Cold....Hard....Facts....That Contribute to the Positive Collection of Literature on the Harlem Children's Zone

Dobbie, Will and Roland G. Fryer, Jr. “Are High-Quality Schools Enough to Close the Achievement Gap? Evidence from a Bold Social Experiment in Harlem.” Harvard University, (2009).

This paper is an econometric analysis of the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a 97-block area in central Harlem, New York. The HCZ “combines reform-minded charter schools with a web of community services created for children from birth to college graduation that are designed to ensure the social environment outside of school is positive and supportive. Examples of these services are: Baby College, a parenting workshop for expecting parents and those raising infants; Harlem Gems, an all day pre-kindergarten program that, among other things, prepares children with social skills to make a smooth transition into kindergarten; Harlem Peacemakers, partially funded by AmeriCorps, this program “trains young people who are committed to making their neighborhoods safe for children families,” and a whole “web” of other programs meant to block all hardships that inner city, poverty children face. The evidence suggests the HCZ is “enormously successful at boosting achievement in math and ELA in elementary school and math in middle school.” Students in middle school did not report a significant gain in ELA achievement, possibly because “language and vocabulary skills may develop early in life…” The study concludes that “high-quality schools or community investments coupled with high-quality schools drive these results, but community investments alone cannot.”

The Harlem Children’s Zone continues to fascinate and impress me, and this paper only supports my interest. Geoffrey Canada’s creation managed to catch President Obama’s attention as well, as he pledged to model 20 communities around the nation after the HCZ. As the paper concludes, it seems to be the blanket of resources Mr. Canada has created for children in Harlem that explains the success. It takes a full-fledged approach to break the effects of poverty, and Canada’s model is proving to be a successful answer. One would think that the results will only improve, as students grow older in the Zone and the Zone leverages more resources. The question becomes: how can we model this system in a cheaper, more cost-effective way? This is a challenge we can take on and attempt to implement on the Leeward Coast, in the beautiful city of Waianae.