The Facts about Newark's Charter School Expansion

Andrew Martin, former teacher and current director of special projects at KIPPNJ,  drills down on student achievement data in Newark. He’s honest about former superintendent Cami Anderson’s office’s ham-handed  outreach – a stakeholder remarked, "It's as if you guys are going out of your way to foment the most opposition possible to what you're doing” – but unbowed by the fierce anti-charter rhetoric that has led to child-unfriendly proposals like a charter school moratorium.

Here's a fact: Newark children are better off. Shouldn't that be the most important measure?

As Martin says, “for Newark's neediest kids, the achievement data shows five years of slow, steady improvement — almost entirely because of the movement to high-performing charters.”

Please read Martin's entire discussion at The74, but here are a few important points that dismantle Newark's anti-charter rhetoric.

Parents, especially African-American ones, are flocking to charter schools and their children reap the benefits:

The shift from district schools to charters isn’t even across the city:

Myths about the impact of school closures abound.


Newark charter schools aren’t “creaming off” top students, those from more motivated and/or wealthier families, and those without disabilities: 





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