Problems remain in 3 school districts taken over by N.J.

By Joelle Farrell, Inquirer Trenton Bureau

Newark schools have a record that “demonstrates failure,” the state said in a court motion filed in January. The district’s dropout rate is “unacceptably high,” its test scores “remain abysmally low,” and many administrators are “woefully unprepared for their positions.”

But the state has had control of the district – including its programming, budget, and administration – for 18 years. Poor performance led to the state’s takeover from the local school board, and now the state says continued poor performance justifies a longer tenure of state authority in Newark schools.

The state is fighting a legal challenge from the local school board that seeks to regain control of Newark schools.

“The state’s brief reads like the most damning indictment of state control you could ever find, based on how bad the Newark schools are performing,” said Paul Tractenberg, a Rutgers-Newark law professor and codirector of the Institute on Education Law and Policy. “It’s like a colossal Catch-22: ‘The worse we [the state] have done in operating a district, the longer we should continue operating it.’ ”

With the state now taking control of the troubled Camden School District, critics of the move point to three North Jersey school districts that remain among the worst performers despite decades of state intervention: Newark, Paterson, and Jersey City.

The state took over Paterson’s schools in 1991, Jersey City’s in 1989, and Newark’s in 1995.

Tests have changed too much over the years to directly compare student performance before and after the state takeovers, said Tractenberg, who has been commissioned by the state Department of Education in the past to study the effectiveness of state intervention and reform.

But all three districts, like Camden, have performed poorly overall.

Gov. Christie and state education authorities say they remain optimistic that state intervention in school districts can work, and Christie has used his power to spark major changes in Newark since he took office in 2010.

Last fall, Newark teachers ratified a three-year contract that includes money for performance bonuses, the first contract of its kind in the state. The contract was funded in part by $50 million of the $100 million grant given to Newark schools by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

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