VIDEO: Newark "Learning Collaborative" Signals Broad Shift toward Academic Achievement [3:21]

"The culture towards learning is definitely changing," says Kei-Sygh Thomas, a Drew University sophomore and graduate of Newark Collegiate Academy, speaking at the launch of the Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC) at the Paul Robeson Center at Rutgers University-Newark. The NCLC's ambitious aim is to increase the percentage of Newark residents with higher education degrees from 17% to 25% by 2025. Included among the partners are NJIT, Essex County College, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, and dozens of educational, business, and philanthropic entities.   Mateus, a masters student in Urban Education Policy at Brown University, asked, “How do we get citizens involved in their own institutions, and build that capacity in them to change these institutions?"
 
Read "Newark Has a Dream" a related blogpost by NJ Arts News intern Kei-Sygh Thomas.