At College Achieve, we believe all of our students are college material. We believe your child should have every opportunity to become a college graduate, and we will prepare them for the rigors of college. Why is this important?
REASON #1
The odds of having a good job are better with a college degree
At College Achieve, we believe all of our students are college material. We believe your child should have every opportunity to become a college graduate, and we will prepare them for the rigors of college. Why is this important?
College graduates make more money, have dramatically higher rates of employment, and have a greater say in their career choices. Watch students from College Achieve Founder’s first charter schools in Los Angeles tell you about their college aspirations. This public service announcement appeared during 2009 Rose Bowl and was watched by over 20 million viewers around the world!
REASON #2
More time in school = More learning
According to the National Center on Educational Statistics, the average school year in New Jersey (and nationally) is composed of 6.6 hour days, 33 hour weeks, and 1,201 hours of instruction for the entire year.
At College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School, the average day will be 7.9 hours long, 39.5 hours a week, and 1,422 hours a year. This amounts to over 6.7 weeks of additional instruction or 33 additional school days. In addition to the 1,422 hours of instruction per year during the regular school day, College Achieve Asbury will also provide after-school programs and other educational programs, such as summer education. These supplemental programs provide additional instructional hours, possibly well over 175 hours. These instructional hours can surpass an astonishing 1,600 hours.
REASON #3
Rigorous hiring process leads to better teachers
The secret to a great school is to ensure a great teacher in every classroom. College Achieve believes, “you are who you hire.” College Achieve plans to hire great teachers who have a proven track record of success in the classroom. New teachers must first serve an apprenticeship before getting their own classroom. In most classrooms, there will be two certified classroom teachers — proven teacher and an apprentice teacher. No teacher will be hired without the Principal or a senior leader first observing the teacher teach in their current classroom.
REASON #4
Our leadership has a proven track record of success.
Co-founder Michael Piscal has a track record of starting and operating high performing schools:
NY Daily News September 12, 2010
Consisting of 15 schools in a once academically blighted area of South Los Angeles and with an 88% African American enrollment, ICEF has done what we are always told is impossible. If you combine the reading scores of all five ICEF elementary schools, system-wide ICEF has eliminated the achievement gap in reading for its African American students. Eliminated it. That fact alone should cause the Department of Education to send a team of researchers to ICEF this afternoon and to keep them there until they learn what Mike’s doing. To add a little sizzle to the steak: one of his elementary campuses — View Park Prep, which has a 100% African‑American student body — just beat the reading scores of Beverly Hills Unified. Of his five graduating classes of high school seniors, 99% have been accepted to college, and an astounding 91% are still enrolled in college full‑time. Operating on the tiniest budget imaginable — about $1,700 less per student than the L.A. public schools, in a state that ranks 46th in the nation in education funding — Mike has created a 15‑campus testament to the maxim of Theodore Sizer: “The highest compliment you can pay a child is to be demanding.”
Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2008
The demand for more educational choice in predominantly minority South Los Angeles is pronounced. The waitlist for existing ICEF schools has at times exceeded 6,000 kids. And no wonder. Like KIPP, Green Dot and other charter school networks that aren’t constrained by union rules on staffing and curriculum, ICEF has an excellent track record, particularly with black and Hispanic students. In reading and math tests, ICEF charters regularly outperform surrounding traditional public schools as well as other Los Angeles public schools.
ICEF has been operating since 1994, and its flagship school has now graduated two classes, with 100% of the students accepted to college. By contrast, a state study released in July reported that one in three students in the L.A. public school system — including 42% of black students — quits before graduating, a number that has grown by 80% in the past five years.
REASON #5
College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School is public and tuition-free!
College Achieve Greater Asbury Charter School is a public school. It is free to attend, and should there be a waiting list, admission will be through a lottery process.
REASON #6
College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School has beautiful campuses
College Achieve Greater Asbury Charter School is located in the heart of Asbury Park NJ. We have two incredible campuses with 10+ large classrooms each, a library, gym, and large cafeteria.
REASON #7
Students from charter schools previously founded and operated by Michael Piscal have graduated from top colleges and universities:
- Howard University
- University of California at Berkeley
- Bowdoin College
- Loyola Marymount
- University of California Irvine
- Brown University
- MIT
- UCLA
- Carnegie Mellon
- New York University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Dartmouth College
- University of Wisconsin
- Spelman College
- USC
- Duke University
- Stanford University