Very encouraging article out of Newark, NJ about the growth of high-quality charters in that city and other urban areas in the state.
Some of the best-performing charter schools in urban New Jersey actually posted test scores that were higher than their wealthy suburban counterparts in the most recent round of results released last month. And they were doing so in some of the most impoverished districts, where the test scores have traditionally lagged far behind.
If this interests you and you don't follow charter issues too closely, you might want to skim this article, which describes an ambitious effort underway--funded by the big national philanthropists--to greatly scale up the charter sector in Newark.