Jersey City Charter School Earns State Lighthouse Award

JERSEY CITY, NJ — A Jersey City charter school is one of two schools in the state to be honored by the Department of Education with the Lighthouse Award.

The award recognizes districts and charters that have demonstrated measurable progress toward equitable outcomes in a specific area. The areas are broken down into four categories:

• Increasing equity in postsecondary enrollment
• Increasing diversity in the teacher workforce
• Increasing equity in course enrollment
• Increasing equity in disciplinary outcomes

Learning Community Charter School in Jersey City was honored for increasing diversity in the teacher workforce. This is the third round of awards given by the Department of Education and each award includes a description of the ways they progressed towards equitable outcomes.

LCCS has a total of 638 students in grades PreK-8 with a 14:1 student teacher ratio. In the summary of LCCS' efforts to increase diversity, the state wrote that the school worked with New Jersey City University for paid internships within the classroom as well as implementing a BIPOC Leadership Committee to support faculty and staff as well as analyze retention.

"Our faculty for 21-22 is 42% BIPOC. We are proud to say that within our BIPOC faculty

members they are represented in STEM, English, health, safety, and school leadership. We are confident that learning from and interacting with faculty members that empathize, understand, and connect with our students’ experiences is essential for their academic and social emotional growth," the report reads.

Seven schools in the state earned Lighthouse awards.

The full summary can be found online.