Chalkbeat: The $100 million question: Did Newark’s school reforms work? New study finds big declines, then progress.

October 16, 2017

Chalkbeat education reporter Matt Barnum describes findings from CEPR's latest report on Newark education reforms.

BY MATT BARNUM

It was announced with much fanfare on Oprah in 2010: dramatic changes were coming to Newark’s schools, financed with $100 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Those changes — including a new teachers’ contract and the expansion of charter schools — proved controversial and challenging to implement. But there hasn’t been a clear answer to the key question: Are students learning more now than they were then, thanks to the reform effort?

A new study, released Monday through the National Bureau of Economic Research, is among the first to try to answer.

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