When they traveled from Union City to the Windy City recently, two Union City students and an administrator were intending not to learn as much as to educate others.
Two students from Emerson High School and Board of Education Executive Director of Academic Programs Fred Carrigg were flown out to the University of Chicago to be feature presenters at the Digital Divide Conference.
The Union City representatives spoke over a period of two days in front of 200 people from Chicago including university faculty, business leaders, foundations trying to help poor and urban areas, the mayor, and Board of Education representatives.
The trip to Chicago was only one of the many requests to talk about Union City’s technology education programs that have been received over the past five years. Due to the Board of Education’s connection to the Center for Children and Technology, an organization that is looked towards to provide examples of successful urban school districts, Union City frequently receives invitations to present at conferences around the country. Most of the trips are attended by Carrigg and a few students from Emerson and Union Hill. Peer Coach Majorie Zaccagna, computer applications teacher Ela Messegeur, and other Union City faculty members bring students to events that the city is invited to attend.
The trips started in 1996 when Carrigg took two students with him to the National Governors Association Annual Education Conference. Over the next few years, Carrigg and student representatives that he picks from the high schools have been invited to conferences all around the country and sometimes beyond. In the past, Bell Atlantic has sent them to the International Telecommunications Conference in Montreal. AT&T along with the Educational Development Center have invited them to Harvard for the past two summers. Different students were brought to the Touched by Technology Symposium at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, the Kids Who Know and Do Conference in San Francisco, the National Planning Council for Educational Reform in Phoenix, Ariz. and this year a group went to the Symposium on Improving Learning Through Information Technology in Washington D.C.
A model district
“Union City is in the national spotlight,” said Carrigg in a recent interview.
Say where you got this: (‘according to’)
Nationally, 60-75 percent of Latino high school students drop out. In Union City, 80 percent stay in. Nationally, 30 to 35 percent of minority city kids go on to college, and that includes two year and technical schools. In Union City, 60 percent of high school seniors go on to four-year colleges.
Much of the success of the over average statistics is credited to the use of technology in the school system. One example that is presented during the conferences involves electronic portfolios. A student’s best work from all of elementary school is saved onto a slide show presentation and then taken to the high schools so that the teachers can evaluate the work that the student is capable of. Each assignment is assessed by the New Jersey Curriculum standards to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the individual students.
Programs like Road to College, a network of faculty that served as mentors and informants about life after high school, Project Explore, where students were given computers to take home, and other programs meant to get urban minority kids into top colleges, have improved the status of the inner-city district.
How it all started
It all started with a grant received in
Year
from the National Science Foundation meant to gear Union City students into math, science, and technology majors when they enter college. The grant funded the programs mentioned above and many more until August of 2000, after which the Union City Board of Education took upon itself to pay for.
Since 1996, Union City has been all over the news. Articles about Union City’s use of technology and statistics have been featured in such publications as the National Council for Teachers of English newspaper, the Harvard Education Letter, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Businessweek.
The presenters
The decision was made to bring students to the national conferences in order to expose them to the outside world of academia. The trips, which can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days, allow the students get to meet people and make connections that may help them out later in life.
Students are chosen to go on the trips according to recommendations by teachers, counselors, and other faculty members. When coordinating which students go on which trips, Carrigg, who usually picks the presenters, keeps in mind how each particular student can benefit from meeting particular people.
“The whole philosophy here is project based learning and multi-media presentations. What greater proof of the importance of [these skills] then to show them that it is used in real life,” said Carrigg about bringing students to present the story of Union City.
One of the students involved with the presentations this year, Jose Marrero, is proud being a part of the project that makes Union City a model district. At last month’s trip to Chicago, Marrero made some connections with the professors at the school and expressed an interest in going there after he graduates next year.
“I think it’s going to be a huge help during the application process,” he said of the experience.
Another participant, Jefferson Lemus, said that the trips are definitely worth his time.
“It’s giving me the opportunity to associate with intelligent adults from around the country,” he said.
The chosen students, wearing their trademark blue jackets and standing next to their recently created websites, electronic projects, or multi-media presentations, always benefit from the conferences.
Mahdi Hedhli, a graduate from the class of 2000, participated in the presentations for about two years.
“It’s a great achievement for student to give a formal presentation. It’s an even greater achievement for a student to walk into a room full of notable educators and gain their instant respect,” he said.
“It’s important for education in this nation for schools to share with each other to learn,” said Carrigg when asked about why he agrees to attend so many conferences. The city has already been invited to the National Grant Makers Conference in Oregon this coming October.
Carrigg believes that presenting the districts material in other cities is doing more than just giving other schools ideas for improvement.
“People have a stereotypical view of inner cities,” he said. “I hope it alters [those] opinions.”