If you recall, Eva Moskowitz was locked in a fierce battle with Mayor de Blasio and the City of New York over a pre-kindergarten program. The city said that the Success Academy charter chain could not have $700,000 in funding unless it signed the city contract, giving the city the right to oversee the program. Eva refused to sign the contract. She said that the city had no power over her charter schools, and that she should get the money without signing the contract. She sued the city, and the city won in court. Thirteen other charter schools signed the city’s contract without complaint.
But all was not lost. Eva still had a powerful friend in Albany: Governor Cuomo. It turns out that in the closing moments of the legislative session, Eva got what she wanted.
The New York Times reported today:
What the Success Academy charter school network could not get through the courts or from the New York State Education Department, it may get from the governor: the ability to run prekindergarten programs without oversight from New York City.
In the final hours of the legislative session this summer, as Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Assembly were pushing to get mayoral control of the city’s schools extended, the Republican-controlled Senate demanded some concessions for charter schools. It introduced a vague provision that appeared to grant the charter schools committee of the State University of New York’s board of trustees new powers to regulate the charter schools it oversees. Charter school supporters claimed that the provision would allow SUNY to waive requirements that limit the number of uncertified teachers that charter schools can employ.
But it turns out that the Senate Republicans, who have received substantial support from wealthy charter school supporters, had other goals in mind, as well.
In a letter to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dated June 20, and not previously reported, the Senate majority leader, John J. Flanagan, wrote that the intent of the provision “was to provide SUNY with statutory authority to exempt charter schools from rules and regulations that were hampering innovative teaching and learning.”
He urged Mr. Cuomo to direct the SUNY Charter Schools Institute — the administrative entity that supports the work of the charter schools committee — to act quickly to take advantage of the provision. (Mr. Cuomo effectively controls the institute and the committee because he appoints a majority of the SUNY trustees.) Specifically, Mr. Flanagan said that SUNY should give teachers at its charter schools some time to get certified. He also asked that SUNY do something to help charter schools get space in public school buildings.
And Mr. Flanagan said that SUNY should do something about the problem of New York City’s universal prekindergarten program. “There are high-performing charters that have opted out of this program, because the regulatory burden imposed by the N.Y.C.D.O.E. was too high,” Mr. Flanagan wrote, referring to the city’s Education Department.
In fact, there is only one charter school leader who has opted out of the program after a major battle with the de Blasio administration: Success Academy’s founder, Eva S. Moskowitz.
Lesson: Whatever Eva wants, Eva gets.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
WOw….She is a piece of work.
More proof that Democrats are not who they used to be. And yet we think they’ll do right by education, even though their actions tell us that public education supporters in the party seem to be farther and fewer in between.
None of them do right by public education
Cuomo will rue this and his other egregious support of charters over public schools. He doesn’t realize, obviously, that this will be held against him if he tries to run for higher office. He’s shooting himself in the foot.
It should have defeated him in 2014. It didn’t because teachers either didn’t vote or worse voted for Cuomo.
Shocking how many teachers still don’t see through the smoke; in our district I’ve known many unhappy employees and forced into early retirement retirees having no idea about the DEFERs lining up to then be elected to the school board.
I should have, but the UFT mis-leadership helped knee-cap the attempt by members of the Working Familiy’s Party to endorse our Reptilian Governor’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Zephyr Teachout.
Michael Fiorillo
I do not know the inside scoop, but the UFT did not support him. It was obvious to me a non teacher with children who had graduated college a number of years ago,that I had to vote for Teachout. The failure is on the members for not educating themselves and on the leadership for not guiding them there.
The failure is that Eva can bring thousands of Students and Parents to Albany on the coldest day of the year. I know all the negatives on that from coercion to skipping a school day !! The fact remains it happened. While teachers have not united with the Opt Out movement and those parents fed up with Common Core and Charters to rock Albany to its knees.
Perhaps they will wake up before it is too late.
Joel, the leadership of the UFT most certainly did pressure the Working Families Party to endorse Cuomo, threatening to withhold future funding if the WFP endorsed Teachout. A ninety-second Google search will confirm that.
Having repulsed a potential threat from the Left, Weingarten/Mulgrew were then “neutral” in the general election (though working behind the scenes with Cuomo over support for Common Core, test-based teacher evaluations and explicitly anti-teacher laws Cuomo later pushed through a compliant state legislature), their dirty work having been accomplished.
The sad state of political consciousness and engagement among NYC teachers (something I would argue is purposefully furthered by the leadership) is another discussion, but there is no doubt whatsoever that the UFT leadership (i.e. Randi Weingarten, and not her embarrassing stand-in, Michael Mulgrew) played an important role in keeping Teachout down, and insuring Cuomo’s re-election.
There is a machine and Eva and the governor or New York both a part of that corrupt machine.
This is called return on investment. In my District in Cal, EdVoice, the folks who brought you the lawsuit to end teacher tenure, contributed nearly 1/2 million to a candidate in an Assembly runoff race between two Democrats. This candidate’s previous claim to fame was being found in violation of conflict of interests rules for accepting campaign donations from a developer who had a major project pending before his City Council. Until we clean up the cesspool of campaign finance and get people like this out of politics, these types of subversions of the public’s will are going to continue.
The woman is just astonishing.
What’s the difference between a Democrat who is a shilling for the rich Vs.a Repub. who makes money off the backs of Urban kids & the poor? Ans. None. The Mayor has been wagering a losing battle with one of the worse Governor’s NY ever had. Columbus, Ohio is also battling with a major Charter School. I wonder who will win? I know who the loser will be! Poor urban kids.
Cincinnati, Ohio has a levy coming up that will fund public schools and a new preschool initiative, if passed. The preschool initiative seems to have “fuzzy” governance and some version of a zero to five star rating system for preschool “quality.”
Unlike many urban districts, Cincinnati has gained enrollments, a trend not predicted when citizens ponied up money for many new schools and upgraded facilities.
That “short of classroom space” problem is appealing to a charter operator seeking to open a school, pending the receipt of state and federal funds for building a school. The charter school option is attractive to the school board because they need slots for students and are near the maximums for class sizes.
We also have a new “Great Schools Accelerator” intent on directing public money for district schools to any proven “operator.” These (new) operators will have no public oversight. They will have contracts from and unelected group–up to nine citizens from an initial group of six.
The new Accelerator CEO and his assistant are former TFA recruiters. The mission statement of the Accelerator is all about test scores, including VAM. The claim is that the “operators” of Cincinnati schools do not matter as long as they provide “high-performing seats.” I kid you not. The Accelerator wants to add 4100 “high performing seats” within five years, all receiving funds “government funds.”The Accelerator hopes to raise at least $48 million in start-up funds from foundations and others. The initiators of the Accelerator are local foundations and businesses.
Look for variants of these alternatives to democratic governance of schools, all sucking money from local schools.
What I heard is that, previously in New York city and state, uncredentialed teachers, while taking mandatory classes to earn their credential in off-school hours, had just one year to attain that credential
The new law extends that to five years.
If you check out Glassdoor (BELOW), the attrition rate is sky high, so most of these teachers never go longer than three years, let alone five. I’m not sure if Success Academy teachers no longer have to take those mandatory classes in their off-hours during this new five-year window. Perhaps they can teach with a pre-determined plan of bailing before the five-year deadline… and that’s how Eva wants it.
In short, since they churn their teachers out in 1-to-3 years tops, they are now totally free to staff their schools entirely with totally unlicensed, uncredentialed, untrained pseudo-teachers for the length of all their teachers’ time on the job, and can do so without any negative sanction from any part of New York state or city government, or the courts Since SUNY basically grovels before Queen Eva, when they’re supposed to be overseeing and regulating her schools, that’s the end of teaching as a profession in Eva’s schools. It’s now a low-level service job with no union protections.
And what’s it like working here?
Here’s a sampling of former Success Academy teachers on Glassdoor:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/08/citizen-jacks-compendium-of-teacher.html
And here’s one teacher telling her story in detail:
You really want to work at those schools, so you learn how to treat kids like this:
It’s interesting to note in the above video that the teacher, Charlotte Dial …
1) to date, has no credential on file with New York state database;
2) after this video, she was given a slap on the wrist — suspended for a day;
3) she was put in charge of training teachers system-wide … again WITH NO CREDENTIAL.
And while we’re at it, how are Success Academy teachers compensated for their longer school day and demanding job?
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MERCEDES SCHNEIDER: (going off a Glassdoor email sent to her)
“Regarding the cost of Moskowitz’s very high SA test scores: I first notice that her teachers and other employees are not paid much when one considers the cost of living in New York. Based on input from 41 SA ‘lead teachers,’ the average salary is $63,000.
“This salary might initially sound good to someone in my circumstance (a teacher from Louisiana); I have 21 full time years in and hold a Ph.D., and my annual salary is $59,000 (the state stopped my annual step raises in 2012 when I was at 15 full time years, but I have received a little more money since then).
“However, when one converts that SA $63,000 to its LA cost-of-living equivalent, $63,000 per year to live in Manhattan, NY, is the same as making approximately $29,000 and living in St. Tammany Parish, LA (where I live).
“Thus, that SA $63,000 in Manhattan is as hard to live on as it would be for me to live on $29,000 in St. Tammany.
“I live on $59,000 in St. Tammany, LA. In order to experience the same quality of living in Manhattan as I do in St. Tammany, an SA teacher would need to make around $138,000 per year.
“For the same quality of living in Brooklyn, NY, the SA teacher would need to make $105,000. (Source: CNN Money Cost of Living Calculator.)
“Two additional points about salary:
“First, not all SA teachers are “lead teachers.” Those classed as SA “associate teacher” report average salaries of $48,500. Their purchase power gets them as far in Manhattan as approximately $20,000 would get me in St. Tammany. Their purchase power in Brooklyn equals roughly $26,500 in St. Tammany, LA.
“The second important piece is that SA teachers work much longer hours than I do. My contracted teaching day is 7 hours at school. (Note: Most teachers also bring work home or arrive early or stay late, but they are not required to do so by contract.) My week is 5 days; my year is 190 days. In contrast, SA teachers are literally driven until they burn out. Their average day is 12 hours at school.
“Moreover, they are expected to be on call after school hours. SA provides each teacher with a Macbook and iPhone, which a number list as a positive feature of the job.
“However, the purpose behind this seeming benevolence is to assure that SA teachers are equipped with the technological shackles necessary to have them at the school and parent beck and call at all hours.
“Even though Moskowitz is shortening the SA school day beginning in 2016-17, a number of employees do not think it will be enough to alleviate their stress. They think the same toxic, work-till-you-drop atmosphere will prevail. (“Toxic” is a commonly used word in the Glassdoor SA reviews.)
“One teacher noted that he/she has been at his/her school for four years– longer than any other employee except the principal.
“Teachers do not necessarily wait until the school year ends to quit– or to be fired.
“Others have written in their reviews for prospective teachers to think seriously before teaching at SA, or to run away as fast as they can, or to only take an SA teaching job if they are desperate.
“According to a number of employees, SA cultivates an atmosphere of fear, guilt, and shame among its teachers.
“There will be no personal life. None. This is a recurrent theme even in neutral and positive reviews.
“And there will be no sick days. And only a single personal day. And no leaving early for personal commitments.
“Also, there will likely be no lunch break, and no planning time that is not already filled with meetings/ professional development. If one wants free time, one must carve it out in the form of a bathroom break.
“Apparently those teacher bathroom breaks are a slice of time when SA teachers quietly cry.
“Students are discouraged from taking bathroom breaks. One employee notes that younger students’ using the bathroom on themselves is related to students not being allowed to use the bathroom when needed.
“As for ‘feedback’: At SA, the term means incessant micromanagement. No behavior is too small to be overlooked by constant review. SA has a way that its schools are to be run; it doesn’t matter if one has no teaching experience; one can be a lead teacher with zero teaching background if one trains well in the SA teaching protocol. In fact, it might be better for one to not have a professional teaching background because that means one is less likely to have to defy one’s professional judgment/ sense of creative, independent professional personality in order to conform to prescribed, rigid, SA teacher demands.
“Some SA teachers lament the rigid behavioral expectations foisted upon younger students, such has having to sit still with folded hands for hours.
“Test prep begins in January and is the center of SA activity for half of the school year. Fine arts and other creative classes come to a halt. Some teachers become babysitters of students not involved in testing because test drill is what matters.
“As for leadership, there is really only one leader, and that is Eva Moskowitz. Some SA employees note that their experience with fellow teachers is one of camaraderie; others note that there are cliques, and clique acceptance makes or breaks one’s experience. Still others note that even the SA leaders are young and lack experience and that there is a true leadership void at SA schools. Others have noted that SA is growing too fast for its leadership structure.
“More than one review indicated that SA teachers are overwhelmingly white.
“Others note the SA dependence on burning out and constantly replacing its teachers. One notes that as long as there are young people willing to apply to SA to teach (whether out of naiveté or desperation), SA will be able to continue its churn-out-and burn-out mode of operation.
“But there are problems with this churn-burn model.
“First of all, Moskowitz wants to expand and brand the SA model. A model built upon intentionally working employees into the ground is not expandable. It will collapse, which leads to a second problem:
“As the school years pass, the number of SA teaching casualties increases– and so does the likelihood of powerful, first-hand, negative press associated with the dysfunctional inner workings of SA.
“Moskowitz tries hard to shield SA daily reality from the public eye.
“She wants the SA very high test scores to be all that matters.
“We’ll see how long SA can carry it off. But its days are numbered. One cannot put human beings under such professional pressure and not have it somehow blow up– as in, say, a possible cheating scandal…. explosion.”
In light of Mercedes’ commentary, interesting to see how much Eva Moskowitz herself pulls in.
$567,500 !
Yep .. you read that right.
From Ben Chapman at the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/success-academy-charter-schools-revenue-doubles-year-article-1.2050561?cid=bitly
——————————————-
BEN CHAPMAN, NY Daily News:
“The Success Academy board and a private foundation that helps fund the network gave Moskowitz a raise of $92,500 in 2013, bringing her yearly pay to $567,500.
“Her compensation was more than twice the salary of city schools boss Carmen Farina, who earns $212,614 to oversee the city’s system of roughly 1,800 schools.
“But Fariña, who came out of retirement to take the city’s top education job in January, also collects a pension of $199,579. Moskowitz has no pension.”
———————————-
While Eva (and the Success Academy Board) pays her teachers such sh–ty salaries, how does the Success Academy Board justify this level of compensation for Eva?
————————————–
BEN CHAPMAN, NY Daily News:
“Success Academy board member Campbell Brown said Moskowitz is worth every penny. ‘We believe in rewarding high performance — whether it’s the CEO, a principal or teacher,’ said Brown.”
===========
No, Campbell… NOT “teacher”. You guys definitely left that position off the “Who-gets-paid-decently” list. … read Mercedes Schneider’s data and commentary in the above post. Once again, this info puts a lie to that claim of Campbell’s:
Eva gets rewarded big time … to the tune of $567,500-a-year …
… but when it comes to “rewarding” those teachers .. those folks at the front line doing the actual work of educating Success Academy students? Do they also get “rewarded” for those grueling 12-hour days demanded by Eva and Campbell ?
… ehh … not so much. (See Mercedes Schneider facts and analysis in the post just above this one)
After all, those Success Academy teachers are just “The Help”: (they can and are mistreated and dispensed with by Eva & Co. in much the same way as in this clip the 2011 movie THE HELP)
Indeed, Eva, Campbell and the other Success Academy bosses put so much stock in the “market based” model and business principles which value money, money, money … In their rarefied ivory tower realm of NYC privilege and wealth — that of, say, hedgefund managers like Campbell’s husband Dan Senor, or the other well-to-do Success Academy funders and backers — a person’s monetary worth and earning power EQUALS their value as a human being.
Therefore, since Eva, Campbell, & Co. pay their teachers so little (again, read Mercedes’ facts and commentary ABOVE to back that up), they are, in turn, communicating the message to both those teachers and the world in general, that they view those teachers to possess real little or just minimal value, and see them as undeserving of decent compensation, or a decent quality of life (for NYC’s sky-high cost of living).
BOTTOM LINE: like lightbulbs, Success Academy teachers — in the minds of the bosses who insist on suppressing any unionization or collective voice of their teachers — have no innate dignity, value or or right to self-determination in and of themselves, and thus, they are …
… easy to find & hire
… easy to overwork
… easy to abuse
… easy to burn out
… easy to fire, and then
… easy to replace on a regular basis … much like the cleaning ladies that clean Eva’s and Campbell’s luxurious dwellings, or the nannies that look after their kids, or the kitchen staff who cooks their food, or whatever.
This is especially true, now that the New York state legislature and governor has effectively removed any real base line requirements to teach in New York state’s charter schools (but not its public schools. .. hmmm … what’s up with that?) When it comes to charters, you can practically pull in people off the street to that job now. If Eva, Campbell, and the rest choose to do so, they now can, and most likely, will.
Oh, and don’t forget: these elitist folks all claim to be “Democrats”, the “party of the working man,” as it was reborn under the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt, another NYC resident, during the 1930’s. If FDR could could come back and see how his populist traditions are being carried on today by the likes of Eva, Campbell, and the rest — i.e. as embodied in the so-called “school reform” and charter school movements — he would never stop vomiting.
I stole / paraphrased that last line from Max Von Sydow in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, written, of course, by Woody Allen. The original line is at 41:19 HERE: (a little sped up, unfortunately)
@Jack I think that the kids in that video are in an unfair position for six year olds. Ms. Dial’s job is entirely in their little hands. It’s understandable that she was punishing a six year old for a wrong answer. Inexcusable but understandable.
What Charlotte Dial did in that video is UNACCEPTABLE in the extreme, and, contrary to Eva’s press conference addressing this, it was not “an anomaly”. It’s standard operating procedure at Success Academy schools.
In the New York Times story accompanying this, they claimed to have two dozen current and former teachers saying that this treatment was required of them by their superiors (which now includes Ms. Dial … sheesh!) They even had a name for this tactic: “Rip and re-do.” If a kids gets the answer wrong you scream at him/her, humiliating the child in front of the whole, class then ripping up their paper.
It’s not just NYC. Moskowitz gets exclusive access to lawmakers in DC:
Continuing her run of high-profile national appearances, Success Academy C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz testified before Congress on Tuesday at a panel on economic opportunity for African-Americans, arguing that elements of her charter school network could be applied nationwide to help address educational disparities for black students.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2014/07/moskowitz-success-academy-could-be-national-model-014687#ixzz4H9TozkYV
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook
When’s the last time any of you have been called to testify on all US public schools?
They don’t hear from anyone outside this clout-heavy club of reformers.
It’s pay to play in Columbus, and Sen. Sherrod Brown has to know it. His support for additional privatization is appalling. By favoring certain charters, and calling for the elimination of others, he whittles down the competition, increasing market value of the remaining players. When national charter chains step into buy them, the sellers owe Brown a thank you $
Albany’s pre-k law is not ambiguous. Local education authorities who distribute state funds for pre-k programs are required to engage in oversite. I do not see how SUNY will have any authority to relieve charters of that and win in court. They want to do this, they should set up a totally different money pile from the one give to the cities to contract pre-k providers.
Daniel,
I’m neither a legal expert, nor a NY state resident, but I have a question:
Can some person or persons of standing, or some organization challenge this latest outrage in court? I mean, come on!!!
From the article:
QUOTE: “The chairman of the SUNY charter schools committee, Joseph Belluck, said that he was aware of Mr. Flanagan’s letter. He said that so far neither the governor nor anyone else had asked the committee to do anything related to the provision, but that he expected to receive some requests from charter school operators.
Mr. Belluck said that the institute had still not determined exactly what the law would allow it to do. But he said that he had been troubled by the unclear lines of authority regarding prekindergarten and that he would like for that group to be placed under his committee’s oversight rather than the city’s.
“I don’t know the answer as to whether or not this regulation gives us the ability to have a role in that, but if it did that would be something I would be interested in,” he said.” END QUOTE
If Mr. Belluck and the SUNY Charter Institute had an ounce of ethics they would be saying this:
“we have neither the resources nor the oversight capabilities to make sure pre-k is being done safely and appropriately in ANY charter school. We are already very ashamed that after years of complaints and sky high suspensions of 5 year olds and attrition rates that are twice as high as far less wealthy charter schools, we have never ever bothered to look closely at Success Academy. Our oversight to date has consisted of “we asked Eva Moskowitz and she told us she didn’t do anything wrong so all is fine”. Now that the videos and got to go lists and not sending renewal forms to families of unwanted children have been documented for the world to see, we are embarrassed and ashamed that we never bothered to do any oversight beyond “we asked Eva Moskowitz and she said it was fine.” That was our negligence and I should really be fired for allowing it to go on for years. So the notion that we would allow this charter school to do to 4 year olds what we have allowed them to do to 5 though 10 year olds for years due to our non-oversight is outrageous. We may have looked the other way for years, but we are now standing up for what is right instead of what the billionaires want us to say.”
On the other hand, Mr. Belluck will mostly likely say “whatever Eva Moskowitz wants we will happily give her and as long as she keeps getting high test scores, we won’t ask where all the missing kids went and why such a large number of at-risk kids disappear. We want those billionaires to like us!”
I don’t blame Cuomo for being a politician. I blame Joseph Belluck and the entire board and staff of the SUNY Charter Institute for not doing any oversight and caring only about PR and pleasing the richest and most powerful people at the expense of the most vulnerable at-risk kids. Shame on SUNY Charter Institute.
By the way, some years ago Mr. Belluck complained that he didn’t have nearly enough resources to do proper oversight of all the many new charter schools being authorized. Someone must have told him to shut up because the fact that he is now happy to accept oversight over pre-k and how 4 year olds are treated is shocking.
I hope an enterprising reporter does a story on Joseph Belluck and how corrupted the SUNY Charter Institute Board has become. They should start by watching the October 2014 meeting (available on video) where SUNY authorized a bunch of new Success Academy schools despite having clear evidence of empty seats. And the SUNY trustees also embarrassed themselves by approving a 3rd SA school in District 2 by accident because Success Academy had demanded that they locate another school in that very wealthy district until the day before when the empty seats in their two existing schools in that district were revealed. Joseph Belluck laughed so hard at that meeting at the thought of the “glitch” (as he called it) which led to this charter school claiming it had thousands of kids on the wait list while not being able to fill so many empty seats. Isn’t that just so funny! And now the same man can’t wait to “oversee” pre-k the exact same way that he oversees the K-5 schools! High suspension rates! What a laugh! High attrition rates! What a laugh! Got to go lists? What a laugh! Model teachers being videotaped harassing low-income students simply for not knowing the answer quickly enough? What a laugh! It’s all just one big glitch! And now our oversight is done.
Can’t wait to see Joseph Belluck’s “oversight” of pre-k. No doubt it will be just as terrific as his oversight of the schools to date.
Why did Pedro Noguera resign from the Charter Institute years ago? When did SUNY Charter Institute morph from an oversight agency to a charter booster organization happy to look the other way at practices that hurt the most vulnerable at-risk kids?
When does Belluck start the campaign to privatize SUNY?
So much for elected officials doing what the people want, and not what the person wants. Laws? They don’t need no stinking laws Legal? Who cares? Public schmublic. Who cares? So long as Eva and the rest of the charter schools can do whatever they please, to heck with everyone else…after all, its only our moneys going into Eva’s pockets.
This is truly appalling. Every single one of the politicians should get voted out.
A character in the new novel, North of Boston, lived under Stalin. The man lectures his American-born daughter, “You think people are like you, that reason explains everything in this world. You expect two plus two to equal four. But, it doesn’t . It equals what the powerful say it does. If they say it equals a hundred and eight, the mathematicians will prove it’s so.”
The Waltons and John Arnold paid for a paper, written at Columbia Teachers College. The first variable listed for “successful” charter schools was “political support”. The last criteria listed was quality.
Cuomo is unbelievable. The charters aren’t transparent but he sure is.
Hey, can I go out and call myself a plumber and work as a plumber while still being in school learning how to be a plumber in the first place? ! The lunacy just never ends!
Here’s Google’s “vision” for your kids:
“But Rochelle knows technology can’t transform education on its own — it takes a smart application of cutting-edge products to help kids learn. As the world gets more technologically advanced, it’s partly up to teachers to make sure kids feel comfortable using the latest products effectively.
Those are the skills that will give them the greatest leg up as citizens, Rochelle says.
“Imagine if we could teach kids all the tools that are at their disposal,” he says, “and let them take the next step to stand on the shoulders of giants.”
They’ll take online tests which will determine which online courses they take. They’ll be doing most of this data production alone- from remote locations.
“We should never underestimate the importance of social interaction and co-working,” he tells Business Insider. “So as much as schools want to get the value of calculus or coding into kids’ heads, let’s not forget to teach how to interact with each other.”
Oh, of course. “Interacting with each other” could probably be managed and measured with one of the cutting edge products too.
I don’t worry about the joyless data-freak adults because I think kids themselves will throw a wrench into this machine they’re building 🙂 They’ll insist on being treated like human beings.
You’ve got to be kidding!!!! I’m soooo over the arrogance of these reformers 😕
EVA gets what Eva wants……thank God for that! Diane, you and the rest of the education academy offer nothing that works for low and moderate income black and brown children, but Eva does. Why don’t you shut up, start a school and see if it works and then we’ll talk.
John,
What works for Eva?
Eva cherry picks the children she accepts from the public schools.
Eva then takes it a step forward and kicks out the kids that slipped past her filtering process to only accept the easiest children to control who will also end up with high test scores, test scores that in the long wrong are meaningless.
Eva’s claim to success is based totally on high test scores. How many of her students were accepted to the most prestigious public high schools in New York City? And we don’t know how many of the children Eva’s schools have abused and bullied will go to college or even have a free life. No one forces children to love to read or learn and mistreating children with harsh Marine Corps discipline will not foster a love of reading or learning.
Eva has a high attrition rate for teachers, because teachers are treated like shit and forced to work longer hours for less pay and only the psychos that mistreat and bully children end up staying.
Eva does things that legislation/laws don’t allow the public schools to do like close the Success Academies on a school day and bus all of the uniformed students with the same protest t-shirts across the state to Albany to hold protests that demand Eva has a more freedom outside the law to open more schools that segregate, bully and mistreat children. The photos of those protests remind me of the Hitler yhouth in their brown shirts or Mao’s teenage red guard dressed all the same.
Eva pays herself twice what the chancellor for the real public schools in New York gets paid. To match Eva across the country we should be paying every district superintendent at least $500,000 a year and allow them to do exactly all the same things Eva does to get those test scores up because that’s the only claim to success Eva has is high test scores achieved by getting rid of kids that are difficult to teach and forcing teachers to work longer hours for less pay. To really know if Eva’s draconian, gulag style methods work, we will have to wait decades to learn how many of those children grow up to be balanced adults without a shitload of mental problems, adults that love to read, are avid readers, are lifelong learners who love to learn, who are all college graduates, etc. And if we give Eva decades to continue her experiment, how many children will grow up to be adults suffering from PTSD and other mental problems that will require counseling?