Zuckerberg why newark

Mark Zuckerberg wanted to help Newark schools. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Next Up In Future Perfect. Delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. For more newsletters, check out our newsletters page. The Latest. Why movies tilt the camera like this By Marie Cascione. Soul food and the stories it tells about America By Jamil Smith.

The Taliban, explained By Sam Ellis. Facebook is quietly buying up the metaverse By Peter Kafka. Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for The Weeds Get our essential policy newsletter delivered Fridays. Give Give. There was this notion that consultants had the answers, and you could hire expertise, and pay for it at enormous prices, on the assumption that this was going to bring the magic answer, the silver bullet to Newark.

What was the problem? A: There are tremendous numbers of parents and teachers in Newark who felt that the schools needed radical change, but there was no acknowledgement that those people should be playing a role in this One Newark process.

She said if you brought families in, of course every family was going to have some issue and if you fixed that issue you would create an issue for someone else. She felt it was important to make the decisions that she thought were the best for the families and the kids.

In doing that, she missed a lot of input that was critical. I learned early on that people who had been in Newark for generations talked about the Newark school district budget as the prize. At the time the reformers arrived there were 7, employees of the district and hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts. The patronage politicians, the political bosses and, of course, the elected officials all wanted to control the Newark public schools to enhance their own power.

If, through their reform effort, they could take the Newark school district and turn it into a model for all urban school districts, that would be a prize for the education reform movement. And I saw the children and their right to an education as the ultimate prize. This story was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce.

Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. Baraka said the foundation's efforts were "based on this idea that our teachers and leaders are produced in these think-tank groups," he said.

The initiative was part of Zuckerberg's larger mission at the time to repair floundering schools in cities across the US. While it's hard to measure the foundation's qualitative success, some research suggests that it made modest progress before shutting down in It was designed to be just a five-year initiative.

A study from Harvard University looked at school data from through , and compared the achievement growth of Newark's students to that of similar schools elsewhere in New Jersey. Its findings suggest that Newark students improved sharply in English, but made no significant progress in math. Another analysis by NYU professor Jesse Margolis found that high-school graduation rates and overall student enrollment rates in Newark have also risen.

From the start, the foundation seemed to have a pro-charter philosophy. In a TechCrunch interview before the donation, Zuckerberg suggested that Newark should close underperforming schools, increase the number of charter schools, and implement a student performance-based pay system for teachers. Baraka said the Foundation for Newark's Future had a similar thinking to Zuckerberg.

Along with its staff, the group had a board of trustees led by Kimberly McLain, a former executive for Teach for America, which has also faced criticism. Zuckerberg's donation was one of his first forays into education. That same year, he founded Start-Up: Education Foundation, which has since merged with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative , an organization started by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

Yesterday, the last director of the foundation wrote friends and supporters that the lights — and email — would be turned off. The shuttering of the foundation brings to an end what was a bold and closely watched, if at times imperfect, experiment in urban education.

To mark the occasion, NJ Spotlight has asked the key players — from the Facebook founder himself to Gov. Some hesitated; some pointed to previous comments; others agreed. None refused outright — yet. Here are excerpts of some of their responses so far. We will add others as they come in. We invite readers to offer their opinions through email or comments.

Chris Christie , who joined Zuckerberg and U. Cory Booker in announcing the donation five years ago, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday:.