Two NJ Cities Test Today’s School Reform: Disruption and Privatization Fail
I hope you read David Kirp’s fine commentary on school reform in yesterday’s NY Times. As the author of one of two excellent recent books on school policy in New Jersey—the 2013,Improbable Scholars—Kirp, a Berkeley professor of public policy, is particularly well suited to evaluate school reform in New Jersey. In yesterday’s commentary he compares the botched school reform effort in Newark, the subject of Dale Russakoff’s 2015, The Prize, with what has been accomplished in nearby Union City, the subject of his own book. Kirp believes the strategies employed in these two school districts have national implications, and he explains:How to Fix the Country’s Failing Schools. And How Not To.
Both Newark and Union City serve students living in concentrated poverty. In 2009 in Newark, Mayor Cory Booker and Governor Chris Christie hatched a plan to expand charter schools, weaken the teachers union, and, in Booker’s words, “flip a whole city and create a national model.” They convinced Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to underwrite the project with a grant of $100 million.
Kirp contrasts the hubris of Newark’s project to what happened in Union City: “No one expected a national model out of Union City. Without the resources given to Newark, the school district there, led by a middle-level bureaucrat named Fred Carrigg, was confronted with two huge challenges: How could English learners, three-quarters of the students, become fluent in English? And how could youngsters, many of whom came from homes where books were rarities, be turned into adept readers?”
What happened? “In 2014, Union City’s graduation rate was 81 percent, exceeding the Two NJ Cities Test Today’s School Reform: Disruption and Privatization Fail | janresseger:
