De Blasio's Renewal School Program Finds Praise from Unlikely Source

Editor's note: This piece appeared at POLITICO New York (by Eliza Shapiro), based on an upcoming MI report by senior fellow Marcus Winters

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial Renewal School program has earned some praise from an unlikely source: the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank.

According to a report to be released later this month by Manhattan Institute senior fellow Marcus Winters, the program has "boosted significant achievement by a meaningful magnitude." Charter school advocates and union leaders have been critical of the Renewal School program.

Winters rejects the idea that Renewals are failing because of low scores on the 2016 state standardized tests. Instead of looking at how the schools fared on the exams, Winters argues, the schools have to be judged by how they would have performed without the supports of the Renewal program.

“The average renewal school improved its test score in [English lnaguage arts] by 8.6 points and in math by 1.8 points, compared with 6.8 and 0.18 points, respectively, for the average nonrenewal school,” the report found. Overall, the Renewal program improved student achievement by about 93 days of extra schooling in English and about 65 days of extra schooling in math.

But the report questioned the enormous expense of the Renewal program, noting....

Read the entire piece here at POLITICO

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This piece originally appeared in POLITICO