Study of Harlem Children's Zone Finds Gaps Closing

The Harlem Children’s Zone , a high-profile New York City initiative that combines charter schools with wrap-around community services for minority students and their low-income families, is showing dramatic academic gains that effectively close the black-white achievement gap in most categories examined, a new study finds.

What’s less clear, the researchers say, is whether the improved performance can be explained by the quality of the schools alone, or by the combination of the schooling with the web of community supports, such as early-childhood programs, parenting workshops, and asthma and anti-obesity initiatives.

That question is of particular consequence now, since the Obama administration has touted the Harlem Children’s Zone as a model anti-poverty strategy it hopes to help replicate in other urban areas. ( "President Envisions Anti-Poverty Efforts Like Harlem's 'Zone'," ...