The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School

Overview

The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School believes that
teacher quality is the most important factor in achieving educational equity for low income students.

Spurred by this belief, TEP reallocates its public funds by making an unprecedented investment in attracting and retaining great teachers.

Mission

The school’s name – The Equity Project – emerges from the dual meaning of the word equity. Equity means the value of an investment. TEP is particularly interested in teacher equity, the value of teachers in student achievement. Equity also means fairness and equality. TEP is focused on providing students from low-income families with equal access to outstanding teachers as a means of achieving educational equity.

History

The TEP Charter School was approved by the State of New York in early 2008. Its first class will begin Fall, 2009.

Program

TEP’s educational program leverages its structural design around teacher quality and development to ensure that its students attain mastery of NY State performance and learning standards, which form the basis of TEP’s curriculum. Specifically, TEP’s academic program is focused around 3 core elements, each of which is attainable only because of TEP’s re-conception of the teacher’s role and responsibilities:
(1) TEP’s educational program is structured around extended and varied interaction between students and master teachers.

(2) TEP’s educational program strongly emphasizes language development.

(3) TEP leverages its culture of teacher observation and collaboration to shape a genuinely interdisciplinary curriculum.

Impact

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Goals This Year

The TEP Charter School will operate using only the funds allocated to public schools on a per student basis. This is to demonstrate that the model of increased teacher compensation can be adopted without any additional resources.

However, TEP, like other charter schools, does not receive any public funding for its facility. Therefore, TEP will be raising $1 million to help fund its first facility in 2009.

Chief Executive

Zeke Vanderhoek

Chief Executive Profile

The Equity Project Charter School concept was created by Zeke Vanderhoek, who is also TEP's first Principal. Zeke was the founder of Manhattan GMAT (www.manhattangmat.com), a national GMAT test-preparation company, which he built with no outside investment. Zeke began his educational career as a 6th and 8th grade teacher at I.S. 90, a public middle school in Washington Heights (NYC). He has a B.A. from Yale University and a Masters in Philosophy & Education from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Board

David Coleman
Dr. Toral Surti
Laura Tavormina
Susanna Tenny
Zeke Vanderhoek

Countries of Operation

United States

States of Operation

New York