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Knight Foundation invests in new early education academy
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will provide a $2 million grant to help Rutgers launch an institute designed to transform early childhood education in Camden and elsewhere.
In a city dubbed the nation’s poorest and populated predominantly by residents under the age of 18, the John S. and James L. Knight Early Learning Research Academy at Rutgers–Camden will seek to apply Rutgers scholarly research toward the societal and educational issues challenging successful childhood learning.
The grant and the naming of the facility were announced during a ceremonial groundbreaking March 5. U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews and New Jersey Assemblyman Lou Greenwald, Camden families and children, Knight Foundation officials, and members of the Rutgers community attended the event.
The John S. and James L. Knight Early Learning Research Academy at Rutgers–Camden, to be located on Rutgers property on the 400 block of Cooper Street, will provide Camden families with an early care program designed to prepare infants, toddlers, and preschoolers for school. It also will house a research unit that will allow Rutgers professors and students to apply innovative ideas toward resolving the issues confronting children, a health center for participating families, programs to help child care providers earn appropriate credentials and training, and a resource center for parents.
The academy will be affiliated with the LEAP (Leadership, Education, and Partnership) Academy University Charter School program, founded by Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of Urban Studies in Camden, where she also directs the Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership.
Launched in 1997 as one of New Jersey’s first charter schools, LEAP serves 870 children in grades pre-K through 12. Every student graduating from the LEAP Academy University High School has been accepted into college. The LEAP initiative has replicated its best practices in serving children and their families at schools across the state and region.
The relationship between Rutgers and LEAP will allow researchers at the Knight academy to track the efficacy of their programs as the students progress through elementary and high school. The center offers an “ahead of the curve” program to nurture the youngest minds in Camden, Bonilla-Santiago said. The facility will serve “everyone from children just learning to crawl to doctoral students conducting cutting-edge research that will define the childhood experience for years to come.”
Based in Miami, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and strives to improve the quality of life in 26 U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. The foundation emphasizes education, the well-being of children and families, housing and community development, economic development, civic engagement and positive human relations, and the vitality of cultural life.
“As New Jersey’s public research university, Rutgers is uniquely invested in creating opportunities to transform the lives of the citizens of our great state,” said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. “We are grateful to the Knight Foundation for its truly visionary investment in Rutgers. The Knight Early Learning Research Academy will strengthen Rutgers–Camden’s national reputation as a leading research center in childhood studies on behalf of the very youngest members of our community, here in Camden and across the state.”