Gary Rubinstein has been tracking the progress of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain. They get very high test scores. They have small percentages of students with disabilities (only the mildest disabilities allowed) and students who are English language learners. They have high attrition rates. They have high suspension rates, even for children of 5 and 6. But the hedge fund managers love the schools because results are all that matter, not how they are obtained.
So Gary decided to find out how SA’s high school students performed on the state Regents exams.
That turned out to be a challenging quest.
Gary writes:
Reformers are all about ‘outcomes’ and that’s why they love Success Academy charter schools. Year after year Success Academy students outperform the rest of the state on the 3-8 ELA and math tests.
For sure if there was a hospital out there that was claiming to have the ability to cure Cancer or something like that, there would be all kinds of independent investigations and different tests to see if their claims were for real. But when it comes to education, we don’t see this so much.
The oldest Success Academy students are now in 10th grade. They have had two different cohorts of 8th graders take the specialized high school test for admission into one of the 8 specialized New York City high schools. Amazingly, none of those students made it into any of the specialized schools. That is pretty unusual that a group of students does so well on one standardized test but does so poorly on another. Aside from knowing that none of their 8th graders made the cut score on that test, there are no other details about their specific scores.
But there are other tests those students have taken, namely the New York State Regents exams. Most advanced students take the Algebra I test in 8th grade and then various Regents in 9th grade, maybe Geometry and also a few others like Living Environment, Earth Science, and Global History.
I had not heard about how they fared on the Regents exams for the past two years so I went over to the revamped New York State data site. I went to the page for the school, Success Academy Harlem I, but could not locate the Regent scores. I did take notice of their enrollment by grade, however.
The first Success Academy cohort began as kindergarteners in 2006-2007 ago with 83 kindergarteners and 73 first graders. That group of 73 first graders had been whittled down to 26 ninth graders last year and who knows how many of those 26 are now tenth graders this year. So they have lost about 2/3 of them so far so we’d expect the Success survivors to be pretty strong academically.
So how did the SA students fare on the Regents exams?
I won’t give you the answer. To learn more about Gary’s search for the SA high school students’ performance on the New York Regents exams, read his post.
My guess is that Success may not allow any 8th graders to take algebra and the algebra regent exam. I believe the rules have changed, with the goal of reducing testing, so that now students who take an algebra regent in 8th grade do not also have to take the 8th grade state math test. Presumably higher achieving kids would be the ones taking the algebra regent, leaving lower performing kids to take the state math test, meaning possibly lower overall 8th grade state math test scores. Guessing Success doesn’t want to take that risk. Here’s the change — http://www.nysed.gov/news/2015/new-york-granted-federal-waiver-eliminate-double-testing-math
Bingo! Common Core algebra 1 would also require an extra layer of test prep. Why mess with Success.
RageAgainstTheTestocracy: pardon the nitpicking, but I am guessing that Microsoft Autocorrect or the like did its usual job—
Should “Why mess with Success” actually read “Why Not Amass $tudent $ucce$$”?
😳
Thanks to everyone for an informative thread.
I await the arrival of Non Sequitur and his loyal sidekick to set us all straight on the marvels of $ucce$$ Academy. I am sure they are going to Dial up the tone of this conversation by tearing up every argument in contra of the wonders produced by their “little test-taking machines” while they prove by assertion every argument in pro.
Remembering, of course, that “it’s all for the kids”—the kids, don’t forget, that are there just to make the adults look good.
😎
Actually it’s not clear that Success even offers Regents Algebra. Here’s what its site says about middle school math: “Our mathematics curriculum delicately balances conceptual understanding with the strengthening of foundational skills that are necessary for building and maintaining a strong sense of numeracy. Scholars delve into basic algebraic concepts, geometry, proportional reasoning, and pre-algebra.” http://www.successacademies.org/our-approach-middle-school/
But the students are in 10th grade, so they would have taken the Algebra 1 Regents in 9th grade, just like every single average and below average student in NYC is expected to do. Algebra 1 is the lowest level math for a 9th grader, so presumably Success Academy 9th grade students took it.
Algebra I is one of the Regents courses/tests required for graduation. Former SA students must take it in 9th grade. pass rates for this test are somewhat of a mystery – I can’t seem to find them on NYSED website for any district.
Good point NYC Public School Parent!
It is possible that the “scholars” weren’t required to take the test (see comment by Lisa Eggert Litvin).
I would think that if the kids did take the test and they were good, the results would be trumpeted from the treetops, and if the results were poor, they would be squelched.
When I read:
“But the hedge fund managers love the schools because results are all that matter, not how they are obtained.”
I thought Volkswagen and Mitsubishi.
Their deceptions – the results, not how they were obtained – worked until they were discovered and revealed. Even after the scandal was revealed, VW claimed that the defeat devices were the work of a handful of rogue engineers and not VW’s top brass, a claim being brought into question. It would seem another instance of innocent, immune, Teflon-coated management.
In the case of VW at least, the chief executive of Volkswagen resigned days after the company admitted to cheating on emissions tests, which he said he had not been aware of until the deception was disclosed in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency. There were additional suspensions and resignations of involved executives as well.
Any speculation as to whether something similar might occur in the case of the Success Academy Charter chain claims?
The results of testing at Success seem to be compromised. When they control the testing process, the results are amazing. When Success is not in charge of the total testing as in the case of the specialized schools and Regents, it seems the results are less than stellar. With such a high rate of attrition and only 26 students left on the survival of the fittest island, taxpayers in New York should be asking if this is a valid, practical use of taxpayer funds.
As a former NYC parent advocate I did expect all the charter school students to take all the seats to specialized high schools. This is why they want to open more high schools to keep or manipulate their data. Charter students should come back into the schools for the ultimate competition of the regents. The real sham is parents who continue to turn to this hoax with Success Academy. Where’s Jeffrey Canada and Harlem Success?
A tad curious why charters like SA and others that rely so heavily on their test scores aren’t up in arms about the 2016 NYS missing test pages. (not very charter-ly to speak out about the State?)
In order to ensure their high state test scores, they reportedly do a lot of test prep “teaching” students how to plan and write a high scoring essay. Using a planning page is no-doubt a critical part of their success. WIth the planning page missing, and many schools not being alerted to the missing page until too late to tell teachers on the 2nd day of testing, students may have been at a disadvantage when attempting to write their high scoring essays.
Just sayin’…
I think others are correct in guessing that Success students don’t take any Regents exams in 8th grade. Some middle-schoolers in PUBLIC schools might take both the Algebra and a science Regents exam in 8th grade.
However, if I am interpreting the information correctly about Success Academy Harlem 1, having grown now a K-10 school, last year might have been the first year its 9th grade students would have had to take the Regents exam in Algebra and in one of two sciences Earth Science or Living Environments (the course formerly known as “Biology”). Some schools switch the order in which these two courses are offered in 9th and 10th grades. This year’s Regents exams have not been given yet; that happens in June. But, last year’s scores should be available somewhere, and the SA network *should* report the results to the NYSED.
Perhaps a Success teacher or former teacher can post here and enlighten us about the network’s Regents classes and also its failure to report scores.
“Either way I think everyone would agree that they should be required to submit their Regents scores like every other school has to.”
I couldn’t agree more with Gary Rubinstein; furthermore, NYSED’s passing the buck to him was unacceptable. I don’t have any obvious reasons to not follow up with Success, NYSED, and the SUNY Charter School Institute, so I will.
Wow, we now want to treat charter schools the same as public schools. I’m speechless!
I do not understand the arguments above about what Success does or doesn’t do. Aren’t they required to do what all other public schools do? Namely, take the test?
From the article
When I couldn’t locate the Regents scores I inquired with the state data department. They responded back that the data from Success Academy was missing. I wrote back asking why the data was missing. Doesn’t Success Academy have to submit their Regents scores? The state data department said yes they do, but they didn’t.