Newark is one of several districts targeted by the education reform industry, where there is a heavy concentration of money and effort to prove that reform works.

Mark Zuckerberg offered $100 million for reform.

Broad-trained superintendent Cami Anderson is in charge of the district.

Mayor Cory Booker is a leader of the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ Democrats for Education Reform  (which may explain why he objected to President Obama’s criticism of equity investors like Romney’s Bain).

The main reform vehicle is charters.

Study after study shows that charters don’t get different results on average than public schools if they serve the same students.

Here is Bruce Baker’s portrait of the effect of charters on Newark schools.

And here is another by Baker that shows who is enrolled in Newark charters.