What Makes BelovED Special?
BelovED Community Charter School is a free public charter school that, to the limit of its enrollment capacity, accepts New Jersey students regardless of intellectual or athletic ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, or status as a handicapped person. (Jersey City children receive a lottery preference.)
Named in honor of Martin Luther King’s vision of a community where people care about and help one another, it opened in September 2012 at 508 Grand Street, in the Downtown section of Jersey City. It offered grades K-2 in its first year, and is adding one grade level annually.
Nationally normed Terra Nova assessments show that since opening, BelovED’s scholars have been making learning gains of 1 ½ grade levels a year on average in the four subject areas measured – English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies.
What is so remarkable about this is that when BelovED first opened, its scholars were, on average, behind grade. Now these same scholars are ahead of grade level, and moving yet farther ahead. Read the “Proven Success” section of this website for more very impressive data demonstrating the proven excellence of our education program.
Along with our stellar academic program, BelovED offers free, optional, after-school programs, free Saturday tutoring, free summer programs, and free bus transportation.
Do you want an exceptional school like this for your children? If the answer is yes, then enroll your child right away at www.belovedccs.org/enroll.
There is no penalty for changing your mind later, but if you don’t sign up immediately, you may miss your chance because the school is almost full.
______
“I believe BelovED is the best choice Jersey City parents can make for their children.”
Bret Schundler, Former Commissioner of Education for the State of New Jersey
and Former Mayor of Jersey City
______
Questions and Answers About BelovED Community Charter School
1) Why the name?
Martin Luther King said our ultimate aim must be the creation of the Beloved Community, by which he meant a community where people care about one another and dedicate themselves to building a better community for everyone.
The School’s founders want to create that kind of community at the School, and they want the School’s students to develop a commitment to building a better world.
-
2) What is the School’s mission?
The mission of Beloved Community Charter School is to develop values, skills, knowledge, confidence and character in its students that will lead them to care not only about themselves, but about their peers and humankind, propel them to success at the school, in college, and in their careers, and help them realize the fulfillment of a socially contributory life.
We want every single one of our students to achieve at a high level academically, to go on to college, to be successful in life, and to be great human being who uses their talents to build a better world.
-
3) What is the School’s philosophy?
We believe that every one of our students can achieve at a high academic level and that it is our responsibility – no excuses – to ensure that they achieve at a high academic level and go on to college.
We believe that if we create a caring and orderly climate where our students know they are loved and feel welcomed, safe, and secure, our students will love being at the school and will trust what their teachers have to teach them.
We believe that successful schools hold themselves accountable not for what their teachers teach, but for what their students learn, and adjust their instruction of a student to the educational needs of that student.
We believe that the welfare of society is advanced not only by its members having high-level academic skills, but by their possessing constructive values and strong characters as well – and that the very best schools help students develop in all of these areas.
We believe that a successful school, like a successful football team, depends on its professionals working as a team – not as a collection of free agents – and that when a school’s professionals work as a team, they not only improve their own effectiveness and that of the School, they also model for their students how a healthy community operates ( which is one of the most powerful lessons they can teach).
We believe that even as we develop protocols and systems that work to support the educational and life success of our students, we must also develop protocols and system that support the well-being of our educators, so our educators will want to build a career with us, and so our school model will be attractive to other educators, extending its reach and beneficial impact.
-
4) What grades will the school offer?
The School offered grades K-2 in September 2012 when it opened. It is adding one grade level per year, and will ultimately offer grades K through 12 – so a student who starts at BelovED will be able to continue at it right up until college.
-
5) Where is the School located?
The elementary school is located at 508 Grand Street in the Downtown neighborhood of Jersey City. BelovED Middle School will be located across the street. It’s high school will be built on property a few blocks away.
-
6) How is the school different?
At many schools, teachers work independently. If a child doesn’t learn, a blame game erupts where people blame the educators, while the educators blame the ills of society. BelovED operates on different principles and has a different culture. The educators work as a team and accept responsibility as a team, no excuses, for helping 100% of children succeed at the School and get into college. These elements of school “culture” are hugely important.
In addition, BelovED educators are empowered by very sophisticated learning and assessment tools, which most schools are waiting to get for free from the State, but which BelovED is paying for so it can help children NOW. These tools enable the School’s educators to carefully monitor how each individual child is progressing academically, so they can immediately provide the child whatever help the child needs to keep from falling behind.
The School also has a longer school day, and offers free, optional after-school tutoring or recreation for students until 5:30 each afternoon, as well as a free, optional summer program for students.
Moreover, the School strives through training and support to help parents help their children.
Most importantly of all, the School works hard at creating a caring climate where students feel welcomed and truly cared about. This makes children enjoy being at school and makes them open to the School’s values and academic instruction. When students enjoy school, when they care about themselves and others and want to develop their potential to constructively contribute to their communities, it makes them great students as well as great people.
-
7) Why is the School’s “culture” so important?
A lot of Jersey City children have to deal with difficulties in life that can get in the way of learning. But research shows that great teachers and schools have the potential to help all children learn successfully, in spite of life’s difficulties.
Unfortunately, a lot of schools are characterized by a low expectations/self-justification culture where educators look at the difficulties some children face and, in response, lower their expectations for these children and justify a lack of success helping these children learn.
BelovED will be characterized by a high expectations/no-excuses culture where educators affirm the research that shows all children have the potential to learn, and where our educators accept responsibility – no excuses—for ensuring 100% of our students do succeed academically.
Everything we do at BelovED will be built upon this foundation of a high expectations/no excuses culture – which research has shown to be a critically important ingredient to the success of teachers and schools.
-
8) What makes the School’s education program so effective?
Many schools do a poor job distinguishing the skills and knowledge that are critical for students to master.
Worse still, some teachers and schools evaluate themselves on the basis of whether teachers have covered material, not whether students have mastered it.
It often works that teachers cover material and then students are administered tests that factor into their grade for a course. At the end of the year, you end up with some “A” students who made good academic progress, but also some “F” students who didn’t. The students who fall behind become discouraged. In fact, here in Jersey City, many of our young people aren’t finishing high school. We say these students have failed – but in truth it’s this approach to education that is failing.
BelovED breaks the skills and knowledge students need to master into clearly defined learning objectives that become the focus of a lesson. They carefully sequence instruction regarding these learning objectives because to master some points easily, you often need to have mastered other points first. BelovED then works to ensure that 100% of its students fully master all critical skills and knowledge.
To achieve this 100% mastery, we move the focus from what teachers have taught to what students have learned. From the day a student first comes to us, to the day that student graduates high school, we administer weekly “formative assessments” that we use not to grade the child, but to guide our instruction of the child so we can ensure the child is getting the instruction he or she needs. We assess where the child has a learning gap, we provide instruction on this point, and then we have the child practice what he or she has learned to the point of true mastery. It’s not “teach and test” as in so many schools. It’s “assess, then responsively teach, then practice to mastery.”
At BelovED, all students will be administered diagnostic assessments when they first come to the school. These will tell us if there are gaps in a student’s skills and knowledge base that need to be filled in for the child to make effective progress in class. When we see mastery gaps, we provide the student intensive instruction in a very small group, or even one-on-one with a tutor, until those gaps are filled in and the student has the foundational knowledge necessary to make effective progress in class.
On an on-going weekly basis, we continue to assess each student’s learning progress and when we see a student or group of students struggling with a particular learning point, we immediately provide these students with the extra help they need to achieve point mastery so they won’t fall behind and become discouraged.
We hire Math and English Language Arts specialists to tutor students. We provide after-school and weekend tutoring. We offer a summer program. All of this is targeted toward ensuring that no student is allowed to fall behind, or toward allowing a gifted student to truly soar, by giving us a capacity to tailor our instruction of students to their level of skills and knowledge mastery. The data proves it works.
-
9) What values are taught?
We encourage students to value themselves, to value others, to value their families, their community, and our world – and to contribute to the well-being of each.
We support our values instruction through the creation of a caring school climate that makes students feel valued and experience the joy of a community where people care about one another.
In addition, we teach our students what we call “Principles of Successful Living.” A few examples of these principles are “Build Your Team,” where we encourage students not to be afraid to ask for help when they need it; “Bring Others Along,” where we encourage students to help when they see others needing assistance; and “Be Thankful In All Things,” a principle which helps students experience life positively in spite of circumstances and to find strength and courage to overcome obstacles.
-
Do you have programs for children with special needs?
Yes, we provide learning programs for ALL students – including children with special needs. As a rule, we endeavor to teach children in the least restrictive environment possible.
-
Does the school offer extra-curricular activities and sports programs?
Yes, the school offers many extra-curricular activities, and as the school increases the grade levels it offers, it will offer students the opportunity to become involved in a full array of varsity and extra-curricular sports programs.
-
Does the school offer transportation?
Yes, the school offers bus transportation services to students who need it.