Earlier this year, Eva Moskowitz and the Wall Street hedge fund managers who support her NYC charter chain, Success Academy, thoroughly defeated Mayor Bill de Blasio. The mayor thought he could limit the expansion of her charters, even thought he could charge her rent for the use of public space, but her backers launched a $5 million negative advertising blitz against de Blasio.
Governor Cuomo, the recipient of nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from backers of Miskowitz’s charters, pledged his loyalty to her. The Néw York legislature quickly passed legislation guaranteeing her the right to expand, forbade the city from charging rent to charters, and required the city to pay the rent for private space for charter schools.
Here is the result, as reported in the Wall Street Journal and reposted by blogger Perdido Street.
“Lease documents show the city is paying almost $18,000 in rent for every student at the Success Academy that opened last month in Washington Heights, in the former Mother Cabrini High School.
…
“The Department of Education descriptions of the 10-year contracts, obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request, say the city will pay $39 a square foot in the coming three years for Success Academy Washington Heights and Success Academy Harlem Central; its analysis found a market range of $24 to $27 a square foot for comparable space. The rents will rise over time.”
“The rental fees come on top of $13,777 for every student that taxpayers provide to charters, which are publicly funded and independently operated.”
Says Perdido Street blogger:
“The city’s paying nearly $32,000 a student for Eva’s charters.
“That’s what Eva Moskowitz’s charter schools cost.”
Astonishing.
But charter schools can do it better and cheaper!
Especially when you select away the students who won’t require much in additional services, have actively involved parents, and when you reserve the right to counsel out those who may damage your bottom line or achievement data.
The rent is too damn high!
What is wrong with the legislature and government for allowing this to happen?
Sadly, many citizens have been well trained to hate public school teachers and their unions so much that they will happily throw tax dollars out the window just to do their perceived “patriotic” duty and cut them off at the knees. It isn’t even about wanting to save money or do a better job anymore — it’s blind obedience to a meme that will keep Success Academy afloat. “Free Market GOOD — Unions BAA-AAD! Free Market GOOD — Unions BAA-AAD!”
The public needs to hear the “real” costs of privatization. They also need to understand that their tax dollars are going to religious schools. The administrative costs should be exposed as well. All testing should be handled by an independent group, and their books should be open to the taxpayers that are underwriting their bill. If they don’t do better than public schools, their contract should be void.
The sickness of politics is evident in this entire scenario. Sad that our law makers quickly gave this creep moskowitch a free ride on the backs of nyc kids and tax payers.
It’s not just the money that is troubling, it is the backdoor, shrouded selection process that is concerning. We’re supposed to be a democratic country, and this selection process is undemocratic. These public-private blurred lines are creating separate options for a few at the expense of many. This is not what America should be all about. It should about equal access and opportunity for all. It is also totally undemocratic if the public schools are left with all the students that are more expensive to educate, ie. classified students, ELLs and conduct disorders. It’s a rigged system!
Did I miss how much the city pays per student for traditional students?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I can’t find a breakout for charter/ ‘traditional’, if there is one. But overall averages are available: during Bloomfield’s 12 yrs as mayor, average NYC school district per-pupil spending went from 11k(2001) to 19k(2013). I believe the current number is approximately 22k.
Bloomberg
I smile, though, because “Bloomfield” is a rural, low-wealth school district in upstate NY. : )
That’s funny since most schools have been dealing with huge budget cuts. But if you count as “per-pupil spending” all the money spent on consultants, standardized tests, evaluations, etc, then you can pretend that each schools now spends far more money than it did in the past. And yet charter schools are only charged the cost of their schools directly! They don’t even have to pay for most of building maintenance costs — that gets charged to all those DOE budgets.
The Journal notes that the per-student figure would drop significantly if the school hits its target of 600 students. (Which shows why the per-student isn’t a great yardstick for this kind of cost .) That suggests that the school has a huge amount of extra space, and will have a surplus of space for at least the next few years. Why not rent something smaller until then?
FLERP, the more interesting question, perhaps, is why the school is under enrolled.
Isn’t it standard for new schools to start with only one or two early grades and then build out from there? I don’t think that qualifies as “under-enrollment.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx According to the article, there was very little available which could be turned into a school quickly. Both of the locations involved (Mother Cabrini Wash Hts [the one with capacity for 600] & Annunciation Amsterdam/131) just folded last year. If I understand correctly, these are 2 of the 3 Success Academies where DiBlasio revoked co-location agreements made [just before the election] by Bloomberg.
I also read that, re: Harlem Central (taking over Annunciation), locals as well as the diocese are frustrated & upset over lack of communication/ negotiation of any kind w/Success Academy. The church had hoped there would be direct access for locals/previous Catholic students but find priority goes to a couple of feeder success academies. Locals say success academy budged ahead of a line of public schools waiting to get into that space.
When this happened to Brooklyn Prospect Charter School a few years ago, Brooklyn Prospect simply used its own funds to rent space. And they have far less money than Success Academy. It would have been a simple matter for Eva Moskowitz to do what Brooklyn Prospect Charter School did, especially since they did not need a lot of space at the beginning! But it was more important to spend $5 million buying anti- de Blasio ads than to rent school space for 2 schools, which is especially galling given that she already had many schools that paid no rent at all. The fact that Brooklyn Prospect did it proves it can easily be done by a charter school, especially one with the resources that Success Academy has. But apparently, there is no victory for Success Academy unless it means that funding from public schools is taken away and spent on her schools. Her priorities are very clear. Actions speak far louder than words.
You neglect to mention this information was reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Susan Edelman, I made the correction.
“Success Academy’s New ad Campaign”
Just give us millions of kids
And then, I promise, you’ll see,
Per-capita cost will hit skids
Oh, how very cheap it will be
“Eight of the 14 districts Success is planning to move into already have at least one Success school; every district had hundreds of applicants to Success schools either in the district or OUTSIDE OF IT. The most applications came from District 9 in the Bronx: 1,252 residents of the district, which has one Success school, applied to attend a Success SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY.” (from http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/10/8554074/major-expansion-success-growing-dread-districts )
Notice how Success Academy is NOT opening the vast majority of these new schools in the Bronx, where all those 1,252 students who want the school would have priority. Why not? Why open ANY schools where priority goes to district residents in very wealthy school districts when their previous schools in those wealthy districts have very few students on the wait lists? Is it so Success Academy can keep claiming there are thousands of students on the wait list, without mentioning that they are primarily all these parents in the Bronx who don’t have a shot at getting into most of Success Academy’s new schools? It is shocking that SUNY is allowing Success Academy to open schools that most pointedly do NOT give any priority to students zoned for failing public schools, which they supposedly are mandated to do. I guess if you sit on the SUNY Charter Institute Board, political connections are far more important than doing what is right for low-income students. But if the press does not call them out on this farce, then they are just as complicit as SUNY.
If you are wondering why Eva Moskowitz dropped priority for low-income students zoned for failing public schools, then just look to the numbers of students on the wait lists in her older schools in low-income districts. If she gave those students priority, they would take the spaces of the wealthier students she is trying desperately to attract. If she really cared about the low-income students she pretends to care about, her schools would be located in places where they actually had a shot at getting in. The fact that SUNY prefers to aid Ms. Moskowitz in her quest for middle class and upper middle class students instead of doing what is right, is truly sad.
Never believe any claims about wait lists. For one thing, parents apply to multiple schools. For another, there is no independent verification when a charter operator claims to have 100, 500, 5,000, or 50,000 students on the wait list. Many public schools also have wait lists, many are overcrowded, and it is not a boasting point.
But I think it is important to believe the claims about wait lists because it speaks to Eva Moskowitz’ hypocrisy. In Success Academy’s SUNY Charter application, she had to note that the wait lists were highest in her schools in low-income neighborhoods, like District 9 in the Bronx. And if you look closely at the application, you can see that the wait lists in her schools in wealthy districts were very small, and likely included parents who lived out of district. And thus the current Success Academy schools in wealthy districts have a very low % of low-income students because every wealthy family who applies and lives in that expensive district must be accommodated before any of the poor families from out of district. But when it comes time to get approval for new schools, somehow many of them are located in the SAME affluent districts where the wait list of district residents was smallest and the % of low-income families was smallest. That outcome is the direct result of Success Academy refusing to give any lottery priority to low-income students of any kind (whether zoned for failing public schools or not). So Eva Moskowitz is not locating these new schools where the need is greatest, but where the chances of getting wealthier parents is the greatest. That needs to be publicized again and again because it is obvious that SUNY is mandated to support charter schools that are helping exactly the students who will forever remain on Success Academy wait lists because they don’t have priority in most of the newest schools. If SUNY’s priorities have been hijacked by a charter school chain that is not prioritizing those students, the public should know about it. If nothing else, it might shame Eva Moskowitz into giving lottery priority to low-income students again, although she does seem impervious to shame.
It’s like insurance companies’ cherry-picking the healthy.
Ponderosa, that new study that claims that seats in the charter schools in wealthy neighborhoods are going unfilled seems to support this thesis. If there are out of district low-income students on the wait list, they obviously aren’t being accommodated. Why?
I’ll point out once more that every single one of the districts in which Success has proposed locating one of its schools is home to thousands of at-risk kids (tens of thousands in the case of District 2). Often these kids are living cheek by jowl with the affluent, just on the wrong side of carefully drawn school zone lines. Almost every district has schools that are underutilized.
I’ll point out once more that Eva Moskowitz made a point of DROPPING lottery priority for low-income kids zoned for failing public schools when she was granted space in wealthy school districts! So while they exist there, Success Academy is not educating very many of them, and that was a conscious decision on their part!
By the way, please don’t repeat the misleading statement that Success Academy was absolutely forced by the United States DOE to drop lottery priority for low-income students, which their defenders keep repeating. It is not true. For one thing, they dropped lottery priority for low-income students over a year BEFORE that ruling came out, and it has been nearly a year since the DOE clarified that ruling and said it was perfectly fine to give low-income students priority. Despite that, Success Academy continues to make LIVING IN THE DISTRICT the priority. And then locating schools where the majority of low-income families who are on Success Academy wait lists do not live!!
Tim, I think even you will admit that if a school cared about the “thousands of at-risk kids” who are living in affluent districts, they would give them priority in their lottery. Everything else is just lip service and an excuse for the fact that your prime target is students whose families are educated and have means.
The first two paragraphs of a 1/9/2009 piece in The National, an article entitled “The curious case of the dog that did not bark”:
[start quote]
Journalists love a cliché, few more so than “the dog that did not bark”. It is a bit like the American newsman’s desire to find the “smoking gun” – the damning evidence that identifies the guilty party. The non-barking dog refers to an incident in Silver Blaze, a Sherlock Holmes story, which contains the following exchange between the famous sleuth and a Scotland Yard detective: Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” Holmes: “That was the curious incident.” This observation is trotted out whenever there is a political or economic crisis to consider. Soon, respected commentators will be using it to try to determine why we were not warned there was about to be the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Who was the dog and why was he silent?
[end quote]
Link: http://www.thenational.ae/business/the-curious-case-of-the-dog-that-did-not-bark
And the “dog [that] did nothing in the night-time” that is “the curious incident” that drew my attention?
This blog—and the entire www—should be flooded with werewolf-like howls of rage and hair-raising screams of disgust by the charter/voucher/privatizer crowd, leaders and followers alike, about the outrageous state of affairs touched upon in this posting. *You know, the same way they talk about public schools as “factories of failure” and “dropout factories” that exist purely to serve “union thugs” and are only about the interests of adults not students.*
Why? Because they constantly swear on their immortal souls that their schemes are both cheaper and more effective than that tired old public school way of doing things. That they get get significantly better results for significantly less cost.
😏
The proof? It’s true—because they said it. And they’ve got the massaged and tortured numbers & stats to prove it!
😳
And when the information in the above posting is presented? Suddenly it becomes clear why they want exemptions from transparency and accountability and responsibility. The same old stance of claiming to be simultaneously “public” [in words] and “private” [in deeds].
Their silence is deafening.
😱
And the reason? What could drive such an immorally large gap between their walk and their talk, between word and deed?
“For greed all nature is too little.” [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
And it didn’t even take an old dead Greek guy—even a Roman got it.
😎
Does anyone know how much Success Academy spends per student, total? Not just the public portion, but the public + private (outside money raised) total outlay per student? Is that information available to anyone, or is just the public portion of the per student cost discoverable?
If not, can one reasonably compare public schools to these schools without that information?
These are my tax dollars being pi$$ed away. I feel sickened and angry.
Get pissed off at the Mayor for denying her space at the last minute. The tax dollars being wasted was done by the mayor’s spiteful behavior and it backfired.
No, the tax dollars wasted is due to Eva Moskowitz spiteful behavior. Mayor de Blasio only prevented her from opening 2 schools — she was allowed to open many more schools throughout the city. But instead of doing what plenty of ethical charter operators have done and use some of the millions in donations she receives to rent her own space, her wealthy backers made sure that Cuomo forced de Blasio’s hand. Meanwhile, ethical charter schools like Brooklyn Prospect should provide a lesson to Eva Moskowitz about how to behave when you truly care about educating kids and not about your own political goals. Brooklyn Prospect rented its own space, and does not have nearly the resources that Success Academy has. Why didn’t Eva Moskowitz model herself after that? But as parents of spoiled children understand, if you give your child everything he wants for too long, your child will start to expect that special treatment to continue forever. Too bad Mayor Bloomberg was the enabling parent to Eva Moskowitz.
Seems like it all worked out pretty darn well for Eva as a result, though, would you not agree, Gipper?
So this is an analysis of what charter schools spend and what they take in and from which source, in Chicago. They couldn’t do a complete analysis because the Chicago charters “would not cooperate” but it’s an estimate of revenues and then outlays they pulled together from a lot of sources:
“The next exhibit presents each of the revenues as a percentage of total revenues. The largest portion of charter school funding in each of the five years evaluated was from local sources, provided by or through CPS. It decreased from 66.0% of all
revenues in FY2007 to 59.8% five years later; overall local funding average 60.0% of all revenues in that period. The second largest source of revenue was school based, that is grants, donations, contributions and the proceeds of various fundraising efforts.”
If we’re comparing schools, wouldn’t it be helpful to compare total revenue and then per pupil costs for any school, whether public or charter?
Click to access REPORT_FinancialAnalysisOfChicagoCharterSchools.pdf
I start to wonder total spending at Success Academy is more expensive than cleaning up the radiation mess at nuclear power plants in Fukushima.
This makes me so unbelievably sad. It’s especially heartbreaking that real public schools have to constantly fund raise through bake sakes and scrounge for money from sources like box tops.
It is indeed crazy that NYC DOE schools have to resort to those sorts of things with an operating budget ~$19k per student and a total annual expenditure (inc pensions and debt service) ~$24k.
Tim, the operating budget for DOE schools includes the cost of the buildings, and now we learn that for a Success Academy school, the new rent per student alone is nearly as high as total student expenditures in public schools! And that “debt service” also helps pay for all the buildings that Success Academy’s other schools use and don’t pay for. If you want to argue that we should tell retired teachers that we aren’t going to pay the pensions they believed they had, fine, but don’t pretend that a current public school student’s “funding” includes the cost of that.
What’s very telling is you never addressed my point that if a school cared about the “thousands of at-risk kids” who are living in affluent districts, they would give them priority in their lottery. But after all, it’s so much cheaper to educate Success Academy kids because they make sure not to have many of those pesky and expensive special needs kids who are included in the $19k “average” student expenditure you cite.
What I can’t understand is whether you are purposely posting misleading facts on here, or whether you are genuinely deluded into thinking that despite its outright refusal to give any lottery priority to low-income students, Success Academy really, really wants to educate them. If they did, they would give low-income students priority in their lottery, especially when they insist that most of their newest schools have to be located in school districts that have some of the lowest % of low income students among all NYC school districts! It’s quite an indefensible position, but fortunately for Eva Moskowitz, no one in the press seems to care. And while that might make it easier for her to pursue her schools in wealthy neighborhoods, it should make you ashamed to defend them here.
Yup, it sucks to have to pay charter school rent. It sucks that pensions were massively underfunded for years and that paying them off will continue to divert more and more resources from schools. It sucks that two signature accomplishments of our mayor so far have been to shamelessly circumvent the competitive bidding process and hand over $42 million dollars to a politically connected school bus contractor (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/de-blasio-42m-school-bus-company-grants-debated-article-1.1909553) and to streamline the process by which the wealthy are reimbursed for sending their kids to high-end private special schools that charge $65,000 a year (and rising fast), not inclusive of transportation ($12,000/year on average). I’m not misleading anyone. The numbers are what the numbers are.
State law requires only that charter schools offer a preference to students in the district in which the school is located. Given the density and hypersegregation present in New York City, with enormous numbers of at-risk kids in every district where Success has opened a school, it is clear to me that they are adhering not only to the letter but also the spirit of the law. If the walled-off wealthy public schools are popular and families are happy with them, then they should have absolutely nothing to fear from having charter schools in the same district.
“State law requires ONLY that charter schools offer a preference to students in the district in which the school is located.” Wow, you just admitted that. Are you now willing to admit that if Eva Moskowitz locates most of her schools in the wealthiest zip codes in NYC and refuses to give priority to the small % of low-income students who live there, she really isn’t interested in educating them.
Look, I do appreciate that you are honest enough to admit that Eva Moskowitz wants to be in those very wealthy neighborhoods because, as you stated to clearly, the law states “ONLY that charter schools offer a preference to students in the district in which the school is located”! If you want wealthy students and not poor ones, you obviously go to where the wealthy ones (and a few poor ones) live! But please don’t pretend that you care at all about the low-income students who are really the ones failed by public schools. You don’t. And the fact that the Arne Duncan awards her money when you have just made 100% clear to all of us that she doesn’t want to educate too many of those students is truly appalling. Don’t you agree?
By the way, you never addressed the fact that Eva Moskowitz DROPPED priority for low-income students zoned for failing public schools as soon as she got space in those very rich school districts! I guess your silence should be interpreted as admitting that it is true. Again, doesn’t that make you ashamed to support her here?
@NYC Mother and NYC public school parent
I’m with you on this one. One thing that never gets mentioned in disucssions about Success Academy is how their children get free specials like chess, art, and music. At many DOE schools it is parent fundraising which pays for these classes. (Those DOE schools without active parent groups go without.) While many children at Success Academy are low income, some are not, and there is no obligation for middle- and upper-middle income families to fundraise. It is unfair that families who send their children to DOE schools and choose to invest in public education are essentially paying out-of-pocket for specials, while families from the same socio-economic backgrounds at Success Academy schools are not. Why should we be penalized for believing in the public good, while those who let their children be used as pawns in a movement to discredit public schools and de-professionalize the teaching profession are under no obligation to spend their time or money fundraising?
But Success Academy’s “business plan” depends on the public schools being starved of money. They could have followed the lead of Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, which paid for their own space rather than get into a co-location battle. (They also give lottery priority to low-income students, which Success Academy does not).
But rather than to pay for its own space, as other charter schools with far less private money do, Success Academy demanded the city pay for it. And with the backing of Andrew Cuomo, the will of the people who overwhelmingly voted for de Blasio is thwarted.
For Success Academy and the right wing foundations who donate many millions to support it, victory is not simply opening another school. Victory is a zero sum game, and the goal is to starve public schools for funding so their failures can be compared to your “successes”. If you haven’t taken money directly from the public education budget to pay your rent, then there is no point in opening your school. You may not really need the money, but you definitely need to make sure no public school gets it. What if they used it to lower class size and test scores improved? That would be disastrous for your “business plan”.
I hope some day all the people who defend this practice take a look at what they have wrought. It won’t be middle class parents who suffer most, nor union teachers, although all of us will be worse off each time our tax money is used to support schools that only educate the students who are easiest to teach (and least expensive!). We suffer every time Eva Moskowitz states that we can cut school budgets and still achieve the same results because her schools “prove” it. But it will be the at-risk students students that Success Academy has no interest in educating who pay the biggest price. Their schools already suffer from leaking ceilings, peeling paint, broken bathrooms, so what’s a little more degradation for them. But the pretense that Success Academy cares about those kids is appalling. They care about the ones who are easiest to teach and apparently, the rest can make do with even less.
Here’s my original post about “Glass Door”
website and the comments about Success
Academy that the mainstream news
won’t cover:
Enjoy (it’s long):
==========================================
Hey, why don’t we hear from the current and former instructors at Eva Moskowitz’ SUCCESS ACADEMY Network? Thankfully, we can actually do that, and hear the unvarnished truth that they have anonymously shared, thanks to the “Glass Door” website that provides employees an opportunity to share the good, the bad, and the ugly about the people for whom they work, and the workplace culture that they’ve experienced.
(Get it? The “glass door” gives transparency.)
Finally… FINALLY (!!!) in post-Michael-Winerip era, there is a free and independent entity that is beyond the control and clutches of Eva and her ruthless multi-million dollar PR leviathan. Indeed, Glass Door’s posted motto or promise is:
“Your trust is our top concern, so companies can’t alter or remove reviews.”
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Success-Academy-Charter-Schools-Reviews-E381408_P2.htm?sort.sortType=OR&sort.ascending=true
I just cut’-n-pasted the first 24 teacher reviews from the site above (settle in, it’s a long read if you care to read it all.)
Often I found myself asking the question, “Did I just read what I THOUGHT I read?”
For example, “FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 11” said that Eva banned any administrators or even teachers from writing letters of reference for SUCCESS teachers—current or former—who wished to teach elsewhere. As this teacher put it put it:
“They will not give you reference letter; its against company policy.”
What is this? The Hotel California? “You can check out any time you like but you’ll never be able to work again as a teacher…. that is, if I, Eva Moskowitz, have anything to say about it.” It’s like… “If I can’t control you—i..e. you leave or I push you out—I won’t help you with continuing your teaching career elsewhere.”
In my two decades of teaching in the traditional public schools, I’ve never heard of a administrator acting like this.
Some of them are even “LEAD TEACHERS”—NO. 17 is both a “CURRENT TEACHER” and a “LEAD TEACHER.”
A common refrain is that the 60-80 hour weeks make it utterly impossible to have any kind of personal life or “work-life balance”, and how they “work you until you are sick” and don’t care about your well-being.
Oh, and the workload and lifestyle make it impossible to have a family or children. But hey, wait a sec. Eva was allowed enough time that have and raise her three kids. As Orwell put it in ANIMAL FARM… “All of us are equal, but some are more equal than others.” And she makes over $ 480,000 / year.
Perhaps my favorite comment came from a teacher comparing Eva’s personality and behavior to that of a Meryl Streep movie villain (from a few years back). “FORMER TEACHER NO. 14 compared working at SUCCESS ACADEMY to…
———————————————————————————-
” ‘THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA’ — except not funny and you actually can damage hundreds of kids lives in the process.
“Any advice will fall on deaf ears because hers is a method that works well. Google ‘sick system’ and you will find SUCCESS, in its shiny, primary colored glory.”
———————————————————————————-
And the sad thing is… Eva would be flattered by this comparison, taking it as a compliment… “You’re damn right I’m like that, and if any o’ you teachers, parents, or kids got a problem with that, you can all go SUCK IT!” (not an actual quote… just a little humor)
The reviews have three criteria: PRO’s, CON’s, and ADVICE TO MANAGEMENT. I omitted the PRO’s as they were so trivial (i.e. healthy snacks and the printers work”)
I can just picture Eva in her posh Upper East Side digs reading this, and thinking, “What a bunch o’ lazy wimps and whiners! I don’t want them teaching at my schools, anyway. I wish there was a way to find out who those “CURRENT” teachers posting are, so I could fire all of ‘em!”
———————————————————————-
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– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 1:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“The most miserable experience I’ve ever had. ”
CON’s:
“One personal day, horrible work-life balance,
— micromanagement of employees,
— no chance for professional or personal growth,
— dictator-like school.”
ADVICE to Management:
“I think it’s too far gone.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 2:
“Do your research before accepting a job here.”
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
“Unethical treatment of students and teachers,
— competition at all costs,
— little support for students with disability,
— retains an average of less than 50% of students,
— retains an average of 30% of staff,
— leadership and staff are replaced with no communication or explanation,
— humiliation used as main motivational tool for both students and staff,
— students struggle with anxiety,
— very little emotional or social support
— students stay silent 80% of the day, silent hallways in upper grades,
— young students told to stop crying when dealing with personal trauma,
— no work-life balance,
— CEO is in constant conflict with city government which causes ongoing location uncertainty,
— network is rapidly opening new schools while neglecting to fix all of the other dysfunctional sites first.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 3:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Toxic Enviorment, Developmentally Inappropriate Abusive Culture of Fear ”
CON’s: “Worked for one of the highest performing schools in the network in the Bronx.
“— Entire school focused on remaining at top of network schools assessment wise while pushing students in completely developmentally inappropriate and emotionally ABUSIVE ways.
” — When I brought up that Eva and the network and research disagrees with practices at my location, I was told the network didn’t know what they were talking about, haven’t I seen our top assessment scores, and that my primary responsibility was to make sure my classroom assessment data was up.
” — Teachers openly MOCKED 6 year olds with learning disabilities telling them they would see them in the same grade again next year because they were neither smart nor hard working and hopefully would not be in their student again- in front of the entire classroom.
” — Left work every day feeling angry at the school until I left permanently.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Teacher culture needs to be totally reformed-
— experienced total lack of professionalism by newer teachers in front of children we were meant to be models for.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – No Opinion of CEO
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 4:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“The mission provides so much potential, but falls short in practice ”
CON’s:
“Employees are seen as dispensable and the environment is toxic.
— Leaders rule through fear and intimidation.
— At the network office, pay is low for the hours worked.
— Turnover is extremely high.
— The organization has grown too fast.
— There are other rewarding education organizations that treat their employees better.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 5:
“Will not shape you into the the teacher that you want to be. ”
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
“Lack of support.
— Militaristic style of teaching to the test.
— Students did not learn content.
— Teachers had no work-life balance.”
Does NOT Recommend — No Opinion of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 6:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Great mission, terrible culture ”
CON’s:
“The leadership team is more interested in making political statements than about choosing the right growth strategy for the organization.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 7:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“I was an Associate Teacher ”
CON’s:
“Everything.
— Extremely high turnover due to many reasons, just a few of which are listed here.
— Hours are insane,
— management doesn’t care about the employees,
— the style of teaching and discipline is horrifying,
— I didn’t like who I became after working here,
— there are unrealistic expectations of teachers (like I need to log every phone call I make to a parent!?),
— and the feedback is ALWAYS negative without any sense of “you can do it” or “we can do this together”,
— it’s “Get your f*cking sh*t together!”
ADVICE to Management:
“You’ll have a much happier staff if you recognize that employees are PEOPLE who want to have lives outside of work, don’t want to be micromanaged, and will see better results if you approach criticism in a more constructive way rather than beating up your teachers.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 8:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Overworked and unreasonable expectations on staff, micromanaging”
CON’s:
” — 1. Micromanaging by leadership
“— 2. No autonomy in your classroom, it’s like they’re making all their teachers into replicas of the one model they’re looking for
“— 3. Overworked school day – I would arrive by 6:45 am and I felt like I was running behind already.
— I would work till 5:00 pm at school, then bolt out the door to get home to my family.
— I would tirelessly grade papers while on the subway, try to respond to the absurd amount of emails and constantly changing meetings, expectations, etc.
— I would work on school work for extra hours at night and it was never enough.
— If this had been my first teaching job out of college, I would have hated teaching.
— Luckily I had 6 years experience in a great school district in a different state.
“The stories I had to tell about this job made everyone in my life tell me to quit. There was so much stress and anxiety going into each week of the job.”
Does NOT Recommend — No Opinion of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 9:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Very low morale”
CON’s:
“All teachers are extremely overworked.
— 12-hour work days are the norm.
— Very, very little prep time during the day, as meetings are held during “prep” periods.
— Management encourages bizarre competition between teachers, and as a result, morale is low.
” — Students are pushed out of the school if they exhibit any negative behaviors or if their data is low.
— In either case, management will meet with the family to tell them that this school is ‘just not the right fit for them’.
— If that doesn’t work, they will suspend the child ad nauseum or even push them down into a lower grade, so that their exhausted parents give in.
— It’s absurd that this school is publicly funded when it does not serve the population it purports to serve.
— It is honestly more a school for gifted students than a school working to close the achievement gap.
— I include this in my review because it contributes to the low morale of the school – your students who you love are constantly being kicked out.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 10:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
”
ADVICE to Management:
“Value your teachers more by making their workday more manageable.
— This will lead to teacher retention.
— 6:30am – 6:30pm is not sustainable, as the teacher turnover rate clearly attests.
” — Also, value the children who are told they don’t belong at our school.
“If we can’t help them, what are we doing in the education business?”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 11:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Not fulfilling, will not help you with career. ”
CON’s:
“I worked exceptionally hard and efficient, and they rewarded me by not hiring me after the internship ended saying “There was not enough work to be done”. There was not enough work to be done because I completed all the tasks. 1 month later surprisingly they found enough work again to open up the position.
” — They will not give you reference letter, its against company policy.
” — You spend days working on projects that they themselves do not want to work on. Some of which include creating thousands of addition and subtraction problems.
” — You’re supposed to work with the Math team however they are never in the office, and you are left alone to do meaningless tasks.
” — You get paid terribly, and not treated as part of the company or team.
” — They exclude interns from meetings, both company and team.
” — Terrible pay despite working you to the bone.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Recognize talent and hard work.
— Be honest about work performance instead of hiding behind HR.”
Does NOT Recommend — Positive Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 12:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“High Turnover, Poor Work Life Balance, Unprofessional Managers ”
CON’s:
“Unprofessional Directors and poor work-life balance. Focus on test scores and nothing else.
” — Staff usually stay less than one year.
” — There are so many HR/Recruiting positions available because the staff turnover is so high,
” — they are constantly searching for other candidates.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Look at the Enrollment and Talent/HR Team and Teacher Dept turnover. Why do certain directors have extremely high turnover and are not being held accountable?”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 13:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“High Turnover, Poor Management ”
CON’s:
” — 1. Poor Management: Management tends to fire those who voice opposition. Look at the turnover data for the Network office…team Ops, team Enrollment…etc.
” — 2. Mostly young, inexperienced staff. The poor management is directly reflective of inexperienced staff.
” — 3. Unrealistic work expectations with no additional compensation or concern for staff well being. In a “no excuses” environment, even being ill with cancer is no excuse for taking a day off.
” — 4. I cannot stress enough how poor the management of department directors and other senior staff is. My manager was the most unprofessional, unqualified person I had worked with in my career.
ADVICE to Management:
“Examine the high turnover rate and be honest about it. There are several directors whose turnover rates for their departments should be analyzed.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 14:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Abusive, panic-driven environment justified with high reward potential ”
CON’s:
“— Erosion of any work/life balance – actually highly, HIGHLY discouraged in culture
— Constant environment of panic maintained to encourage high effort and self-doubt
— Eva is abusive and no one is willing to admit it
— Recommended to young individuals who believe in giving 115% for “the cause,” and have not yet developed concept of “self-boundaries” or “self-care”
— Upon school visitations, their very strict classroom rules for students also border on abusive
— While building critical reading and writing skills in kids, also severely stamps down on self-expression or autonomy (punishments are plentiful, harsh, and unexplained)
— Absolute silence in hallways, even teachers are discouraged from speaking
— Teachers are kept in constant fear of surprise visits and sample collections for evaluation.”
ADVICE to Management:
“To management? Why bother? The network team waited weeks to “introduce me” to the Director, waiting for the right moment. WEEKS. I began to wonder if I should chew on a leaf in an office corner until she became accustomed to my scent. This is how afraid her staff members are, or at the least, this was the culture they tried to project.
“Her direct inferiors are constantly insulted, sent to run on impossible tasks, validated for their submission to her, or ridiculed/fired if not. I had extreme difficulty maintaining any hard boundaries — much less soft ones — during my time there. The literacy team is stressed out beyond belief; they put so much work into what they do but it is never good enough. It was incredible to watch.
‘THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA’ — except not funny and you actually can damage hundreds of kids lives in the process.
Any advice will fall on deaf ears because hers is a method that works well. Google “sick system” and you will find Success, in its shiny, primary colored glory.”
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“My advice goes out to the staff.
” — The high turnover occurs because those able to identify the system for what it is and recognize that when faced with self-respect/self-care vs. ‘the cause,’ they should choose to protect what’s left and move on.
” — In addition, once you step quietly back from the whole thing, you will learn that ‘the cause’ has gotten lost in politics, panic and upkeep. ‘The cause’ is potentially damaging to the students that attend the school.
” — If ‘the cause’ is yourself — meaning, you are a young, vibrant, 20-something year old who wants to feel that you’ve single-handedly changed the world — this is probably a better place for you than the ACTUAL NYC education system, which can be disheartening, without guidance or such ripe upward mobility. Here you’ve got micromanaging overhead, and if you ‘survive’ long enough, you can really take your experience everywhere.
“Dear prospective employee: In many aspects, teaching is like social work. Social Work institutions highly, highly encourage you to maintain self-boundaries and self-care. Otherwise you will burn out in a ruthless, demanding, draining career of unrequited love.
“The same way many social-work industries can take advantage of the big hearts and self-validating determination, so can ‘well-intended’ charter schools. Once you find yourself in a position where you have to negotiate your ‘non-negotiable’ (I highly recommend you walk in with one) on a consistent basis, consider stepping back for a long, long moment. Breathe. You will probably ride a cycle similar to breaking up from an unhealthy relationship, but I promise you your quality of life is not worth it.
“In any case, they can replace you so quickly. I think that is what scares everyone the most.”
Does NOT Recommend — Positive Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 15:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
“—Culture – the tone of the organization is driven top-down. Eva and her direct reports are unafraid to bully others and do not show appreciation for those working for them. That trickles down through the organization in a very significant way.
” — Highly-political / not-business minded – Though the organization is a non-profit there is ZERO business sense in making decisions which is sorely needed. Decisions are almost always motivated by political motives.
” — Physical work environment – the actual office is pretty terrible. They signed a 10 year lease on a space that they outgrew in about a year and a half. Some of us were in the former storage spaces with no actual desk phones or any natural light. Some people are in satellite offices with significantly longer commutes.
” — Extremely high turnover with no institutional memory – because people leave so often and the organization does not do a good job of standardizing procedures or capturing information there is a lot of reinventing the wheel that happens when someone comes into a job.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Listen to what your employees are telling you – both current and former – and actually try to take some steps to make a change!”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 16:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“The worst—I repeat—The WORST teaching job I have ever had in my life! ”
CON’s:
” — Long hours (minimum 60 hours a week…if your lucky). They have no regard for work-life balance.
— Awful management-Management (Principals, Vice Principals, etc) are trained to run schools like factories and they do.
— Employees are treated like they are just another number not like human beings.
— They have no intrest in teacher retention.
— If you don’t believe me, Google the turnover rate for thier schools.
— Some are at 60%! Lastly, at time the expectations are unrealistic.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Learn how to manage people in a way that makes them want to work for your company for the rest of their lives. I have seen some of the most passionate teachers quit this job.
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 17:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Too miserable to stay, no matter how much you are there “for the kids” ”
CON’s:
“— Arrogant young management
— ZERO personal AND ZERO sick days
— little prep time when accounting for extra meetings
— leadership talks to teachers like they are students
ADVICE to Management:
“I LOVE the mission of Success Charter Network. I love the kids there.
— But I simply cannot stay on board with the unprofessional tone of leadership and the unrealistic demands on us as teachers.
— Working 80 hour weeks and still not completing my ‘assignments’ at a high level tells me there is something wrong with the model. \
— I actually wish the work environment was better so I could stick around for the kids and their families. I am a well educated professional and a highly effective teacher that should not be talked down to by a 26 year old supervisor.
“Until major changes are made, I will look for another charter network… ”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 18:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Bad Work Environment”
CON’s:
“Working longer school years, longer school days (7 AM – 5 PM is mandated… and that includes a flexible prep time… some days you have all of your prep, other days you have none), with less pay.
“Couple this with no tenure, no unionized safety, no days off.
— There are no substitute teachers; if a teacher is absent, you lose your prep time to cover a class.
— And there is no compensation (of time or money) for this. As a result, the average worker sticks around till 8 PM. 7 AM-8 PM = a schedule that is not conducive to most people’s lifestyles.
— Clubs are practically mandated for certain teachers. No choice in this privatized industry.
“This job is not good for anybody who wants to do anything outside of Success. This includes having a family.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Consider changing your mentality towards teachers. Yes, students come first, but so do our personal lives. Make it more family friendly, and maybe there will be less of a teacher turnover in future years.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 19:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Great Company…if you prefer ambiguity and lack of work/life balance ”
CON’s:
“Few standard operating procedures
— Unclear organizational structure
— Poor work/life balance
— Zero opportunities for mentorship and coaching due to youthful management, which leads to
— Young managerial staff with limited experience
ADVICE to Management:
“Stop reinventing the wheel.
— Develop basic policies and procedures.
— Hire competent, experienced staff.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 20:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Good schools, terrible work environment (unless you are a teacher). ”
CON’s:
“Toxic work environment
— culture of fear
— you could lost your job at anytime, work harder.
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 21:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Mission driven, but a cult of personality ”
CON’s:
“High turnover,
— low employee satisfaction,
— incredibly top-down,
— poor upper and middle management,
— over-promotion,
— young workforce that exudes professional immaturity,
— heavy test prep that no one speaks of outside of the organization,
— layers of mismanagement and heavily politicized environment,
— doesn’t care about teacher turnover.
“Teachers are not trusted to do their jobs,
— staff on all levels are micromanaged,
— scaling and expanding too quickly without an adequate strategy or plan in place.
“The CEO, while an incredibly dynamic and intelligent woman, is too heavily involved with the day-to-day instead of focusing on higher level strategy and management of the organization. The organization runs on a cult of personality that revolves around pleasing her, which makes me skeptical that they can truly scale this model of education.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Change your policies towards teachers:
— Try to retain them,
— give more flexible time-off/sick day policies,
— place more trust in their abilities and truly develop them.
— Improve internal communication skills,
— treat employees like they are human,
— stop micromanaging and empower employees to do their jobs well.
“When you are leader and you constantly complain about the incompetencies beneath you – well, the apple never falls far from the tree. The culture starts at the top.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 22:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Great benefits and salary, good mission, poor execution ”
CON’s:
“Not a lot of autonomy;
— conflicting feedback and management styles;
— too many managers;
— poor work/life balance;
— poor employee culture (encouraged to backbite and compete rather than collaborate)
ADVICE to Management:
“Streamline management of lower level employees:
— teachers do not need and suffer under 4 different managers, particularly when they have varying styles of management and conflicting advice;
— too frequent observations actually contributes more to stress than to accountability.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Approves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 1:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Very Low Morale.”
CON’s:
“Depressing environment.
— Unreasonable workload.
— Teachers have low morale and are stressed.
— No work/life balance.
— Uncertain how much school cares about kids (it’s more about the numbers).
ADVICE to Management:
“The turnover rate is high.
“There are people who want to quit, but can’t because they
— 1) care about the kids,
— 2) need the money,
— 3) signed a 2 year commitment contract,
or
— 4) can’t get a day off to go on another interview.
“Management should be worried about the long-term viability of this organization.
— No one can work at this pace for 10 years.
“Management should invest in retaining their employees instead of hiring new ones constantly.
— Intellectual capital cannot be replicated.
— The hours are terrible. 6:30 am- 7pm stresses everyone out, including the kids.
— One has to wake up four or five am depending on commute and try to get to sleep early for the next day.
“However, the work never ends so there is never enough time to get everything done. You never feel as if you’re doing your job well enough. Ever.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – No Opinion of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 23:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Well-funded, high expectations, don’t value their employees ”
CON’s:
“I felt completely taken advantage of as a teacher.
— Way overworked (even relative to a prior career that was extremely demanding),
— felt very little respect from network.
— Didn’t care about my work-life balance, personal health, emotional well-being.
— Was assigned way more tasks than what I believe a teacher should be asked to do (which resulted in lower quality work in the classroom).
— Extremely micromanaged, which was forced upon me in my work, and forced upon students as well.
— Little creativity encouraged in learning.”
ADVICE to Management:
“It’s been noted that the network doesn’t care about employee turn over–but this school turned me off from teaching.
— Literally worked me until I was sick.
— Actually care about your employees well-being and sanity–work smarter, not harder. — Allow kids to be kids, and let the teachers teach.
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 24:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“The Reality is Nothing Like the Image ”
CON’s:
“Employee happiness is on the bottom of the priority list.
— The model seems to be based on bringing in young, idealistic men and women ready to put up with anything and asking them to work around the clock and devote their lives to the job.
— Few last longer than a year, which weakens the culture…some people don’t bother learning colleagues’ names since turnover is so high.
“Vast majority of senior staff are not good managers.
— Just so many terrible management practices that make no sense.
— Management seems to have no respect for employees.
— We are kept in the dark about major issues affecting us,
— management does not solicit employee opinions,
— huge discrepancies in salary between the top tier and the rest.
“Huge focus on testing and test scores.
— The image of multi-disciplinary ‘whole-child’ curriculum just isn’t true in Grades 3 and up, when the students spend months on end preparing for the state tests.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Employee happiness might not seem like a pressing problem, but a model based on constant turnover undermines the organization.
— Some respect toward the employees goes a long way (and I don’t mean casual Friday or free snacks).
Does NOT Recommend — Approves of CEO
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