Gary Rubinstein tries to decipher the paradoxical test scores At Eva Moskowitz’s controversial Success Academy.
For years, the No-Excuses charter chain has posted sky-high test scores, which skeptical observers attribute to the chain’s practices of exclusion and attrition.
However, Gary has noted this strange contradiction: SA students get high scores on state tests but low scores on high school Regents exams and on the exams for selective high schools in New York City.
Could it be that they do test prep for the 3-8 grade tests but have not cracked the code for the high school tests?
He writes:
Last year I wrote about how the top charter chain in New York City, Success Academy, only managed to have three students get between 52% and 72% of the questions correct on the Algebra II Regents…
Success Academy had 130 9th graders in the 2017-2018 school year. Presumably most, if not all, would be taking the Geometry Regents, yet according to the records they had zero students even attempting that test. For Algebra II I wrote about how in 2016-2017 they only had 13 students out of 16 pass and only 3 of them with grades above 72%. Well, after seeing this recent story about their 8th graders and Algebra I, I looked that their Algebra II scores for last year (this year’s scores are not out yet on the data site). Despite having 161 10th graders last year, 31 11th graders, and 17 12th graders, Success Academy had only 22 students even take the Algebra II Regents. And their scores were the same as they were the previous year with 68% of the students getting between 30% and 52% of the possible points and 14% of the students getting between 52% and 72% of the possible points.
The meat of the story is between the ellipses. Read it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow, that’s some serious attrition, if it indicates a pattern within grade cohorts: Despite having 161 10th graders last year, 31 11th graders, and 17 12th graders…
Exactly. Most education reporters are generally so afraid of numbers that they simply parrot the propaganda given to them by charter promoters when they could be doing the kind of research that Gary does and doing something that Gary can’t — asking those questions directly of charter CEOs when charters put out their misleading and self-serving press releases. Why did this charter chain lose 30% of the students who were in that cohort 2 years ago — did they drop out, get expelled, or were they flunked by the charter and not allowed to proceed with their class? Every news story should be including this and if charters refuses to answer, should include speculation about what is so wrong with this charter that nearly 1/3 of the students went missing.
Of course, since those reporters tend to be white and middle class and the missing students are usually African-American or Latinx, the white reporters simply assume the worst about the parents and the students – something they’d never do if one of the top performing public schools in the state was losing huge numbers of middle class white students each year.
Also, in 2017-2018, nearly 76,000 NYC public school students tested proficient in the Algebra 1 Regents with over 11,000 of those students performing at the very highest level. Nearly 47,000 of those 76,000 students who tested proficient in the Algebra 1 Regents were African-American and Latinx. 2,700 of the 47,000 African-American and Latinx students who tested proficient were at the very top Level 5
Success Academy has fewer than 2% of the total African-American and Latinx students who test at the very highest level in Algebra 1 Regents exams, but somehow the press always treats it as if it is a miracle and the many thousands of students in NYC public schools that perform at the same level are ignored as if they don’t exist. Because if the media acknowledged the thousands of students who are in public schools who do well, it would show how easy it is for charters famous for high attrition rates to cherry pick a tiny percentage of students to teach.
YES: “…since those reporters tend to be white and middle class and the missing students are usually African-American or Latinx, the white reporters simply assume the worst about the parents and the students – something they’d never do if one of the top performing public schools in the state was losing huge numbers of middle class white students each year.”
In a data-obsessed nation, data like this has made things feel so transparent for years: yet this kind of data, a look at statistics which honestly matter, is not data the public is ever told to worry about
I got a Facebook ad from Success Academy about applying for a job.
Nah…
Pay attention to the attrition. The Regents exams themselves are way too ‘curious’.
The 65% passing score for the Algebra II this year was 26 out of 86 raw points, or 30% correct. And that’s typical for both the Algebra I and II exams.
There’s also been a consistent dichotomy between the grades 3-8 ELA and Math scores. Look at the overall percentage of 4s in math vs. ELA. https://data.nysed.gov/essa.php?instid=800000059316&year=2018&createreport=1&allchecked=1&OverallStatus=1§ion_1003=1&EMindicators=1&EMcomposite=1&EMgrowth=1&EMcompgrowth=1&EMelp=1&EMprogress=1&EMchronic=1&EMpart=1&HSindicators=1&HScomposite=1&HScompgrowth=1&HSprogress=1&HSchronic=1&HScccr=1&staffqual=1&expend=1&38ELA=1&38MATH=1&48SCI=1®ents=1&cohort=1&nyseslat=1&feddata=1
The Math curriculum at Success Academy is strong. I cannot say the same thing about ELA, especially writing.
In addition, historically there has been a disconnect between the grades 3-8 ELA and math scores as well. Outrageously high percentage of 4s in math, much lower percentage of 4s in ELA.
https://data.nysed.gov/essa.php?instid=800000059316&year=2018&createreport=1&allchecked=1&OverallStatus=1§ion_1003=1&EMindicators=1&EMcomposite=1&EMgrowth=1&EMcompgrowth=1&EMelp=1&EMprogress=1&EMchronic=1&EMpart=1&HSindicators=1&HScomposite=1&HScompgrowth=1&HSprogress=1&HSchronic=1&HScccr=1&staffqual=1&expend=1&38ELA=1&38MATH=1&48SCI=1®ents=1&cohort=1&nyseslat=1&feddata=1