•       About the Elizabeth Public Schools

    AboutEPS

    The Elizabeth Public Schools is the second largest district in New Jersey, serving a population of over 28,000 students. Located at the crossroads of the metropolitan area, the district's population is diverse and multicultural, as reflected in its 37 school communities.

    In 2015, Elizabeth Public Schools adopted its strategy map, presenting an outline to realize its vision to be one of the highest performing urban school districts in the nation and to fulfill its promise to provide an innovative and personalized learning environment that ensures that every child achieves excellence. Our strategy map has guided the implementation of bold and courageous programs and activities designed to help the district meet its goals of college preparedness, career readiness, and “on-time” graduation for every child.

    Critical to the strategy map are the district guiding principles of equity, expectations, and excellence. Elizabeth Public Schools believes that creating a high performing district culture, based on these three components, will lead to high student achievement. Teaching and learning is rooted in the beliefs that teachers are the single most important factor in student success and that all students can learn and achieve at high levels, where ALL means ALL.

    Elizabeth Public Schools is passionate in its belief that every student deserves an innovative and personalized learning experience and are always identifying and pursuing educational resources to maximize its learning communities.  Every resource is effectively utilized to create and support learning so that every student graduates from Elizabeth Public Schools college prepared and career ready.

    While Elizabeth Public Schools faces the challenges often associated with urban school districts, its student growth has outpaced other districts, both suburban and urban. Nonetheless, Elizabeth Public Schools has embraced and overcome those challenges to enjoy many local, state, and national accolades. Among them are four schools that have earned National Blue Ribbon School awards a total of seven times and two schools recognized as National Title 1 Distinguished Schools by the U.S. Department of Education; two schools recognized as an AVID National Demonstration Sites; twelve schools that have been designated as State Schools of Character by Character.org, nine of which became National Schools of Character; one school recognized as a Microsoft Showcase School and an HP Spotlight School while another has been recognized twice as an Apple Distinguished School; two schools designated as  Model Schools in the Arts; two high schools recognized by The Washington Post as being among the most challenging high school in the nation; and the district being named a Best Community in Music Education by the NAMM Foundation four times in the past six years.

    These achievements, along with many more by our schools, our students, and our team members, are symbols of our commitment to every child achieving excellence.

    District Demographics

    • There are currently 28,377 students attending the Elizabeth Public Schools

    - 3,287 Pre-K students   - 17,291 elementary students    - 7,799 high school students

      • The district is comprised of 3 Early Childhood Centers, 26 PK/K- 8 schools, and 8 High Schools

      • Approximately 74% of students are classified as Hispanic; 16% Black; 8% White; 2% Asian

      • 20% of our students are enrolled in Bilingual education classes

      • 46 languages are spoken by the student body with the largest percentages of students speaking Spanish, English, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese.

      • 80% of our students are eligible for Free or Reduced-Priced lunches