The Prize (33 page)

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Akbar Pray, a notorious drug kingpin:
Examples of Pray's messages are online at
http://akbarpray.com/articles
. The quoted passage was taken from a letter he wrote to students in a social studies class at Central High School. Copy in possession of the author.

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The total bill for the firm:
The amount paid to Global Education Advisers and its individual consultants is recorded on the website of the Foundation for Newark's Future, under “Newark Public Schools Diagnostic and Transition Phase.”
http://foundationfornewarksfuture.org/grants/school-options
.

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Bari Mattes, Booker's fundraiser:
The FNF's payments to Mattes and Wright are reported in the foundation's federal tax return, Form 990, for the years 2010 and 2011. See
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/27-3453412/foundation-newarks-future.aspx#forms-docs
. Mattes's city hall salary for 2010 was obtained through an Open Public Records Act request, and Wright's pay from the Newark Charter School Fund is recorded in that organization's federal tax return for 2010. See
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/26-2224940/newark-charter-school-fund.aspx#forms-docs
.

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Almost all philanthropy is by definition undemocratic:
See, for example, Rob Reich, “What Are Foundations For?”
Boston Review
, March 1, 2013.
http://bostonreview.net/forum/foundations-philanthropy-democracy
.

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This was not what Shavar Jeffries:
The FNF board promised to appoint a community advisory board to inform its decisions, but it took two years to select the board, which included distinguished Newark experts on children, education, and community development—the kind of people who might have been expected to be involved from the beginning. At the same time, the advisory board's chairman, Dr. Robert L. Johnson, dean of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a national authority in pediatrics and psychiatry, was made a full voting member of the board of trustees. But by then, most of the money had already been allocated.

5. The Rise of the Anti-Booker Candidacy

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Based on their eighth-grade standardized test scores:
This data comes from Central High School's April 29, 2010, application for a federal School Improvement Grant, under “Eighth Grade Performance,” p. 11.

6. Searching for Newark's Superman

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 Waiting for Superman
had its own:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/mark-zuckerberg-at-the-movies/?ref=todayspaper
.

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The
Star-Ledger
reported:
David Giambusso, “The Absentee Mayor? Cory Booker's Endless Travel Schedule Pulls Him Away from Newark,” July 15, 2012.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/the_absentee_mayor_cory_booker.html
.

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Sandberg had taken charge:
The quotation comes from a document written by Mark Zuckerberg and dated September 24, 2010, “Declaration of Intent to Grant,” laying out his understanding of the goals for his $100 million gift. Document in possession of the author.

7. Hi, I'm Cami

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After pressing Anderson:
The grant is described on the foundation's website,
http://foundationfornewarksfuture.org/grants/school-options
.

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In less than eighteen months:
Payments to Avera and Breslin are reported in FNF's tax returns for 2011 and 2012.

8. District School, Charter School

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Fewer than thirty percent:
“State of New Jersey, NJ School Performance Report, Overview: George Washington Carver.”
http://www.state.nj.us/education/pr/2013/13/133570435.pdf
.

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Children with more than one:
For a discussion of the effects of adverse childhood experiences, see Paul Tough,
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), pp. 9–27.

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the vast amount of money:
See Mark Dixon,
Public Education Finances: 2012 Census of Governments
, Figure 4, Public Elementary-Secondary School System Per Pupil Current Spending by State (U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau), May 2014, p. xiv.
http://www2.census.gov/govs/school/12f33pub.pdf
.

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When district officials tried
: Antoinette Martin, “Newark School Office Plan: From Lease to Lawsuits,”
New York Times
, March 2, 2003.

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According to financial documents
: “NPS Budget Presentation.”
http://www.nps.k12.nj.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/BudgetHearing_FY1415.pdf
. See p. 28 for Avon Avenue School budget and enrollment data for 2013–14.

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North Star had by far the highest:
In reporting test scores for charter school networks, the New Jersey Department of Education reports an average score for all schools in a network. As such, it aggregates the test scores of North Star schools and
TEAM
schools as if each network were an individual school.

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A Stanford University study:
Center for Research on Educational Outcomes, Stanford University, “Charter School Performance in New Jersey,”
November 1, 2012.
http://credo.stanford.edu/pdfs/nj_state_report_2012_FINAL11272012_000.pdf
.

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Of the high-performing charter networks:
Statistics on the number and percentage of students who qualify for free lunch, by district and school, are available on the website of the New Jersey Department of Education. The percentage of free-lunch recipients in charter schools is reported as an average for all schools within a charter network.
http://www.state.nj.us/education/data/enr/enr14/stat_doc.htm
.

9. Transformational Change Meets the Political Sausage Factory

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The goal was to apply:
Zuckerberg, “Declaration of Intent to Grant.”

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In a document given to Booker:
Zuckerberg's “Declaration of Intent to Grant” stated, “Recognizing the importance of achieving contractual reforms to the NPS district-wide effort, $60M will be directly tied to (and conditioned upon) reaching new teacher and principal contract agreements.” Fifty million dollars would be allocated “upon the negotiation and ratification” of a new teachers' contract, $10 million for a principals' contract. The district didn't reach an agreement with the principals' union, however.

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Zuckerberg's document laid out similar goals:
“Declaration of Intent to Grant.”

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After arduous negotiations:
The New Jersey law, known as
TEACHNJ
, is available at
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2012/Bills/PL12/26_.pdf
.

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there was growing skepticism: Two years later, the state reduced the role of standardized tests in teacher evaluations from thirty to ten percent, in recognition of the uncertainty surrounding new tests due to be given for the first time in 2015
. Two years later, the state reduced the role of standardized tests in teacher evaluations from thirty to ten percent, in recognition of the uncertainty surrounding new tests due to be given for the first time in 2015.

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Indeed, Zuckerberg and matching donors helped:
The charter enrollment data came from the Newark Charter School Fund and the New Jersey Charter Schools Association.

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Julian Robertson said the same:
Robertson was interviewed on Bloomberg TV's
This Matters Now
, July 23, 2013. A video is available at
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/a-new-approach-to-investing-in-u-s-education-TDg0rP76QjaPzB2BTmctWw.html
.

10. Alif Rising

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Carlson tested Alif:
The results are taken from Carlson's records of Alif's performance on his first Woodcock Reading Mastery assessment in the fall of 2012.

11. The Leading Men Move On

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In 2005, a lone school board member:
Cammarieri distributed a four-page paper, “Regarding Strategic Reform for the Newark Public Schools: An Open Statement,” at an education summit in Newark on June 4, 2005. He declared the system in crisis, addressing the statement to “Any and All Concerned with the State of Public Education in Newark.”

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“You're like Joe Clark without the bat”:
The reference was to the movie
Lean on Me
, about an inner-city high school whose principal, Joe Clark, carried a bat to keep order.

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Charter schools searched nationally:
The operations budget for the Newark Charter School Fund designated $3.5 million to place up to two hundred new teachers at an average cost of at least $17,500 each, and $3.25 million to recruit and place up to fifteen new school leaders at an average cost of at least $217,000 each.

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Indeed, research had found:
A 2012 study of teachers in Nashville, Tennessee, who were promised bonuses of up to $15,000 for gains in their students' scores on state standardized tests found no impact over a three-year period on the students' scores.
https://my.vanderbilt.edu/performanceincentives/research/point-experiment
.

12. One Newark, Whose Newark?

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Newark was on its way to becoming:
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, “A Growing Movement: America's Largest Charter School Communities,” December 2014, p. 3.
http://www.publiccharters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2014_Enrollment_Share_FINAL.pdf
.

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Demographic data essentially pointed a dagger:
The information in this paragraph comes from a PowerPoint presentation, “Building a System—One Newark,” developed from district data by the Parthenon Group, October 2013.

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In a focus group arranged by the district:
The focus group of sixteen parents and guardians of children in district and charter schools was conducted on April 15, 2014, by United Way on behalf of the district's Office of Family and Community Engagement. Quotes were taken from a district document summarizing the questions and answers.

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With no data yet showing:
An internal NPS document summarizing the results of the 2014 One Newark enrollment process, “Data Request: Enrollment Data,” reports that 48.6 percent of all applications to kindergarten—1,560 of a total of 3,211—listed charters as a first choice.

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Asked during his 2013 reelection:
Jeanette Rundquist, “Christie to Newark: We Run the School District,”
Newark Star-Ledger
, September 5, 2013.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/09/christie_to_newark_we_run_the_school_district.html
.

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They and national unions:
The campaign contributions to Baraka, Shavar Jeffries, and independent expenditure campaigns waged on their behalf are available at www.elec.state.nj.us. A list of financial-industry contributions to Jeffries and union contributions to Baraka was compiled by a blogger, Darcie Cimarusti:
http://mothercrusader.blogspot.com/2014/05/newark-mayoral-race-wall-street.html
.

Abbot v. Burke (state supreme court ruling),
52
,
135
,
142
,
232

accountability: Anderson and,
122
,
123
; Booker and,
100
,
102
; business practices and,
125
,
151
; individual learning plan and,
122–23
; needs of children and,
213
; One Newark plan and,
204
,
205
; teachers' contract and,
155–56
,
162
; test-based, and teacher effectiveness,
57–58
,
154–55
,
235
,
236
.
See also
teachers' contract in Newark

Ackman, William,
34
,
64
,
66
,
70
,
159
.
See also
Pershing Square Foundation

Adams, Diane,
140–41

Addonizio, Hugh (mayor of Newark),
18
,
19
,
217

Adubato, Stephen, Sr. (“Big Steve”),
93–94
,
95
,
99
,
104

Allen, Herbert,
22
,
24

American Federation of Teachers. See Weingarten, Randi

Anderson, Cami: accomplishments of,
127–29
,
194–96
; arrival of,
107–11
,
112–16
; breakdowns of system and,
214
; budget crisis and,
137
,
158
,
188
,
190–91
; character of,
108
,
117–20
; charter school policy and,
117–22
; Klein and,
107
,
117–18
,
120
,
122
,
125–26
; leadership team of,
122–26
; lingo and,
123–25
; matching funds and,
158
,
159
; opening day project,
127–29
; payment and bonuses for,
127
; philanthropists and,
126
,
194–96
; Renew schools program and,
175–78
,
179
,
180
,
181–90
; teachers' contract and,
156
,
164