Dear Editor:
During an appearance on Michael Aron’s Reports Roundtable on NJN television, Jersey City mayor and gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler made a statement that the dropout rate in the Jersey City public schools is 60 percent. His website also carries the claim that the dropout rate in Jersey City public schools is “nearly 2/3.” Mr. Schundler’s assertion is simply not supported by the facts.
According to statistics released late last year by the New Jersey State Department of Education, Jersey City, had a lower dropout rate in 1999 than at any time since it became a state-operated school district (October 1989). In addition, the 1999-2000 average daily attendance of 93.2 represents a one-year increase in attendance of 3.7 percent, and it exceeds the state’s student attendance standard of 90 percent!
For the mayor’s information, the percentage of dropouts in Jersey City schools was in the single digits for the year 2000 (the second consecutive year). The 9.9 percent dropout rate (621 students) reported in 1999-2000 is nearly 5 percent below the 14.9 percent rate (914 students) reported in 1996-97.
These improvements have not occurred by chance. The district has implemented a Developmental Guidance Program for the elementary schools that helps students deal with issues that may contribute to attendance and dropout problems later in their academic careers. For high school students, our “fifteen together” program assigns mentor/counselors to rising eighth-graders who have been identified as being at risk of dropping out of school. The counselors take on a mentoring role, helping their students develop coping strategies that keep them in school and learning. Last year, the third year of implementation, the “fifteen together” program reported that 63 percent of the students in the program successfully moved on to junior year.
While these results are highly encouraging, the district, under the fine leadership of Dr. Charles T. Epps, Jr., is striving to do even better. In September, the district will add a Twilight Program, an after-hours school for students with issues that may cause them to drop out of school. Jersey City continues to excel in activities to provide quality early childhood instruction, increase parental participation in the schools, strengthen the district’s ability to equip its schools with state-of-the-art technology and work with community partners to increase learning opportunities for students and their families.
Jersey City Public Schools have been recognized for many successes, particularly for earning a record 16 Best Practices awards in five years from the Department of Education’s Best Practices/ Star Schools program. Best Practices/Star Schools helps identify locally developed programs that have proven to be highly successful and worthy of emulation throughout the state. Anyone may occasionally misspeak in the heat of a political campaign, but Mr. Schundler has continued to misstate the facts about Jersey City schools far too loudly, and far too long.
Suzanne T. Mack
Chairperson, Jersey City Board of Education