Our Scholars Dramatically Outperform Their Peers

Empowerment Academy Students

Achieve Faster Learning Gains Than Their Local & Statewide Peers

The best measure of a school’s quality is the pace at which its students grow in learning.

Academically selective schools point to their high proficiency rates, but these rates do NOT tell you about the learning growth students achieve after admission.

What DOES measure the comparative pace of student learning at different schools is a metric that the New Jersey Department of Education (“NJDOE”) calls Median Student Growth Percentile.

Empowerment Academy is a free public school that is open to all. It is not academically selective….

But Empowerment Academy’s students, regardless of demographic subgroup, are achieving greater average learning gains than their local and statewide peers, as the State data below shows.

White students achieve greater gains... Hispanic students achieve greater gains… Black students achieve greater gains… Asian students achieve greater gains… All students achieve greater learning gains at Empowerment Academy!

This is remarkable because EVERY Empowerment Academy demographic subgroup has a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students than its matching local or statewide subgroup. In fact, the percentage of Empowerment Academy students who are economically disadvantaged is TWICE as high as the statewide percentage.

This is hugely significant. A large “proficiency achievement gap” has existed between economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantage students statewide -- and nationwide -- for the entirety of the sixty years such data has been tracked. Still today, compared to non-economically disadvantaged students, the statewide proficiency rate for economically disadvantaged students is 28% lower in English Language Arts and is 32% lower in Math.

The fact that we are empowering our students to beat the odds and make faster learning gains than their local and statewide peers is proof positive that Empowerment Academy’s education program is highly effective…and we note that it has been highly effective for a long time.

Even back in School Year 2017-2018, when Empowerment Academy received less funding per student than 95% of other public school districts in New Jersey (happily, we are receiving more equitable funding now), our students beat the odds and outperformed their demographic peers.

If You Want YOUR Children to Achieve Faster Learning Gains,

Enroll Them in Empowerment Academy