Success in Numbers
First Graduating Class of 2011 College Acceptance and Enrollment
100% of the members graduating class of 2011 are enrolled in college. 75% of graduates are enrolled in colleges and universities ranked in the top 100 in the nation.
The NJ LEEP/Legal Outreach model has been called by the National Law Journal “one of the few diversity programs with a proven track record of long-term success."
In 5 years of programming, NJ LEEP has secured sponsorships and partnerships from over 45 law firms and corporations. Committed legal partners include Seton Hall Law School, The Prudential Law Department, McCarter & English LLP, Patton Boggs LLP, Gibbons PC, Sills, Cummis and Gross PC, Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey, Goldman Sachs, Inc., Wyndham Worldwide, Patton Boggs, LeClairRyan, and others.
NJ LEEP works with urban students and families continuously for four years, including after-school, Saturdays, and summers.
NJ LEEP served 351 students in grades 7-12 in 2010-2011. ( 167 were in the Community Law/Street Law Mentoring Program, in which law students are trained to teach constitutional law and trial practice in urban schools.) 80 of these students were served in NJ LEEP’s highly intensive four-year out-of-school time College Bound Program for low-income minority youth in grades 9-12; In five years of programming, NJ LEEP has directly served more than 1,000 youth. NJ LEEP currently has 89 high school students in its College Bound Program.
Participants in NJ LEEP’s four-year college bound program receive the following services: 1) Summer Law Institute 2) Mock trial competition 3) After-school tutoring 4) Saturday grammar and writing instruction 5) Paid summer legal internships 6) Attorney mentoring 7) Constitutional law debates 8) Summer Princeton Review SAT prep 9) Parent educational workshops 10) College visits including on-campus interviews 11) A five page recommendation from NJ LEEP 12) Assistance in applying to college and for scholarships 13) On-site social worker 14) Love, compassion and accountability.
NJ LEEP students attend programming 170 days per year. Youth attend the average out-of-school programs in the United States only 50 days/year.
Charting our Successes
Dashboard 1: Outputs Measurement-Number of Low-Income Urban Youth served in all Programs in 2010-11
|
Program |
Number of Youth Served |
|
College Bound Program |
80 |
|
Seton Hall Law School Summer Law Institute |
43[1] |
|
Summer Law Institute at Rutgers Camden School of Law |
16 |
|
Community Law and Education Project (Street Law) |
167 |
|
Law-Related Programming at Trenton Central High School West |
45 |
|
Total Youth Served |
351[2] |
Dashboard 2: Outputs Measurement - Number of Youth Currently Enrolled in the College Bound Program
|
College Bound Program Enrollment 9/1/11 |
86 |
|
Class of 2012 |
24 |
|
Class of 2013 |
15 |
|
Class of 2014 |
22 |
|
Class of 2015 |
25 |
Dashboard 3: Outputs Measurement - Number of Volunteers for Programs in 2011-12
|
Total Number of Volunteers |
224 |
|
Law Students |
33 |
|
Attorneys |
160 |
|
Judges |
11 |
|
Other Professionals |
20 |
Growth in Skills and Knowledge in 2010-11 College Bound Program
[1] 25 students were accepted from the Seton Hall Law School Summer Law Institute to be the freshmen NJ LEEP Class of 2015.
[2] NJ LEEP staff had contact with an additional 1,200 urban eight grade students in its staff attorney guest speaker recruitment series in which NJ LEEP staff attorneys guest taught a lesson on Dudley & Stephens v. The Queen at 25 middle schools in order to recruit for the Summer Law Institute.
[3] NJ After-3 supports various after-school programs serving 15,000 youth throughout New Jersey. Statistics are from an evaluation of NJ After-3 programs in 2005-08. See Karen Walking Eagle, et. Al., Evaluation of New Jersey After 3: Reaching and Engaging New Jersey’s Youth through After School Programs, 2005-08 (April 2009). This report also relates the results of a similar study of after school programs in New York City (New York statistics in chart). Although they may exist, NJ LEEP is unaware of any studies measuring retention in after-school programs for 2 years or more.
[4] Note on combined best scores: Most colleges allow students to submit their highest score from each section - math, reading, writing. The combined best score average is the average best scores from all students, and is how most schools report SAT averages, included the referenced North Star Academy. North Star Academy, a public charter high school in Newark, is referenced as a benchmark due to its national reputation in preparing urban students for elite colleges and universities.