Camden's test scores have shown steady growth since it implemented reforms in 2014, while Trenton now ranks at the bottom of the state's poorest districts.
In a class of 24 Trenton third graders, the chances are that only three can read adequately. Four can do math at grade level. Trenton ranks at or near the bottom of the state’s 31 poorest districts, year after year, when it comes to academic performance.
Now contrast that with Camden, another city with high levels of crime and poverty. There, something good is happening. Scores are low in Camden as well, but they are higher than in Trenton, and perhaps more importantly, there is solid evidence of progress. Citywide, in a class of 24 third graders, more than five can now read adequately. About seven can do math at grade level. For third through eighth graders, roughly seven out of 24 can read adequately, and four can do math at grade level. Camden still has a long way to go, with chronic absenteeism at nearly 50% in most city schools. But make no mistake: Even in the wake of the pandemic, this is steady growth. Now, as Gov. Mikie Sherrill takes office, one of the biggest challenges she’ll face is in her new home district. Will she step up for children in Trenton, the way that power brokers once did for Camden? The schools in Camden run by charter networks show the largest gains, but traditional public schools are improving as well. Their third-grade reading proficiency has doubled since 2022, while in Trenton, it hasn’t budged. “The district is not improving in Trenton,” says Paula White, the head of JerseyCAN, who was formerly in charge of turning around failing schools for the state Department of Education. “At least the district is improving in Camden.” Camden no longer consistently ranks at the bottom of the state’s poorest districts for academic performance, based on state data newly compiled by theThe disparity in performance between these two cities can’t be explained by money from the state, or poverty. Both have plenty. And it’s not hopeless, because Camden shows that progress is possible. “Think of the wildly ironic reality of this being Trenton, being the seat of government in the state of New Jersey,” White says. “And yet, the schools in this city are just languishing…It’s heartbreaking, because you know they have as much human potential as anyone else.”Camden revamped its schools about a decade ago under a new law that heralded in an era of educational innovation. Trenton did not, even though it was eligible for the same pilot program. It was a critical moment when the capital city could have gone in a different direction if it had decided to do so. That 2012 law, the Urban Hope Act, allowed nonprofits run by charter schools with proven credentials to build and operate schools in three of the state’s poorest districts, Newark, Trenton and Camden. But only Camden embraced it, largely because George Norcross, the political boss based in South Jersey, insisted on it. Norcross, known for his bare-knuckled political tactics, was at the time seeking to use Cooper University Hospital, where he’s long served on the board, as an anchor for the city’s revitalization. Proficiency rates in Camden schools were stuck in the single digits, and he saw this as a way to build new schools more quickly and bring in proven educators to improve the offerings. So, during a period when then-Gov. Chris Christie and the state’s largest teachers’ union, the NJEA, were at each other’s throats, Norcross brought them both to the table to strike a deal. It allowed for the construction of neighborhood schools run by top-performing charter school networks like KIPP, called “Renaissance schools,” that launched in 2014. Norcross also used his political heft to push these reforms in Camden. “I literally never heard of George Norcross,” recalls then-superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard, appointed by Christie to oversee the reforms. “Someone I knew from South Jersey was like, ‘You may want to Google this guy.’ Which was a harrowing moment. But he ultimately gave us cover and support.” As the city’s 13th superintendent in 20 years, Rouhanifard replaced about half the school leaders in the district, instituted rigorous training and hired behavioral specialists to address the mental health of students. He reduced the suspension rate by 53%. He also inherited a big fiscal deficit and had to lay off teachers. Students walked out. But he built a coalition of supporters, avoiding the political backlash that destabilized the reform movement in Newark at the same time, and advocates point to the results. More than 60% of students in Camden now attend schools run by charter networks, and while they remain well behind state averages, they are making faster gains in reading and math. The improvement in Camden has been striking. From 2010 to 2023, students in the traditional district schools closed the gap with the state performance average by 35%. Citywide, it was 42%.by the Progressive Policy Institute, which analyzed average standardized test scores from the third through eighth grade. One of the biggest concerns from critics was that these new, charter-run schools would keep out the poorest kids and those with special needs. “We didn’t want the regular, traditional Camden schools to be a high-risk dumping ground for the kids whose parents didn’t bother to go through the process,” says Ginger Gold Schnitzer, the lead lobbyist from the NJEA who struck the deal on the Urban Hope Act. The common critique of charter schools is that they cream the most capable, motivated students and send the rest back to the traditional public schools in the district. But in Camden’s Renaissance schools, no evidence points to that as being the case, based on recent data. Renaissance schools primarily serve their neighborhoods. The bottom line, advocates say, is that test scores in Camden’s district-run schools have also improved overall since the Renaissance schools opened. And KIPP points to statistics that show about 20% of kids in its Camden schools passed math in 2024, as compared to 6% in the district. “The question is, would Camden be better off with or without Renaissance schools?” says Ryan Hill, CEO of the KIPP charter network. “While we all still have work to do, clearly the answer is better off with Renaissance schools.”Without innovations like this, he adds, “you just have stagnation.”Which is why it frustrates Norcross that this initiative didn’t take off elsewhere. “Now – disappointingly, I would say to you – why hasn’t this been embraced statewide?” Norcross asked in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. Taxpayers are spending “a boatload” of money in the state’s poorest districts, he argues, “and don’t appear to be getting the results that one would expect with that kind of money. Here’s a pilot program that has worked in an urban area.” The answer is politics. U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman sponsored the 2012 Urban Hope Act when she was in the state Assembly and said she fought to have Trenton included. “It’s a step in the right direction toward education reform, not a step away from public education,” she wrote in anat the time, adding, “I am continually frustrated by Trenton’s recent failure to be included in efforts and programs designed to help urban centers.” But city officials failed to act. Trenton was reeling from deep cuts in state aid made by Christie, forcing layoffs of roughly a third of its cops, and the conviction of then-Mayor Tony Mack on corruption charges in 2014. Even Trenton leaders concede that this political failure deprived their kids of the innovative approach that was taking root in Camden. Or in Union City, where the district was transforming itself without charter schools. “I just don’t think the bandwidth was there to think outside the box,” recalls current Mayor Reed Gusciora. “There was really a void of leadership,” agrees Douglas Palmer, who served as Trenton’s mayor for two decades before Mack took office in 2010. “Education was not the priority,” he recalls of the years that followed, and “there was definitely an anti-Christie feeling, no matter what he proposed.” Palmer, Trenton’s first Black mayor, was an early proponent of charter schools and argues that Trenton would benefit from more innovation. So is Gusciora, the current mayor. But the local teachers union, which opposed Renaissance schools at the time for fear they would drain the district of resources, is a powerful force in Trenton city politics, and has historically had a highly contentious relationship with superintendents and the board. “When we thought we had a dictator as a superintendent, there was a time where people dressed up as Napoleon,” recalled the current head of the union, Talithea Duncan. The constant turnover in district leadership was one key flashpoint, she said. That turbulence has impeded the district schools’ ability to make bigger gains, she and others agree. “You had the instability of leadership at the mayor’s office and the instability of the school system,” Palmer says. “That’s a recipe for failure, because there’s no continuity. You change curriculum all the time, you have unrest with the unions, you have contracts to deal with.” Before the current superintendent took office, Trenton cycled through roughly eight school chiefs in 10 years, and local union members famously carted a coffin into a board meeting as a symbol of their discontent. “I was supposed to get into the coffin, and the then-superintendent was supposed to get in the coffin,” longtime board president Gene Bouie recalls. That working relationship has since improved significantly, both sides agree, with the current superintendent, James Earle, lending stability. And there have been bright spots where the schools have made progress. Violence and vandalism are down, Earle says, and he’s sought to build a rapport with staff, standardize the curriculum and ensure that teachers are actually trained in it, among other things. “We have really bright kids who can’t communicate that on the test,” he notes, also acknowledging, “I know we need to improve so our kids can have great opportunities.” But the politics in Trenton is quite different from that in Camden. “Even though we’re dealing with a similar problem,” Bouie said, “what might be working very well in Camden might not work necessarily that well in Trenton, just because of structure. You have to be organized in a certain way to execute on certain things.”Another key factor is that the state runs Camden and has the power to take actions without the board’s approval, so reformers could enact their vision rather than having to fight every political battle with the union. Trenton’s school board, long appointed by the mayor, only recently transitioned to being elected in 2023. But the teacher’s union has always had a particularly loud voice, packing board meetings with protestors and threatening votes of no confidence in superintendents. It’s not clear if Sherrill has any taste for state takeovers, which are controversial. She has said she supports high-performing charter schools with strong oversight, and her lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, once served as CEO of a Trenton charter school. “She’s the kind of person that could stand up and say, I’m going to convene all stakeholders together and let’s sit down and talk about this,” Norcross says. “Obviously, something went right in Camden… if I wanted to look at the top five problems in the state of New Jersey, this certainly is on the list.” Palmer, who has long raised private money for an afterschool reading program for 275 mostly second graders in Trenton, also wants to see “greater emphasis on student achievement and being more of a laboratory of new ideas and innovation.” “There now has to be an all-hands-on-deck look at things that really work,” he said. “And hold the leaders accountable for the results.” He and other city officials hope the new administration will take an interest in Trenton’s development. “Trenton, even being the seat of the state government, seems to have been the stepchild forever. And it’s because we don’t have the strong political power in the Legislature,” Palmer said. “Camden has been very, very fortunate to have George Norcross,” he added, calling him a strong leader in the Legislature with vision. “I could get shot for saying that, I guess,” he mused. “People can say what they want, but he was able to – with the help of other legislators and private sector and others – really help transform Camden.”
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