from 鈥榯hem,鈥欌�� Motomura told 麻豆精品. 

鈥淏ut it really is different when you start depriving employees of their families, and kids see their classmates deported,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t completely shifts the political vulnerability and what’s going on here.鈥�

麻豆精品 spoke with school staff, advocates and lawyers in states with the highest volume of mixed-status families about what they expect and how they鈥檙e preparing for the Trump administration鈥檚 mass deportation plans: 

Priscilla Monico Mar铆n

Executive Director of the New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children 

Reality set in for Mar铆n and her New Jersey-based team over the summer: Trump鈥檚 second presidency was a distinct possibility. To reach as many immigrant youth as quickly as they could, they started brainstorming, identifying a new district partner, Jersey City Public Schools.

Mar铆n felt 鈥渃alled鈥� to support families like her own when anti-immigrant rhetoric resurged, swapping her career as a bilingual teacher to become an immigration lawyer. 

鈥淣o one wants to be defined by your hardest day,鈥� she said, adding too often undocumented students are not defined by their 鈥渉umor, their curiosity, or their strength,鈥� but instead their status and trauma.

Her team leads workshops and shares resources for classes of multilingual learners, so that they can secure immigration case support, access to social services and help others work past barriers to school enrollment.

The current situation has created a sense of urgency to what Mar铆n and her team do. 

After she leaves the schools, older students start calling their hotline for assistance to secure visas and more stable immigration statuses, and to ask, 鈥淚鈥檓 undocumented. How do I enroll in healthcare?,鈥� while some navigate the web of government bureaucracy as the only bilingual person in their families. 

Prerna Arora

Columbia Teachers College Faculty, New York

鈥� a professor who studies the mental and physical health impacts of immigration on children 鈥� is witnessing a culture of fear and pain that鈥檚 limiting learning as fears of deportation loom. 

Working with 100 immigrant youth and asylum seekers throughout New York City, she has seen more hesitance and skepticism to share their emails or names in recent months than ever before. 

Many expressed feeling 鈥渦nderestimated鈥� People may expect them not to have any language skills or fewer than they have.鈥� Arora said. 鈥�…A lot of them spoke up to say, 鈥榳e want people to know that we actually do want to try, we do care.鈥欌�� 

In addition, several noted bias, hate and harassment from both children and adult K-12 school staff. 鈥淢aybe it’s a comment in passing that nobody realized how harmful it was.鈥� Students are especially hurt when teachers say nothing at all after an  incident. 

Particularly to curb absenteeism, Arora emphasized schools need to focus on providing several tiers of mental health supports, ranging from school-wide workshops to small group and individual counseling, and establishing a sense of safety so that 鈥減arents and kids feel like the school can be trusted.鈥� 

Miguel Bocanegra

Immigration Lawyer with Cornell University鈥檚 Path2Papers Program, California

A small team of lawyers have held over 500 free consultations since launching one year ago, quickly mobilizing to move as many working DACA recipients toward more permanent legal residency before the Supreme Court or Trump鈥檚 administration upends the program鈥檚 fate.

Their approach is 鈥渙ffensive as opposed to defensive 鈥� to assist people in getting visas, to move in a positive direction that would not keep them in permanent limbo,鈥� said Bocanegra, who has been practicing immigration law for over two decades. 

Bocanegra anticipates the Supreme Court may put an end to DACA as soon as late 2025, though it . The Obama-era policy has enabled more than 700,000 鈥渄reamers鈥� brought to the country as children to attain temporary legal status and work authorization. 

Today, he hosts confidential consultations with teachers and on campuses and over Zoom, helping them and their employers secure sponsorship and more permanent statuses like H-1B visas.

Roughly 82% of the people they鈥檝e worked with are eligible for more stable statuses via employment or humanitarian visas. 

鈥淲e’re advising employers to educate themselves and make decisions one way or the other about whether they can move forward with these visa options while there鈥檚 still some time.鈥�

Alejandra V谩zquez Baur

Co-founder of National Newcomer Network, New York

A former south Florida teacher who grew up in a mixed status household, V谩zquez Baur has witnessed generations of kids live with fears of deportation that often led to school absenteeism. 

While the incoming administration鈥檚 agenda seems more willing to target families and threaten kids鈥� right to education, she urged school leaders to remember, 鈥渢he law is still the law, nothing has changed yet.鈥�

The fear school staff may experience when encountering federal law enforcement is  only mitigated by knowing what to do. Some have begun printing out and language that front office staff, bus drivers and security agents can use: 鈥淲e follow district policy and cannot provide any information without consulting legal counsel.鈥�

Maribel Sainez

Aspire Public Schools鈥� Director of Advocacy & Community Engagement, California

Sainez, who also grew up in a mixed-status household, is urgently spreading a resource she recently learned of: , where families can report if they鈥檝e seen ICE agents, inquire about sightings in a given area, or get support after an interaction with the agency. 

She and her charter network that serves many undocumented students are partnering with local organizations to offer Know Your Rights trainings, which include exercises for families on how to interact with federal agents. 

鈥淚 constantly draw on my own lived experiences,鈥� said Sainez. 鈥�… How can we counter that fear and panic and really promote a sense of solidarity, awareness, and power building?鈥�

In Los Angeles, citizenship expert Motomura has analyzed decades of policy, and resistance to change it. He鈥檚 among thousands advocating for reforms to the immigration system, stuck in congressional limbo year after year.  

鈥淭he world has changed, the economy has changed,鈥� Motomura said. 鈥淭he only way we’re going to get out of it is to make it not about how high the border wall is, but ask ourselves why there are 11 million people in the country who are without papers.鈥�

The new year brought changes to requirements for New Jersey teachers, including a new law eliminating a basic skills test that lawmakers overwhelmingly advanced in both houses.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed the  eliminating the Praxis basic skills test for people seeking teaching certifications in June, and it went into effect Jan. 1. Lawmakers said the legislation aimed to address a l and remove duplicative, costly tests that create barriers to pursuing a career in education.

At the time, it faced little controversy. Just three Republicans voted against it.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

But recent comments from tech mogul Elon Musk have shined a spotlight on the new law. Musk, who owns social media platform X, this week  of an article about the change and questioned if teachers in New Jersey need to 鈥渒now how to read.鈥� The post has been viewed nearly 20 million times.

Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia (R-Sussex), who supported the bill, said the change to teacher certification requirements has been taken entirely out of context and does not lower the bar for would-be teachers.

鈥淢y largest concern was it was an extra expense for teachers just starting out, and for taking a test, actually, that is much easier than the current tests you already have to take,鈥� said Fantasia, who obtained her teaching certificate in 2008 and now works as an administrator at a charter school.

She explained that for teachers to receive certification in New Jersey, they must first graduate from an accredited teacher preparation program with at least a 3.0 grade point average, complete months of student teaching, and pass several exams, depending on the grade level and subject matter being taught.

Those tests can easily amount to hundreds of dollars, and by the time a potential teacher takes the Praxis exam, they鈥檝e already proved their capabilities, she said.

States across the country have removed similar exams in an effort to ease shortages plaguing schools, according to the . Oklahoma enacted a law in 2022 removing the requirement for a general education exam, and Arizona implemented a law allowing educators to begin teaching before graduating from college.

Fantasia did not fault Musk for his confusion about the law and placed some blame on the media 鈥� fringe and mainstream 鈥� for irresponsible headlines and missing context. The knee-jerk reaction from the public is to be 鈥渃ompletely expected,鈥� she said.

And while she noted she鈥檚 the loudest Republican voice supporting the legislation, she slammed Democrats for remaining 鈥渞adio silent鈥� on a bill they supported. The bill sponsors did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

鈥淭he teachers of New Jersey are made to look across this country like the village idiots because the Democrat Party who sponsored this bill and the governor who signed it don鈥檛 feel it necessary to defend them when the headlines are extraordinarily misleading,鈥� Fantasia said.

Murphy鈥檚 office defended the law in a statement to the New Jersey Monitor.

鈥淭he Praxis Core requirement was redundant to New Jersey鈥檚 other requirements for teacher certification that remain in place, and its removal was a recommendation of our public school staff shortage task force, a group of experts who know more about New Jersey鈥檚 education needs than Elon Musk,鈥� said Natalie Hamilton, a Murphy spokeswoman. 鈥淭he bipartisan legislation that the Governor signed passed by overwhelming margins and we are disappointed by out-of-state agitators that want more red tape.鈥�

Steven Baker, spokesman for teachers union the New Jersey Education Association, said 鈥渞ight-wing blog sites trying to push this story don鈥檛 understand the law and definitely do not understand New Jersey鈥檚 very rigorous teacher certification standards.鈥�

He stressed that the additional requirement to pass the Praxis following years of other coursework did nothing to elevate the standards and 鈥渁mounted to a corporate money grab鈥� from college students.

Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Morris), who voted against the bill, said he thinks it has indeed lowered standards.

鈥淚 think these are the days of dumbing down, and somebody鈥檚 got to put their foot down and say, 鈥楢bsolutely not,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淲e should expect more from these kids, not less, and we certainly should expect no less from the teachers that are teaching them.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

Karen Grant and fellow school librarians throughout New Jersey have heard an increasingly loud chorus of parents and conservative activists demanding that certain books 鈥� often about race, gender and sexuality 鈥� be removed from the shelves.

In the past year, Grant and her colleagues in the Ewing Public Schools just north of Trenton updated a 3-decade-old policy on reviewing parents鈥� challenges to books they see as pornographic or inappropriate. Grant鈥檚 team feared that without a new policy, the district would immediately bend to someone who wanted certain books banned.

Around the same time, state lawmakers in Trenton were readying legislation to set a book challenge policy for the entire state, preventing book bans based solely on the subject of a book or the author鈥檚 background or views, while also protecting public and school librarians from legal or civil liabilities from people upset by the reading materials they offer.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

When Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed that measure into law last month, Grant breathed a little easier.

鈥淲e just hear so many stories of our librarians feeling threatened and targeted,鈥� said Grant, who works at Parkway Elementary School and serves as president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians. 鈥淭his has been a wrong, an injustice that needs to be made right.鈥�

Amid a national rise in book bans in school libraries and new laws in some red states that threaten criminal penalties against librarians, a growing number of blue states are taking the opposite approach.

New Jersey at least five other states 鈥� California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington 鈥� that have passed legislation within the past two years that aims to preserve access to reading materials that deal with racial and sexual themes, including those about the LGBTQ+ community.

Conservative groups have led the effort to ban materials to shield children from what they deem as harmful content. In the 2023-24 school year, there were 10,000 instances of book bans across the U.S. 鈥� nearly three times as many as the year before, according to by PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for literary freedom.

鈥淐ertain books are harmful to children 鈥� just like drugs, alcohol, Rated R movies and tattoos are harmful to them,鈥� Kit Hart, chair of the Carroll County, Maryland, chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national organization leading the book banning effort, wrote in an email.

But some states are now safeguarding librarians and the books they offer.

鈥淪tate leaders are demonstrating that censorship has no place in their state and that the freedom to read is a principle that is supported and protected,鈥� said Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read program at PEN America, which has been tracking book bans since 2021.

The drive to ban certain books is not waning, however. While a handful of states fight censorship in school libraries, some communities within those states are attempting to retake local control and continuing to remove materials that conservative local officials regard as lurid and harmful to children.

鈥楲ives are in the balance鈥�

The New Jersey not only sets minimum standards for localities when they adopt a policy on how books are curated or can be challenged but also prevents school districts from removing material based on 鈥渢he origin, background, or views of the library material or those contributing to its creation.鈥�

The law also gives librarians immunity from civil and criminal liability for 鈥済ood faith actions.鈥�

New Jersey state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, a Democrat who introduced the legislation, said until recently he thought that book bans were a disturbing trend, but one limited to other states. But early last year, he went to a brunch event and met a school librarian who told him she faced a torrent of verbal and online abuse for refusing to remove a handful of books with LGBTQ+ themes from her library鈥檚 shelves.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when I realized that I was so horribly mistaken, that these attacks on librarians and on the freedom to read were happening everywhere,鈥� Zwicker told Stateline. 鈥淚 went up to her and asked, 鈥榃hat can I do?鈥欌��

He said he鈥檚 already heard from lawmakers in Rhode Island who are considering introducing a similar measure this year.

A child who identifies with the LGBTQ+ community can read a memoir like 鈥溾�� by Maia Kobabe and feel seen for the first time in their lives, he said.

鈥淚 do not think it鈥檚 an overstatement to say that lives are in the balance here, that these books are that important to people, and that librarians are trusted gatekeepers to ensure that what鈥檚 on the shelf of a library has been curated and is appropriate,鈥� Zwicker said.

These new state laws, several of which are titled the 鈥淔reedom to Read Act,鈥� passed almost entirely along party lines, with unanimous Democratic support.

In New Jersey, Republican state Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who has worked in schools for the past 18 years, including as an English teacher, vehemently opposed the measure. She did not respond to an interview request.

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 puritanical parents saying, 鈥極h, I don鈥檛 want my child to learn how babies are made,鈥欌�� during a September committee hearing. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 ridiculous, and we all know it.鈥�

She added, 鈥淲hat I do want is for us to be able to have an honest conversation about some of what is in these texts that is extraordinarily inappropriate for that grade level.鈥�

Enforcement and penalties

Legislation differs by state, including in enforcement and how to penalize noncompliant localities.

In Illinois, for example, school districts risk losing thousands of dollars in state grant funding if they violate the state鈥檚 new law discouraging book bans. But as the Chicago Tribune , that financial penalty was not enough to persuade many school districts throughout the state to comply, with administrators saying they are concerned about giving up local control on school decisions.

Several school districts in other states have similarly rebelled.

North of Minneapolis, St. Francis Area Schools鈥� board last month it would consult with conservative group BookLooks to determine which books it will buy for its school libraries. BookLooks uses a 0-through-5 that flags books for violent and sexual content.

Under its rating system, books that have long had a place in school libraries 鈥� such as the Holocaust memoir 鈥淣ight鈥� by Elie Wiesel or 鈥淚 Know Why the Caged Bird Sings鈥� by Maya Angelou 鈥� would require parental consent to read.

Asked about the school district potentially violating state law, school board member Amy Kelly, who led the drive to use BookLooks, declined to be interviewed. Karsten Anderson, superintendent of St. Francis Area Schools, also declined an interview request.

In Maryland, Carroll County schools the state in banning books in recent years, removing in the 2023-2024 school year at least 59 titles that were 鈥渟exually explicit,鈥� according to a tally by PEN America.

Schools should not allow children to see 鈥渒ink and porn,鈥� wrote Hart, of Moms for Liberty. She got involved in the effort more than three years ago, saying she wanted to protect her five children and parents鈥� rights to make educational decisions.

She pointed to one book to make her point: 鈥�: The Teen鈥檚 Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human,鈥� a nonfiction book in graphic novel form by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan that seeks to educate teenagers about anatomy and consensual and safe sex. The book explores other issues of gender and sexuality, as well. Hart likened the book鈥檚 illustrations showing different ways of having sex to 鈥渆rotica.鈥�

鈥淧arents who provide their children with alcohol or drugs, or to give them a tattoo would rightly be charged with crimes,鈥� she wrote Stateline in an email. 鈥淪chools that provide children with sexually explicit content are negligent at best.鈥�

The future of book bans

Around 8,000 of the more than 10,000 instances of banned books during the 2023-24 school year were in Florida and Iowa schools, according to PEN America. Lawmakers in those states enacted legislation in 2023 that created processes for school districts to remove books that have sexual content.

Iowa now that reading materials offered in schools be 鈥渁ge-appropriate,鈥� while the Florida ensures that books challenged for depicting or describing 鈥渟exual conduct鈥� be removed from shelves while the challenge is processed by the district.

Some of those banned books classics, such as 鈥淩oots鈥� by Alex Haley and 鈥淎 Tree Grows in Brooklyn鈥� by Betty Smith.

Over the past year, lawmakers in Idaho, Tennessee and Utah passed measures that ban certain reading materials that deal with sex or are otherwise deemed inappropriate, according to from EveryLibrary, an Illinois-based organization that advocates against book bans. Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs similar legislation in June.

Laws that allow for book bans have been the subject of in recent years, as plaintiffs argue those measures violate constitutional protections of free expression.

Late last month, a federal judge parts of a 2023 Arkansas law that threatened prison time for librarians who distribute 鈥渉armful鈥� material to minors. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, announced the state would appeal the decision.

EveryLibrary is 26 bills in five states that lawmakers will consider this year that would target books with sexual and racial themes.

The organized effort to remove books because of LGBTQ+ or racial themes will continue, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association鈥檚 Office for Intellectual Freedom.

The association, which book bans as part of its mission to support libraries and information science, found that most of the around the country had LGBTQ+ protagonists.

鈥淟ibrarians have always been all about providing individuals with access to the information they need, whether it鈥檚 for education, for enrichment, for understanding,鈥� she said in an interview. 鈥淐ensorship is diametrically opposed to that mission.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

Librarians and schools weary from escalating efforts to ban books have new protections under legislation Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Monday.

The 鈥淔reedom to Read Act鈥� limits book bans in public schools and libraries and shields librarians from lawsuits and criminal charges filed by folks who find library materials obscene or otherwise objectionable.

Murphy signed the bill in the children鈥檚 section of the Princeton Public Library, surrounded by a crowd of smiling librarians, lawmakers, civil liberties advocates, and parents.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

鈥淭his law will strengthen, not diminish, the rights of parents to choose what reading materials their children should or should not have access to by ensuring that every family can make their own determination about what books are appropriate for a child,鈥� Murphy said.

Under the new law, the state鈥檚 education commissioner 鈥� in consultation with the state librarian, the New Jersey School Boards Association, and the New Jersey Association of School Librarians 鈥� will develop policies on how library materials are selected and how challenges to books on library shelves should be evaluated. Local school boards and library boards then must adopt their own policies using this model.

The law also bars school and library boards from removing books because of the 鈥渙rigin, background, or views鈥� of the material or those contributing to its creation, and allows only people with a 鈥渧ested interest鈥� to challenge a book in a school library.

It also gives librarians and library staff immunity from civil and criminal liability for 鈥済ood faith actions.鈥�

It will take effect in one year, giving state education officials and libraries time to devise the required policies.

Republicans and conservative activists have fought the measure, warning it would give children access to obscene materials and protect librarians who share obscene books with children.

But Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex) said the new law, which he introduced, is a 鈥渂old response to this growing wave of censorship.鈥� Many of the  reported during the 2023-24 school year were of books with characters or themes centered on people of color and the LGBTQ community, he added.

鈥淭hat is not a coincidence. These bans are a deliberate effort to erase voices and perspectives that challenge the status quo, often under the guise of protecting children from discomfort,鈥� Zwicker said.

Zwicker said he was inspired to draft the legislation after hearing Martha Hickson, a recently retired librarian, speak.

Hickson, who successfully fought efforts to ban five LGBTQ-themed books at North Hunterdon High School, got hate mail, was shunned by colleagues and antagonized by administrators, and endured calls for her firing and arrest.

She was there Monday to watch Murphy sign the bill into law.

鈥淚鈥檓 certainly not the only victim of these politically motivated attacks,鈥� Hickson said. 鈥淭he students I serve feel the pain, too, when the books that describe their lived experience were called disgusting, obscene, and depraved. Students recognized that those insults were also intended for them.鈥�

She applauded the new law and shook Murphy鈥檚 hand as he gave her the pen he used to sign it.

鈥淣ew Jersey citizens now have protections to read about the topics that interest them in their libraries. When concerns about books arise, parents now have a clear process for raising issues without resorting to bullying. And for librarians across the state, the dignity of our work will now be recognized and preserved,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ll of that is truly cause for celebration.鈥�

The bill signing received boos from three GOP lawmakers 鈥� Sen. Parker Space and Assembly members Dawn Fantasia and Michael Inganamort 鈥� who said the law will eliminate protections that have kept obscene material out of the hands of children.

鈥淥ur school libraries are meant to be a peaceful place for learning, not littered with lewd or inappropriate materials that distract from a child鈥檚 education,鈥� they said in a joint statement. 鈥淓nabling the distribution of obscene material is reprehensible, but absolving accountability for its distribution is heinous and inexcusable.鈥�

The law was a bit pared-down from what its sponsors initially intended. To appease critics, Zwicker and his bill co-sponsors Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) and Assemblywoman Mitchelle Drulis (D-Somerset) removed language that would have amended the state鈥檚 obscenity statute to add protections for librarians and teachers and state anti-discrimination law to bar employers from considering librarians鈥� actions on book removal requests in hiring decisions.

The bill ultimately passed the Legislature after lengthy committee hearings largely along party lines, with the Senate  by a 24-15 vote and the Assembly voting 52-20 for it in June.

A poll released earlier this year showed most New Jersey residents  about book bans, with more worried about censorship than classroom content.

Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said book bans are related to attacks on other freedoms that have sprung up in recent years as politics have become more polarized 鈥� and will worsen under President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 second term.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a subset of the population that wants to control what children have access to, regardless of whether or not they parent those children. Whether we鈥檙e talking about book bans or sex ed or abortion rights or critical race theory or DEI initiatives, those are all part of the same ecosystem,鈥� Sinha said.

The new law protects the freedom of intellectual choice, he added.

鈥淣o one parent or no one community member gets to decide what books are appropriate for everybody in that community,鈥� he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

The Newark charter school was selected for a free science field trip after another nearby school couldn鈥檛 go. It was May 2012, and middle school teacher Patricia Fartura was in charge of bringing 30 eighth graders to the organization鈥檚 technology center 鈥� a trip she would make an annual event. 

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when the journey began. And our students loved it,鈥� Fartura said. 鈥淚t allowed students who would normally not be in that scenario or the situation of seeing what a science lab really looks like to get hands-on experience.鈥� 

Fartura is now the curriculum supervisor at Varisco-Rogers, but its middle schoolers still visit Students 2 Science鈥檚 technology center to conduct multi-day experiments, such as simulating how the digestive system works or testing the energy content in caffeinated drinks.

Varisco-Rogers is one of more than 150 schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that partner with the 15-year-old , sending students three times a year to its technology centers for all-day programs in chemistry, biotechnology, physics and engineering. When students arrive, they are split into research teams and work with scientists to conduct experiments that connect to real-world issues, according to the nonprofit. 

For now, Students 2 Science serves middle and high school students at two centers, located in Newark and East Hanover, New Jersey. But the nonprofit recently of its program to elementary students, especially those in third and fourth grade, with a new 20,000-square-foot technology center near Whippany, New Jersey. It will replace the East Hanover facility in fall 2025.

The nonprofit also provides virtual laboratory lessons for teachers to livestream in their classrooms and a career-exploration program for high schoolers.

Dan Barnett, Student 2 Science鈥檚 chief development officer, said the organization decided to include younger students after hearing from schools that elementary classrooms had a shortage of science teachers.

鈥淭here’s such a lack of science teachers, or teachers that have a science background or can teach science in the elementary levels, especially for our school districts that are in such great need overall for resources,鈥� Barnett said. 鈥淲e worked with consultants to help develop a curriculum that aligned to New Jersey standards for learning and science. And now we are looking for a specialist to lead that program.鈥�

Fartura said the decision to include elementary students will be critical to improving their academic success and trajectory. 

鈥淚 think at a younger age is where we want to get them [interested in STEM], because it’ll just continue to create passion for the subject, especially with all the careers that are out there now 鈥� everything is STEM,鈥� she said.

show that young children begin to lose interest in science, technology, engineering and math as they grow older when they don’t have mentors to encourage them. found that this decline is more common among girls, students from low-income families and children of color.

This school year, Varisco-Rogers began incorporating STEM into its own elementary curriculum. Majority of the school鈥檚 are Hispanic and qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. 

Fartura said that so far, she has seen the school’s third and fourth graders become more engaged in their learning when STEM activities are involved.

鈥淭he little ones are 鈥� absorbing everything,鈥� she said. 鈥淏y the time I would get my students in sixth grade 鈥� even 10 years ago, 15 years ago 鈥� if they didn’t have that passion for science, it was so difficult for me to try to kind of push them.鈥�

As Students 2 Science prepares to open its new site, the organization is also reimagining ways STEM can be taught through its two other programs, Barnett said. 

The V-Lab Program offers virtual laboratory lessons that can be remotely streamed at any school. Classroom teachers are given science materials, and a Students 2 Science instructor teaches a 45- to 50-minute lesson.

There is also a career advancement program that offers high school students opportunities for training and internships in STEM fields.

鈥淲e are really focused on exposure, making sure students know what options are out there, especially in the state of New Jersey,鈥� Barnett said. 鈥淲e recognize that for the communities that we serve, the students don’t necessarily get exposed to all of those opportunities, so that’s really what the focus of that program is, and that’s going to, I think, make a greater impact.鈥�

About 90% of Students 2 Science participants are students of color, and 52% are female, according to the nonprofit. Since its inception in 2009, the organization has served more than 250,000 students.

One former student, Nomase Iyamu, said his participation in 2015 led him to a career in pharmaceuticals. He began at Students 2 Science as a sophomore at Bard High School Early College, which is part of Newark Public Schools, interned there as a college student and helped create the V-Lab Program. 

Imayu said Students 2 Science allowed him to make mistakes while experimenting with science and technology in high school. That opportunity sparked his interest in the pharmaceutical field, which eventually led him to enroll in business school to create his own pharmaceutical startup company.

鈥淚t took STEM for me to become an entrepreneur, so it may take STEM for someone to do something else that they’re actually passionate about,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 definitely see Students 2 Science as a very strong stepping stone to any career path that you want to have. I would definitely not be here without them.鈥�