Type Charter school Faculty 284.8 FTEs Enrollment 3,403 (as of 2014-15) Phone +1 973-642-0101 Colors White, Blue | Established 1997 Grades K-12 Founded 1997 District North Star Academy Charte | |
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Authority Address 10 Washington Pl, Newark, NJ 07102, USA | ||
North Star Academy Charter School of Newark is a charter school located in Newark, New Jersey, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, that educates students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade. The school was recognized by the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program in 2010.
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In 2004, North Star Academy College Preparatory High School graduated its first senior class consisting of 19 students, all of whom were accepted into accredited four-year universities.
As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 3,403 students and 284.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.9:1. There were 2,381 students (70.0% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 475 (14.0% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
North Star Academy has 13 campuses: six elementary schools, five middle schools (Clinton Hill, Vailsburg, Central Avenue, Downtown and West Side Park) and two high schools (Washington Park and Lincoln Park).
In 2000, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush toured the school, hailing it as an example of reform.
Awards and recognition
For the 2010 school year, the school was honored as a National Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education, the highest award granted to American schools.
In the 2011 "Ranking America's High Schools" issue by The Washington Post, the school was ranked 11th in New Jersey and 507th nationwide.
In 2008, North Star Academy was awarded a Bronze Medal in the U.S. News & World Report/SchoolMatters ranking of Best High Schools.
In 2015, U.S. News & World Report ranked North Star Academy 8th in top ranked New Jersey high schools.
Schooldigger.com ranked the school as one of 16 schools tied for first out of 381 public high schools statewide in its 2011 rankings (an increase of 38 positions from the 2010 ranking) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy (100.0%) and mathematics (100.0%) components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).
In 2014, NSA High School principal Michael Mann received the Ryan Award for best urban principal in the country, one of three principals nationwide to be recognized by the Accelerate Institute.
Influences
Due to North Star Academy's success in urban district areas other schools have adopted some of their ideas in managing challenging students and have even modeled themselves after it. One such school is Foundation Academy Charter School located in Trenton, New Jersey which was established in 2007.
Athletics
The North Star Academy Knights compete athletically under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 342 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015-16 school year as North II, Group I for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 73 to 487 students in that grade range.