Clifton High School sending seven students to Ivy League schools

Matt Fagan | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption Ivy League bound Clifton High School students Four members of Clifton High School class of 2018 heading to Ivy League colleges are shaped by CHS experiences.

When it comes to high school rankings, Clifton is never among those jockeying for a spot at the top.

Roughly 55 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged. Many are first-generation Americans. And, with 3,000 students speaking 65 languages, its hallways tend to be crowded and chaotic.

But this year, the school has accomplished something unusual. On Friday evening, when the graduates walk up to get their diplomas, among them will be three students bound for Harvard, one going to Princeton, and three classmates heading to other Ivy League schools. Some were accepted to several Ivies, as well as schools like Stanford University that accept fewer than 5 percent of applicants.

"We have more students accepted to Ivy League schools this year than any year in recent memory," Principal Michael Doktor said, noting that students were also accepted to Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell.

This, school officials say, is remarkable among non-magnet public schools, especially when a high-achieving school like Chatham High offers 30 AP classes to Clifton's 14.

But valedictorian Amanda Stetz, who plans to study art and mechanical engineering at Harvard University, believes Clifton's diversity is its strength.

The school "has really been one of the best education opportunities for me, because you get to see so many different perspectives from so many different students from so many different countries around the world," she said.

How they got here

Mohammed Mutaher, the salutatorian, is a first-generation American whose parents own a dollar store. Before that, "My dad worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, at a minimum-wage job."

His parents, who were college graduates in Pakistan, brought him to Clifton when he was 4. He sees education as the next rung in his family's move up the economic ladder.

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Although he always was focused on grades, it wasn't until Mutaher joined the high school's Student Union that everything else clicked for him. That club was founded by Carlos Polanco, a Clifton High graduate who is now at Dartmouth University.

"It was my first real taste of democracy," Mutaher said. He became more outgoing and his interests expanded. He's now a fan of politics, running and parkour, although, he says, "my passion is biology." He'll start at Harvard in fall.

Polanco will be honored as a student leader on the Radio Disney Music Awards, airing on the Disney Channel on Friday.

The third Harvard-bound student, Jesus Estrada, is from Colombia. He is also a so-called Dreamer, a young undocumented immigrant who came to the United States as a child and is protected from deportation under an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Santiago Guiran, also a first-generation immigrant from Colombia, was accepted to Harvard but chose Princeton.

Estrada plans to major in government and go to law school, and eventually start a non-profit to help immigrants.

"I have an undocumented sister," Estrada said, adding that because of her status she couldn't take advantage of financial aid she was offered. She wound up attending community college.

Guiran said he has dreamed of going to Princeton since he was 12, largely because of its particle physics lab. "It's so cool," he said.

In addition to being third in his class of 751, he served as class president, belonged to the Student Union and played volleyball.

"I talk and talk. I am really good at it," Guiran said, adding, "It is not until later that they learn that I am kind of a nerd. I like to learn things."

Guiran said he and Estrada are competitive and try to be shining examples of Latino males academically. He and his family also hope to be naturalized soon.

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How Clifton school district ranks

Clifton is not Kinnelon, Tenafly, Ridgewood or any of the other affluent districts where many families move with the expectation that their tax dollars will put their children in contention for a top-tier college.

NJ Monthly rated Clifton 242 among New Jersey's 500-odd schools in 2016, and US News and World Report did not rate Clifton at all. Kinnelon and Ridgewood have per-capita incomes roughly double Clifton's $36,000.

The state Department of Education, which sorts districts into eight levels according to socioeconomic factors, puts Clifton in the third group from the bottom. Schools in the top group include Tenafly, Kinnelon and Denville.

Studies show immigrants outperform peers

Many studies show that immigrants often outperform their non-immigrant peers.

Northwestern University researchers found that immigrants — especially if they enter public school before age 9 — outperform second-generation students, and the second-generation students in turn outperform their third-generation peers.

The study indicated that first-generation students were disciplined less often, had better attendance and were more likely to graduate from high school.

Researchers said educational aspirations apparently “dissipate” across generations as the families' “immigrant optimism” fades.

Ernest Scheidemann, a longtime Clifton real estate agent, said that from his perspective the story hasn't changed. Immigrants come seeking a better life. They try to find the best schools they can afford.

"You can still find value in the Botany section, where prices remain modest," Scheidemann said of Botany Village, which once housed the largely immigrant factory workers who provided manpower to the textile mills. "Your kids get into a good school system. It is a great place to begin."

The parents instill the notion that education is their ticket to a better life.

"The hard work and dedication of these students is second to none," Doktor said of the top of the Class of 2018. "I would imagine that they have been driven since they started school."

Board of Education President Gary Passenti said the students' success benefits the whole district. It helps Clifton retain the top students, and not lose them to private schools or charter schools.

"It shows we have the resources to bring them to the next level," he said.

Email: fagan@northjersey.com