The Kids Are Alright: How the Harlem Children's Zone is closing the gap
The Harlem Children's Zone is a collection of social and educational services located in a 97-block area of Harlem. It provides free support to students and their families, with the goal of giving them the same opportunities to succeed that white students in more affluent neighborhoods are given (students living in the area gain admission through a lottery). It has always sounded like a good idea in theory, and now, some of the first statistical data on the topic appears to confirm it. A new report by Harvard's Will Dobbie and Roland Fryer shows that students from the HCZ have almost entirely closed a massive math test-score gap between the city's white and black students, and made excellent strides in language arts as well. While the results are preliminary and not definitive, they are also incredibly promising:
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