The Newark Alliance supports the Newark Education Trust, an independent, non-profit organization, focused on ensuring the effective allocation of human, organizational, and financial resources in order to improve student achievement. The Trust supports and provides evidence-based and data-driven approaches to improving teaching and learning, coordinating collaborations, and empowering the community.

Most importantly, the Newark Education Trust is committed to increasing the coherence, clarity, and focus of current and future reform efforts so that all Newark children have access to an excellent education.

Newark Public Schools (NPS), which is the largest school district in the state of New Jersey, has been state-run since July of 1995. In July of 2007, the district regained local control over some day-to-day operations as a step towards reinstating complete control back to the district.

The history of Newark’s education reform is unique in its high turnover of initiatives, political leaders, and school system administrators. The multitude of players invested in the success of public education in Newark, and the obvious overlaps—and perceived/real disagreements— in approaches to reform has created a need for a clearer strategy and more collaboration among stakeholders to ensure significant improvements in academic achievement for all students. With shifts in influential leadership, political and administrative, there is a need for a reliable, objective institution to guide in the facilitation and implementation of effective reform efforts. The Trust only constituents are the students of Newark, with its greatest assets being its independence and Board of Directors. The Trust holds a balance between credible, local stakeholders and associations to objective, research-based institutions, such as Rutgers- Newark.

The Trust intends to use its balance of assets to ensure that all children have access to an excellent education. It will do this by focusing on three main areas of action: Improvement of Teaching and Learning, Resource Alignment, and Sustainable Implementation of Initiatives and Effort.