Newark Mayor Cory Booker's school reforms may not improve student performance, study says
Published: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 6:15 AM
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and NJ Gov. Chris Christie make their official announcement of the Facebook deal at Robert Treat Hotel.NEWARK — Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s commitment to reform his city’s struggling schools may not help increase students’ performance in the classroom, according to research being presented today by the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers-Newark.
The study’s authors examined public school governance models in nine cities demographically and politically similar to New Jersey’s state-controlled school districts and found "no conclusive evidence" that greater mayoral participation in their governance led to improved student test scores.
"Student achievement has been the toughest nut to crack," the report says. "While school leaders tout many improvements in test scores, attendance and graduation rates, in fact we were unable to establish conclusively that the change in governance had any causal