On the same day that President Obama addressed the nation’s schoolchildren about the importance of education, Parents & Communities United for Education (PCUE), which is the Jersey City chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC), held a rally to kick off their citywide campaign, “Graduation for ALL.”

The September 8 rally was held in front of Martin Luther King School #11 and drew over 70 parents, residents and schoolchildren. The assembled crowd called on the Jersey City Public Schools and the local Board of Education to improve the city’s high schools and respond to the drop-out crisis.

Alarmed by the fact that one in four Jersey City high school students in the class of 2008 did not graduate, and concerned that the NJ Department of Education has recently imposed even tougher graduation requirements without providing additional resources to help students succeed, PCUE decided to undertake a campaign around secondary education.

Other SEOC chapters in Newark, Paterson and Asbury Park are engaged in similar campaigns. All of the chapters are working under the umbrella of the NJ Education Organizing Collaborative (NJEOC). NJEOC, of which SEOC is a member, has been focusing on “Real Secondary Reform” since last winter. Members of NJEOC also include Abbott Leadership Institute, Education Law Center and Paterson Education Fund.

As part of the secondary campaign, PCUE has developed a four-step program of high school reform focused on building a true partnership between schools and parents, creating a far more effective student support system, significantly improving teacher training and coaching, and updating and increasing the accessibility of Jersey City schools’ computer labs and training.

PCUE is also demanding that Jersey City Public Schools print and distribute materials about the new high school graduation requirements to parents in their native languages.

On September 8, rally chants, in both English and Spanish, included: “We want tutoring centers, now!” and “Dr. Epps, Don’t drop the ball, Graduation for ALL!” View photographs from the rally here.

The PCUE rally received substantial press coverage in the Jersey Journal, on FIOS TV, on Fox News, and on one local radio station.

To read more about the rally and view additional photos and press coverage, visit PCUE’s blog Graduation4all.

Prepared: September 22, 2009