Harlem Children's Zone Study

The National Bureau of Economic Research has released a paper on effects of the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) by Willian Dobbie and Roland Fryer.  I haven't read the paper, but the abstract suggests that it confirms what the hated teachers' unions have been saying for quite some time: children from poor families can catch up with their wealthier peers, but it requires intensive (and expensive) extra-academic interventions and supports.  They find that HCZ has good results, but spends 19% more per student than the median New York State school district and 55% more per student than New York City charters to achieve them.  This is pretty much the same (and obvious) conclusion that Richard Rothstein drew several years ago in Class and Schools: additional money, well spent, is required to close the achievement gap.  Of course, the "no excuses" crowd are going to use it as yet another opportunity to pound on teachers for the terrible job they are doing.

In the NBER Digest, Linda Gorman writes:

In Are High Quality Schools Enough to Close the Achievement Gap? Evidence from a Social Experiment in Harlem (NBER Working Paper No. 15473), Will Dobbie and Roland Fryer find that in the fourth and fifth grade, the math test scores of charter school lottery winners and losers are virtually identical to those of a typical black student in the New York City schools. After attending the Promise Academy middle school for three years, black students score as well as comparable white students. They are 11.6 percent more likely to be scoring at grade level in sixth grade, 17.9 percent more likely to be scoring at grade level in seventh grade, and 27.5 percent more likely to be scoring at grade level by eighth grade. Overall, Promise Academy middle school enrollment appears to increase math scores by 1.2 standard deviations in eighth grade, more than the estimated benefits from reductions in class size, Teach for America, or Head Sta rt.

The benefits accrue to all subsets of students in the middle school including those entering above or below median test scores, those eligible for free lunches, and those who were and were not eligible for the Harlem Children's Zone's student-family service bundles of nutritious fruits and vegetables, advice, pre-made meals, and money and travel allowances. The total cost of the Promise Academy charter school was about $19,272 per student including after-school and "wrap-around" programs. The New York Department of Education funded every charter school at $12,443 per student in 2008-9, and the median school district in New York State spent $16,171 per student in 2006.