Russ Walsh: How Do You Spell—S-U-C-C-E-S-S?

May 6, 2015 //

Russ Walsh reflects on the high test scores of the students at New York City’s celebrated Success Academy (originally known as Harlem Success Academy).

He has a different definition of success from the charter chain.

Categories Harlem Success Academy, Standardized Testing

30 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

jeanhaverhill says:

May 6, 2015 at 10:31 am

I see a parallel when the “oil/gas/fracking” industry claims their “success” to what Arne Duncan is claiming as “miracle”. Here is the frackingindustry “success” story”…quote: “Part of the improved economics comes from cherry picking. In the current low price environment, Pioneer and others are drilling their best, lowest‐cost prospects first. The industry calls this “high grading”. The result should be an initial burst of apparent productivity improvement.” Duncan came to Lawrence MA and proclaimed a “miracle” and went to spread the news in NY . I would like to see data on the sustained effects in Lawrence in a study done by an outside , independent evaluator — not a “Pearson” marketing piece.

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SomeDAM Poet says:

May 6, 2015 at 10:42 am

“$ucce$$”

I’m thinking of a word
That $tarts and End$ with $:
If you’re a bookish nerd
I’ll take the second caller

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Michael Fiorillo says:

May 6, 2015 at 10:44 am

“How do you spell S-U-C-C-E-S-S ?”

Ka-Ching !

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- Lloyd Lofthouse says:
  
  May 6, 2015 at 8:15 pm
  
  LOL
  You beat me to it but I was going to use: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
  
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Liz says:

May 6, 2015 at 10:46 am

D. L. Hughley made some interesting comments to Dan Senor, husband to Campbell Brown and pro-privitazer and profiteer for the charter movement on Bill Maher Friday. When Senor went after teacher’s unions, Hughley shot back that he wished the right would go after police unions the way they went after teacher’s unions. Then he said that to infer that neighborhood schools weren’t “good enough” for the residents and that kids needed to be sent out of their neighborhoods to get a good education sent a bad message.

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- Benten32 says:
  
  May 6, 2015 at 11:41 am
  
  I saw that exchange. Notice how Senor had to shoe-horn the Success reference in, and claimed that “22,000” students clamored to get into the school and why did the unions fight to keep them out.” I like the way D.L. Hughley stated that he resented being told his neighborhood wasn’t good enough and that he would have to go to another neighborhood to go to school.
  
  The photo on Walsh’s website showing the boys with their hands classed behind their backs is horrifying. It’s a prison stance; can you imagine what it does to a little boy’s spirit to have to do that for your white teachers and for Eva?
  
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KrazyTA says:

May 6, 2015 at 11:03 am

The piece by Russell Walsh is first-rate. Read.

And a reminder from a 4-25-2010 online article in NYMAGAZINE:

[start]

The day before the scheduled math test, the city got socked with eight inches of snow. Of 1,499 schools in the city, 1,498 were closed. But at Harlem Success Academy 1, 50-odd third-graders trudged through 35-mile-per-hour gusts for a four-hour session over Subway sandwiches. As Moskowitz told the Times, “I was ready to come in this morning and crank the heating boilers myself if I had to.”

“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]

Link: http://nymag.com/nymag/features/65614/

[from the same piece: “Paul Fucaloro, her director of instruction and right-hand man.”]

The rheephormistas love them some hard data points…

Eva Moskowitz: $57.50@ student. Carmen Fariña: less than 25¢@student.

Rounding upward, responsible for ten thousand students. Rounding downward, responsible for one million students.

Adult interests first. Student interests first.

It’s all in the numbers.

¿😳 ?

Seriously folks, just use the sort of Marxian data analysis that charterites/voucherites/privatizers rely on:

“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

Groucho would be so proud. The nuts, er, acorns don’t fall far from the tree…

😎

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shelley says:

May 6, 2015 at 3:03 pm

The photo says it all–how many children have you ever seen walk like that–or adults, for that matter? Are they being trained to be handcuffed?! Can’t IMAGINE the emotional damage being inflicted on these poor kids…or the future class action suits to come!

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- FLERP! says:
  
  May 6, 2015 at 3:58 pm
  
  I will defer to the elementary school teachers here, but my sense is that Success Academy is not that unusual in terms of this kind of “hallway discipline,” i.e. walking quietly in a single file. My son’s elementary school appears to have a similar policy (assuming I’m to credit my son’s complaints).
  
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  - Dienne says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 4:38 pm
    
    Does your son have to put his arms in handcuff position?
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 4:40 pm
    
    I would’t be surprised, but I don’t know. I’ll ask him tonight if I can remember.
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 5:15 pm
    
    FLERP, I think if you check with your son, you’ll find that none of the other kids in his Kindergarten class were suspended because they couldn’t manage to walk quietly at all times. In fact, I’d venture to say none of them were suspended at all! Too bad the same isn’t true of schools like Harlem Success Academy 4, which suspended 20 and 21% of its students the last 2 years that data is available.
    
    All elementary schools to keep a calm and quiet order in Kindergarten and 1st grade. The question is what lengths they go to achieve it and what lengths they go to get rid of the students who can’t manage it.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 5:19 pm
    
    That’s true, I’m not aware of any students in my son’s class who have been suspended for failing to walk quietly at all times.
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 5:16 pm
    
    “All elementary schools TRY to keep a calm and quiet order”…sorry for typo
    
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- Tim says:
  
  May 6, 2015 at 5:29 pm
  
  Facts should certainly never stand in the way of our preconceived ideological positions, but the children pictured aren’t students at a Success school. Success uniforms look like this: http://www.successacademies.org/site/uploads/2014/07/home-video-3.png
  
  (commence chorus of “what difference does it make,” “I’m sure Success is the same or worse,” etc.)
  
  Like Flerp, all of the NYC DOE K-8 schools that I am familiar with, even the most progressive ones, ask that kids are silent and move in single file during transitions. Maybe they are trying to psychologically break children down, too, or maybe it’s just the best way to organize and move large numbers of children in a small space in a limited amount of time. Either way . . .
  
  And I only wish that my kids got as much recess, PE, art, music, science, or field trips at their traditional NYC DOE schools as Success kids get. Maybe Russ Walsh should actually visit a Success school and a NYC DOE school and revisit his blog entry.
  
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 5:47 pm
    
    NY Times 7/11/11 – Message From a Charter School: Thrive or Transfer
    “Matthew is bright but can be disruptive and easily distracted. It was not a natural fit for the Success charters, which are known for discipline and long school days. From Day 1 of kindergarten, Ms. Sprowal said, he was punished for acting out.
    “They kept him after school to practice walking in the hallway,” she said.”
    Ms. Sedlis denied that Matthew had been suspended, and said he was not disciplined when he was kept after school.
    “Practicing walking through the halls is the opposite of a punishment,” she wrote. “Just as in math, when a child does not get a concept, we re-teach. We don’t let the child fail. We ensure he gets it. We take the same approach with behavior. If a child is struggling, we re-teach. This is an example of when the school went out of its way to help Matthew be successful.”
    
    See, that’s how you teach a 5 year old to learn how to walk quietly with their hands folded. You keep them after school and make them walk the halls until “he gets it”. It’s not punishment, it’s the Success Academy method of teaching!
    
    FYI, this child went to PS 75, where he wasn’t suspended over and over again and thrived.
    
    Tim and FLERP, the difference between Success Academy and public elementary schools is not that both schools do not ask their child to be quiet during transitions – of course every public elementary school does this. The difference is how the schools deal with the 5 year olds who can’t manage that from day 1, even after being made to stay after school and walk the hallways!
    
    Success Academy’s use of out of school suspensions of 5 and 6 year olds is the cheapest way of “teaching” behavior. Because either a kid gets it, or you suspend him until he leaves.
    
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  - Tim says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 5:58 pm
    
    The child wasn’t suspended for not walking correctly.
    
    The child’s parent was deeply, deeply unhappy with the traditional district schools available to her on the basis of her street address.
    
    The child got a placement at a Success school and all parties agreed that it didn’t work out. The parent had no qualms about leveraging Success’s connections and resources to secure an out-of-zone placement at a popular District 3 school with a noteworthy special education program.
    
    People think that bringing up this story (again and again, for seven years now, ad infinitum) is casting a negative light on Success. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but what it is undeniably doing is making a case for giving all parents the kind of choice this parent was fortunate to have.
    
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  - FLERP! says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 6:01 pm
    
    Reverse image search reveals that it’s a photograph of students at Lakewood Elementary in Houston.
    
    http://schools.nfisd.org/preview.aspx?page=279
    
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  - Russ Walsh says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 6:26 pm
    
    You are correct to point out the picture is not from Success Academy. My apologies for any confusion that caused. I have not visited Success Academy but i have spent considerable time in a “no excuses” charter where I observed the harsh discipline I described here. In the school I visited children found guilty of hallway violations were placed “on the bench” and required to where a bright yellow shirt as a punishment. I adsumed that Walmart was out of dunce caps.
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 6, 2015 at 7:03 pm
    
    Jenny Sedlis: ““Practicing walking through the halls is the opposite of a punishment,” she wrote.
    
    Tim, we both agreed that asking students to walk through the halls quietly is pretty standard for an elementary school. What is NOT standard is keeping a Kindergarten child after school the first few days of school to have him practice walking the halls quietly over and over again. You all that “teaching” and apparently you are shocked that every elementary school in the country isn’t doing this. You believe when Jenny Sedlis when she explains that forcing a 5 year old to stay after school to “practice” walking quietly up and down the halls is just good teaching! Because in the world of the inexperienced Success Academy teacher, that is how you “teach” a child when he doesn’t get it the first time. Just like having a child stay in from recess to do math problems he doesn’t understand will “teach” him how to do math problems. Or, perhaps “teach” him that if he doesn’t get it the first or second time, he doesn’t belong in the school. And perhaps “teach” his parents that there is a public school out there where he might do better.
    
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  - Beth says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 8:48 am
    
    @Tim
    
    PS75 is not a popular school. It is an underrated school, but popular it is not.
    
    Contrary to your constant excuses typical of a Success Academy supporter, I think the Sprowal story is relevant. If Success Academy takes public funds, then they should be truly open to all students and should work with all students accepted via lottery. If they don’t want to do that, they should not be taking public funds or be housed within public school buildings. The way they treated this family was shameful, and yet you see fit to blame the victim – “The parent had no qualms about leveraging Success’s connections and resources to secure an out-of-zone placement at a popular District 3 school with a noteworthy special education program.”
    
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  - Tim says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 10:05 am
    
    No, Beth, PS 75 is not popular with wealthy white people for gen ed, but that’s not relevant here. Its CTT and ASD Nest programs are difficult to get into. Unless a child is a native Spanish speaker, placement in a CTT class for an out-of-zone and out-of-district student is unusual.
    
    This parent was willing to do anything to avoid her local zoned options. She applied to multiple charter lotteries, private schools, and unzoned public schools. You not only oppose charter schools, you also vehemently oppose the idea of parents getting to choose anything other than their zoned school. Kids who are zoned for 191 must stay at 191, to hell with what families want and what’s best for the kids. So again, the takeaway from Sprowalgate is not what you think it is.
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 10:18 am
    
    Success Academy always trots out low-income families at rallies but when push comes to shove, they are happy to get rid of them if the child is “difficult”. And by “difficult”, I mean exactly as described here, which is not that atypical for a 5 year old. And THIS is a child with a caring parent — let’s face it, the truly at-risk children who don’t have this kind of support structure aren’t even in the mix at Success Academy. And yet, that doesn’t stop Eva Moskowitz from loudly proclaiming that the schools that educate those kids need NOTHING except her “special sauce”. If you want to know why I find her so offensive it is exactly this — she has enriched herself by educating a small % of low-income students at the expense of 1000 times that many students who are in schools starved of funding and expected to match her results because of her claims that she is educating the exact same students. Meanwhile, she pretends that students in District 2 are clamoring for new schools and ignores the cries of students in the Bronx who are already on wait lists they will never get off of because Williamsburg and Park Slope and Midtown Manhattan need even more SA schools before the Bronx gets them.
    
    Let’s face it, if Eva Moskowitz had some special sauce, she would be opening schools in the poorest neighborhoods of the Bronx and giving priority to the poorest students. The fact that she is so very desperate to open in wealthy areas — where she dropped priority for any child except those who can afford to live in wealthy areas — is proof that she seems to believe that she has found every child in the Bronx District 7 she is able to educate under the SA system and sees no need for any more schools there. Shameful. Especially because she won’t simply be honest and acknowledge this is the case. Why?
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 10:20 am
    
    Wow Tim, you seem to know all kinds of personal information about this former Success Academy parent. What is your connection to Success Academy anyway? Please be honest.
    
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  - Tim says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 10:51 am
    
    All that I know about this situation was gleaned from the Winerip piece itself and posts on Leonie Haimson’s blog. As I have said repeatedly, my kids attend traditional district NYC DOE schools. All of my household’s income is earned in fields wholly unrelated to education.
    
    I sure would like to know how every time someone mentions Success in any of the far reaches of the Internet, no more than 30 minutes later you’re there with a 500-1000+ word response. I won’t hold my breath.
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 11:06 am
    
    By the way, Tim, every time you post these kinds of things, you encourage me to look at data.nysed.gov so I can see what actually happened with this child’s class at HSA 3 during those years. I mean, the parents who CHOSE Success Academy for their kids, just like Ms. Sprowal did. Just like you think ALL students should do.
    
    There were 130 students taking the 3rd grade exam in the cohort that this student would have been part of. 104 of them were economically disadvantaged, 26 of them were not. Let’s see what happened two years later, when it was time to take the 5th grade exam:
    
    Only 104 students remain to take the 5th grade exam. And, shockingly, there are STILL 26 students who are not economically disadvantaged. But of the 104 student who were poor, only 77 remain. That’s 1/4 of the poor students disappearing in 2 years. And what’s interesting is that the suspension rates at that school — yes, even when it ONLY had Kindergarten through 3rd grade — were 20 and 21%! Apparently, Success Academy Harlem 3 just attracts lots of suspension-worthy students, just like this woman’s son. And I have no doubt that Success Academy is thrilled to expend any amount of money to find a “better” school for all the many low-income students who just don’t fit. Because not only does Tim seem to approve of parents choosing charter schools, he also approves of charter schools getting to rid themselves of as many students as they want!
    
    Tim, Harlem Success Academy 3 is in District 4 and it is the ONLY Success Academy school in that District. Meanwhile, Eva Moskowitz asked for (and received!) a THIRD elementary school in District 2 and a SECOND in District 15 — two of the wealthiest districts in NYC. I guess there are just not any more “deserving” students in District 4 to serve?
    
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  - Tim says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 11:18 am
    
    Good thing I didn’t hold my breath.
    
    I can’t imagine that someone who posts as voluminously, monomaniacally, and frequently as you do isn’t paid for it.
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 11:22 am
    
    Tim, you sound so dishonest. I readily acknowledge that I saw a Success Academy school open in my affluent neighborhood — then DROP priority for the poor kids in the neighborhood! I also was truly appalled at the misinformation that Success Academy proclaimed (I won’t call it lies, but think of the Bush Administration claiming Iraq had WMD). There was supposedly a great demand here, as proven by all the paid canvassers misleading parents about a “new school” AFTER the claims of the demand were made.
    
    I believe in HONESTY and there are plenty of charter schools that are honest about who they do and do not educate. They don’t gain at the expense of the most vulnerable students. They don’t suspend 20% of students in a school serving only Kindergarten through 3rd graders — POOR Kindergarten through 3rd graders.
    
    Now why do YOU post on here? You are a regular public school parent but you are compelled to post over and over again with misleading facts to defend Success Academy? My explanation makes sense to people — yours does not. You just believe in truth, justice and charter schools — that is, Success Academy charter schools? But when I point out any failings, instead of acknowledging them you pretend they don’t exist? No parent without an agenda would do that. What is yours? Continuing your dishonesty — even your friend FLERP would question it, I’d suspect.
    
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  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    May 8, 2015 at 5:46 pm
    
    By the way Tim, can you come up with a reason why a so-called “public school parent” like you claim to be would feel this unrequited need to post untruths in order to make a large charter school chain look better than it is? Remember this one: “The state charter school law demands that charters be placed in districts with kids who are risk of academic failure. Here are how many free- or reduced-price lunch children are currently on the books in these districts: District 2: 34,323”. That was when you were desperate to come up with a reason why Eva Moskowitz would insist she needed a third Success Academy School in the wealthiest district in New York City while there is still only one Success Academy (or none) in many legitimately poor districts. I explained that you were including out of zone high school students to exaggerate the number of low income students in District 2 by an enormous amount — Not 34,000, but 5,700 students are even of elementary school age. Even when I pointed that that there ARE districts with well over 5x that number of low-income students who are the right age for Success Academy, but Success still preferred District 2 over them, you just disappeared. Weird, isn’t it. If I post an incorrect fact, I apologize for it. That’s what real parents do because we aren’t paid PR folks. Why don’t you?
    
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West coast teacher says:

May 6, 2015 at 6:14 pm

It seems as though E. M. gets rid of anyone who resists this sort of discipline. A colleague and I were able to get kids to be quiet in the halls and to line up neatly in a public school class which included kids who were oppositional, disinterested, and talkative, even though a few of the parents were under the impression that twelve year olds should not be able to do it. And we did this because it was just good manners not to disturb others. We didn’t have the luxury of suspending the more difficult kids we were assigned nor did we have the legal right to disrespect any of the students. We could be sanctioned or sued for such behavior. We also had to risk being labeled insufficient for those students who were less than academic or attentive.
So just what has SA done?
Furthermore, only the super rich would consider any of the kids profiled in the Times as poor. You want poor underserved kids, I can show you some. These kids sounded like the middle class poor to me. There is a big difference between poverty and having little money. I am still laughing over Klein’s depiction of himself as having been poor. I find the definition of poor is a lot different in NYC than any where else I have lived–may be because the working class continually compares itself to those on Park Avenue.

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