By Shanelle Griffin
“Well, it definitely wasn’t High School Musical.”
Egypt Lee
“Well, it definitely wasn’t High School Musical” (Lee). The experiences and educational aspect of school education in Newark has taken effect in many students’ lives whether they decided to continue their education or not. The in-house structure of the school contributes to the students’ academic progress and success, and it isn’t all fun and games. For the Stories of Newark Oral History Project, I’ve interviewed three residents of Newark, two who are former students and one current student. Many of the issues observed center around the climate of the school which includes important facets of education that have a drastic influence on a student’s experience. As we will see, these interviews will bring to light situations that have altered or hindered their academic achievements and their general ways of learning. Not only will we see the aspects of the school climate through the experiences of the interviewees, but as well as research gathered from multiple secondary resources. It’s clear that changes are needed in Newark Public Schools.
These interviews were conducted with people of Newark who I have grown cordial relationships with over my years of living in New Jersey. My first two interviewees, Omar Medina and his brother William Medina spent their entire lives growing up in Newark with their parents. Although living in the same household, both brothers endured two different high school experiences. Omar Medina attended Newark Arts High School and later Orange High School in Orange, New Jersey, while William Medina is currently a senior at Barringer High School. Egypt Lee also grew up in Newark and has attended schools in Newark her entire life. For high school, she attended Arts High School as well as Barringer High School which we attended together. I feel these three were a great fit for this Oral History Chapter because they’ve been accustomed to Newark being as though this is their home and they have all experienced different aspects of Newark’s school systems.
What is school climate? What makes it so important? School climate is vaguely defined as everything behind the building of the institution; the heart and soul, the components that make a student, teacher and parent love the vicinity as if it were their own home (Wang and Degol 315). The climate of the school consists of categories such as institutional environment, academics, and community and interpersonal relationships which touches on most- if not all- aspects of the school’s influence on a student’s educational experience (Wang and Degol 318). Although one may not see the impact of school climate, Omar, William, and Egypt’s interviews discuss the dire impact it has on education in Newark.
Institutional Environment
One thing I connected about school climate within the interviews was the topic of which canvasses the structural organization of the school itself. Under this facet of school climate, class size was a standout point discovered in the interviewing process. The size of a class has a major effect on how well a student is learning and retaining material in the classroom. Interviewee Omar Medina says, “If I got 30, 40 people in the one classroom- cuz that was how it was in both schools in Arts and in Orange- who had 30, 35, probably 40 to a class, that’s tight. And a teacher with so limited time- cuz a period is probably what? A hour, hour and a half? With so limited time, how many distractions?” As a former student at Orange High School, the majority of Medina’s experiences with larger class sizes, which is common for public high schools. Being as though these schools are bigger, it provides less opportunity for a student like Medina to reach out for help decreasing the chance to have a one-on-one with a teacher leaving less control of the room and the lessened ability to focus on one student at a time. With the classes having more students, there is a larger possibility that the students will be more chatty and harder to manage or get their attention. Omar mentions distractions as this was one of many plights of the classroom experience and it was not beneficial to his learning involvement. A student that isn’t paying attention can cause a domino effect of chitter chatter in the classroom making it difficult for focus and involvement in the classwork itself. If smaller class sizes were available, it would incline students like Omar to ask for help when needed and for teachers to take the class topic slower if necessary as there would be fewer distractions and less students to worry about pushing to the next lesson plan. A small school wouldn’t necessarily mean a smaller class size, however, it may help those in higher authority pay attention to the students who may not be doing well and encourage help from home or directly to the teachers themselves. Access to more resources and smaller class sizes benefits the students as it provides them with more variety, it helps them learn better, and every student has equal opportunity to secure their education and feel heard in the process.
Another connection of the institutional environment within my interviews is the amount of available resources provided to the students. Former and current students, my interviewees, have witnessed the disinvestment when it comes to the schools’ limited resources. William Medina, of Barringer High, has a strong love for guitar and he speaks on the condition of the instruments and classrooms provided by the school stating:
The one class that isn’t really like prioritized enough when it comes to equipment wise is definitely Guitar. ‘Cause like most of the time though, the instruments, you know, have like tape on it, it’s like old and you know, it’s not really good. But another thing is like the classrooms for some classes, like in my health class, we are all the way downstairs and it looks like kind of like, you know, a prison block. (W. Medina)
Medina describes the appearances of the current supplies and facilities at Barringer High as not up to date . Medina is a senior and is not very interested in the general education that the school has to offer; he would rather focus on the things he enjoys in life than the schoolwork that bores him. When asked if he felt any classes weren’t being prioritized, Medina expresses that the classes themselves, in addition to the instruments, were worn out as if the school or the department didn’t have the funding needed to keep up with the standards of the new class year. This has been a problem beyond his years of attending. Although the school has made subtle improvements throughout the years, there are still many things that should be prioritized that should be highlighted within the school. While attending Barringer High, I was a dance student for both years that I attended. My first year there, the school was divided into two; Barringer S.T.E.A.M. High School and Barringer Arts & Humanities High School where Arts & Humanities was on the third floor and we shared the cafeteria, some classes in the basement, and the gym while S.T.E.A.M. was on the second floor. While I attended S.T.E.A.M the first year, the dance studio was in an empty, regular class with DIY put up mirrors buried in the basement. Second year, the school combined and we had access to all classes in the building and the dance class was transferred from the classroom in the basement to a padded floor room with built in mirrors and barres. There were still things that needed to be upgraded, but there were subtle advancements that still needed to be made.
Similar to the scarcity of recreational features, there is a lack of educational resources within Newark schools. Although lack of available resources depends on many economical differences between schools in different districts causing a lesser variety of topics to cover, they can still be used to a fuller extent. In the journal, Educational Psychology Review, Wang and Degol, concluded that “resources are not unimportant, but rather that school districts need to learn how to use these resources more effectively to facilitate greater learning, thereby determining that economic policies for school expenditures are more complicated than simply increasing the flow of money” (328). That said, the schools are being encouraged to make the best of what they have. The idea of all children being able to access the same resources is important because the level of knowledge provided to them may differ causing the different districts and schools to not have the same educational experience or be on the same page when they graduate or proceed to higher education. All schools should have access to the same resource databases and more because the higher the educational level and experience, the more opportunities there are to come once moving forward in their lives. Connecting back to the interviews, we see there are a lot of resources that need to be focused on as opposed to doing things like fundraising for events or getting money for pep rallies or things that aren’t a number one priority in the event of caring for the students’ educational values and development.
Academics
Exploring into the facet of academics, the interviewees pointed out that to contribute to the fundamental foundation of the school, the students must have their own personal discipline. The discipline of the school also relates to the structural organization feature because without proper regulation from the delegated positions of the school’s hierarchy, the school could not function as a secure and active learning environment for the students. Self discipline not only refers to the rules of the faculty members, but also the students’ ability to be self-governed. Former Orange High School student, Omar Medina says:
I feel like more discipline and more trying to be more like, what’s the word? More independent. I feel like you should be more independent to yourself. Don’t rely on the, ‘oh, I didn’t listen to the lesson today. I’ll just talk to him Friday. He’ll give it to me’. Nah. Cause on Friday I got something to do. I already gave you my lesson. If you didn’t listen, you didn’t listen. You know, that’s how I would be if I was a teacher, especially if I’m teaching young adults. (O. Medina)
In addition to self discipline, the mental health of these interviewees were also questioned pertaining to the readiness of high school level preparation. The condition of teaching and learning is about the organization of which the teachers encourage the student body to fathom all that is being taught to them. In many cases, students become overwhelmed with the workload or the pressure of doing great for themselves. William Medina partakes in many events the school has which he really enjoys, but when asked if he was academically mentally prepared for high school, he states:
No. Academically. I have not been good academically. Like I’m not even… I’m decent, I would say for at least three years for my freshman, sophomore and junior year. Freshman year I was alright. Sophomore year was virtual and quarantined, and I did not go at all. Junior year, in all honesty. I skipped my fifth period a lot. I had the same class over, but then they changed that. So I started going, even now, I still skip a little bit of class, but it’s the practice for more upcoming things. (W. Medina)
Personally witnessing Medina’s senior year, I know that he has missed about half a school year’s worth of one or two specific classes. Many students begin to dread going to school and I feel as if Medina would be one of them. We see from an earlier excerpt that Medina enjoys his elective course as opposed to his normal general education classes. Students like him don’t feel very motivated to even attend school as a whole. There are many days Medina would prefer to stay home from school to avoid work or even his teachers. We also spoke about guidance counselors and their narrowed effect on pushing us beyond school and I feel as if Barringer High still hasn’t really expressed a broader post-school narrative for these students who are already uninterested in the schooling system altogether. Empathizing with Medina, I understand the lack of motivation and acknowledge the fact that these students need more than just graduation as motivation to want to actually learn and become an active student. As an educational facility, there should be someone in place for student mental care.
Similar to the previous point of the mental health of students, my narrators described school collectively as a mental stigma. Once they reached the high school stage in their life, they realized how much more the workload included as well as how little help is offered or supplied to them. As reported by The High School Journal:
In response to adverse health outcomes, several secondary schools have implemented programs or interventions designed to decrease student stress. These interventions include revising homework policies (Rainey, 2013), instituting mindfulness workshops (Bohestedt, 2013: Esposito, 2014), and bringing school stakeholders together to change policies and practices at the school level to improve student well being. (Conner et al. 25)
This is important for the mental health of students because it’ll have an improved effect on their academic progress and learning fulfillment. When a student is inundated with a large workload, they may become discouraged and indifferent about the work. The motivation becomes directed to just getting by with acceptable grades as opposed to wanting to retain the knowledge being presented to them. Students of all ages continuously need support while in school; the support of workshops and the change of certain policies should definitely ease the overstimulated brains of the students as they have all the resources for help at hand. More schools should provide interventions as such and should change some of their policies as it may become too much for a student and may take a toll on their mental strength for school.
Community/Interpersonal Relationships
Another significant highlight conferred about within the interviews was the importance the community has on these three students in particular. We have so far discussed the roles teachers play on the consequences of their students’ learning; let’s examine the repercussions of other external influential sources a student may interact with. One topic that came up during the interviews related to community relationships was examining the student to teacher relationships. When interviewed, former student of Barringer High School, Egypt Lee, speaks on how power had an effect on many students’ respect and willingness to learn due to internal relationships between the principal and the students. She continues to say:
When Ms. Mincy was there, she was a wonderful principal, but they didn’t take us serious. She was like five feet tall, really high voice. Um, I think she was too focused on trying to befriend the students, I guess, rather than be some type of like rule enforcer. So they would just like high five her, and they’re still walking around in the hallways, they’re still disrupting classes, they’re still walking into classrooms that they shouldn’t be in. (Lee)
Being as though we attended Barringer High School together, I understand the point behind what Lee states and it also relates back to the structural organization of hierarchy as well as the student/teacher connection. On many occasions, I stepped out on classes for a day to help out the principal in the main office and it being so often, my teachers would have a system for me to ensure I had my work done for the day. I enjoyed these days because I was able to intrude on classes or lunches to hand out information or to help handle a situation where a student had to be sent home, etc. As every child does, they will have a different experience with their peers and teachers. Ms. Mincy was a good principal in the sense that she was trying to establish close rapport with the students which made us trust her more. However, being the principal of the school requires more respect than a personal relationship that may even be seen as favoritism. Although there were rules set in place, many students did not care to follow them due to their lack of disciplined respect for Principal Mincy. The dispersion of power within the schools is essential because without discipline and rules put in place in order of respect, the adolescents won’t have the consideration to listen to you if they are too comfortable with you. The importance of chain of command is crucial because without balance and an enforced system, the structural organization will collapse. Students need a better and stronger sense of authority or else the school is just a playground to the pubescents. There must be an evenness of strictness, yet reassurance of support and pride to continue to motivate the students into fulfilling their educational purpose.
Adding on to the interpersonal relationships, the interviewees were asked how their parental figures influenced their educational purpose. This was very interesting to touch on especially because although all three interviewees had three very different responses. When asked about their parents’ impact, all were crucial to their similar experiences at school. In response to this particular question, Omar Medina says:
Yeah. You ever hear that, “oh, you’re not, you’re gonna be a bum if you don’t [graduate]”? You don’t wanna be a bum. You see bums. That’s the number one thing… you don’t wanna be a bum. If you drop out, you’re gonna be a bum. You can’t get a job. I see bums. I see how bums are. I don’t wanna be a bum. I don’t wanna be outside in the cold. Nah. So you got family who talks- I don’t know about your family- my family talks to me and raised me like, if that’s what you wannabe, that’s what you wanna be, but try to be this. Look, you’re in a good school, you play percussion; you could be a drummer, you could be a producer, you could be this. But you know, it’s, it’s up to you if you want to put the work in. Arts High gives you the opportunity to be a great individual if you put your mind to it. Any school gives you the opportunity to be a great individual if you put your mind to it. it’s up to… you. Like I said, you gotta be independent. (O. Medina)
Earlier in this interview, Medina talks about when he transferred schools, why, and how it affected his mother and grandmother. He explains that no matter what he does in life, he never wants to disappoint these two women. We see here that he compares the reference of success and failure to completion of school leading up to making something of oneself to not graduating and being a literal failure. He grew up learning that in order to succeed, one must graduate and learn how to handle the real world on his own. With the help of one teacher, Medina came to the understanding that in order to pass, he had to want to do that with his own will as opposed to doing it for others. There are a countless number of parents who would rather their child graduate and obtain a degree which applies pressure to that adolescent as they work hard to please their parents in the sense of making them proud. Students like Medina are only attending school to say they did it or to break generational habits. These students not only have need of motivation but also unwanted pressure but parental and elder figures in their life who continue to impose the climb of education on them. According to British Educational Research Journal, “A parent’s educational expectation has been documented as a correlate of grades and test scores, both directly and indirectly through children’s own educational aspirations and their beliefs about their academic abilities” (Lawrence 187). As parents, they want to assume that because they are working hard to safeguard their children’s schooling, that said child is working their hardest to safeguard their grades which demonstrates their work ethic and perseverance. Many parents are hard on their adolescents and expect nothing but exemplary grades which can either increase their motivation to perform better or cause a student to reject learning if they are feeling like education is being enforced on them. Correspondingly, my interviewees have expressed this dilemma within their narratives and have all expressed that school was only taken seriously in cases where they wanted to be children of the prideful.
Ultimately, Omar, William and Egypt all harnessed examples of what aspects of high school should change. Throughout the course of this chapter, we see how the different areas of the fundamental foundation of school were essentially detrimental to supporting our future leaders in the institutions.
Works Cited
Conner, Jerusha O., et al. “How Many Teachers Does It Take to Support a Student?: Examining the Relationship between Teacher Support and Adverse Health Outcomes in High-Performing, Pressure-Cooker High Schools.” The High School Journal, vol. 98, no. 1, 2014, pp. 22–42., https://doi.org/10.1353/hsj.2014.0012.
Lawrence, Elizabeth. “The Family-School Interaction: School Composition and Parental Educational Expectations in the United States.” British Educational Research Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, 2014, pp. 183–209., https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3139.
Lee, Egypt. Interview. Conducted by Shanelle Griffin. 23 February 2023.
Medina, Omar. Interview. Conducted by Shanelle Griffin. 18 February 2023.
Medina, William. Interview. Conducted by Shanelle Griffin. 16 April 2023.
Wang, Ming-Te, and Jessica L. Degol. “School Climate: A Review of the Construct, Measurement, and Impact on Student Outcomes.” Educational Psychology Review, vol. 28, no. 2, 2015, pp. 315–352., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9319-1.