CJCP Announces Commencement Speaker

Submitted by Central Jersey College Prep Charter School.

Central Jersey College Prep Charter School (CJCP), rated the top-ranked public charter high school in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report, announced that JerseyCAN Executive Director Paula White will serve as Commencement Speaker for its in-person graduation ceremony taking place at 5:30 p.m. June 18.  

For the last two years, Ms. White has served as Executive Director of JerseyCAN, the only statewide advocacy organization in New Jersey committed to ensuring access to high-quality public schools for every child regardless of ZIP code, cultural background, and socioeconomic status.  

Ms. White is a former Public School teacher and statewide policy expert who served as Chief Turnaround Officer at the NJ Department of Education (NJDOE).  During her tenure at NJDOE, Ms. White led New Jersey’s school improvement strategy, bringing significant academic growth to New Jersey public schools while implementing strategies that narrowed the achievement gaps and minimized suspensions and chronic absenteeism. She is the first African-American to run JerseyCAN and, most notably in her role, built the New Jersey Legacy of Literacy (NJLL) Coalition, which has unified a series of diverse education organizations from around the state to advocate for the adoption of a high-quality statewide plan that addresses literacy in every New Jersey public school.  She has been instrumental in advocating the Science of Reading in New Jersey and showcasing other needed policy solutions that address the state’s literacy gap and better serve affected urban areas.

“The CJCP community is honored that Paula has agreed to serve as the Commencement Speaker to our graduates this year,” said Dr. Namik Sercan, CJCP’s Chief Education Officer.  “Paula is one of the Garden State’s top advocates for public education and New Jersey families.  The work, leadership, passion, and activism of JerseyCAN stretch throughout so many areas of New Jersey, and her words and perspective will deeply impact our students and families.  We are grateful for Paula’s support and look forward to celebrating as a community later this month.”

“CJCP is showing parents throughout Central Jersey and electeds in Trenton that many solutions to our education challenges are being solved right here at home,”  White said. “I am so honored to join Dr. Sercan and the CJCP community for graduation, and I look forward to meeting and celebrating with the Class of ‘24.”

Just last month, CJCP announced that for the 14th straight year, 100 percent of its senior class will be graduating on time this Spring and that every member of the class of ‘24 has also been accepted to a college or university next Fall, continuing the unprecedented CJCP senior class streak which began in 2011. This year’s graduating Class will attend prestigious institutions this Fall, such as Harvard, University of Pennsylvania – Wharton, NYU Stern, University of Michigan, UCLA, University of Chicago, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt University, Georgetown, John Hopkins, Boston University, and Penn State.

This Spring, U.S. News and World Report announced in its annual nationwide ranking of high schools that CJCP ranked as the top public charter high school in the State of New Jersey and also ranked the school #26 among all high schools ranked in New Jersey and #498 out of nearly 24,000 public high schools in 50 state and the District of Columbia.

In prior years, CJCP had been named by The U.S. Department of Education as “National Blue-Ribbon School,” the highest possible designation granted to a K-12 school, and has been widely cited for exemplary high-performing classrooms and their work in closing the Achievement Gap within the Central Jersey region. In addition, CJCP has also been awarded by the New Jersey Department of Education with a Tier 1 designation, the highest possible ranking for a public charter school in the State.

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