Eva Moskowitz is operating five city-funded pre-K classes, but she has refused to sign the contract requiring her to agree to the city’s rules, including inspections.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer informed Moskowitz that she must follow the city’s rules, as other charters do, or he will cut off funding for her pre-K classes.
What an audacious idea! Public accountability for public funds! Who knew?
Shocker! I wonder if she’ll comply with such restrictive regulation! Oh my.
Here’s a video of Eva Moskowitz’ press conference (Friday, October 30, 2015) in response to the latest “Go to go” list controversy.
Boy, those Success Academy principals — like Candido “Go-to-Go-List” Brown speaking here, and the ones in the background — sure to do cry a lot.
This maudlin display reminds me of Jimmy Swaggart’s tear-filled mea culpa back in 1988:
This Success Academy press conference is just plain weird, and does not move me in the least. I mean, seriously. Does Eva and her handlers really think that, outside of Success Academy’s insulated cult, this such a grotesque spectacle will have any positive effect on the Success Academy image?
Embedded in this event is their simultaneous fabrication of victimhood:
( 01:11 – 01:31 )
CANDIDO BROWN: “Someone on my team, who is not a part of that meeting, sent the email to the network because he knew that what the meeting produced (the “Got-to-Go List”) went against our (Success Academy’s) policies.”
Actually, Principal Brown, that person sent it precisely BECAUSE he/she believed — nay… BECAUSE THEY – KNEW – — that the “Got-to-Go List” was precisely reflective of, and consistent with Success Academy policies. This is despite Eva dismissing all of such accusations as “crazy talk”, and hearing Eva, in multiple letters, deny the existence of such practices, with Eva, in effect, saying over and over… it’s all lies. If what you say is true, prove it. Show us the proof! But you can’t, because there is no proof… and on and on…
Well, Eva. You asked for it, and now you’ve got it.
Yet now that the public has the proof—that you formerly insisted did not exist—your response is this clumsy, transparent attempt at misdirection where you order this principal to appear at a press conference, and, reading a script you prepared for him, do the full-on Jimmy Swaggart tear-fest?
What-ever.
Even still, some of what Principal Brown says is nevertheless revealing;
( 00:54 – 01:55 )
CANDIDO BROWN: (In creating the “Go-to-Go List” then kicking out 9 out of the 15 on the list) “I was doing what I thought that I needed to do to fix a school (unintelligible… “where it not to my whole charter… ” or something.. I can’t make it out, JACK).”
Principal Brown, that begs the obvious question…
What influences from above, starting with Eva herself — explicit or implied, direct or indirect — led you to the point that you were thought that implementing a policy of kicking out certain undesirable “Go-to-go” children — complete with an actual “Got-to-Go List” — was what “I needed to do to fix a school?”
Tearful as your performance was, for you to claim that all of this “kicking out” and “Got to Go List” stuff came about in a total vacuum — originating wholly with you and not in anyway due to influences from above you, including from Eva herself — does not pass the smell test.
This implies the unlikely scenario that, independent of you, Principals at several other Success Academy schools with sky-high attrition also acted totally on their own and kicked out hordes of children, with again, no pressure or influence from above, or from Eva herself — explicit or implied, direct or indirect.
Such a claim strains credulity. Eva is truly Nixon-like in this scenario, with her claim of rogue agents acting on their own, and not in any way responding to a culture or environment that she herself created.
Given Success Academy’s dictator-like management style, can a typical Success Academy principal or other official act on their own this way?
Below are some quotes from the Glass Door, a site where former Success Academy teachers were and are allowed to vent, without fear of Eva, and where they know Eva could not censor their comments:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/08/citizen-jacks-compendium-of-teacher.html
Here’s a sampling that corroborates the notion that Principal Candido Brown did not act alone, and that others above him, including and especially Eva, bear the majority of the responsibility:
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “The (Success Academy) organization runs on a cult of personality that revolves around pleasing (Eva Moskowitz), which makes me skeptical that they can truly scale this model of education.”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “(Success Academy) Leaders rule through fear and intimidation.”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “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 whom you love are constantly being kicked out.”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: — Also, (Success
Academy leaders need to, but do not) “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?”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “Teachers openly MOCKED 6-year-olds with learning disabilities, telling them they would not want to see them in the same grade again next year (i.e. held back, JACK) because they were neither smart, nor hard working, and hopefully would not be their student again — (and say this) in front of the entire classroom.”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “The feedback (from superiors) is ALWAYS negative, without any sense of ‘you can do it’ or ‘we can do this together’… (instead) it’s ‘Get your f*cking sh*t together!’ ”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “Teachers are kept in constant fear of surprise visits and sample collections for evaluation.”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “(Eva Moskowitz’) 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.
(Success Academy and its leadership resembles) ‘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.”
FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER: “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.”
Time to load up the buses for another rally…. Don’t steal possible, Mr. Stringer!
When it comes to Eva M, I’d rather hear “Follow the rules or end up in court and then prison.”
She’ll sue before she signs. And insist she gets paid while it wends its way through the courts.
She will do a lot more than go to court to get her way. Her hedge fund backers/masters will spend millions in media propaganda, and Eva will organize rallies where thousands of her students and their parents will be required to wear Eva’s red shirts with slogans printed on them, and if the children and their parents don’t comply, they will end up on a hit list that says, “Must Go!”.
I was right http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/charter-boss-vows-legal-fight-nyc-pre-k-funds-article-1.2417100
Sorry I didn’t look at the photo, they aren’t bussing people, but apparently the “My Child My Choice” is their motto along with “Save Our Pre-K”.
What’s funny, is that the double “My” in their obfuscates the public interest in what they choose (and the public paying for it) – and that noone is threatening their Pre-K – they are asking for access to information that Success is denying them.
You’d think if they really wanted to save Pre-K, they’d ask what’s the big deal about opening their books? How does the city comptroller seeing how they spend money equate to killing off their program? isn’t the city allowed to know what it’s getting for its money?
A coordinated PR message that happens to defend SA’s interests in both messages, this totally is a grass roots campaign…along with all the parents keeping poster board and totally improvised messaging and arts and crafts tools at homes ideal for poster board making and clear and appropriately sized messages that all are hand drawn.
The pre-k students holding the signs is a nice touch. And a tad nauseating.
Grass roots? Really? Are you saying that Eva had nothing to do with organizing any of her “Suspension School” rallies and didn’t spend any of her own money or the money from her hedge fund backers to buy all of those red T-shirts and pay for the buses that transported the children and parents to each rally site?
It is so clearly astroturfed (even if the parents are volunteering to show up and stand there – or being coerced too…) – but everything in photos like this point to them wanting to send the message that the families and kids are the ones standing up to the big bad government threatening what’s theirs (no matter how little scrutiny that can stand up to).
It is PR in every sense of the word – trying to create a visual sense of cohesion and unity arising spontaneously from a community desire to support children.
Except that under any sort of magnifying glass the reasoning, methods, and arrangement do not align with the emotional message they are set up to sell.
Sorry for the repeated posts…but the more I look at this the more it strikes me just how engineered this is.
Look at this photo – http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2417096.1446163274!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_635/charter30n-5-web.jpg
Now look at the signs behind Eva – what do the parents have underlined in their signs? One underlines and bolds CHOICE (curiously not child) and another underlines the duel MY.
What’s the one word not highlighted? CHILD.
What about MY interest in OUR TAX dollars?
I can’t even begin to imagine what Pre-K is like at SA.
Is Eva the new Leona Helmsley? For those of you who don’t remember her, she is famous saying something like, “Only the little people pay taxes.” We don’t need pompous narcissists like Leona in education.
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
I hope that Moskowitz loses this one. But I’m not optimistic about it because of her wealthy and politically well-placed backers.
Charter schools should follow the same rules as traditional public schools. Why wouldn’t they agree to inspections? Little kids need safe schools.
If she lets the regulators in they’ll steal the secret sauce.
That was actually a legal defense in a charter school court case in Ohio. Everything in that building was Top Secret – they had a special proprietary formula that could not be released without their express permission.
I’m sure she cry to Cuomo, and hold a rally, and get her way.
Eva does not follow rules.
She makes them.
I am working in a U Pre K school. We are required to attend 3-day Summer Sessions, where we are “trained” in Common Core and Data Assessment. Carmen Farina gave the Keynote. We are meeting up again on Election Day. You have to be certified in B -2, or getting an extension. The monitors come in to help often. I know a beautiful Pre K school that was turned down, for lack of rigor (but the Director was experienced in DOE and would have made a wonderful school, as he was approved in another borough). Yet, Success Academy was approved and given the funds? I FIND THIS OUTRAGEOUS!
Because they are private.
“But Success’ legal team has told the city they will not sign the contract, according to city officials, because it would authorize DOE oversight over the privately operated network.”
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/10/8579889/pre-k-contract-sparks-new-fight-between-success-academy-and-city-h#st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/YLeRcdoAOY
If that’s the case, she can’t be implementing the Universal Pre K program; maybe she’s doing her own program, and she shouldn’t be receiving the funding.
Private preschools in NYS used to be eligible for UPK money when the program was first implemented. Not sure if that’s changed. Anyway, as we are so frequently reminded, charter schools are [cough, cough, ahem . . ] PUBLIC schools!
The US Department of Education announces a merger with Amazon and Microsoft:
“When tech companies, educators, and other stakeholders work together students win”
Notice which group is listed first there.
There is absolutely no line between the public and private sector in that department. They spend every single day pitching product, whether it’s ed tech or charter schools or loan instruments. They have completely and utterly lost their way. 100% captured.
?
The thing that’s really creepy is that Eva instills such fear that even those who have left SA, are presumably beyond the reach of her wrath are so programmed to fear her that they still insist on remaining anonymous.
Read this article about Success Academy burnout and “whisper sessions” that sound like something happening behind the Iron Curtain before the fall, or in North Korea right now. I thought we lived in a democracy with freedom of speech:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/632464-inside-success-academies-a-former-teacher-tells-all/
—————
Inside Success Academies: A Former Teacher Tells All
By Petr Svab, Epoch Times |
April 21, 2014
NEW YORK—Anna is a prototype of a Success Academy teacher—young, positive, attractive—exactly like about a dozen other teachers and employees from this charter school network I’ve met. Just like many others, she entered the network with ideals and enthusiasm. And just like many others, she left sobered on both accounts.
We sat down in a cozy Chelsea cafe and talked about how she joined, and later quit one of Success Academy’s schools. Even though her intent was simply to share her experience, Anna insisted her real name not be used so as not to antagonize her former employer. “I don’t want to burn any bridges,” she said.
Charter schools are run by private entities, but receive public funding on a per-pupil basis. Success Academy is the largest charter school network in the city, with 23 schools and 11,000 students.
Several years ago, while finishing her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, Anna ran across an opportunity for a summer fellowship with Success Academy. She already had experience with tutoring and day care. “I was comfortable with kids, I have been doing that for a long time,” she said. “I felt like that was something that I’d be good at.”
She went through a few weeks’ application process and was among the 19 people accepted out of some 1,000 applicants. After three weeks of training in June she received five weeks of hands-on practice as an assistant teacher at a Success Academy summer school. Late in July she accepted a job offer as a second grade assistant teacher.
Long Hours
Anna spent the entire month of August going through professional development with her new work collective. “It’s a pretty short summer for teachers at this school,” she said. Indeed, if picked to do the summer school instruction, a Success Academy teacher would end up with about one week of summer holiday.
The school year started at the end of August, several days earlier than at traditional public schools. Anna said she had to “hit the ground running.” It almost felt like the deck was stacked up against her.
“I was very on board over the summer. I was a believer,” she said. But fairly early in the school year her perception changed.
She was placed in a rather new school where a large part of the staff was just as new to the job as she was. This included the management. She ended up in the largest second grade class with 33 students. It was also the class with the most difficult students, Anna said. And to make things worse, she felt like her personality didn’t match well with the lead teacher she was assigned to.
The lead teacher possessed natural authority and had a very strong grip of the class. But Anna didn’t feel like she was given a chance to develop her leadership. “She never really gave me an authority in the classroom,” Anna said. “So when she would leave, it would be chaos.”
Success Academy schools usually have classes of about 30 students, equivalent to what would be considered an overcrowded public school class. To balance it off, each class has two teachers, one lead and one assistant. After one year the assistant teacher can become the lead.
Business Culture
The Success Academy company culture is similar to a Wall Street business environment. Although a nonprofit, the network was set up by two hedge fund managers, John Petry of Sessa Capital, and Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Funds.
“The Success model includes teachers whose intensity is a mix of Internet startup and trading desk, and a vast amount of training, maniacal attention to data, and replicable processes,” said Daniel S. Loeb, manager of hedge fund Third Point LLC, at a fundraiser for Success Academy last year, according to Bloomberg. Loeb is board chair of Success Academy.
The teachers’ lounge is called “teachers workroom” at Success schools. “You’re never lounging at Success Academy,” Anna said, laughing uncontrollably. “You’re always working.”
The problem was there was no space to vent grievances after a stressful day, definitely not the teachers workroom. “A lot of the time you had to be careful,” Anna said. If you couldn’t help yourself, chances were an email would come saying, “Someone heard you being negative in the teachers workroom. That’s not OK.”
And it didn’t stop with emails. Two weeks into the school year one of the most experienced teachers was fired over an argument with the principal. “She was universally acknowledged to be the best teacher,” Anna said. “The entire school was almost in a mutiny.” A week later the teacher was hired back. “It was a very, very weird thing to happen,” Anna said.
With such a tone being set, teachers invented “whisper sessions,” as Anna called them, sharing their problems in low voices among themselves.
Another teacher was fired later that year after her assistant teacher quit. “She was also a very good teacher,” Anna said. “It was a disagreement with the leadership.”
Apart from firing, a lot of teachers were reshuffled from class to class during the year, making it difficult to create a stable environment for the students. “You are changing classroom dynamics every time you make a staff change,” Anna said.
Out of 14 people from the fellowship that got jobs at Success along with Anna, only four still work there.
Burnout
Success Academy boasts that its students and teachers work extremely hard. “We can’t have a teacher who’s not working at 110 percent, when we’re asking the kids to get 110 percent,” said Abigail Johnson, principal of the Success Academy Williamsburg during an Oct. 29, 2013, school tour.
The school day is 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for children, translating to 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. for teachers. The workload is intense too. Meetings cut into lesson preparation time and the lessons themselves are fast-paced, planned down to the minute, sometimes to the second.
“I felt exhausted,” Anna said. After coming home, sometimes she would just eat something and collapse on her bed at 9 p.m. Soon enough, it started to take a toll on her health. “I was sick all the time,” she said. Having a class of children sneezing in her mouth, as she put it, didn’t help either.
But taking a day off is almost a taboo. Success Academy boasts of maximizing the efficient use of teachers’ time. Even a principal would chip in to help with reading instruction, and substitute teachers do not exist. Anna said she would feel guilty about staying home, as it would mean one of the other already overwhelmed assistant teachers would have to take over her class.
She ended up in such a position herself many times, when she would learn at 7 a.m. she was to teach someone else’s class by herself. Thus, calling in sick was like a betrayal to the collective, and even to the management. “There was often a feeling like ‘Oh, you’re sick? Are you able to stand up? Why aren’t you there?’” Anna said.
Test Prep
Success Academy shows some of the best results in the state on standardized tests. Over 80 percent of students pass math, and over 50 percent pass English, compared to a 30 percent city average.
Since the state mandated testing starts at third grade, Anna was spared the direct pressure. Yet, once January hit, the whole school was permeated with a push for high scores. “How can we support third-, fourth-graders” would become a common theme of the principal’s weekly memos. Test prep would take over the classes for the next four to five months, until May, when the tests were over. Teachers from lower grades were expected to help with the test prep too.
The focus on the teachers from tested grades would sometimes turn ridiculous, such as when they would have special food ordered for them. If you had friends among them, you could get yourself a burrito, Anna said laughing.
Even after the school day ended at 4:30 p.m., weaker students would stay to get more test tutoring.
Routines
Success Academy is known for drilling children in a set of routines, to give students tight structure and help teachers manage the classes. For example, when the teacher gives out a task, the students will wait for the teacher to flick their fingers before starting to work.
Other routines include repeating what the teacher said in unison, or repeating specific chants. Anna said the goal is to create a “camp-like group fun mentality.”
Anna said the routines work “to varying degrees,” depending on the teacher. “I saw classrooms where the routines work almost perfectly, like 95 percent of the time. I saw other classrooms where they would work for a bit, but only if the class wasn’t too riled up. In my case, I would say the routines worked for me about 60 percent of the time,” she said.
In the first weeks of the school year, teachers were expected to focus solely on the routines. If one student fails to follow, the whole class would repeat the task.
“That’s a great idea in theory,” Anna said. “Sometimes in practice, when you’re getting 33 kids to take a pencil out again, and again, and again, that’s a waste of time.”
Later in the year children were expected to follow the routines flawlessly. But that was not always the case. “At the end of the day these are kids, they’re not machines,” Anna said.
Sometimes she would be put in impossible positions, being criticized both for not repeating routines until correct, and being late for the next class due to repeating routines.
She thinks the overreliance on the routines had a lot to do with a lack of experience. “When you’re starting out, you hold on to the routine for your dear life,” she said laughing, conspicuously talking about herself.
Anna noted a lot of the problems at the school were probably connected to over half of the staff being new to their jobs. “I’m sure everyone is better now than they were,” she said.
Based on the experiences of her friends from the fellowship at other schools in the network, if she was assigned to a different school, she may have never quit, Anna said. “There were schools that were really working in our network when I was there, and there were schools that weren’t working.”