Nancy Carlsson-Paige was able to view the Success Academy video of a teacher teaching reading to a small group of very young children, probably five- or six-year-olds. It is called “Circle Time Reading.” Gary Rubinstein posted the video a few days ago, before it was taken down by Success Academy. I saw the video before it was removed. The teacher speaks in a very loud voice and constantly interrupts the reading to correct children’s posture or their failure to “track” her with their eyes. Maybe it will be reposted. If it is, I will let you know.
Carlsson-Paige, an expert on early childhood education, wrote the following critique of the video:
Review of the Success Academy Video: Teacher Reading to Young Children
This is a very poor example of a literacy experience for young children. Caps for Sale is a classic story loved by young chldren. This teacher interrupts the story constantly to reinforce a behaviorist method of classroom management. She repeats how the children should sit; she praises, corrects, and warns them. The children are distracted from the flow of the story and their own ability to make meaning of it.
Meaning is the driving force in learning to read. Sometimes a skilled teacher will interrupt a story once or twice in order to make sure children understand it, but never to distract children from the story. This teacher’s interruptions take children out of the story, preventing them from experiencing a deep interest in it and the great joy that can be found in reading good literature. The kinds of interruptions the teacher makes also distance her emotionally from the children. For young kids, learning and relationships are intertwined; they thrive and learn best when their relationships with teachers are based in trust and caring. There is no evidence in the video of a caring connection between this teacher and the children.
This teacher seems to lack knowledge about how children learn, how they make meaning of print and learn to read. Her apparent goal is behavioral control and compliance. Her lesson is teacher-centered and has little to do with what concepts might be building in the minds of the children.
Reading books to children is one important component of an early literacy program. The repetition in the story helps build a foundation for reading. The flow of language contributes to the capacity to predict print. But this teacher undermines the potential value of this as a literacy experience by constantly interrupting the story, focusing children on irrelevant behaviors such as folding their hands, and preventing them from getting the full benefit of a read-out-loud story experience.
Nancy Carlsson-Paige
Professor Emerita, Early Childhood Education
Lesley University
Defending the Early Years (www.deyproject.org)
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The saddest thing about this video is the fact that these people don’t know that they don’t know. They were obviously proud of the teacher’s performance and were posting the video for others to “learn” from it.
The parents who place their children at such schools are likely desperate for a safe place (i.e. school where behavior problems are kicked out) and don’t care about the pedagogy. The answer to these disgraceful schools is to provide safe havens for ALL children and not just the children of involved parents.
“The saddest thing about this video is the fact that these people don’t know that they don’t know. They were obviously proud of the teacher’s performance and were posting the video for others to “learn” from it.”
Exactly! They exposed their entire method as fraudulent, and then had to retract it from public view because they didn’t even know it was bad.
Another sad thing is that there is very little evidence that this works but people have continued to ignore the sky high attrition rates at Success Academy schools.
Enabled by reporters like WNYC’s Beth Fertig – the Judith Miller of education reporters, the fact that so many at-risk kids go missing, and the fact that Success Academy pre-tests older lottery winners before they allow them in their grade is never mentioned (kids not up to snuff are still “welcome” to join a younger grade which no doubt discourages many of them from transferring into Success as immediately failures).
There was a point where a young girl — who had been repeatedly noted because she dared to uncross her legs and squirm, although she was perfectly quiet — suddenly has an assistant teacher walk up to her and place a sticker on her forehead. No asking. Just a sticker, with no real reaction from the child except to continue to look rather miserable as she sat there.
It isn’t clear whether the sticker was the mark of humiliation for her previous serious transgression of not unfolding her legs when they became uncomfortable, or whether it was a reward because she was keeping them crossed. In either event, neither of the teachers showed any understanding that a child might not like the feel of a sticker on her forehead or want to be asked first. Nope, just put your stamp on the kid’s head (the TEACHER was smiling mightily — it obviously made her very happy and she appeared completely oblivious to any child’s emotions).
Success didn’t take down the video until Gary Rubinstein took a screen shot photo of that moment. Maybe they realized that went over the top.
It is certainly true, as Nancy notes, that it is very unlikely to lead children toward a love of books or just good stories, We’re trying to make reading a book as delightful an idea as watching TV!!!
The harsh and loud voice bombards children as she reads a story – no change in tone or voice throughout.
Never a smile!
No kindness!
Boot camp for young children.
No joy in these little ones’ school experience. This harsh teacher interaction is often preached, expected and fostered when teachers are working with children in poverty.
Now, with corporate take-over, No Excuses is a well-funded EXCUSE and MISSION to mistreat children. Years of this harm leaves our children angry and revengeful.
How can society allow this? We should never be surprised when those children respond in rage and anger.
We taught them how to do so, and looked away!
The preoccupation with the way students sat is a distraction from learning. In the ‘Nation’s’ recent post about ‘Black Lives Matter in School Too,’ author George Joseph states.” This extreme control over the movements of black students teaches them that they neither have, nor deserve control over their own bodies—a disturbing message to send in a country still shaped by the legacy of slavery. Furthermore, it perpetuates the normalization of surveillance and domination that law enforcement authorities inflict on black communities every day.” This “broken windows” approach perpetuates the colonialist tendencies of the charter school movement.
Enlightened educators realize that classroom management can still be maintained without an iron fist. In fact, there is a body of research showing that some movement may actually assist many students in learning as long as a student’s movement does not impinge in the rights of others. http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/10/health/standing-desks-impact-health-education/
“In fact, there is a body of research showing that some movement may actually assist many students in learning as long as a student’s movement does not impinge in the rights of others.”
There is definitely research showing that — and any observant, slightly experimental teacher could have noticed it without ever consulting the research. To some of us, it’s almost as if science had said, “hey, we confirmed the sky is blue.”
Also, the students could have told us this since forever.
I agree! My elementary ELLs often sat on the floor in groups when they were working, and any experienced teacher knows all about the fidgeters. As long as they keep their hands to themselves and don’t distract others, leave them be.
Also, there has been research done suggesting the actual need to “fidget” or make a controlled movement as a means to control social behavior for some students.
I watched some of the videos before they became locked down with passcodes. SA releasing these videos was the perfect example of how educationally bankrupt the charter school movement is. They push for higher standards, more success, etc, but there’s a fundamental problem: THEY HAVE NO IDEA what good teaching is, and that’s much because they have little idea of what a good “education” is. (Nor do they likely care, because the goal is often to simply make profits.) Their “vision” of success (and “good” education) is merely better test scores and a better ratio of graduating seniors. Well, you can get equivalent or better test scores than public schools at the very same time as you give students a VERY BAD EDUCATION. That is why test scores can never be our compass for school or teacher quality. It gives charter moguls an excuse to justify their schools, based on a false measure. We can do bad things for our human students while we have okay or good test scores. Each reference to test scores as a measure (by any of us) gives a kind of validation of practices, no matter how bad, that raise test scores.
I will eventually get around to analyzing/deconstructing the Success Academy videos as a part of my own report on why the Charter School movement is built on a terrible lie, and more often than not, provide a terrible education. Remember, SA released hundreds of videos that showed bad pedagogy, because they thought people would say, “wow, what good schools! I want to send my children there!” They thought it was good teaching/education, and then real educators were outraged, and they were like, “oops, I guess it’s not actually good?” They really have no idea. But now they will realize, all over again again, that they must maintain the secrecy of what is going on in their classrooms.
Unfortunately, schools of education have to some degree adopted these kinds of practices that “efficiently raise test scores,” and even some public schools/teachers can be seen using/advocating for these kind of very bad “best” practices to raise test scores, while ignoring that education is a human system, not a mechanical system.
Education is not like the temperature, where you can measure it with a thermometer. Anyone who really cares about education, thinks sincerely about it, and practices it, knows that. The charter school movement doesn’t know.
We don’t know they raise scores.
What we DO know is that charter schools that use this tend to have the highest attrition rates. And for the researchers paid handsomely by the ed reform movement, as long as that attrition results in top scores, they are happy to pronounce the method a success.
You make a good point; though even when controlling for attrition rates, it is easily determined that test scores are not indicative of education quality, and scores can be raised by bad “educational” practices. Teaching to the tests is actually one of the best ways to raise scores. For a research-based and reason-based example: “…even results corrected for SES [or attrition rates*] are not very useful because the tests themselves are inherently flawed. This assessment is borne out by research finding a statistical association between high scores on standardized tests and relatively shallow thinking.”
*(my edit in brackets)
If “education” includes being better “thinkers” and “learners,” the standardized tests are heavily flawed, and simply not accurate measures of ed quality.
Highest attrition rates and RAISED SCORES. That’s the test-score “Success” formula across the nation.
Ed Detective, if test scores could be raised simply by prep, Success Academy would have no need of got to go lists.
Prep works for the students for whom it works. It is a tautology. That’s why there is such a high attrition rate at Success Academy.
I have no doubt that most of the students who “survive” could have been educated in a different way, with minimal prep, and still performed essentially the same. Maybe a few did better with constant test prep because the test prep included practice material specially designed by Pearson and offered only to “special” customers. No doubt if you go over the same question 10 times and you get one that is nearly unchanged on the real test, you have a better shot at a correct answer than someone whose test prep was minimal and wasn’t produced by the same company who designed the tests.
NYC public school parent,
I am not talking about just test-taking strategies. Teaching to the test can include “real” learning of content, but it is shallow content. Test scores can go up while education quality stays the same or decreases. Test scores can go down even while education quality stays the same or increases. That’s because “education” will always be much more than what is on the tests, and the tests don’t even capture what is important in their own shallow domains. Example: why critical thinking won’t be on the test”.
I get the sense that you believe the standardized tests have value and are at least somewhat valid/useful. Perhaps you should read and understand the two links I posted. Even with charter schools that have high attrition rates, the students who remain and get higher scores are not necessarily getting a good education. They may in fact be getting a bad one, they probably are, and we wouldn’t know it by the test score data.
The tests are worthless. Worse than that, they are a false measure of educational “attainment,” and so lead us in the wrong direction when it comes to policy and practice.
Ed Detective, I defer to you regarding the value of test scores.
However, speaking as a parent, I feel as if you concede huge ground if you don’t address that a school is placing high test scores over the lives of young children.
Parents place different values on test scores. But they don’t place different values on children’s lives. If a charter school values high test scores over keeping and educating all students regardless of how high they will score, that is very important to point out. The parents who think that high scores on tests mean something, even if not everything, will still assume that any school that gets 99% passing rates is doing something right. But if you explain that the 99% passing rates were achieved by drumming out a large number of students, parents start to understand who is paying the price for those high test scores. And that is a good thing for them to know, whether they place a little, a lot, or no value at all in those scores.
^^^also, I agree with you that the students who remain and do well on tests aren’t getting a good education.
Ok, agreed.
Perhaps universal education is not the goal of the company. Perhaps there is a different agenda, one that sees humans as capital — a bottom line.
^^This. Exactly this, LCT.^^
“Perhaps there is a different agenda, one that sees humans as capital — a bottom line.”
But who would do that in a capitalist economy? Surely no one!
Bombastic self-serving authoritarianism aka $ucce$$ Academy’s “secret” pedagogical sauce.
For them it’s all about the adults.
Kids? Those hard data points?
How else are you going to get ROI?
😏
Nancy and retired teacher nailed the two issues here. As a preschool teacher, early literacy specialist, and a compassionate human being (!) I am absolutely appalled. Young children need to move their bodies. They cannot sit stick straight for more than a few seconds, literally. And the best part of this book is the repetition. By the fifth page most children are chiming in with the refrain, “Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!” That’s a major experience that promotes reading skills. I didn’t see the video, but if they are required to “track” and remain silent, there is no point in reading this book. It’s what we call a “shared reading” book. There was clearly no sharing in this circle time. And where’s the joy/!!!
The SA videos I’ve seen do make the teachers look like martinets on meth. Not very savory. But I have visited two KIPP schools and watched teachers run ultra-tight-ship classes that did not have such a jumpy, jittery, and joyless feel.
Isn’t tight ship and joy pair as readily as tight lip and laughter? 🙂
Joyless is the word I would use to describe most of the Upper West Success kids whom I see on the bus and the subway after school. They spend time staring at other children with a blank expression on their face, especially children who are laughing, as if having fun is for other children to experience and not them. More affluent parents who send their children to this school and think that their experience is different from the other Success Academy’s are kidding themselves.
The math video is similar. When do kids have a chance to ask questions? When can they say “But I do not understand this.”
And what is the background of the SA teachers? What does a teacher ad of SA look like?
We are looking for people who believe in the teacher’s complete control over the scholars, including execution of the lesson plan, minute by minute, and where and how scholars hold their hands, how they sit. In turn, our teachers get a lesson plan for each class which they have to execute exactly as they are written.
I looked at the math teacher ad at SA, and to my amazement, they accidentally used “student” instead of “scholar” in a few places, like
Build a classroom culture in which students love math and take pleasure in discovering diverse strategies to solve math problems
Teach students through an inquiry-based curriculum that focuses on the dual tenets of logic and reasoning
Develop strong relationships with parents and students, creating investment in school culture and academics.
http://jobs.successacademies.org/job/5945152/middle-school-math-teacher-new-york-ny/