Findings from CEPR's study of the Newark education reforms are featured in Education Week.
In its first five years, closing schools and shifting students to higher-performing district and charter schools did more to boost Newark, N.J.'s achievement than improvement efforts in the schools overall, according to a new study.
In a working paper released this morning by the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers from Harvard and Dartmouth universities found that higher-performing schools in the Newark district provided a buffer for the shock of disruption in the early years of the initiative and gave improvement programs within schools more time to gain traction.
The study comes as Newark reverts from state to local control of schools this year, and residents debate how to shape the district in the future.
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