NEW REPORT: State Takeover of Camden Schools Did Not Improve Students’ Academic Performance
NEW REPORT: State Takeover of Camden Schools Did Not Improve Students’ Academic Performance
For Immediate Release
May 13, 2021 – More than eight years after Governor Christie announced the state takeover of the Camden City School District, a new report by three Rutgers University professors for New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) finds no evidence the takeover improved student test scores.
The report, State Takeover of Camden Schools Did Not Improve Students’ Academic Performance, finds that test scores in Camden started to improve before the state takeover and mirror academic gains in other comparable school districts. This suggests that improving test scores in Camden are the result of something impacting all high-poverty school districts in New Jersey, such as improving economic conditions after the Great Recession.
“Our results suggest no evidence that the state takeover improved standardized test scores in Camden City schools,” said Michael S. Hayes, report author and Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University – Camden. “We find that Camden elementary test scores started to trend in a positive direction before the state takeover, which suggests something positive was happening to the school district well before the takeover went into effect. Both Camden City schools and other high-poverty school districts in New Jersey experienced positive spikes in math and English Language Arts test scores in 8th and 11th grades following the state takeover in 2013. Therefore, it is impossible to attribute these academic gains to the state takeover. One possible explanation is that the state takeover coincided with the economic recovery following the Great Recession.”
The report compares Camden students’ standardized test scores before and after the state takeover to student performance in three comparison groups: districts previously taken over by the state (Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson), the original Abbott school districts, and the state’s highest-poverty school districts.
“To estimate the impact of the state takeover on student test scores in Camden, we combined data from district, renaissance, and traditional charter schools, as a large percentage of Camden students are enrolled in renaissance and traditional charter schools,” said Pengju Zhang, report author and Assistant Professor at Rutgers University – Newark. “We also normalized test scores so we could compare test scores across years. Then, we examined the pattern of Camden student test scores before and after the takeover against those from comparable school districts. The analytical approach is designed to separate the effect of the takeover from general trends that could impact test performance, such as changes to the standardized tests or broader economic conditions that reduce poverty.”
The 2013 state takeover came with the promise to improve students’ academic performance. In practice, it took away local control of the district and resulted in substantial and controversial changes, namely the expansion of charter and renaissance schools, the closing of eight public schools, and the elimination of more than one thousand teaching and support staff positions. In June 2021, an additional three public schools are slated to close.
“When the state of New Jersey takes over a school district, the local community is completely disenfranchised from governing its schools,” said Julia Sass Rubin, report author and Associate Professor at Rutgers University – New Brunswick. “This disenfranchisement overwhelmingly impacts Black and Brown communities, so the bar for whether the intervention was successful must be extremely high. The state has to demonstrate not only that the takeover brought about substantial positive change but also that the change could not have happened under local democratic control. That evidence is absent in Camden.”
“All kids deserve equal access to quality public education,” said Nicole Rodriguez, Research Director at NJPP. “We hope by highlighting this research, lawmakers will prioritize those who have been left behind and make policy decisions informed by local communities and students.”
Watch the report release recording here.
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New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) is a nonpartisan think tank that drives policy change to advance economic, social, and racial justice through evidence-based, independent research, analysis, and strategic communications.
