Recall David Brooks's New York Times column from May of last year, titled ?The Harlem Miracle,? in which he shouted the virtues of the Harlem Children's Zone. Brooks approvingly quoted the economist Roland Fryer,?who referenced?research he, Fryer, had conducted?about the HCZ:
?The results changed my life as a researcher because I am no longer interested in marginal changes,? Fryer wrote in a subsequent e-mail. What Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children's Zone's founder and president, has done is ?the equivalent of curing cancer for these kids. It's amazing. It should be celebrated. But it almost doesn't matter if we stop there. We don't have a way to replicate his cure, and we need one since so many of our kids are dying ? literally and figuratively.?
Today, however, an article in the New York Times drizzles some rain on the parade: ?But back home and out of the [Waiting for ?Superman?] spotlight, Mr. Canada and his charter schools have struggled with the same difficulties faced by other urban schools, even as they outspend them.? And yet, some sunshine, too:
While it is still years away from confirming its broader theories about poverty, the Harlem Children's Zone has already had some impact on thousands of children. Its after-school college advice office has helped place 650 students in college, and it supports them until they graduate. Its asthma initiative has drastically reduced emergency room visits and missed school days among its 1,000 participants. Preschool students have made bounds in kindergarten readiness. Parent satisfaction in the charter schools, as measured by city surveys, is high.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow