by Chanel L. Donaldson | Oct 31, 2019 | News1
Citywide Effort Pushes for 70 Percent FAFSA Completion Rate
(Newark, NJ) — Today, Newark officially launched its first effort to increase the percentage of Newark high school seniors who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Mayor Ras J. Baraka and city leaders Reginald Lewis, Executive Director of the Newark City of Learning Collaborative; Catherine Wilson, President and CEO of the United Way of Greater Newark; and Jeffrey Trzeciak, Director of the Newark Public Library; held a press conference at Newark City Hall on Thur., Oct. 31, to unveil the Newark FAFSA Challenge. The Newark FAFSA Challenge is a citywide initiative that aims to increase the city’s FAFSA completion rate to 70 percent by June 2020, a 10-percentage point increase over the June 2019 rate of 60 percent.
“We want every single one of our graduating seniors to have the greatest opportunities imaginable to advance their education and achieve their goals in life, whether they are in the arts, sciences, business, the law, medicine, engineering, and public service. The costs of achieving these dreams and goals have risen vastly, and we as a city and caring community must do everything in our power to enable our youth to achieve them. These young men and women of today are the future leaders of tomorrow, and how we create a more educated city today will create a more empowered, safer, equitable, and collaborative city,” said Mayor Baraka.
Nationally, 90 percent of high school seniors who complete the FAFSA will immediately enroll in college, a key predictor of eventual college completion. The FAFSA and, by extension, financial readiness for college are important aspects of the transition for prospective college students.
Despite its importance for college preparation, the FAFSA remains a significant hurdle for low-income students in particular. Low-income students are less likely to complete the FAFSA for a variety of reasons, including “verification melt.” Verification melt refers to low-income students disproportionately being required to verify their family’s income (an estimated 50 percent of low-income students compared to 30 percent of students overall). As a result, 22 percent of those students never complete the FAFSA.
“The Newark FAFSA Challenge has the potential to generate over $3 million more in state and federal grant money for Newark’s graduating high school class of 2020,” said Reginald Lewis, Executive Director of the Newark City of Learning Collaborative. “With all of Newark coming together for the first time to support our students and families with completing the FAFSA, so many more of our young people will have the resources to pay for college.”
Newark now joins a host of locales around the country who lead their own FAFSA Challenges, including Detroit, Baltimore, and the state of Florida.
The Newark FAFSA Challenge’s signature sponsors are the Newark City of Learning Collaborative, the United Way of Greater Newark, and the Newark Public Library. Additional partners supporting the effort include the Mayor’s Office, the Newark Board of Education, the Essex County Schools of Technology, and several local colleges and community organizations.
“The Newark Public Library is a proud partner with the Newark City of Learning Collaborative and United Way of Greater Newark. We are pleased to be working together to simplify processes and make it easier for Newarkers to be able to get into college,” said Jeffrey Trzeciak, Director of the Newark Public Library.
A key feature of the Newark FAFSA Challenge is its promise to offer personal assistance to high school seniors and their parents to complete the complex application. Nine designated hubs are located in each Newark ward where trained volunteers will offer personal FAFSA completion assistance through June 2020. The hubs also house kiosks with financial aid information.
“United Way of Greater Newark has worked to recruit and train volunteers to help families through the FAFSA process. With a mission to disrupt poverty, we believe college is a pathway towards a bright future and recognize the FAFSA process can be complicated,” said Catherine Wilson, President and CEO of the United Way of Greater Newark. “The efforts of our experts and volunteers have made this process both easier and less cumbersome for families, helping students gain much needed financial aid towards the completion of their degree.”
For more information about the Newark FAFSA Challenge, the list of designated hubs, and dates of FAFSA completion events, visit newarknclc.org/NewarkFAFSAChallenge.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Oct 23, 2019 | News1
PRESS CONFERENCE: NEWARK FAFSA CHALLENGE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 AT 11:30 AM, CITY HALL, 920 BROAD STREET
Join Mayor Ras Baraka, the Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC), the United Way of Greater Newark, and the Newark Public Library on Thursday, October 31, 2019 at 11:30 am at Newark City Hall for the launch of the Newark FAFSA Challenge. School leaders, educators, parents, and policymakers are invited to learn about the citywide effort to increase Newark’s FAFSA completion rate. The press conference will feature remarks from Mayor Ras Baraka; NCLC Executive Director, Reginald Lewis; United Way of Greater Newark President and CEO, Catherine Wilson; and Newark Public Library Director, Jeffrey Trzeciak.
About the Newark FAFSA Challenge
The Newark FAFSA Challenge is a citywide effort to encourage more Newark high school seniors to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). For the 2018-2019 academic year, only about 60% of Newark high school seniors completed the FAFSA by June 2019. Our goal for the 2019-2020 academic year is to increase Newark’s FAFSA completion rate to 70% by June 2020. The FAFSA Challenge is co-sponsored by NCLC, the Newark Public Library, and the United Way of Greater Newark. Additional partners will maintain designated hubs in every Newark ward to offer personal assistance to high school seniors and their parents.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Sep 27, 2019 | News1
NCLC Executive Director, Reginald Lewis, was recognized as one of NJ’s 2019 Education Power 50 by NJBIZ.
The leaders profiled in the Education Power 50 list are responsible for managing organizations, making policies that directly affect the institutions, or are themselves directly responsible for imparting knowledge to students, apprentices, and the citizenry at large. Those featured include teachers, administrators, executives, and public officials. While each of their backgrounds are varied, their work is all focused on the same goal: Making New Jerseyans smarter about the world around them. In that way, they all help make the state a better place to live, work, and do business.
See the full Education Power 50 list here.
Read Reginald Lewis’ feature here.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Jul 23, 2019 | News1
NEWARK, NJ — Barclays has awarded $25,000 to the Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) to support summer programming for Newark high school students in the College Pathway Initiative.
Since 2017, the College Pathway Initiative has recruited a diverse group of Newark 10th graders to participate in early college planning and preparation. Students remain with the program through high school graduation and the transition to college. The first class of College Pathway Initiative Fellows graduated high school this year and about 90 percent of those graduates are starting college in the fall.
Students visit the Barclays Whippany Campus on July 19, 2019
The Summer Leadership Institute sponsored by Barclays allows NCLC to extend the College Pathway Initiative to include summer programming. Approximately 50 rising high school juniors and seniors are participating in five weeks of college prep and career development programming with an emphasis on 21st century learning skills. The Summer Leadership Institute sponsored by Barclays also integrates writing skill development, arts and social justice, and community service.
In addition to providing funding for the Summer Leadership Institute, Barclays is also supporting the program’s career development component with experiential learning opportunities. On July 19, Barclays professionals hosted a mock interview session with the students at their Whippany Campus. The Barclays staff also shared insights with the students on their career pathways and professional networking.
“The Summer Leadership Institute sponsored by Barclays is an amazing opportunity for our students to use their summer wisely by engaging in early college and career preparation. We are extremely grateful to Barclays for making this possible for Newark youth,” said NCLC Executive Director Reginald Lewis.
For more information about NCLC and the College Pathway Initiative, visit nclc2025.org.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Jun 10, 2019 | News1
A CPI Fellow works with Program Associate Christine Harding (r.) and Mentor Lisbeth Masache (l.) to review her financial aid package.
(Newark, NJ — June 10, 2019) Newark’s graduating high school class of 2019 will include 25 College Pathway Initiative (CPI) Fellows, almost all of whom plan to immediately enroll in college in fall 2019.
With support from the Kresge and Ford Foundations, CPI was launched in 2017 as a demonstration effort to test innovative strategies for engaging Newark high school students in college preparation. The Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) at Rutgers University-Newark manages the program.
“CPI is a demonstration effort because our goal is to test innovative strategies for keeping young people engaged so that they remain on track for three critical phases of the program,” said NCLC Associate Director Barry Ford. “We want our Fellows to graduate high school on time, immediately enroll in college or some post-secondary option, and ultimately earn their desired degree or credential. And we’ll be with them every step of the way through that process.”
The current graduating cohort was the first recruited to participate at the time of CPI’s launch. Each year since, NCLC staff have recruited a diverse group of Newark 10th graders for the program. CPI is currently on its third cohort.
Once Fellows are admitted to CPI, they participate in twice-monthly college prep programming. Beyond simply the typical college readiness activities – like SAT prep, FAFSA and application assistance, or college tours – CPI interweaves fun elements to pique student interest with two curriculum tracks in arts and social justice. In the arts track, Fellows work with local artists and Rutgers-Newark faculty in workshops that include portraiture and digital 3D modeling and printing. The social justice track engages Fellows in seminars on leadership, Newark’s history, and youth advocacy. Keeping students interested is a key element to ensuring they remain with the program during their high school and college years.
“In [CPI] I learned more about liberal arts type, abstract ideas. That helped me grow – as a student and as a person. I used to be more shy, but [CPI] helped me become more self-assured. I had to do a college interview and if it wasn’t for [CPI], I would have been so nervous. I was much more prepared than I would’ve been without them,” said Technology High School graduating senior Keidy Alcantara who will attend NJIT in fall 2019.
Of the Fellows graduating high school this year, about 90 percent have indicated that they are enrolling in college in the fall. This is a big win because immediate college enrollment, or enrolling by the October after high school graduation, is a key indicator of eventual college completion. A recent NCLC study found that of Newark students who graduated from high school between 2011 and 2016, only 54 percent immediately enrolled in college and only 23 percent earned any type of degree or credential within six years.
Many of the first graduating cohort will attend colleges close to home, like Rutgers University-Newark, NJIT, Montclair State University, and Essex County College, a trend matched by most of their peers. NCLC found that approximately 67 percent of 2011 to 2016 Newark high school graduates enrolled in a college or university within 10 miles of Newark.
“As we enter the college enrollment phase for our first cohort, we will focus on working with our university partners to ensure that our students – and by extension all Newark students – get the appropriate financial, social-emotional, and academic support to persist toward degree completion. We are intentional about having partnerships with local colleges and universities for this very reason,” said NCLC Executive Director Reginald Lewis.
To commemorate the high school graduation of the first cohort of CPI Fellows, NCLC is launching a social media campaign called #CPIFirstClass, which will highlight five graduating seniors. Follow NCLC on Instagram (@nclc2025) to read the Fellows’ reflections on high school and how CPI has helped them in their transition to college.
For more information about NCLC, visit nclc2025.org.
by Chanel L. Donaldson | Jun 4, 2019 | News1
Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León, Newark Public Library Director Jeffrey Trzeciak, Panasonic Foundation Executive Director Alejandra Ceja, United Way of Essex and West Hudson CEO Catherine Wilson, and Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) Executive Director Reginald Lewis launched #NewarkReads on Tuesday, June 4, 2019.
#NewarkReads is a comprehensive literacy initiative that will begin this summer with the Mayor’s Book Club. The first phase, a sixth to eighth grade pilot, will be followed by a high school to adult segment in September. The literacy coalition will provide residents of all ages with approaches to improve reading, writing, listening, and thinking skills, focusing on adult literacy and birth to third-grade interventions.
As of 2003, the latest year for which statistics are available, 47,000 Newark adults lacked basic prose literacy skills, and 56 percent of Newark youth scored partially proficient on NJ ASK and HSPA standardized literacy tests. Almost 90 percent of the students who scored partially proficient on these tests came from economically disadvantaged families. These literacy statistics place Newark in the bottom six percent of all New Jersey districts. This gap ties directly to a lifelong economic opportunity gap and has financial, social, and civic consequences for individuals as well as Newark as a whole.
NCLC, a citywide initiative working to build Newark’s college-going culture, jumped at the opportunity to be part of the Coalition.
“The bulk of NCLC’s work entails building and sustaining a college-going culture to ensure that our kids are on track to graduate high school on time and prepared to succeed at the college level. Research has shown that these things are really out of reach for students who are not proficient readers,” said NCLC Executive Director Reginald Lewis. “NCLC reallocated $30,000 of a state grant being shared with the Newark Public Library to the launch of the Mayor’s Book Club. Literacy is clearly at the heart of our work.”
Click here for more information about #NewarkReads.
Click here to register for the Mayor’s Book Club.
Visit newarknclc.org to learn more about NCLC.
