A large group of parents wrote a letter of complaint to Eva Moskowitz about the harsh discipline at their Success Academy school in her new space, which appears to attract a white, middle-class enrollment. They objected to the no-excuses code, which they say broke their children’s spirit.
Here is the parents’ letter.
https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/10/hudson-yards-success-charter-parents-to.html
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This principal did not begin teaching until 2013, and that was as an assistant teacher. He was made a principal in 2016. So he basically has next to no experience as either a teacher or a principal. What could go wrong.
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It’s actually worse. The principal used to be an investment banker! http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lawyer-quit-high-paying-gig-teach-low-income-nyc-students-article-1.3312106
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I wouldn’t hold that against him, and I might even hold it in his favor. But not as a substitute for the basic experience of teaching children and running a school.
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How much experience do you think the typical SA principal has anyway?
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Two qualifications only are needed: They need a pulse and can not be caught murdering anyone.
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Oh, and one more: They must be able to fog up a spoon when holding it up to their mouth.
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Norwegian Filmmaker,
I guess I don’t find any of this funny.
In order to become a SA principal, you have to work for a few years for SA and prove that you are willing to follow orders and not question how children are treated. And you can get your Relay degree.
You have to be a “good soldier” the way that John Kelly was a good soldier for Trump. You defend the great leader no matter what and you fall on your sword for her if you have to.
The ones that don’t — the ones like the assistant teacher who questioned Success Academy’s patented “target the low-performing kids and humiliate and punish them” tactics and secretly videotaped it — get drummed out as quickly as the unworthy children do.
But if you just do what you are told and toe the party line, you can rise very quickly.
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NYC public school parent,
You are exactly right. What you said is ultimately what one needs to be able to do to administrate at SA. How sad and infuriating.
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FLERP,
“Mr. Russell arrived at Success Academy Bronx 1 in 2013 as a leadership fellow and the following year moved to SA Harlem Central, becoming the school’s leadership resident.”
This principal has similar experience to the many fresh out of college students who are in charge of schools at age 27. Do you really think they are likely to be any better than a man who has worked in law and finance and isn’t 22?
But look WHERE he was trained. Apparently that’s how the kids at middle schools where he trained are treated. Do you doubt for one second this man abandoned all he had learned at SA Harlem Central to use harsh methods against the kids at Hudson Yards? He is just copying all the “best practices” that he was taught at SA Harlem Central.
What he didn’t know is that he was supposed to give the students at Hudson Yards the special consideration reserved for affluent students because they don’t have to experience the harsh tactics used in SA Harlem Central.
I would love it if this principal was actually a plant to show how reprehensible the tactics that Eva Moskowitz uses on the less affluent students are. But he will probably fall on his sword the way the African-American principal with the “got to go” list did.
After all, when African-American principals use the tactics that they are taught by the white administrators who train them and get caught, it’s always because they invented those tactics out of thin air because they just aren’t very good principals.
Blame them for not realizing that some things shouldn’t be put in writing and some students shouldn’t be treated as if they were at-risk kids who either accept the harsh treatment or are told to leave.
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His only experience as principal appears to have been at the Cobble Hill location.
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I would find a 27-year-old principal quite difficult to take seriously.
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FLERP!
He spent a year at Bronx 1 and 2 years at one of the Success Academy Harlem middle schools, as a “leadership resident” which means that he was being trained by the SA Harlem Middle School principal in how to BE a principal. Then he was made principal at Cobble Hill Middle school, which was a one year temp. middle school for 5th graders from the CH elementary school.
He trained under one of SA’s experienced principals and I am sure that the practices that the parents at Hudson Yards are complaining about are the exact same ones used at SA Harlem Central.
Why are they suddenly being questioned?
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I just assumed it was because these parents are white and miserable, hypocritical racists.
In all seriousness, I don’t know. There are a lot of facts and assumptions that I don’t know and can’t test. I don’t know who these parents are, what their background is, how much of their complaints are rooted in general SA-wide policies and practices versus the administrative style of this principal, or what the rest of the parents at the school think about the whole thing. At a minimum, I’d be interested to hear how people rated this guy’s one-year tenure at Cobble Hill. But as a parent who has experienced some of the same frustrations, I applaud the approach these parents have taken.
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Gee I finally found something we agree upon .
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Now I’m finally finding a silver lining to the SA expansion into middle/ upper-middle class nbhds. You GO, parents. Maybe your exposure to SA SOP in poor nbhds will instigate some changes school-wide, by raising consciousness.
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FLERP!,
Why would you assume these parents are “white and miserable, hypocritical racists”? I assume they are college educated affluent parents (of whatever race) who expect their children to be treated with basic dignity.
I just find it interesting that you “applaud” these parents who are saying the exact same things about Success Academy that less affluent non-white parents have been saying for years. Although maybe you silently applauded them as you criticized me for expressing disgust that their concerns were being dismissed by comments by Eva Moskowitz and her defenders suggesting that those kids were inherently violent (at age 5) and any issues the parents had were about their bad parenting and their problem children.
These quotes from the Hudson Yards parents are almost exactly the complaints that other parents have had:
“HYSA faculty broke our children’s spirit and erased their self confidence in less than 3 weeks. Our children …. now simply no longer want to go to school…..are getting physically sick, experiencing meltdowns, vomiting, having nightmares and/or having sleepless nights and are unable to concentrate etc. Some of our children have even requested to be homeschooled…..”
Gosh, Kate Taylor is vindicated by these parents. “Simply no longer want to go to school” …..”requested to be homeschooled”..? And SUNY refuses to look at why the attrition rate at Success Academy for at-risk kids is twice as high as any mediocre charter network?
“Experiencing MELTDOWNS!!…” Why, that’s just what the mom said whose child Eva Moskowitz chose to publicly attack by releasing records of all his meltdowns which she and her staff made clear were signs of his violent nature. At age 6. Do you give that mom the same respect you give to these Hudson Yard parents who you “applaud” for talking about how Success Academy directly caused their even older children’s meltdowns? I guess I missed that when I read all your attacks on me for pointing this out.
Let’s see some of Kate Taylor’s other reporting vindicating by the parents who wrote this letter:
“Teachers stop at nothing to shame, publicly humiliate and embarrass the scholars”
“Intimidation and Detention of the scholars: Since school started most of the scholars were detained at least once for reasons that can hardly justify such an extreme measure”……”Not locking their hands
…Not completing homework that was confusing”
“advisor is not even aware of the services scholars with IEPs are supposed to get, although the IEP was discussed with them”
“Some parents feel intimidated by Principal Russell for speaking up and conferring with other parents.”
And my personal favorite, which I find shocking that Eva Moskowitz hasn’t already attacked and denounced these parents for and released their children’s private records to punish them for daring to say:
“The staff do not care or understand that: having to leave work unexpectedly can cause somebody to lose their job.”
Are you kidding me? Eva Moskowitz says that those at-risk parents better drop everything and come to get their melting down “violent” child or they will call the police. Over and over again. No one cared.
Surely, FLERP!, you have the same sympathy for all of these complaints that you had when it was at-risk kids and their parents who had them.
Which is, none at all. I’m shocked that you suddenly have sympathy.
Check your privilege sometime, FLERP!
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Thanks for the insults, as always.
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bethree,
Eva Moskowitz will just have one system for those entitled parents and one for the at-risk kids.
She has already rushed to tell them how much she appreciates their concerns and will meet with them and no doubt fire the principal and put in some nice “affluent-parent approved” principal who knows how to differentiate discipline.
At Success Academy, there isn’t just differentiated instruction. There is differentiated discipline. And the children of affluent college educated parents are NOT to be treated like the at-risk children.
This principal just didn’t get the message. I wonder if he’ll swallow his pride and kowtow to the affluent parents whose desires are far more important than any at-risk children’s are.
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FLERP!,
Thanks for not checking your privilege when I mentioned that you never applauded any other Success Academy parents who have spoken out in the past. I didn’t really expect you to ever admit you were wrong.
As you know, I often suspect you are very close to Eva Moskowitz. Extremely close ; ) I find it interesting how you carefully word every post so as not to say anything bad about her.
Even as you “applaud” these parents, you do in such a way that is ambiguous. After all, who wouldn’t applaud these parents who are going to make sure SA principals are held to that high standard that Eva Moskowitz demands. She’ll be so grateful she can correct his behavior and make the school even greater than it is now.
FLERP!, you never criticize Eva Moskowitz directly — I have noticed that. It’s quite odd that you bend over backward to invent entire scenarios in which she “could” be entirely blameless for any actions. You always “reserve judgement” the way Trump apologists always say “we don’t have any proof” and refuse to say anything at all negative about him. At some point, your insisting whenever something bad is revealed that Eva Moskowitz deserves all benefit of the doubt — as you again did today — is simply being complicit.
Many times I have challenged you to acknowledge that Eva Moskowitz is less than truthful in what she says. You twist yourself into knots to change the subject or claim you just don’t know enough so we must give her all benefit of the doubt. Just like the Republicans in Congress do when it comes to Trump.
It was so interesting seeing Jeff Flake deciding he was not going to be complicit anymore. I wonder if you will ever come to that or will you just continue to be the Ivanka Trump of Diane Ravitch’s blog.
Maybe you’ll prove me wrong by actually offering real criticism of Eva Moskowitz. After all, you do “applaud” the parents but you just can’t bring yourself to acknowledge that Moskowitz is not an honest person. You will continue to “reserve judgement”. Carry on, FLERP! Eva Moskowitz needs you. But I suspect you already know that.
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Your challenges are endless, and I have neither the bandwidth or the inclination to humor them. Every comment you make to me is a dressing down of some kind. Quite frankly I find you odd, a bit maniacal, and devoid of any human emotion except outrage. It’s gone on for a long, long time. It’s exhausting.
In this comment thread, I said I applaud the parents who wrote this letter. I stand by that, and I’m not going to impugn their motives. And I’m not going to try to fathom what you want me to explain about my own motives. I don’t know what you want me to say. If you like, you can type up whatever statement you want me to sign and I’ll sign it for you.
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^^By the way, FLERP!, I confess I am shocked that you are willing to offer even the lightest criticism of this principal (although as it your custom, you don’t actually directly say “there is something wrong with the charter school administration for regularly hiring inexperienced principals”.)
If it turns out Eva Moskowitz makes this principal the scapegoat and blames and replaces him, I won’t be surprised given that you seem to have already scapegoated him. It will simply confirm my suspicions that you so often seem to have inside information.
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FLERP!,
I’m asking you straight out, what is your opinion of Eva Moskowitz?
Just like I might ask a friend what their opinion of Donald Trump is.
When people tell me that they just don’t have enough information to make any judgements about Donald Trump and they want to give him a chance because they aren’t really sure about whether a lot of people are lying about Trump or not, because there really isn’t any evidence for them to be able to judge Trump, then I know exactly what kind of person they are.
That’s you when it comes to Eva Moskowitz. You want to reserve judgement. You aren’t really sure as you don’t yet have enough evidence to criticize her or not. You sound remarkably like the people unwilling to criticize Donald Trump in your constant refrain that you just don’t have enough evidence to know whether her critics are just making up a lot of negative stuff about her.
FLERP!, I know you said I applaud the parents who wrote this letter.”
That’s something that Eva Moskowitz herself would say. I have no doubt she WILL say that when she praises them for caring so much about their school.
The fact that you resort to troll-like insults calling me “a bit maniacal” because I called you out on your remarkable and stubborn unwillingness to offer a single word of criticism about Eva Moskowitz to show exactly the kind of person you are.
I don’t want you to “sign” anything. I am challenging you to see if I am correct about my theory that you will never, under any circumstances, criticize Eva Moskowitz directly.
What is your opinion of Eva Moskowitz? If your answer is that you don’t yet have enough information to have formed any opinion, then just say that. And the rest of us will choose to believe you or not believe you.
But stop attacking me because I called you out on something I noticed about you — that you absolutely will not criticize Eva Moskowitz under any circumstances. As you proved with your reply above.
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Well, you’re not remotely my friend, so your intro analogy doesn’t work. But I’ll entertain you again. I don’t have much of a personal opinion about Eva Moskowitz, although I’ve met her and she was friendly and charming. Professionally, she is obviously extremely ambitious. She has a school model that a lot of people do seem to like. I would not be one of those people, and I admit that when I learned that friends of mine send their kids to Success in Cobble Hill, I was shocked. At the same time, when I “check my privilege,” I’m aware that most of the people who use and like her schools have far fewer options than I do, so I’m reluctant to criticize their choices and even more reluctant to take the position that Success Academy should not exist. The problem is that Moskowitz’s ambitions for the network are almost limitless, and I think we are at a point where her schools, and the charter industry in general in NYC, need to be checked. They will not check themselves.
Thanks for your continued interest in my opinions.
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FLERP!,
Thank you for your enlightening reply. Although I appreciate you including it, I never asked your opinion about the parents who send their kids to Success Academy, nor did I ask you whether you think parents with few options need good, safe options, which of course they do. I have often said that SA provides a good, safe option to the students who they find profitable (reputation-wise) to teach.
I asked your option of Eva Moskowitz, who I find to be entirely unfit to be given public money to run schools because she will say and do anything to “win”. And that includes smearing young children and telling the public her 20% suspension rates in some schools serving high numbers of at-risk children is due to their inherent violence.
I believe Eva Moskowitz is dishonest because she took it upon herself to spend her valuable time lobbying, writing op eds, and appearing on news programs to fight very hard for Betsy DeVos to be confirmed. She intentionally gave wavering Senators the endorsement of a so-called “Democrat” who cared about poor students to point to as proof that their vote to confirm DeVos was a good thing. She gave them cover when she repeated non-stop how much DeVos cared about poor kids and how great it would be for all students if she was confirmed.
Your friend Tim below provided even more evidence of Eva Moskowitz’ dishonesty when he helpfully linked to the NY Magazine article below:
“Moskowitz doesn’t buy the self-selection premise. The children in proximate zoned schools, she insists, “are the same kids we have.”
Anyone who looks at her high attrition rate for at-risk kids understands how absurdly misleading that is. That self-serving comment does absolutely nothing for the children in those NYC public schools. The only person it helps is Eva Moskowitz herself.
You may disagree with my characterization of these facts, but you can’t deny that those are the facts. You are as aware of them as I am.
But as you just showed us, the sum total of your criticism of Eva Moskowitz is this:
“I don’t have much of a personal opinion about Eva Moskowitz, although I’ve met her and she was friendly and charming. Professionally, she is obviously extremely ambitious.”
That statement of your entire “opinion” of Eva Moskowitz would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Do you know what it sounds like? It sounds like a high school senior on a job or college interview with their pre-programmed answer to “What’s your biggest flaw?”
“I’m friendly and charming, but my biggest flaw is that I’m just too ambitious”.
Are you sure you aren’t Eva Moskowitz herself? ; )
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Like I said, just type up what you want me to say and I’ll sign it.
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You know, I’m going to have to use some self-restraint and not spend any more time responding to you on this thread. You insult me over and over and “challenge” me to answer your questions. Like an idiot, I take the time to type out a thoughtful response that accurately reflects my opinion, and I get back this snide garbage. Utterly pointless. But shame on me, again.
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FLERP!,
It’s ironic to hear you whining that you wrote a thoughtful post and the person didn’t take it seriously. I suggest you take a look at your own frequent snarky replies to people who believe they are writing thoughtful posts.
I wrote a thoughtful reply back to your post. The only time I was snarky was when I pointed out the sum total of what you said about Eva Moskowitz herself. It DID sound like a “my greatest flaw is…” answer to an interview question.
You spent a lot of “thoughtful” time writing about parents and the need for good schools but all you had to say about Eva Moskowitz was this:
“I don’t have much of a personal opinion about Eva Moskowitz, although I’ve met her and she was friendly and charming. Professionally, she is obviously extremely ambitious.”
Why would you ask me to write something for you? You are capable of expressing your opinion very well.
And your opinion is that Eva Moskowitz was friendly and charming when you met her and you believe she is professionally very ambitious.
Why are you so upset that the rest of us judge you on that “thoughtful reply”?
This is my opinion, only: Your “thoughtful reply” in which you write about Eva Moskowitz being friendly and charming and professionally very ambitious” while claiming you can’t judge her beyond that smacks of an insider. Someone who is not being entirely up front about who they are.
Other readers are free to agree or not. No doubt there are thousands of people out there who agree with you that Eva Moskowitz is friendly and charming when she meets certain people and she is professionally very ambitious and beyond that they have no opinion whatsoever. But I doubt very much they are people who care enough about education to read about education on Diane Ravitch and other sites. You aren’t some random person. You read and post frequently on education discussion boards.
As I say, your answer was very revealing. Your taking offense and acting gravely insulted when the only thing I pointed out was to repeat your entire comments about Eva Moskowitz to demonstrate how disingenuous I believe you are is not believable. Especially from someone always willing to dish the snark.
FLERP! says:
“I don’t have much of a personal opinion about Eva Moskowitz, although I’ve met her and she was friendly and charming. Professionally, she is obviously extremely ambitious.”
It speaks for itself.
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Deplorable. How about trying the public school?
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I agree. Pull your children out en masse and go to public school.
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Been wondering why that didn’t happen. Are there no public schools left? These charter employees are clearly amateurs. Want to vote with your feet? Vote with your feet! Leave the school. En masse. Loudly.
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Here’s an interesting aspect of this.
In an internal memo leaked to POLITICO, S.A. administrators are instructed are tell their superiors so those falks can retaliate forcefully against any parent who speaks ill of Success Academy, or who threatens to do so to the media. If such a thing happens, the teachers or administrator is to call in Success Adacemy’s “advisory” unit, who will then metaphorically bitch-slap those ungrateful, trouble-making parents.
Folks, these are police state tactics, or cultic tactics, and they explain why all these parents want to remain anonymous:
http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2016/03/in-a-memo-success-academy-lawyers-warn-staff-of-mistakes-032669
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
POLITICO:
“Success, the city’s largest charter network, has faced a series of embarrassing leaks recently, resulting in an unusually negative spate of coverage. The press leaks have largely come from current or former employees concerned about practices within the schools.
“The memo also specifically instructs school leaders not to allow parents to become the sources of leaks to journalists or government officials.
” ‘Letting parents get away with threats to go to the press/police/elected official’ is listed as number eight on the list of twenty mistakes.
” ‘If a parent makes this threat, contact advisory. Advisory can help diffuse this situation,’ the memo reads:
” ‘But we cannot let parents ‘get away’ with these threats. Feel confident in pushing back on these and telling parents that threats are not a productive way to resolve conflict or build the relationship.’
“Success recently drew condemnation after the New York Times published an interview with the mother of a homeless child who was berated in front of her classmates for struggling with a math problem. The mother said she was misled by Success executives and was only encouraged not to speak with the press.
“The memo instructs employees not to ‘battle’ with parents over text messages or email.
” ‘Many of our parents text/email leaders serious accusations,’ the memo reads. ‘It is almost never productive, efficient, or in your best interest to battle over text/email.’ “
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Jack,
Yep. That’s what businesses do. They do whatever they can to fight the business war and protect their brand name. It’s just not what public schools do.
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Jack,
Let’s see what they do to these parents.
While we have no idea who they are, I believe that at least some of the SA elementary schools that feed into that fancy new middle school are — intentionally? — the ones that have far more affluent and middle class students than at-risk ones.
So far these parents are being catered to the way the affluent parents who had complaints have always been catered to at SA. Do you know they shortened their day for them? Eva Moskowitz kept insisting those long days were all for the kids, but when some affluent parents started complaining, they – coincidentally, I’m sure – got shortened.
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My thoughts exactly. I don’t have much sympathy for these parents. District 2, where this Success Academy middle school is located, has some of the best middle schools in NYC. As I mentioned below, these idiot parents chose to stay with this failing, fascist organization when there were much better options available!
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If these students attended Success elementary schools in Harlem, District 2 middle schools were as off-limits to them as the surface of the moon.
If not, the really great D2 middle schools have a complicated admissions /testing/ranking system that is difficult to navigate, and their student bodies are stunningly non-diverse–8-12% combined black-Latino enrollment.
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Tim is right.
These parents complaining about their children’s treatment are very likely the affluent parents who would not be caught dead allowing their children to be educated in a middle school where the poor children are not kept in their place.
As Tim notes, they are well aware of the Success Academy philosophy. It just wasn’t directed toward their “privileged” children in their “separate but equal” Success Academy schools where the number of at-risk children was kept very low (sometimes only 25% of the class).
This principal didn’t get the message that these kids are special and should be treated in the manner that befits their privilege.
I have no doubt that Eva Moskowitz will give this principal his marching orders. The question will be whether Malik Russell — who is obviously an accomplished adult with a law degree — will let himself be used to placate the entitled parents at the middle school and take all the blame upon himself as Candido Brown did when he was called out for doing exactly what he was taught to do if you want to get promoted at Success Academy.
Will Malik Russell cry at a press conference where he is ordered to appear by Eva Moskowitz so he can fall on his sword?
Or does he have some self-respect? Will Eva Moskowitz just quietly remove him and he will take his punishment as if he deserves it?
What is the price of Malik Russell’s self respect? If he gets promoted to a higher paying job for his willingness to take all the blame so that Eva Moskowitz can admit that he acted reprehensibly and ignorantly and was completely out of line and she is ever so glad these parents brought Malik Russell’s incompetent and inept abilities to her attention so she could address his many failings as a principal and a man.
How much self-respect does Malik Russell have? We will soon find out.
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@Tim You assume the complaining families are poor people of color. I would bet money that those complaining are educated, affluent white and Asian families who could have navigated the middle school process just fine.
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@Beth,
I suspect you are right. But those parents don’t have to find another middle school because their demands carry much more weight than other parents’ complaints.
“Teachers stop at nothing to shame, publicly humiliate and embarrass the scholars”
This is almost word for word what Kate Taylor and others have reported happens to children at some Success Academy schools. For years this has been reported in news accounts. Success Academy just attacked the parents who said this and the reporters who wrote about it.
How likely is it that these parents will be told to shut up and leave if they don’t like their kids being treated this way?
Not likely at all. Success Academy will simply stop treating kids this way. At least at SA Hudson Yards. No doubt their “best practices” will continue at SA Harlem Central where Malik Russell — the principal these parents want replaced — learned how to run a school.
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This is why the ed reform distinction between “adults” and “the kids” is such nonsense:
“Overwhelmed staff: there are multiple documented examples of teachers who appeared so stressed that parents could not get a coherent answer to simple Yes or No questions”
They all work in the same place. If the adults are miserable the kids will be too.
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Right on Chiara, good point.
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Parents need to hold the system accountable and if necessary take legal action. After reading the letter, it appears there is documentation that some of these children have experienced symptoms of emotional child abuse.
“HYSA faculty broke our children’s spirit and erased their self confidence in less than 3 weeks.Our children who once loved the SA, who were proud of being a part of a great school, rallied in Albany and other events, now simply no longer want to go to school.Some of our children are getting physically sick, experiencing meltdowns, vomiting, having nightmares and/or having sleepless nights and are unable to concentrate etc. Some of our children have even requested to be homeschooled although they had been award winners and popular last year.”
http://www.eschooltoday.com/child-abuse/emotional-child-abuse/signs-of-emotional-child-abuse.html –
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Check out the photo captioned “Eva Moskowitz and family crashing a Success protest last year.” They’re grinning and holding a sign that claimsSuccess Academy threatened to call 911 on first graders. I have a feeling none of the Moskowitz kids have attended Success Academy.
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At least one of her kids did.
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Do you know which school and how many years? Is there a source for the info?
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I believe it’s been reported many times in news stories. You could pull it up in a google search. I have a vague sense that it was in Harlem, but don’t quote me on that.
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The two younger kids have spent either all or nearly all of their K-12 years so far in Success schools (Harlem Success 3 and the Harlem East middle school), although I don’t know for sure where the middle child is going for HS. The article below confirms the start dates, and you can google “New Yorker charter chief” to find an article with additional information. Her oldest child had started at a highly coveted NYC DOE gifted-and-talented school a few years before the first Success school opened.
http://nymag.com/news/features/65614/index4.html
This ought to change a lot of people’s minds about her and the schools, right??
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Tim,
None of my grandchildren would ever go to a boot camp school. If Eva likes it for her own children, that’s her choice. I find the disciplinary practices appalling.
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I found a few articles that say she had kids in her schools. It’s no fun researching her–practically everything she says and does seems so wrong to me. In that photo it looks like she’s letting out a big guffaw, while everybody else in the family’s wearing a [certain type of] grin.
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Diane,
It is ONLY a “boot camp” for some kids. Not all. That is what this letter is all about. These kids obviously did not experience the true boot camp. Now they are angry because the principal trained in a boot camp SA school expects their privileged children to experience what the at-risk kids do.
And anyone who believes that the teachers at SA would dare to give the CEO’s children the same treatment that the unwanted children get is simply delusional.
Tim certainly knows a lot about where her kids went to school.
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Tim,
Given how Eva is feared and worshipped, I find it hard to believe that her own children are given the same soil-your-undies-from-stress-on-a-regular-basis regimen as other kids are.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Also, now that Eva has fought for and won the right to open pre-K’s with ZERO oversight, its scary to grasp the concept of kids as young as 4 (or 3, for the ones with late birthdays) are going to be guinea pigs for Eva’s Hitler Youth-style indoctrination and processing.
As with cult’s, there’s an outer reality shown to those outside the cult, and an inner reality of abuse and control that is hidden from those on the outside, in part because those within the cult are pressured to keep quiet about it. “Outsiders wouldn’t understand.” is the lame logic given for hiding all this.
Well, apparently, you can’t hide it forever, as these recent events prove.
But of course, Eva will still have you, Tim, as her Propaganda Minister, no matter how bad things get, and how much the public gets to the truth about the horrors that are really going on in Eva’s schools..
Keep up the good work!
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Jack,
Eva Moskowitz will have Tim and also FLERP! as her chief propaganda ministers.
As FLERP! has posted above:
“I don’t have much of a personal opinion about Eva Moskowitz, although I’ve met her and she was friendly and charming. Professionally, she is obviously extremely ambitious.”
Now that’s the kind of propaganda that is much appreciated by Eva Moskowitz!
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Do you suppose the parents were clueless about what they were getting their children into? I doubt it, but they may have thought no school would actually be dumb enough to enforce every single rule, all the time, no matter how ridiculous.
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I think the parents complaining had been experiencing the “SA lite” that is used in the schools that have few at-risk kids and cater to affluent college-educated parents who make up the majority of parents there.
The reason to have all those rules is so they can be enforced against the students who are targeted because they aren’t making their school look good.
I think this principal didn’t know that the kids who make their school look good — especially the affluent ones whose parents have college degrees — are not supposed to be treated that way.
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Oh, yeah, you nailed it, NYSPSP.
I’m just loving this paradigm: (1) SA schools in poor nbhds cuz that’s the ed-reform civil-rts selling point; (2)SA schools expand into mid/upper-mid nbhds cuz they have to, to make ends meet – sales message changed to ‘school choice for all’; (3)SA stopped dead by mid/upper-mid class parents, who actually have a clue/ education/ aware of choices/ not cowed by institutional bureaucracy!
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I would like to say I love it too, but these parents are obviously about to be catered to. Let’s see how fast Eva Moskowitz replaces this principal. He’ll get moved somewhere where he can use his tactics on the Success Academy students like those in the Harlem Central Middle School where he spent 2 years learning his craft.
At Harlem Central, where this principal was taught how to be a good SA principal, there are far more at-risk kids than affluent ones and almost no white students, period. Parents who complain aren’t catered to and no one listens when the parents say it’s hard for them to drop everything and come when their child has some of those patented Success Academy “meltdowns” that they use to justify outrageously high suspension rates of 5 year olds.
The mistake Eva Moskowitz made is not making it very clear to Malik Russell that some parents and children are far too good to be treated with the “special sauce” they reserve for at-risk kids.
I hope he has enough self-respect not to fall on his sword. I hope he has enough self-respect to step back and wonder why the complaints of these Hudson Yards parents are taken more seriously than the complaints of other parents.
I hope he has enough self-respect to wonder why the tactics he was taught to use at Harlem Central Middle School can’t be used on the students at Hudson Yards Middle School. I hope he has enough self-respect to wonder why some tactics are good for certain kids but deemed wrong for children in a school filled with far more affluent parents.
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Parents don’t count, nor do children . Investment bankers count.
Strong against the weak.
Rich against the poor.
Profits against humanism.
Greed against equity.
Incompetence and corruption against the pure, the earnest, and the trusting.
2% against the 98%.
Perversion against the sane.
Addiction and illness against the untainted.
It’s America 2017.
Love it.
Hate it.
Change it . . . . .
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Wait, when did the ruling class become the 2%?
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Why are these parents still sending their children to this school?
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Not easy to switch middle schools in midstream in NYC, unless you like your zoned option (which most of these parents presumably don’t).
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This is middle school. District 2 has some of the best middle schools in NYC. Admission is not bound by catchment zone. These idiot parents chose to stay with Success Academy.
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I understood Osberg to be asking why these parents had not pulled their kids out of this particular school, not why they made the school their middle school choice in the first place. As you know, pulling them out of school now would mean either putting them in the families’ zoned middle school or scrambling to find another option.
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Beth,
Notice how FLERP! is certain that these families would never pull these children out in the middle of the year because it would mean scrambling for another option and would obviously be highly unlikely to happen.
But that is EXACTLY what happens with all the at-risk kids who disappear from Success Academy schools. FLERP! never questions why they leave because of course, it is a given to him that they just don’t like Success Academy so of course they’d leave in unusually high numbers after starting at Success Academy.
What’s the big deal, says FLERP!, that at-risk parents leave? Why should the SUNY Charter Institute question it?
If you want to understand the hypocrisy of the Success Academy defenders like FLERP!, you only have to see how he differentiates between the most at-risk Success Academy students and the ones whose families are likely to be college educated.
FLERP! has no problem pointing out that the families who are unhappy at SA Hudson Yards would be unlikely to pull their kids from the school mid-year because it is so difficult to find another school. FLERP! posted twice to make it clear that it just isn’t easy to find another school.
And yet FLERP! (and the entire SUNY Charter Institute) insist that when unusually high numbers of at-risk children are pulled from Success Academy schools mid-year, it should not be questioned because why wouldn’t lots of them go through the difficulty of finding another (inferior) school mid-year!
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@FLERP There is no such thing as a “zoned” middle school.
As for “scrambling,” I know of several families who left Success Academy during the school year and found seats in public schools. It can be done.
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I’m sure it can be done. I think people very much prefer not to. I know I would find it very stressful.
Not sure I follow your statement that there are no zoned middle schools. I believe that’s wrong. In fact, I’m planning on sending one of my kids to our zoned school next year.
See: http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/Middle/default.htm
“School Search
Find your district and learn if you have a zoned school. Students who live in an area that is zoned for a specific school have an Admissions Priority to attend.”
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Beth,
The parents of at-risk kids who mysteriously leave Success Academy in outrageously high numbers after starting the first day of school manage to find other schools. Often they are much worse performing schools than the Success Academy school that they left. However, the defenders of Success Academy — like FLERP! — don’t have anything to say about that because we are supposed to somehow believe that if you are an at-risk parents, OF COURSE you would pull your child out of the best, richest, and highest performing charter school even if you don’t have a suitable high performing public school to enroll them in.
But when it comes to more affluent parents whose kids aren’t at-risk, these same Success Academy defenders like FLERP! are happy to post links to “proof” of how hard it is to find another suitable school for their entitled child.
Ergo, if you want to understand what Success Academy is all about, FLERP! explains it very clearly:
We must accept without question that parents of at-risk kids who go to the trouble of seeking out the highest performing charter school and doing everything that is asked of them would then turn around and pull them out for a much worse public school. The innuendo, of course, is that these parents just don’t care enough about their kids education to keep them in the best charter school and instead they mysteriously change their minds — with no push from the charter school at all — and decide to choose one of those mediocre to failing public schools instead.
And we must also embrace FLERP!’s point that the parents of entitled children who answer the call of the SA marketing effort that their children will have a free private education that turns them into the highest performing scholars in the state would never be so ignorant as those at-risk parents to accept anything less than a high performing suitable replacement for their children if Success Academy is not working for them.
You must embrace the notion that some Success Academy parents — the at-risk ones — care much less about their children’s education than entitled parents do in order to defend Success Academy properly. As FLERP! does so well.
Because if you do not accept that premise (which the SUNY Charter Institute demands that we all accept), it raises many questions about why so many of those at-risk kids are disappearing after starting the first day of school.
After all, FLERP! has just proved that it is highly unlikely any parent would leave Success Academy midyear for an inferior school. Or perhaps FLERP! just proved that affluent parents wouldn’t do that, while FLERP! turns a blind eye and accepts without question when parents of at-risk children do exactly what she just claimed no parent would do!
We must not question why the poorest parents would act differently than college educated parents when it comes to pulling their child from Success Academy for an “inferior” school. Because questioning that belief would lead to asking why poor parents would act differently than affluent ones, and that would lead to questions about why schools famous for having got to go lists and humiliating and embarrassing students for infractions would have so many at-risk kids (with no better options) leave.
That is not allowed. We must assume that their parents don’t really care whether they have a good school replacement. It’s not like they care nearly as much as the entitled parents that FLERP! understands would never leave unless they have a suitable alternative.
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Because middle school at Success Academy starts in 5th grade, not 6th as in public schools. I assume the parents were unhappy with the zoned elementary from the start
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Moskowitch is getting too much press whether it is this disgusting crap in the classroom or her ill viewed trips to Albany with kids as pawns to get more money from the sad politicians. We are living in a time of fake news, scam artists and creepy human beings as the world has become too over populated and people all need jobs to survive. Success Academy is filled with people who all need to work and sustain lives for survival so we will continue to see this low life, low class garbage in the schools which are run by people who are really just doing it for the money. In the past, public schools had dedicated people who wanted to be in education for the love of the kids and teaching but now we have so many people and over crowding and people have to find ways to make a living and survive. The sad unfortunate truth .
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This letter is the beginning of the end of SA. Detailed, precise, and is not by a single individual, but a group of people.
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Perhaps these parents can vent their feelings at a propaganda event that Eva is staging — a congratulatory discussion about how S.A. is training its future teachers and administrators — which also functions as a recruiting event for these presumably uncredentialed teachers. It’s this coming Monday, October 30.
This looks like a good opportunity for leafleting the attendees, or asking a pointed question from the microphone.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-young-minds-generations-of-future-leaders-panel-tickets-38878813578
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Oct 30
“Cultivating Young Minds: Generations of Future Leaders” Panel”
by
Success Academy Charter Schools
Description
Please join Success Academy Charter Schools for an intimate panel discussion, “Cultivating Young Minds: Generations of Future Leaders” on Monday, October 30th at 6:30pm. The panel, led by Principals and Leaders within Success Academies will offer an inside perspective on how Success Academy is preparing our next generation of scholars during this highly political time, with some time afterwards to learn about our Teacher Residency and Summer Internship Programs.
As New York City’s largest and top-performing charter school network, we’re looking for talented, ambitious college junior and seniors to join our team for the 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 school year. All majors are welcome—you don’t have to be an education major to take advantage of this opportunity!
This panel event is open exclusively to current college junior and seniors attending college in NYC. Feel free to invite like-minded friends. In fact, if you bring 2 friends, you will be entered to win an Amazon Kindle!
Appetizers will be served. RSVP Today!
About Success Academies
As New York City’s largest and top-performing charter school network, we’re looking for talented, ambitious college Junior and Seniors to join our team for the 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 school year. All majors are welcome—you don’t have to be an education major to take advantage of this opportunity! Learn more about Success Academy and our career opportunities at SuccessCareers.org.
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The Success Academy franchise in question, Hudson Yards, is in a facility that cost $68 to purchase (and build? … I’m not sure):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/success-academy-to-pay-68-million-for-space-for-new-nyc-school-1481846960
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$68 Million.
I assume Eva bought and renovated the space.
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This was new construction. The building is 75 stories, so I assume the development cost was many hundreds of millions or more.
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