A new spirit of reform pervades Quitman Street Community School in Newark, N.J. In recent decades, school and city alike have been beaten down and subject to wave after wave of so-called rebirths, renewals and reforms. The Hechinger Report has partnered with NJ Public Radio and NJ Spotlight to share Quitman’s story over the next year, dispatching a team of reporters to cover its daily trials and triumphs and the lessons it provides for schools and communities nationwide.
Special education expansion brings challenges, hope to Newark school
NEWARK, N.J. — Four boys and four girls sit quietly along a cafeteria bench, focused on their trays of lunch: turkey with gravy and sweet potatoes, and cartons of 1 percent milk. They are 10 and 11 years old, but one still needs a reminder to use a fork or spoon rather than his fingers [...]
‘A blessing in disguise,’ as two schools forge unlikely friendship
NEWARK, N.J. — Two miles separating two schools were far enough that students and parents had never met, yet close enough that they had made up their minds about one another. To the west of the railroad tracks and McCarter Highway sat Quitman Street Community School: low test scores, predominantly African-American, a crime-ridden neighborhood. To [...]
Newark’s school turnaround strategy changes course
She thought of herself as an ordinary mother of four, one who did what she could to advocate for her kids in Newark public schools. But Carol Tagoe’s advocacy caught the eye of a New York University education reformer. And suddenly, the disarmingly friendly Trinidad native was working for the Newark Global Village School Zone, [...]
The life and death of Newark’s Eighteenth Avenue School
After more than 130 years in Newark’s Central Ward, the Eighteenth Avenue School didn’t open its doors to new and returning students yesterday. The demise of the once-stately brick building is indicative of what’s happening in cities across the country: enrollment down to 250, walls and infrastructure well past their years, student test scores on [...]
Can handpicked teachers turn around an underperforming school?
NEWARK, N.J. — It was a fight to the finish, but Erskine Glover can honestly say he’s happy with the team of teachers who will be instructing his students this fall. Glover, principal of what’s momentarily known as Quitman Street Renew School, had a grueling summer interviewing more than 100 candidates for instructional positions, with dozens more [...]
A Newark school prepares—again—to reinvent itself
NEWARK, N.J.—Erskine Glover has interviewed for his job as principal of Quitman Street Community School three times in the past two years—undergoing a total of 15 hours of questioning. With his latest rehiring a few weeks ago, he was given authority to decide which of his teachers will return for another year with him. Glover [...]
