Union City Public Schools has overcome the crippling effects of poverty and prejudice to close the achievement gap between its low-income Hispanic students and their wealthier peers across New Jersey. In a district with nearly 11,000 students-96 percent Hispanic and 85 percent low-income-language arts and math proficiency nearly matched or outperformed statewide averages in 2011. Compared to Hispanic and low-income students in New Jersey, Union City children had double-digit leads in academic proficiency.
The PreK-3rd’s Lasting Architecture: Successfully Serving Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students in Union City, New Jersey case study by Geoff Marietta and Sky Marrietta, documents Union City’s strong PreK-3rd program and offers four key lessons to serving linguistically and culturally diverse students.
David Kirp has also written a book about his time spent observing the school district Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools,which not only chronicles the Union City story, but describes seven guiding principles for how other school systems can achieve sustained educational success.