In 2010, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, together with then New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker and Governor Chris Christie, announced a $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Public School District, the largest and one of the lowest-performing districts in the state. The goal was to "turn Newark into a symbol of educational excellence for the whole nation.”
Over the ensuing five years, $200 million was spent on the initiative, with some positive results but nothing close to the promised transformation of public schooling, even as tensions between traditional and charter schools intensified dramatically. What went wrong?
Join us for a conversation with Dale Russakoff, author of The New York Times best-selling book The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?, as she examines the relationships between politics, unions, schools, media, and the impact of philanthropy within the context of Newark Public School District - and provides broader implications for our education system as a whole.