The Newark Trust for Education, in partnership with Newark Public Schools, is convening a task force that will examine the challenges facing comprehensive high schools in Newark and make a recommendation to Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson.

Newark's six comprehensive high schools - Barringer, Central, Eastside, Westside, Weequahic and Malcolm X. Shabazz - are seeing their populations decline as students opt for charters and new model district schools such as Bard High School Early College and Eagle Academy, which opened this year. In the last four years, the comprehensive high schools have lost more than 600 students and the funding that comes with those students.

Feedback on the August Committee of Advocates meeting that focused on the Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) continues to be very positive. We may not have resolved the Newark Public Schools governance issues, but we did leave with a better understanding of the problem.

We are currently planning programs through the fall and sincerely hope that you will be able to join us for some or all of the Committee of Advocates monthly "Issue" breakfasts. All programs, unless otherwise noted, will be held in the conference room adjacent to our offices on the 26th floor of 744 Broad St. Light refreshments will be served beginning at 8am. Programs begin at 8:30am and conclude at 10:00am.

Every September thousands of young people and their teachers get a chance at a fresh start. Wouldn't it be wonderful to return to a school that is a Professional Learning Community? Much has been written about the power of Professional Learning Communities to transform lives. True to their name, such environments blur the line between teacher and student. Everyone is a learner. Teachers are engaged in inquiry about content. They discuss instructional strategies because sharing craft knowledge is what professionals do.

If you want to learn about the history of Newark, there's no better source than Clement Price, a distinguished professor of history at Rutgers University, Newark.

Professor Price brought the City's history to life for the senior leadership team of Newark Public Schools during a two-hour tour arranged by the Newark Trust for Education.

A renowned scholar of Newark history, Professor Price provided the NPS leadership team with context to understand modern Newark. He explained the forces of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries that shaped the city's identity and how the tumult of the 1967 riots continues to reverberate to this day.