Juan Gonzalez of the New York Daily News reports that Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter school celebrated its first graduation from middle school, with disappointing results. Although Moskowitz has boasted for years that her schools had overcome the achievement gap and that all her students are high performers, Gonzalez pointed out two inconvenient facts:
1. The graduating class started with 73 students in 2006 but only 32 remained to graduate.
2. Not one of the Success Academy graduates qualified to enter the city’s eight elite examination schools, such as Stuyvesant, Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Tech.
Twenty-seven of the graduating class took the entrance exam for the elite schools but none scored high enough to gain admission.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks, Diane, for giving us the real data on Success Academy schools. I would bet we will not see this in the media.
Marilyn, you wrote that “I would bet we will not see this in the media.” The column is from the NY Daily News.
Will Arne send out a press release similar to Vegara?
I think the credit goes to Juan Gonzalez. He’s a fine journalist.
Joe,
But will it air on Fox News, especially “Fox and Friends” with their daily “Trouble with Schools” segments????
That’s when “media coverage” will count for real.
Countdown until the first Eva booster shows up here with excuses (oh, excuse me, I mean “valid reasons” of course) that they themselves wouldn’t accept in relation to public schools.
There are entire districts–think 2,000-4,000 or more 8th graders–in NYC that didn’t send a single kid to the specialized high schools. I don’t know if people accept excuses for that, but it is what it is.
Well there you go, Dienne…
I don’t recall “entire districts” claiming their schools had miracle cures or that they warranted the ability to displace students attending neighborhood schools.
I guess that she will make some lame excuse, rationalize the outcome an end up blaming the public schools. That’s her MO.
Every single one of my students who applied to Stuyvesant and the other High schools, and to th stop private schools, were accepted. We and a team at that little middle school, and we did it…. so they dismantled the team, enlarged the little magnet school that worked, and… well… nothing gold can stay.
You did this with 100% black and Latino kids, almost all of whom were eligible for a free lunch?? Why hasn’t a major motion picture been made about this?
I often wondered the same thing, when they charged me with incompetence 6 months after I was the eNYS Educator of Excellence.
I just bet this will not be reported on Morning Joe!
Why not accept the fact those 27 just weren’t good enough rather than dumb down the entrance exam by counting “really important” qualifications like attendance?
Let’s be careful not to celebrate children who did not have their dreams fulfilled for those who really wanted to attend those schools. In some cases it may have been the school or parents doing the pushing, but of those 27, I’m sure there were some who really thought they could get into one of those schools and expected to.
We can point to it as an example of “Success” not being as good as its PR asserts, but, we should also avoid using these childrens’ futures as political fodder.
Agreed. Fact #1 should get as much attention as fact #2. What happened to the children who left, and why were their seats not filled by new students? Regular public schools have to take any child in the attendance boundaries who shows up to enroll, even if it is the middle of the school year or the middle of that child’s school career. Indeed, district schools have to figure out how to take students even when classrooms and schools are filled to capacity. Also, they cannot turn away students who have special needs or whose school attendance has been irregular, however convenient this might be for them. “Success” school advocates should not boast that they are doing a better job than public schools until they are doing the same job… educating everyone who shows up.
Poor kids. Suffered through her “rigor” for naught.
Good. More intel for the offense.
I hope someone is keeping a list.
Are you using DATA to draw an inference about the lack of success at Success Academy? The privateers tend to ignore the data that doesn’t support their cause.
That’s because some data are more equal than others.
Grooming children to become “little test taking machines” robbed them of years’ worth of authentic learning.
Perhaps their parents will take the advice of that USA Today ad encouraging parents to SUE and turn it on its head as they do so for Moskowitz.
“Grooming children to become “little test taking machines” robbed them of years’ worth of authentic learning.”
That may be a true statement, but there’s no basis for it in this particular story unless think the specialized school exam is a valid measurement of authentic learning.
No, it demonstrates that even according to their own debased metric of success, test scores, their claims are unrealistic at best, deceptive at worst.
It also raises questions about the those “miraculous” scores on the state exams Success Academy students take, since unlike the public schools, charter school teachers grade their own kids.
THEY GRADE THEIR OWN KIDS????????!!!!!!!!! How can ANYONE think that it’s fair when public schools don’t grade their own tests?
Yep, Diane previously posted something from one of the SA teachers on this blog, who wrote:
“We have people whose job it is to put together custom test prep packets based on state guidance. Much more aligned to common core and closer to the test than the published books I’ve seen.”
How nice it must be to have friends in high places that provide “state guidance,” as well as access to the actual tests!
The teacher claimed they don’t cheat, but without regulatory oversight, outside proctors, etc., one might be inclined to suspect they could be teaching the actual test, not just “teaching TO the test,” and invalidate the results…
Apparently, they did not have this kind of edge on the test for elite schools.
Sorry, forgot to provide the link:
“Mole in Success Academy Speaks”
I would imagine that busting your tail prepping for the NY state tests doesn’t leave much time to bust your tail prepping for the specialized school test. These may be kids who would benefit from the current bill to include state test scores in the mix of things that are considered in specialized school admissions decisions.
I don’t believe that the original plan was for Success schools to have high school grades. My theory is that at some point Eva performed an assessment and either concluded that her kids wouldn’t do well on the SHSAT or that it would take too much away from state test prep and came up with a plan for HS to give the kids a place to land.
However, Michael Fiorillo’s point about charter self-grading is probably worth discussing. This group’s mean 7th grade ELA and math scores were 331 and 340, respectively, putting them at just about the same level as the best competitive middle schools in District 2, and just a tick below the citywide G&T middle schools. The fact that not one child from this group got an offer to an SHSAT school is a little fishy. I think at a minimum we can assume there is a state test score boost associated with self-grading that of course would not happen on the SHSAT.
The 56% attrition rate is even more disturbing.
Success Academy, She Who Will Not be Named and Erasergate; The Houstan Miracle.
Time and time again, shmaeless self promoters proving that there are no true miracles in education; no silver bullets or magic wands. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Exactly
That rate might not even tell the whole story–Success has a relatively high attrition rate in all grades, and they replace kids who leave only up until the very first day of third grade. It’s quite likely that some of the 32 who made it to the end didn’t start there on day 1, and that a lot more than 56% of the original 73 left.
Even with public schools closed due to severe inclement winter weather, Success Academy [SA] rigorously put their little charges to work. As Paul Fucaloro of SA put it:
[start quote]
“We have a gap to close, so I want the kids on edge, constantly,” Fucaloro adds. “By the time test day came, they were like little test-taking machines.”
[end quote]
Link: http://nymag.com/nymag/features/65614/index3.html
Not only teach to the test, but the test IS teaching and learning¡¿?!
It worked! Not one of the 32 graduates made it into NYC’s eight elite examination schools! And those 32 represented a humongous 44% of the 73 students in the original 2006 cohort! No more of that namby-pamby bleeding heart nonsense about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “uneducables” and Michael J. Petrilli’s “non-strivers.” In life there’s many losers and few winners and we want them to learn early on where they belong!
😧
But people are missing the point. While saintly edupreneur Eva Moskowitz has to settle for a mere $485,000@year overseeing about 6700 students for a bit over $70@student, NYC School Chancellor Carmen Fariña rakes in an unconscionable $212,000@year for an unethical and morally compromising 19¢@student—and she’s only overseeing over a million students.
😡
“Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.” [“Dr.” Steve Perry, “America’s Most Trusted Educator”—it says so in big letters right on his website!]
It helps to keep in mind, though, that Success Academy used to sport three words, but for some reason they dropped the first and changed the characters a little—
$tudent $ucce$$ Academy.
Perhaps because they didn’t want anyone to think about what one of those old dead Roman guys said:
“For greed all nature is too little.” [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Go figure [a numbers/stats joke].
😎
My comment made in the DN:
“Here’s the unfair truth about education in NYC where many parents have their children in Eva’s Success (sic) Academy charter schools.
If Eva had been a principal of a public school where the graduation rate was that low, her school would have be pegged for closure and she would’ve been promoted to Tweed as one of the incompetent principals to do Quality Reviews or to come up with absurd curricula.
Fortunately, she belongs to a hedge-fund billionaire club, with Cuomo as her protector, and the exploitation of minority children’s education is inevitable for the sake of Eva’s ever-growing wealth. That is the Success Academy modus operadi.”
Maybe she should change the name to unsuccessful academy. or dropout academy. It more closely reflects her educational leadership, don’t you think?
Julie: most excellent comment.
So let’s run with it.
If we’re going to be “fair and balanced” then SA charter schools should be called “factories of failure” and “dropout factories”—yes?
“It is not the answer that enlightens but the question.” [Ionesco]
Sometimes a French guy comes in handy more than once a day on this blog…
😎
This is their plan. Next year, they start to teach to the entrance exam and WOW, two students pass the exam! An infinite percent increase in passing rates for her students! This is how they operate and the number two will not be in the news, but infinite increase certainly will be. Headline for NY Times, Charter Schools show the largest percent increase in passing rates! Maybe NEA and AFT need to start their own media company. They have always been great at Preaching to the choir! What a waste of money.
We should definitely double a model school where 50% of the students leave and the head honcho makes 368 times per student what the public school head makes. I’m not convinced that Eva’s kids are “college and career ready”. I’m convinced they learned very well how to take the tests that grade them.
Part of the problem here, is that it’s assumed if you can answer a question, that the question is a proxy for knowledge and deep understanding. In NY when I took the Spanish regents, I was drilled very closely on templates for what my answers should look like. I got a 95 on that Regents exam. I couldn’t speak or write in spanish for beans though.
This is why teaching to the test is a problem. Being able to answer questions on a broad range of topics over a period of time does not show understanding of that topic – only a portfolio of work showing a development over time does that. You can drill for a snap shot.
G: I too have done well on the few high-stakes standardized tests I have taken.
Your points re standardized tests are well founded. And they’re not new.
From Banesh Hoffman, THE TYRANNY OF TESTING (2003 republication of the 1964 re-edition of the 1962 original, p. 150):
[start quote]
The tests deny the creative person a significant opportunity to demonstrate his creativity, and favor the shrewd and facile candidate over the one who has something of his own to say. Unlike essay examinations, they are mainly concerned with predetermined intellectual snippets, and not with the crucial ability to conceive, design, and actually carry out a complex undertaking in an individual way.
They penalize the candidate who perceives subtle points unnoticed by less able people, including the test-makers. They are apt to be superficial and intellectually dishonest, with questions made artificially difficult by means of ambiguity because genuinely searching questions do not readily fit into the multiple-choice format.
They take account only of the choice of answer and not of the quality of thought that led to the choice.
They too often degenerate into subjective guessing games in which the candidate does not pick what he considers the best answer out of a bad lot but rather the one he believes the unknown examiner would consider the best.
They neglect skill in disciplined expression.
They have a pernicious effect on education and the recognition of merit.
[end quote]
Thank you for your comments.
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When I taught AP art history we did exactly as Eva did because the kids paid $80 a test at the outset and I didn’t think it was fair to them to not teach the 32,000 years of art that would be “covered” in the test. Did we have time for enlightening moments? Yes. Did we have time to concentrate in depth on the subject? No. Did the kids learn anything? Probably, because they were all highly motivated, competitive and college track. But the tests were basically art history trivial pursuit. It was a challenging, revelatory and disappointing 3 years (not with the kids, but with the adults who made money from them and with the administrators who used these scores as if they meant something).
G,
Your experience with the Regents is why I have refused to have the AP designation for my Spanish 3-4 class. I have taken the AP Spanish “certification” course and my take on it was that it was just a “how to teach to the AP test” course.
Students who take AP exams are not required to take any AP classes. Just sign up for the exams.
Cuomo is going to pass a new Law. All charter school children must be guaranteed a spot in one of the elite schools and given a Private tutor paid for with funds from the NYC public school budget!
Give me a break. Success my foot. This should be shouted from the rooftops and disseminated in every nook and cranny. The Mayor ought to take this and run with it. And should become a constantly repeated mantra by every foe of hers.
If Success Academy follows the Denver charter model, she will soon open elementary schools to prepare students for middle schools which theoretically will prepare students for high schools, perhaps even her own high schools. So a student could theoretically go k-12 through the drill and kill charter model. Strive CMO in Denver currently has six middle schools, 1 high school with another in the hopper, and two elementary schools about to come on board. The other “successful” charter CMO, DSST ( Oprah’s shout out school) started as a high school, now has 6-12. Five of these are in operation with two more approved. And the attrition rates for both are about what Success Academy is reporting. Many students do not want this kind of “education,” so they figure out ways to leave the schools. And the proficiency scores for Strive is DECLINING in 20 out of 30 cohorts. Same for its growth. I haven’t analyzed the DSST figures. On my to-do list.
Jeannie Kaplan
Most surprising, to me, is the fact that this class had a greater than 50% attrition rate! How on earth can that be characterized as success? (“The graduating class started with 73 students in 2006 but only 32 remained to graduate.” ) She’s teaching the students that would do good in any context. You can thank the parents for that, not Eva.
Yes, it’s interesting that none of her students were able to place into one of the City’s
“elite” public high schools.
There is a much more important issue at stake here, though.
This is Moskowitz’ top-performing Success Academy charter middle school. 78 students enrolled in 2006. 32 graduated yesterday. That is a “cohort-based graduation rate” of 41%
Any public middle school that had a graduation rate like that would have been scored a “D” or an “F” under Bloomberg’s specious “progress reports.” The school would have been put on a ‘watch list’ for possible closure. The principal would have been canned.
But Moskowitz will have have clear sailing to open another 14 Success Academies, some “co-located” in existing public schools or in private real-estate whose rent will be paid by the City.
Yes, right, we know, public schools suck and public school teachers are “grossly incompetent” and should have their tenure rights taken away.
All any of us ask is that the same criteria for “success” be applied to any public or charter school and that the State Legislature stop interceding on behalf of all charter schools when peer-reviewed and highly respected research has demonstrated that there is no clear difference in “success” between charter and public schools, despite the power granted to charter schools to cherry-pick their students, to deny serving students with disabilities or English language-learners (ELLs) and to “counsel out” students who will not “succeed” on criteria that the charter schools themselves pick.
I’d like to know what exactly happened to the 46 students who enrolled at this Success Academy but didn’t graduate–where they went and why. The NYCDOE has the information on all that. It should be released to the public so that the public can better understand the issues involved in the “charter school” and “education reform” debates.
I won’t hold my breath. Chancellor Farina and Mayor de Blasio got slapped down already on charter schools. You’ll hear nothing but honey from either of them on the subject ever again.
Yes, indeed. Reasons for such a high attrition rate should be available so that parents can be informed consumers of the much-ballyhooed choice.
Below is a post by Joyce Feilke (from another thread) that is relevant to this thread about Eva Moskowitz charter kids bombing out.
But first, here’s some thoughts about KIPP and school discipline.
There’s something about the military-style, “no excuses”, fear-based pedagogy of certain charter schools that does not lead to those students succeeding educationally once they leave, and go on to a private high school or university.
For example, let’s take KIPP, the corporate reform gold standard. Between 5th grade and 8th grade, a staggering 40-70% leave and/or are kicked out (“counseled out”) of KIPP. But let’s forget about those “non-strivers” and focus on the “strivers” —the subset of students who do survive and graduate. By KIPP’s own admisstion, only 30% of that already severely-creamed group of survivors eventually obtain bachelor’s degrees, with 70% quitting and giving up.
There’s something about the KIPP pedagogy—radically different from that of their non-KIPP college classmates who don’t quit, then finish with a Bachelor’s Degree—that is damaging to the KIPP kids’ education.
What is going wrong over at KIPP?
I think that your post above gives part of that answer.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Joyce Murdock Feilke
June 18, 2014 at 12:54 pm
Joanna, it is my observation that teachers have become “victims” to the patriarchal dominance of the policy makers. The dysfunctional system that CCSS has created has the same characteristics as the dynamics of ACoA & Dysfunctional families. Parents should be aware that the CCSS environment is conditioning children with the same Borderline behaviors that you will find on the “ACoA & Dysfunctional Families Laundry List”.
I agree with your comment that “Scary teachers are not good teachers”, but I disagree that they instill “respect”. In fact, I think it is the opposite. I think they instill “fear and intimidation” and cause children to function in a chronic state of hypervigilance, as well as to fear and disrespect authority. We now know that children who are “trapped in a chronic state of hypoarousal and/or hyperarousal” in response to fear in their daily environment, will have anxiety and/or psychiatric disorders “hard wired” into their personality. Children in elementary school still have a developing brain, and functioning in this environment of chronic stress changes their brain chemistry. Personality disorders are recognized by research from UW (Dr Marsha Linehan) and NIMH to result from an invalidating environment in childhood.
Authoritarian teachers who demand respect from children, but in return model punitive “bullying’ behavior and disrespect, as well as disregard for the children’s social and emotional needs, are giving mixed messages. This ambivalence, disrespect, and devaluing of their needs, causes children to experience the same repressed emotions of victimization: Shame, Guilt, Anger, Self-Pity, Need for Revenge as that in dysfunctional families. I have personally observed symptoms of PTSD, emotional dysregulation, and regression in children as a result of the punitive elementary school environment.
After observing this increasingly punitive environment of authoritarian Behaviorism in Texas elementary schools over the last three decades as a result of the obsession with testing, it became apparent that authentic teaching was declining to be replaced with “training” (conditioning) children to perform on tests, and using the same methods as that used for obedience training for dogs and zoo animals. That same pedagogy, called Schwarze Padagogik, was used for “training” children in Germany for decades leading up to WWII. It is the same pedagogy that can be observed in any dysfunctional system, in families, government, corporations, and now CCSS schools.
In order for children to make healthy attachments to teachers, parents, and peers and feel connected to “their world”, they must have an environment of mutual respect, trust, and safety. They must be validated and have positive behavior modeled by adults, rather than be afraid of critical judgement and punishment from making mistakes. They must feel secure and free to use their amazing curiosity and imagination for exploring, creating, and for self discovery. Inspirational teaching involves recognizing children’s social and developmental needs, and for that to happen, teachers must have skills to validate children; however, first they must have an environment of security and trust themselves in order to provide a healthy validating environment for the children.
As a long time educator and mental health professional, I believe it is the increasingly punitive elementary school environment that is responsible for the soaring increase in mental illness in children, especially anxiety, depression, as well as the increase in juvenile justice referrals and prison populations. It is true that dysfunction is common in families now, especially as a result of economic hardships, but schools must be a sanctuary for children. Schools must be a safe haven to model positive behavior and counter the negative and difficult circumstances of their daily lives. Schools must provide an environment that protects their unique differences and allows them to develop their own identity, and not become an automaton from behavior modeled by an automaton teacher. A good teacher must have human qualities of empathy and compassion, and model genuine enthusiasm for learning that will inspire children to love learning. A teacher cannot provide inspirational teaching in an environment of fear and intimidation, and children cannot develop higher thinking skills or use scientific thinking in an environment of fear and intimidation. My opinion is that the punitive school environment of fear and intimidation has enhanced our “dumbing down” society for decades, and now, CCSS is taking that regression of children’s social and emotional development to a new level of dysfunction.
A validating environment that nurtures children’s social and emotional development allows authentic learning and imparts knowledge. That is not happening in the CCSS environment that teaches children to fear and distrust adults, and leaves them with a reservoir of repressed emotions of victimization. This conditioned critical “voice of authority” in childhood will become a “self punishing” thought disorder that is hard wired into their personality for a lifetime, and now recognized as a cause of workaholism, alcoholism. lack of identify, low self esteem, codependency, and other borderline behaviors.
The punitive CCSS environment in childhood has all the roots for producing self punishing borderline behaviors in young adulthood.
The CCSS environment was created by self absorbed billionaires who are not knowledgable about children’s social and emotional developmental needs, and ignorant about how children learn. The CCSS environment is recognized by experienced educators and mental health professionals to be harmful and destructive to the future of generations of children.
Why is the Surgeon General and the US Dept of Health & Human Services silent? Why is NIMH silent? Why are these agencies, as well as President Obama and Arne Duncan, using Avoidance and Denial, the classic coping mechanisms learned in dysfunctional families, to ignore this damage to children?
“Why are these agencies, as well as President Obama and Arne Duncan, using Avoidance and Denial, the classic coping mechanisms learned in dysfunctional families, to ignore this damage to children?”
I believe the answer to your question is in your response.
Nothing to like in this. More than half of her students gone by the end of 8th grade. And even with that kind of attrition rate, not one of the remaining students qualified for the elite HS admission…and 27 of them tried. Years of “no excuses” runs into unfulfilled desires.
Moskowitz is demanding 14 new schools. She should be made to answer for the 41 students she did not get to 8th grade before she is allowed to get a single new classroom anywhere.
And yet she gives herself a $475,000 annual salary. More than any school superintendent in the country, many of whom operate districts with considerably more students. So while her charters rely on public funding, she feels entitled to a private sector pay check. Maybe she should take a performance based pay cut and hire two or three full time librarians. How many lives would that positively effect?
I see that Stuyvesant admitted a grand total of 8 African American students. No doubt this public school reflects the population of the city.
This is a big problem, no question. It is reflective of a lot of different things, including self-selection to avoid a potentially uncomfortable social situation, the fact that qualified African American students are prized and heavily recruited by NYC’s many $40,000/year independent schools, the siphoning of students by the charter sector, and (most importantly) the continued out-migration of massive numbers of African American families with means. In a decade or two NYC pretty much won’t have anything resembling a black middle class anymore (although to some extent you could probably say that about all the other races, too).
Cuomo must have a bit of egg on his face backing Eva’s Success-less Academy–another good name for her operation might be Cheater Schools. Last weekend, I watched his foiled video address to the Lake Placid Cheater School conference he invited all his hedge fund buddies to–but then could not attend due to teacher protests. That video of Lil’ Mario was a real hoot!
I wish I’d known about this specific case in NY before I wrote a letter to the editor of my local newspaper against charter schools last week. I guess it doesn’t matter, however, because this is the second time a “desk” person called to tell me a letter of mine would be published in a day or two, but so far, no luck. She said she just had to get the opinion editor’s approval, and I already know he supports charter schools. My letter was in response to Reince Priebus, who wrote especially to criticize my state’s senator, Harry Reid, for not supporting a bill to allow more charter schools. My letter doesn’t address Reid’s specific reasons for being against the bill, because I’m not sure what they are; it does refer to the evidence pointing to charter schools not living up to their claims. Even if my letter is not published, however, I want to thank everyone on this blog, and especially Diane, for giving me the courage to speak up for public schools. I have been more vocal in my community since reading this blog and Diane’s books (and now Mercedes Schneider’s), and while this particular newspaper hasn’t published my letters yet, another one has. It is so important that these false claims by charter schools are exposed, and I’m encouraged that the mainstream press is starting, finally, to cover some of it. I have been reading about New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans…but I really don’t know much about charter schools in Nevada where I live, except that they are gaining support. I do have anecdotal evidence of the same problems facing other communities from teacher friends who report charters dumping students after count day, etc. but if anyone knows of a source that addresses charter schools by state, I’d love to hear about it. Thanks, everyone!
Robert F Wagner secondary School, a small school in queens that does not get corporate support had 37% of their 8th graders earn a spot in a specialized high school.
Diane,
I’m glad you’re calling attention to the ridiculousness of Moskowitz’s claims. But with such a tiny cohort, how is this not tantamount to public shaming of the kids?
Best,
Eve
The Truth is Out, and it Must Really Hurt!
Just listen for her rationalizations.
It seems that the truth coming out is going to shame the students. However, wouldn’t that be preferable to starting with a fresh 73 (or more) and ending up with half that number coming out with the same results?
Keith Gray, there is no shame to the students. The shame is to those who exploit them.
My sentiments, exactly.
Further, I think that given the history of this situation and the with the implications made by the parties, there should be some action taken. Or frankly, there will be a fresh batch of new candidates for the same treatment with the same results.
This is a microcosm of the charter school movement for all to see. The only difference here is that they have not had the luxury of ‘clouding’ the stats.