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A new K-9 school has been approved for Asbury Park.

Set to open its doors in the fall of next year, College Achieve Public Schools [CAP] received its first of two approvals from the NJ Department of Education [DOE] Friday, officials announced.

The tuition-free public school will offer a college prep curriculum that emphasizes writing, alongside science, technology, engineering, arts, and math [STEAM].

“Our schools are focused on inspiring our students to believe in their futures and preparing them to not only graduate from high school, but to excel in and graduate from the best colleges,” founder and CEO Michael Piscal [shown at right with Magic Johnson and Brian Taylor] said in a written statement. “Everything we do, from our emphasis on creating a thinking curriculum to the lengths we go to hire and train the best teachers, is done with this focus in mind.”

Piscal, a long time educator and New Jersey native, has been at the forefront of the charter school movement, creating the network of charter schools entitled Inner City Education Foundation [ICEF] in 1999.

“By challenging students to develop and articulate their ideas, we are empowering them to think on their own and problem solve, which are skills they will need to make it through high school and college,” he said.

Founded in 2013, the first College Achieve Public School – College Achieve Central Charter School [shown in featured photo and below right] – opened in 2015 in Plainfield. The public school will operate outside of the Asbury Park School District.

Piscal said they are currently working on identifying a site for the school. Plans are to open College Achieve Greater Asbury Park in August 2017 with an initial enrollment of 276 students in grades K, 1, 5 and 6. The school is expected to grow to more than 1,000 students in pre-K through 9th grade by 2020.

CAP, who was also approved to open a second charter in Paterson, will have to pass a final NJDOE review prior to opening its doors.

“We would like to thank the New Jersey Department of Education for not only recognizing the need for parents to have a choice in where they send their children to public school, but for also supporting educators with a track record of success in bringing high-quality public schools to our communities,” Dale Caldwell, Chairman of the Board of College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School, said in a written statement. “College Achieve’s mission is to prepare every student to not only attend, but to excel in and graduate from the top colleges in the nation.”

The school is expected to almost triple the amount of time devoted to science instruction, including placing students as early as the kindergarten level in labs to conduct their own science experiments.

Students will study science 5.8 hours a week—well above the national average of 2.2 hours in traditional K-6 schools. This means 130 additional hours of instruction in science each year, resulting in students accumulating close to 1,900 hours of science instruction by graduation, compared to the traditional 840 hours of public school instruction.

The curriculum is rooted in the Toulmin College Writing Model, officials said. The program, administered at top private schools in the nation, challenges students to write, develop and defend arguments.

The writing model is applied to every core discipline, including science and math, officials said.  This high-level critical thinking and writing program requires students to read, understand, and engage deeply with issues prior to making an argument.

For more about College Achieve, visit www.collegeachieve.org.

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