Dissertation Defense Announcement Ed.D. Program: Stephen Epstein “Changing the Guard: How the State Takeover of the Newark School District Changed the NTU”

This dissertation examines the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) during the early phase of the 1995
state takeover of Newark Public Schools. Although research on state takeovers has documented their
causes and consequences, it has given limited attention to teacher unions as political actors
embedded in local governance and community conflict. This study addresses that gap by analyzing
how the NTU—long central to Newark’s educational and civil rights politics—interpreted and
responded to the shift from local to state control.

Using a qualitative historical case study design, the dissertation draws on archival sources
including union publications, newspaper coverage, policy documents, meeting minutes, and legal
records from 1990 to 1997, as well as oral histories from five union participants. Guided by
theories of multistakeholder engagement in education policy, the analysis traces how the union
framed the takeover, adapted its strategies, and attempted to influence the terms of state
intervention.

Findings show that the takeover intensified long-standing divisions within the NTU. Under Carole
Graves’s nearly thirty-year presidency, the union publicly resisted state intervention while
simultaneously participating in state-led reform efforts. Internal disagreements over political
strategy, financial management, and relations with the Newark School Board culminated in a
contentious 1994–95 election. Joseph Del Grosso and the insurgent Teachers About Change faction
defeated Graves by advocating transparency, fiscal accountability, and conditional acceptance of
state control. Yet within months, Del Grosso reversed course, becoming a vocal critic of state
management and expanding the union’s rhetoric to encompass broader community concerns.

The dissertation demonstrates that the NTU’s shifting posture cannot be understood apart from
Newark’s racial and political history. Long-standing tensions between a predominantly white
teaching force and a majority Black student population, shaped by the 1970–71 teacher strikes,
produced a persistent legitimacy challenge for the union. As the takeover approached, media
coverage increasingly framed union leadership as an impediment to reform, further constraining
strategic options.

Overall, the study contributes to research on urban teacher unions, state intervention, and local
democratic governance by showing that unions under takeover operate as complex political mediators
rather than purely economic actors. The Newark case illustrates that union responses to state
control are contingent, internally contested, and shaped by racial politics, leadership change,
and historical memory.