Gift from Facebook founder led to gains at N.J. schools

Yet study is unclear on exact effect of $100M donation

In September 2010, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg went on The Oprah Winfrey Show, along with then-Newark mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, to announce an eye-popping gift: $100 million to reform Newark Public Schools.

Local philanthropists and others matched that, doubling the gift to $200 million.

In exchange, the struggling urban system was expected not only to welcome more independently run charter schools but to close low-performing schools, give families an easier way to choose a new school and enact a performancebased pay system for teachers.

In the seven years since Zuckerberg ’s announcement, critics have not been shy in pointing out how much turmoil the effort has caused. But they haven’t had a good way to figure out whether Zuckerberg ’s millions have been well-spent.

A study out Monday represents the first attempt to answer that question. It finds that the cash made a difference — in a limited way.

The findings, from a team led by Harvard University’s Thomas Kane, look at school achievement data from 2009 through 2016, comparing the growth in Newark students’ achievement relative to that of similar students and schools elsewhere in New Jersey.

The upshot? Newark students improved sharply in English. In math? Not so much.

A lot of the improvement, researchers found, was because district officials closed underperforming schools and opened new schools, both district and charter schools, to replace them. That move alone accounted for nearly two-thirds of students’ gains in English.

In math, achievement growth would have declined if students hadn’t shifted to higher-growth schools, researchers found.

Kane said in an interview that Newark students showed not just gains but “substantial gains” in English. “I think people should take these magnitudes seriously.”

The difference in achievement from 2009 to 2016 is equivalent to a student moving from a novice English teacher to an experienced one, he said.

Over the eight years studied, students’ academic progress didn’t follow a steadily improving line. In fact, the first few years of the initiative saw student achievement drop sharply, both in district and charter schools. It bounced back — students’ math achievement recovered, researchers found, while their English performance improved beyond its original levels.

In a statement, the Newark district said the new data show that “the seeds planted in earlier years are now yielding rewards for students.”

For much of the the past seven years, the Newark effort has been the subject of intense interest in the education world.

Critics said half of Zuckerberg ’s gift — $50 million — went to fulfilling a city teachers’ contract, and $20 million went to management consultants.

Booker, who became a U.S. senator, said the gift “made an extraordinary impact” on schools, including a 300% increase in African-American students attending high-quality schools, among other measures. Zuckerberg ’s donation, he said, “primed the pump of activism in the city, for better or for worse.”

The donation “primed the pump of activism in the city, for better or for worse.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.