Measuring Up: Educational Improvement and Opportunity in 50 Cities

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The Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) recently released a study called “Measuring Up: Educational Improvement and Opportunity in 50 Cities” that featured Newark as a national leader in providing students access to “beat the odds” schools – meaning that a higher proportion of the city’s schools outperform those that serve students from similar backgrounds – than any other city studied.

  • CRPE reported that across all cities studied only about 8 percent of disadvantaged students were enrolled in “beat the odds” schools.
  • The report identifies Newark as an outlier though, with close to 40% of students enrolled in “beat the odds” schools in both Math and Reading.
  • Newark provides a significantly higher portion of students with access to “beat the odds schools” than any of the other cities studied.
  • When examining the share of students in “beat the odds” schools across Newark, significant portions come from both the charter and traditional public school sectors.
  • While a higher proportion of students enrolled in charter schools are “beating the odds, a higher percentage of students overall in Newark that are in beat the odds schools are enrolled in traditional public schools.
  • The combination of “beat the” odds schools across both charters and traditional public schools combine to provide Newark students with more access to beat the odds schools than any other city that was studied.
  • CRPE defined “Beating the Odds” Schools broadly as schools that outpaced demographically similar schools statewide.