ABSTRACT
The fight against poverty produces great programs but disappointing results. Fryer and his colleague Will Dobbie have just finished a rigorous assessment of the charter schools operated by the Harlem Children’s Zone. They compared students in these schools to students in New York City as a whole and to comparable students who entered the lottery to get into the Harlem Children’s Zone schools, but weren’t selected. The problems are in society, and one has to work on broader issues like economic inequality. Reformers, on the other hand, have argued that school-based approaches can produce big results. The Harlem Children's Zone results suggest the reformers are right. Dozens of charter and independent schools, like Promise Academy, have become no excuses schools. Many kids from poorer, disorganized homes do not have these internalized models. The schools create a disciplined, orderly and demanding counterculture to inculcate middle-class values. Basically, the no excuses schools pay meticulous attention to behavior and attitudes.
