Spotlight District: A Remarkable Turnaround

From 49th to 79th in readng percentile, Union City shows how curriculum change and a tech infusion can start a revolution

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There are few skeptics when it comes to the education revolution underway in Union City, New Jersey, a small city just west of the Hudson River with views of the New York City skyline.

The 1.4-square-mile city has been classified as one of the 92 most impoverished communities in the nation by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Average household incomes hover near $30,000 in this urban tangle of narrow one-way streets lined with two- and three-family homes. Two out of every three students do not speak English at home.

Yet the district has made a transformation from one threatened with state takeover in 1989 to being lauded in 1996 by President Clinton, who called Union City's turnaround a "remarkable transformation."

After the big gains in the mid-1990s, test scores have continued to rise each year. More than 80 percent of last year's fourth graders earned passing scores for language arts on standardized tests. Eighth graders' passing scores for language arts reached 88.2 percent in 2002.

"The real story of Union City is that it didn't fall back. It stabilized and has continued to improve," says Fred Carrigg, one of the primary architects of the reform.

Much of the success rests on a fundamental academic restructuring in the 1990s that extended instructional time, brought specialized teachers into classrooms, traded basal readers for children's literature, and sat kids at long tables for cooperative, research-based learning.

An Influx of Technology
While these curriculum changes provided the rocket that propelled the district out of the mire, an infusion of technology has been the fuel that has pushed it to its current heights, administrators say.

The steady rise in student test scores is "directly connected to the ubiquitous level of technology," says Carrigg.

Every classroom is now fully wired and equipped with several computers. There are 4,000 terminals for the district's 11,628 students. This 3:1 student-to-computer ratio compares to a statewide average of nearly 5:1.

Teachers post assignments and grades online. The district uses thin client technology provided by Class Link, which helps officials avoid problems with server crashes, and allows students and teachers to access their work with individual passwords. Many students can tap into their electronic Class Link portfolios from a home computer, public library, or classroom. Ongoing technology experiments loan students personal laptops, desktops, and even Palm handhelds.

Tech-Filled Days
At Thomas A. Edison, a monstrous, red brick elementary school, seventh-grader Mirna Martinez is busy creating a PowerPoint presentation with sound, word art, and animation to tell the story of her favorite singer, Colombian-born Shakira. The 13-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, who spoke no English two years ago, casually toggles between color pictures of plant and animal cells to a project on the American Revolution when asked to display her electronic Class Link portfolio.

"If I have any questions, I go on a web site. I ask. They answer," she says about the benefits of technology.

With 1,748 Pre-K to eighth-grade students, Edison is the state's largest elementary school. Computers fill the school. Every day, between 250 and 300 students use one of the technology center's 34 iMacs or 31 PCs.

Technology "definitely keeps the kids motivated," says technology teacher John Escaleira, 27, who turned down other job offers to come to Union City.

The Sources of Success
The influx of technology came several years after academic restructuring. "Things were already turning around. We sat down and asked ourselves: 'How do we take the next step forward? How do we inspire the kids we haven't reached?'" recalls Carrigg, who left his job as executive director of academic programs in October after he was recruited by the state Department of Education to replicate Union City's success on a statewide level.

In 1992, the district used state funds to buy two computers for each seventh-grade class. Bell Atlantic paid to wire a gutted parochial school that became the district's first middle school—Christopher Columbus School—and launched Project Explore, which provided 200 486-level PCs, including 135 that were given to seventh-grade students for permanent home use. Twenty more were given to teachers, and the rest were installed in classrooms.

Union City district officials also secured a $1.5-million grant from the National Science Foundation and began a partnership with the New York City-based Center for Children & Technology, which provides technical know-how, support, and performance evaluations.

Strong local support and an infusion of state money—court-ordered funds directed at the state's 30 poorest communities, including Union City—enabled the district to become fully wired by 1998. The district has also received $2.5 million in E-rate funding since 1998. District officials say they expect to receive about $370,000 for the 2003-04 school year. This year, schools are operating on a $3-million technology budget.

Top-Notch Teachers
For the past eight years, the district has required all new teachers to complete 15 two-hour training sessions in their subject or grade specialties during their first year. Teachers attend voluntary staff development "camps"—free, weekend-long sessions held in area hotels. Teacher contracts also stipulate that teachers must take six college credits a year to win tenure.

But the district has made this easy: Local colleges hold on-site classes and Union City foots most of the bill. (This practice dates back to the 1970s, when district officials saw the need to certify more teachers in ESL, says Jose Falto, a principal who runs the district's special programs.)

"The biggest thing districts face is changing the way they instruct," says Gary Ramella, executive director of the district's technology information systems. "The teacher can't be the old sage on the stage."

Road Map for Success
Carrigg insists that the Union City school district's success can be replicated, as long as administrators sculpt a reform program that is specific to their students' needs and stop using poverty as an excuse for failure.

And don't call it a miracle. "If you say, 'Well, Union City is a small miracle.' then it means [you] don't have to do it," Carrigg says. "This can be done."

Tracey Tully is a freelance writer based in Cranford, New Jersey. She is a former reporter for the New York Daily News.

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