A Response to “Correcting the Facts about the One Newark Plan: A Strategic Approach To 100 Excellent Schools”
Originally posted on New Jersey Education Policy Forum:Full report here: Weber.Baker.OneNewarkResponseFINALREVIEW
Mark Weber & Bruce Baker
On March 11, 2014, the Newark Public Schools (NPS) released a response to our policy brief of January 24, 2014: “An Empirical Critique of One Newark.”[1] Our brief examined the One Newark plan, a proposal by NPS to close, “renew,” or turn over to charter management organizations (CMOs) many of the district’s schools. Our brief reached the following conclusions:
- Measures of academic performance are not significant predictors of the classifications assigned to NPS schools by the district, when controlling for student population characteristics.
- Schools assigned the consequential classifications have substantively and statistically significantly greater shares of low income and black students.
- Further, facilities utilization is also not a predictor of assigned classifications, though utilization rates are somewhat lower for those schools slated for charter takeover.
- Proposed charter takeovers cannot be justified on the assumption that charters will yield better outcomes…
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