NEWARK, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of Newark Public Schools. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site here.

Newark Public Schools (NPS) is launching a recruitment campaign titled "Teach Newark: Where Passion Meets Progress" to recruit talented public school teachers to join the state's largest district. The campaign website www.TeachNewark.com is going live today and will be available to inform educators who are interested in applying to teach in Newark for years to come. This year's first application wave begins today and will continue through January 29. There will be subsequent application periods throughout the spring where educators can apply for open positions. "We are excited to launch this Teach Newark Campaign because we believe that the Newark Public School district is one of the most exciting places to work in America," noted Christopher D. Cerf, Superintendent of Newark Public Schools. "Student results in Newark show that the arrow is unambiguously pointed up for our schools and students, and as we move to transition the district back to local control, we think it is more important than ever to find great educators and leaders who want to be a part of that progress."

The Teach Newark campaign is a way for the district to broaden and better focus the outreach of previous recruitment efforts. The campaign introduces a new website and set of online media and tools for potential educators to engage with to get a better idea of why they should teach in Newark. These include videos and testimonials with interviews of the Mayor, students, educators and school administrators from across the city. In addition to showing the passion and progress evident in Newark's schools, these videos display the innovation and diversity in Newark schools, and provide applicants with information about Newark as a city on the rise. "Newark Public Schools are winning. It's all hands on deck," notes Mayor Ras J. Baraka in one video. "There are a lot of people collaborating to figure out the best way to provide pipelines to success for our children…. it's working." The former Newark Principal continues in another video, "If you are trying to improve your craft and be the best you can be, come here and be a part of what we are creating in this community."

The campaign comes at a time that data shows that Newark students are making significant progress. Newark now outperforms most similar districts in New Jersey in both reading and math, and when looking just at students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch, Newark students outperform all other large school districts in the US that take the PARCC exam. Newark's high school graduation rate has also increased by nearly 20 percentage points in the past seven years (from the high 50s in 2010 to 78 percent in 2017). "When we look at the progress being made by Newark students, it starts with our educators," said Deputy Superintendent Robert Gregory. "That is why a campaign like this is so important. Educators are not only essential to the success of our schools they are also the backbone of any thriving community. We are lucky to have many great teachers here in Newark Schools already, but we are doubling down with this effort because we know how important they are for our kids."

The Teach Newark campaign is a part of a comprehensive recruitment effort by the Newark Public Schools to develop a large and high quality candidate pool to ensure all teacher vacancies are filled before the start of school. Elements of this effort include: Posting vacancies on more than 100 university career websites; a social media campaign targeting potential candidates; a candidate referral program that provides bonuses to employees who refer new educators to NPS in hard to staff subjects; expanded on-campus college recruitment and career fairs; and of course coordinated phone calls and emails with teacher candidates and prospects to ensure they remain actively engaged and ready-to-hire. The goal is not only that these efforts will provide great candidates, but that an increased pool will allow NPS to hire effective educators who contribute to their school communities inside and outside of the classroom, as exemplified in thisvideo.

"Both the City and the District are in an exciting time, and this recruitment effort allows us to show off the story of Newark to potential candidates," added Larisa Shambaugh, Chief Talent Officer at NPS. "Every year, we hire about 250 educators to join our staff of nearly 2700 teachers. This campaign is going to help us find those educators earlier and to make sure that our students have the best and brightest committed to working with them over the long haul to find success in life."