There is a great two-part story from This American Life [1] about this type of thing - it's a problem much bigger than Newark.
[1] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/t...
[1] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/t...
http://www.propublica.org/article/ferguson-school-segregatio...
There was also recently this long article in the Tampa Bay times that I found at least as insightful, and with more perspective:
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2015/investigations/pinella...
My concerns with this coverage is that they oversimplify the problems in their desire to find a solution (especially TAL). I'd also recommend the book 'Our Kids':
http://www.amazon.com/Our-Kids-American-Dream-Crisis/dp/1476...
Which is far more comprehensive but spectacularly depressing.