About Newport News Public Schools

Newport News is one of the smaller school divisions in the country and the only one in Virginia or North Carolina to receive the competitive and prestigious Urban Systemic Program (USP) award from the National Science Foundation. Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Houston and San Francisco were among cities receiving NSF funds. The minority-majority school division operates in a culturally and intellectually rich urban community that is home to numerous federal laboratories, four universities and is a city in a state that is the fourth largest Internet user in America. The division has almost completed its five-year, $48 million commitment to building a technology infrastructure. A new six-year Strategic Plan (1999-2005) focuses on improving performance of all students and decreasing the achievement gap between historically underserved students and other student groups.

Learn more about Newport News Public Schools.

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A brief history of STEP: Newport News Public Schools began its $2.5 million Student and Teacher Excellence Project (STEP) in 1994. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project had a clear-cut mission: to bring down barriers to minority achievement in mathematics and science. African-American students were scoring well below white students on standardized tests and were less likely to take advanced math and science classes.

The STEP project had impressive results. From 1994 to 2000, the number of students successfully completing algebra I by eighth grade increased 90%; the number of minority students 142%. Minority enrollment in mathematics classes rose by 58%; and the number of students successfully completing advanced math or science courses increased 217%.

Additional NSF funding for STEP.com awarded in 2000 allows the division to retain the momentum of the first five-year project and at the same time explore new ways to improve student success in math and science through targeted, research-based, technology-rich teacher training.