We live in a very strange age, where pundits and policymakers are in search of miracle schools, not willing to accept how incremental progress is and how difficult it is to measure progress..
Last Sunday, the “New York Times” held up the Eagle Academy schools in New York City as very successful hybrid schools that provide the equivalent of a private school education.. After all, 82% are bound for college and one even applied to an Ivy League college.
Super-detective Gary Rubinstein checked the stats. This s what he found:
“Eagle Academy For Young Men II in Brooklyn only has 6th through 10th graders so it is tough to call it any kind of success yet. Their Regents grades are very low for the students who have taken them so far.
“I looked at Eagle Academy in the Bronx report card for 2011-2012. Test scores, even on the old non-Common Core tests were 30% passing. Regents scores were terrible. Average grade on math regents were Alg I: 64, Geometry: 61, Alg II: 51. They got a lower pass rate than ‘expected’ by the NYC growth metric. SAT scores were in the high 300s per section, 399 Math, 391 Verbal. This puts them in around the 18% percentile.
“82% of graduates may be accepted to college, but it is tough to say that they will succeed there. Also note that they boast they have their first student as an applicant to an Ivy League school, but not that he got in. Anyone can apply to an Ivy League school, of course.
“111 juniors in 2010-2011 became just 91 seniors in 2011-2012, which is a loss of 18% of those students.”
No, they are not miracle schools, nor are they a model for the school system.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“No, they are not miracle schools, nor are they a model for the school system.”
I fail to see where the school or the author made this claim.
LikeLike
I guess you didn’t click on the link to Eagle in the NY Times article, where it says, “Today, the Eagle Academy Foundation and its network of public schools stand as a national model of academic excellence and social success for urban young men…”
http://www.eagleacademyfoundation.com/about.htm
LikeLike
Thanks CT. And the ‘miracle’ claim?
LikeLike
As if the NYT Times and schools that wear the moniker a “national model of academic excellence” and which claim “to address the shortfalls in public education to effectively educate” students, when they have such low test scores, are proclaiming they are diseased? I think not.
LikeLike
Having a child on an IEP, we’ve navigated the confusing maze of acronyms, research, evaluations, and experts. We tried a private school costing big $$$$ and they locked our kid in a closet and not so subtly asked us to leave. Back to a public school with mixed results except for one well trained veteran primary teacher with a PhD who spotted the issues no others could quite put their finger on – she’s left the profession in our anti-teacher State. On to an exceptional public middle school that clustered more veterans with the freedom to pursue a vision and more success – but they are retiring, too. A transfer to another public high school with an exceptional administrative team and dedicated public school teachers. Not an easy going, but we made it and on to college. I didn’t see any hedge fund managers helping us out (in fact their “help” decimated our company and put many out of work), just those terrible, evil unionized public school teachers dedicating their time, compassion, and experience.
Bet you won’t read that in a NYT op ed or Brooks column.
LikeLike
MathVale, as a Special Education teacher in a state that is also anti-teacher it is always refreshing to hear an honest experience from a parent. Supporters of charters tout “school choice” as their main selling point. You just hit the nail on the head. As a parent, you do have a choice. It does stink if you had to pack your family up and move to where the schools and programs work for you, but if your research, hard work and dedication led to your child’s success, then in the end I’ll bet you feel it was worth it. It is amazing how hard kids with IEP’s work in the right environment and what their true potentials are. It may be expensive for society to fund truly appropriate schooling but isn’t it also expensive to pay for people to be wrongly medicated, institutionalized, and placed on government assistance?
LikeLike
Yes. We really did not have to move around much. I found that a non combative, collaborative relationship was very productive with our intervention teachers. We thought they were great. Some were better than others as in all of life, but generally even then we could make things work. I have worked with (very few) intervention teachers that are no longer effective but I’ve also found private sector executives that are complete buffoons and clueless yet a relative or crony.
What is true is that education costs are exponential and probably asymptomatic, to be mathy. To educate that next kid to a certain level takes a bit more money. The more challenged kids do require more resources. That is the underlying issue.
LikeLike
Comments from Dee Alpert who died in 2011 on Special Education.
Joe – the 11/6 NYSED hearing in NYC is specifically to deal w/NYSED’s proposed new sped. forms including IEPs. I don’t think that issues re when/if anyone does testing on kids will be listened to.
As for testing … we’re on opposite sides – sorry. The objective data, from USDOE national, large-scale, longitudinal studies shows that the relationship between objectively assessed reading and math scores and teacher-given subjective grades is “almost zero,” for kids with disabilities, both at the elementary and secondary level. The caveat is that the assessments have to be given by independent assessors, not school folk. There’s also a nice batch of research showing that when IEP Teams (CSEs in NYS) look at whether kids have disabilities or not, they look solely at the kids and don’t do anything useful re examining the instruction the kids have actually received, and the environments in which they have received it. So bad teaching, bad classrooms and bad programs, all of which can be laid directly on the adults involved, don’t work … they blame the kids and say they have disabilities. Just ain’t so.
As for children not being “prepared for instruction” at early ages … if kids coming to school aren’t “prepared for instruction,” then the methods and programs of instruction should be changed. These are adult failures and not indicative of any flaws in the kids. Sorry. There is a ton of research showing what does work for these kids, and a complete dearth of schools/districts doing it. Mostly because the decent research hasn’t been done by educators, and the education industry is extremely aversive to listening to, much less using, research from non-education sources. Also because the folks who run the really effective programs don’t give schmears or perks to school district officials who make “buy” decisions.
I got the other side of this when I was the parent leader of the group that started The Anderson Program for gifted kids at PS 9, CSD 3. We were told we have “prepared” our kids inappropriately … force-fed them; stressed-them … all kinds of nonsense. Actually, we had just not prepared them for hours of boring, low-level schooling which the education industry insisted it was going to provide, whether they wanted or needed it or not. Not!
Blame the kids; blame the parents. I blame the people who are paid salaries to teach the kids who actually walk into school buildings but instead spend an awesome amount of time inveighing against parents and kids who haven’t produced and delivered the product these people feel entitled to receive when kids walk in the schoolhouse door from Day One.
Dee Alpert, Publisher
SpecialEducationMuckraker.com
http://www.specialeducationmuckraker.com
VOTE OBAMA, PLEASE –
OUR CHILDREN’S LIVES MAY DEPEND ON IT!
LikeLike
“A lot of the Wall Street, hedge fund guys are not pro-union guys,” David C. Banks, the Eagle Academy Foundation’s president and chief executive told me. “It’s not the world they come from. They see charters as places of innovation, and that’s the narrative the business community wants to support. I’ve had people say to me, straight up, ‘We’re not just funding a school, we’re funding a philosophy, and that philosophy is anti-union.’ ”
Wow. They won’t fund him because he supports unions and he isn’t a charter.
Well, now that we got THAT out of the way maybe we can have a real debate 🙂
LikeLike
Yeah, that’s what struck me most in the article as well. Just goes to show that class warfare is being waged against middle and lower income groups by wealthy elites in BOTH parties, and nothing will change until unions stop funding Democrats. We need a Labor party.
LikeLike
I don’t know if a labor party would do it. I was shocked when I read last week that the DOJ just decided not to prosecute mortgage fraud. Not a priority, they didn’t have staff, whatever.
I don’t know that you can have a functioning private sector economy that runs on contractual agreements where those agreements are supposed to fall within a set of rules that everyone understands and therefore everyone relies on them if we’re just not planning on prosecuting fraud. The rules are meaningless if no one is enforcing them. Why rely on any contract if fraud is just accepted business practice? All bets are off! Good luck out there!
LikeLike
Labor has no representation in government, even though workers are the majority. As long as political appointments continue to be made by the ruling class, the wealthy will be allowed to circumvent laws.
Don’t give up on democracy –while we still have it. The Working Families party is a viable alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties, but it’s in a limited number of states now and needs to expand considerably to be a contender in state and federal elections.
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/
LikeLike
I have never been in a union, but trust the teacher in the classroom over a Wall Street type who worships money. I never can understand why people want to turn the schools over to people who brought us “greed is good” Gordon Geckos as opposed to Mr. Holland’s Opus. I think at this point it is knee jerk reaction of the public to teachers’ unions not realizing they may be the last true voice from the classroom.
LikeLike
I have been in a union, although never a public sector union, and I’m self-employed now.
One of the things that ed reform thing has taught me is that we need a voice apart from politicians to protect the public sector because it’s profitable and politically easy to privatize the public sector and just hand the whole thing off to private entities. The politician is still powerful, because he or she is still distributing funds, but ordinary people are completely excluded and the politician evades accountability because he’s not really running anything. The private contractors are.
I wouldn’t have said we “need” public sector unions ten years ago, but I am damn grateful for them now.
If they tell me they’re “self interested” well, so what? So are politicians and privatizers and my interest coincide much more with rank and file union members than those groups. My clients are middle class. If they’re broke, I’m broke.
My state government is hell-bent on destroying public schools, and the federal government is cheering them on. The teachers unions are the one thing standing in the way. I want to keep public schools public.
Therefore… that’s an easy choice for me.
LikeLike
It’s easy to cherry pick facts and come up with any results and/or conclusion you want—that is if you are a corrupt yellow journalist who is more interested in their byline and paycheck than research and truth.
If you want successful charters and the only positive fact you can quote that sounds good is the number of kids who say they plan to go to college, it look good in print when people read “100% of Eagle Academy’s students are on their way to college”. The Yellow journalist then leaves out all the facts that prove this is probably impossible.
Next the crooked yellow journalist will cherry pick different facts to make the public schools look bad. For instance, “The percentage of students enrolling in college in the fall immediately following high school completion is only 68.2% of those who graduate on time from the public schools.”
Never mind that when I asked my ninth grade English students every year how many planned to go to college, 99%+ raised their hands and then by the end of that school year a third (or more) would fail the class because they didn’t read, do classwork or home work.
There you have an example of how the truth is distorted to favor one side.
“100% of students at Eagle Academy are on their way to college.” And it isn’t a lie because they all said they were planning to go.
compared to
“Only 68.2% of high school graduates from public schools enroll in college.”
Makes the public schools look pretty bad and the major media seldom if ever follows up with Eagle Academy to find out what the final results were. And the average reader reads at a fifth grade level and doesn’t know how to fact check or isn’t interested. Instead, they walk away with that simple comparison thinking the Eagle Academy is much better than a public high school.
This is the trick the billionaire oligarchs well paid minions are using to fool a large number of Americans and subvert democracy.
LikeLike
Good point. There is a large literature concerning the aspirations of poor students. They aspire to many of the same things as middle class students. The crucial difference, however, is that they lack the supports to overcome the particular features of their poverty and usually end up with outcomes not unlike their socio-economic peers, even though their intentions were quite different. Contrary to being a “miracle” this is just the same old story. The test scores suggest that the 4 year graduation rate for these students will be low. Obamas new higher Ed scheme just kicks the can down the road and makes it the university’s fault that these students will continue to struggle.
LikeLike
I’m so sick of these bs charter propaganda stories. It is just gross.
LikeLike
Stephanie Simon @StephanieSimon_ 11h
New Brookings study: Common Core-style math standards don’t necessarily boost student achievement.
Not NECCESARILY
How could they possibly know this already? Now they’re just screwing with us. They just make this stuff up 🙂
LikeLike
“The Eagle Academy schools, for example, are a consortium of five schools … that educate boys, most of them black and poor, from sixth grade through 12th.
….Foreign travel and the broadening of worldview are promoted; this spring’s class trip at the Eagle Academy in the Bronx is to Greece and Turkey. Students raise money for the trips, and parents are encouraged to save to help pay for them.
“Most of our kids have expensive sneakers and iPhones,” Jonathan Foy, the school’s principal, said. “Choices can be made.” Last year, 17 students went to China.”
Nice. Real nice. Let’s perpetuate the notion that poor (black) people aren’t really poor, they’re just making bad spending decisions like expensive sneakers and iPhones. But with the right (white) influences, those “poor” people can save for educational experiences like trips to Greece, Turkey or China instead.
Nope, no racism here.
LikeLike
Dienne: your words are harsh but from what I have seen and heard and read, you are correct.
To add a bit to what you wrote, some comments posted last year on this blog by Linda about a teacher who worked for charter operator Dr. Steve Perry aka “America’s Most Trusted Educator” [honest! it says so in big letters on his website!]:
[start quote]
I attended a defending public education forum today at CCSU in CT. In a small group session a former Capital Prep teacher spoke about her experiences working for Perry. She said that he stressed getting buy in from his staff. He constantly spoke about “adding value” and how they were going to franchise the school and spread out nationwide.
They never discussed the kids when teachers met in groups. They looked at data. They were told to placate the parents, so they could attract more more middle class students. He would say at many meetings and this is a quote: “We want it to snow in here.” She took this to mean we need more white people and middle class students.
[end quote]
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/04/27/minneapolis-steve-perry-ridicules-teachers/
I stop here before I violate Diane’s quite sensible ‘Rules of the Road’ on her blog.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
LikeLike
With those scores, could someone tell me exactly how they are solving the problem of too many high school graduates needing remediation for college level work?
LikeLike
..”too many high school graduates needing remediation for college level work?” Is it a remediation problem or an admission, acceptance issue to colleges and universities?
LikeLike
Chicago has similar male only college prep schools, although they’re part of a charter chain here, which area newspapers have touted due to their 100% college acceptance rate. However, their test scores are low and their average ACT is 17, while 21 is considered college ready.
The key issue is that many colleges, including the City Colleges of Chicago, have open admissions policies and will accept virtually any student, regardless of their GPA, test scores and ACTs/SATs, so college acceptance rates are meaningless. It’s college graduation rates that matter. Even KIPP admits that their 30% college graduation rate is way too low for college prep schools.
LikeLike
Diane,
I was sent to the Eagle Academy for 2 weeks back in December. I cannot even begin to tell you how disturbing it is. I am speaking of the Eagle Academy on 3rd Avenue in the Bronx. The students are totally out of control and by no means at all, on task in anything. Working there for 2 weeks was a nightmare as I observed a very poor administration allow a jungle atmosphere. I looked at the stats too. The scores are putrid but inside the school, it’s just as bad.
A few if the teachers I got a chance to speak with in the teachers room told me they were waiting until April for the open market to come out because they want out. 99% of the kids are living in welfare conditions but all have I-phones. It’s a true sense of false entitlement. I do not know what article you’re referring to from the NY Times, but if there is an article they should be fired from that company, whomever wrote it. The a Eagle Academy in the Bronx is probably the worst school I’ve been in. Funny thing is that the building is pretty new and all state of the art. It is lacking in every area academically. The kids are horrid and the behavior matches. It’s disgusting!!
LikeLike
Louis Revanto: please excuse my caution since I am not on scene, but if what you say is true, my heart goes out to the staff and students.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
LikeLike
I can also attest to the previous blog here about Eagle Academy in the Bronx on Third avenue. I was at this school for 2 weeks also and the school is a complete zoo!! I mean the Principal Foy is non existent as he has people coming into his office all day long – people (usually black) dressed to the gill, carrying brief cases and looking important – sit in his office all day and most of the chatter is laughter – The AP there seems to run the day to day operation and is over whelmed just content in giving out orders for others – the kids are loud, disrespectful – not trying to be wise here really – just an honest observation – The fact that this school was present to the public as a “private” school is a crime – this place is one step better than Rikers Island – And, if anyone thinks this blog is not true, I challenge any media type to spend a week at the school and you will see most of the same – dumb administration – weak, meager quiet principal with no personality to present himself as principal, never attends classes and is not visible in the school. You will see kids jumping on desks, running around the classrooms, security guards overwhelmed with kids in the deans office – hardly an academic environment but hey all the kids there are going to college!! Yes New York Times, you got it right again!!
LikeLike
It is sooo true! This school is awful! Principal is a metrosexual that is too pretty for administrating a school. The guidance counselors just worry about coffee and donuts. Its all a big PHONY!
LikeLike
I agree with Louis Revanto blog about Eagle Academy in the Bronx on Third avenue. The school building is beautiful and modern but the kids inside the place will disgust you. The middle school kids are so bad the deans office is over flowing with thugs rapping and ranting…he eagle academy staff is great but the kids are bad really bad – any teacher who goes there gets discouraged really quick,..,.sorry
LikeLike
Diane, I know you follow the EAA in Detroit. It was created by the Broad Foundation and was endorsed by every privatization enthusiast from Arne Duncan to Michelle Rhee.
You don’t hear anything about it anymore among the national celebrity reform corps, but Michigan lobbyists and their lawmakers have been desperately trying to expand it for months now.
This is a Battle Creek paper on the latest effort to destroy Michigan’s public schools. I especially like how they refer to “vendors”. Good word! And accurate.
The biggest rap against Michigan Education Achievement Authority isn’t that it threatens teacher unions; it’s that it fails kids. Why any lawmaker would consider the authority’s expansion, given its checkered track record, defies logic.
So instead, we have House Bill 4369, which astutely avoids any mention of the authority yet has the potential to do just as much damage. Although its backers don’t call it an “EAA expansion,” it does exactly that — and then some.
“House Bill 4369 is not a coherent nor effective school turnaround strategy. Michigan is the only state in the union creating a completely unregulated marketplace of new schools, which is now hurting the performance of all schools,” the statement said.
And, you’re even specifically mentioned:
“How about, as education historian Diane Ravitch suggested on her blog, research-based interventions such as reduced class sizes, wraparound services, the arts, medical care, and a sustained effort to reduce poverty and segregation?
The EAA is not a successful pilot worthy of expansion. Regardless of how its supporters might spin it, the EAA can point to no irrefutable evidence of its effectiveness. Students in state-managed Detroit schools have lost, rather than gained, ground under EAA.”
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20140317/OPINION01/303170026?odyssey=mod%7Cmostcom
LikeLike
These idiot reformers did the same thing to the Detroit auto workers union and destroyed the union and the city of Detroit at the same time. If these genius ‘reformers” would just leave well alone,then the city of Detroit would not be in the shape it is in now. If they go after the teachers union now in Detroit, the city will turn into Iraq or Afghanistan so leave the people and the unions alone ass holes!
LikeLike
Wow no way – one student applied to an Ivy? I am blown away. I went to a pretty average Public High School in the 80’s and we had several graduates each year who were accepted and went to Ivy League Colleges. This was a regular average Public High School, not one of the BEST and not one of the worst, just really middle of the road. Not a miracle place, just a regular good public school. No Common Core, none of us took assessments from grade 3 on up, and no one had a problem attaining College and career level readiness. We learned regular math, we memorized our multiplication tables, we had trig and calc in high school, we took English Literature and read fiction novels like Sound and the Fury and Daisy Miller. Our science projects were hands on, we made dioramas, not powerpoints on thumb drives. We had gym where we went outside and ran around, we did not sit and listen to PE lectures on obesity and heart disease. What happened? Now it’s a miracle to be lauded when a high attrition school has one child who applies to an Ivy. This is all so manufactured, it is crazy to watch. Deform, it is.
LikeLike
Eagle Academy is co-locating in our school this September. The first in Staten Island. I was not impressed with their scores. Maybe the all boys atmosphere can work, but colocated in a co-ed school?
Rally & Ten Reasons Against Co-Locating Eagle Academy into Berta Dreyfus IS 49
http://protectportelos.org/rally-ten-reasons-against-co-locating-eagle-academy-into-berta-dreyfus-is-49/
LikeLike