Running Head: Charter Schools and Urban Education Improvement

Abstract: This article compares student achievement in charter schools and district public schools in Newark, New Jersey. Taken over by the New Jersey Education Department in 1995 for fiscal mismanagement and low student achievement, Newark continues to be under state operation. Using two years of school based student achievement data, we examine differences in student achievement at the fourth and eighth grade levels. We found that Newark’s and New Jersey’s (see Barr, 2004a, 2004b) charter schools mirror the educational inequalities of the state as a whole, as well as its Abbott Districts. Although charter school student achievement is the lowest of all groups of district public schools in New Jersey, below the average of the Abbott Districts, New Jersey and Newark’s charter schools have among the highest and lowest achieving schools in the state. The data indicate that charter schools are similar to district urban public schools, with pockets of excellence and mediocrity. Most importantly, our findings suggest that charter schools are not the panacea or magic bullet that many of their proponents argue that they are. 1 This research was partially funded by grants to the first two authors from the Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. Its findings and conclusions are the authors alone and do not reflect the position of the Cornwall Center