Smarick on CREDO Study of Newark and NJ Schools

 Andy Smarick with two pieces on the incredible results from the CREDO study of NJ’s charter schools, especially those in Newark:

But the most jaw-dropping finding, the one that shows just how valuable chartering can be and the one that demonstrates the full potential of chartering when it is pursued wisely, comes from Newark:

For every year a Newark student is in a charter, she advances seven and a half months in reading and a full year in math compared to her traditional public school peers.

That is astounding.

Charter opponents will find these results impossible to dismiss. The methodology is rigorous, and much of the anti-charter world has pointed to previous studies by this organization to discredit charters. They’ll be hard-pressed here to fault the message or the messenger.

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Here’s Smarick’s second piece:

Today, this district has everything it could ask for: a reform-oriented teachers contract, a new state law on tenure and evaluation, funding twice the national average, the $100 million Mark Zuckerberg donation, partnerships with leading nonprofit organizations, freedom from a politically motivated school board, a tough local superintendent, a reform-friendly mayor, the nation’s best state superintendent and an incomparably bold governor.

So we should happily call this the beginning of a new era. But we must also declare an end to the excuses. If the district can’t generate better results here and now, it never will. The governor should say so — and then put the district on the clock.

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