By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Newark resident Shadrah Walker dropped out of high school in 10th grade. She went back the next year and dropped out again.
When asked why she dropped out, Walker said, “Lack of support. I wasn’t really focused.”
Walker’s now getting a GED. But it’s her story and thousands of others just like it that today brought together local, regional, state and national leaders for the first Newark GradNation Summit, co-sponsered by America’s Promise Alliance as part of their GradNation Campaign. The goal — to raise the national high school graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020.
“We think that the best way to resolve the issues of a high school graduation rate is really on the local level. We’re looking for community-based solutions,” said America’s Promise Alliance Media Relations Director Daria Hall.
“This number has to get better. Those are our talent. That’s our future,” said Rutgers-University Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor.
In 2014, 68.3 percent or 1,818 Newark students graduated from high school. Right now an estimated 4,000 young people in Newark age 16 to 24 are not in school.
“These students, these disconnected youth, we are failing them, and so we’re failing ourselves,” Cantor said.
Cantor says if Newark’s youth aren’t on an educational path or in the workforce, the community will carry the heavy burden of supporting them. She insists keeping kids on the track to graduation is a collective responsibility.
“It’s not rocket science how to do this. It’s really everybody figuring out what they can bring to the table,” Cantor said.
That collaborative approach was the theme of today’s summit. The Victoria Foundation’s Dale Anglin says the city’s web of public institutions that impact Newark’s youth must communicate.
“The court system’s not necessarily talking to the domestic violence system, not talking to the school system and not really understanding all of the various needs that some of these students have and we need to do a better job of everybody coordinating together,” said Victoria Foundation Senior Program Officer Dale Anglin.
Newark Public Schools Superintendent Cami Anderson says in the last three years their graduation rate has risen by 12 points, but that’s not good enough.
“I think the school system is incredibly responsible and we have a lot of work to do to make sure that every single teacher has fierce belief and lots of skill in reaching every kid, that every school has visionary leaders and that every school sees their job as both academic rigor and social and emotional support,” Anderson said. “At the same time, I know that we as a society must lock arms and do more beyond the school system.
Those who attended today’s summit have committed over the next two years to help teachers and the school system work with young people, engage community-based organizations to become part of the solution. They’ve also committed to building network of stakeholders who over time will prevent kids from dropping out and reclaim those who have left school.