Per my last email on the Brookings study of the Harlem Children's Zone and its Promise Academy Charter School, Alex Russo disagrees with Jay Mathews's defence:

Far as I can tell, the Washington Post's "Uncle" Jay Mathews gets pretty much everything wrong in this recent blog entry in which Mathews can be found vigorously defending the saintly Geoffrey Canada and the poor helpless Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) against criticisms raised in a slim Brookings report/memo/roundup.

There are four obvious problems with Mathews' hazy defense of the HCZ. Read along and slap me down if you think I've disrespected the master. (I'll leave it to others to praise or damn the Brookings thing, though some of its arguments seem pretty shaky, too.):

 

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Alexander Russo on Jay Mathews and Harlem Children's Zone

What better way to spice up a hot July day than to stir up a fight over education? So here is Alexander Russo taking on my colleague Jay Mathews, the dean of education reporters, and his latest post on his Class Struggle blog in which he criticizes criticism of the Harlem Children's Zone. Russo is a former Democratic Senate aide, who frequently criticizes Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and many others in his "This Week In Education" blog. And after you read this, you can go back to Jay's blog and read his response.

By Alexander Russo
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/what-better-to-spice-up.html