Ross Danis, president and CEO of the Newark Trust for Education, considers the high odds against academic success for New Jersey students confined within the state’s lowest-performing districts:

If an airline advertised that only 17 percent of its planes take off and land safely while the other 83 percent crash, travelers would surely choose another airline. Comparably, only 17 percent of Newark public high school graduates go on to attain a two-year college degree or better. But they have far fewer options than air travelers. 

Overall, New Jersey’s public schools rank second only to those of Massachusetts among the highest-achieving in the nation. Outstanding schools in Cherry Hill, Princeton and Millburn, for example, boost our achievement data, making it easy enough for some to overlook tremendous challenges in Camden, Trenton and Newark.