Katy Crawford-Garrett is an associate professor at the University of New Mexico.
Success Academies, a network of 47 charter schools in New York City that serves a majority of Black and Brown youth from poor communities, has long been considered a star of the school reform movement, garnering accolades from politicians, philanthropists, and the media. Founded by Eva Moskowitz in 2006, Success Academies can claim some of the highest standardized test scores in the state of New York (often outperforming wealthy suburban districts), a metric which suggests that Success has done the impossible – figured out howto erase the achievement gaps that have confounded reformers, school leaders, researchers, and policymakers for decades.
At the end of a 7-episode podcast on Success Academiesdeveloped by Gimlet Media and featured as part of the StartUpseries, the host, Lisa Chow, weighs the pros and cons of Success’s controversial approach to educating poor Black and Brown youth by stating, “Maybe these emotional and social costs that families are paying, maybe those are the costs of catapulting across the vast achievement gap.” The “costs” that Chow is referring to — as articulated by parents, students, and teachers in vivid terms throughout the program — include the loss of humanity, dignity, and mental health, casualties, it seems, to achieving top scores on standardized tests. As a teacher educator and former elementary school teacher, I wondered if this was really where twenty years of aggressive educational reforms had brought us- to a place in which parents from historically-marginalized communities have to choose between their child’s scholastic success and their overall well-being.
The podcast offers a disturbing window into the approaches that Success uses in order to glean its unprecedented results including a disproportionate focus on test prep (sometimes up to 6 hours a day), harsh disciplinary practices (including record-high rates of suspension), and the revolving door of young,inexperienced teachers willing to work punishing hours and enforce strict policies, even as they have little to no formal preparation as educators.
We do hear some inspirational stories of students like Moctarwho earns a full ride to MIT and powerful accounts of children who thrive, at least initially, within the climate of academic rigor. However, like so many narratives of American education, the story of Success rests on the tired binary between innovative charter schools and status quo public schools, between lazy union employees and hard-working young idealists, and the familiar trope of the White savior and the Black and Brown children who need to be tightly controlled as they learn to dress and act more White and middle class.
Eva Moskowitz, Success Academies’ controversial founder, and the anti-hero of the podcast, counters these critiques vociferously throughout the program insisting that her schools not only teach children to read but to love reading and that beyond the robotic and stifling test prep, there exists a rigorous curriculum focused on critical thinking. It is often difficult to believe Moskowitz, earnest as she sounds, in the face of the mounting evidence that Chow and her fellow producers provide. A former teacher shares in heartbreaking terms how she found herself viewing students solely as numbers and colors- indicators of their performance on various assessments – rather than as individuals with ideas, thoughts and questions. A young Black student at the first Success Academy High School struggles with the ways in which her cultural identity is denied by the organization after non-religious head scarves are banned at the school. In the face of this critique, Moskowitz contends in a bewildered tone that all students at Success are the same,ignoring the complexity of her students’ racialized experiencesin and out of school and refusing to consider how the racist policies her schools enact actually undermine her espoused goal of ensuring student success. Throughout the podcast, I marveled at the notion that the kids are taught to master the assessmentsand adhere to the policies but never to question either.
In the Ethnic Studies movement, which has similar aims to Success but contrastive instructional approaches, posing critical questions is central to the curriculum. For over forty years, Ethnic Studies advocates have worked diligently and doggedly to foster rich educational experiences for Black and Brown youth in an effort to connect academic achievement to students’ cultural identities and to avoid the harsh disciplinary tactics and arcane policies that predominate at “No Excuses” charter schools. In Tucson, for example, a Mexican-American Studies program was introduced in 1998 as part of an effort to address endemic underachievement among Mexican-American youth. In the intervening years, literature and history courses were offeredwith an explicit focus on Mexican-American identity. By every measurable metric, the program was a success as participation in the program led to an increase in graduation rates, college attendance, and academic performance while simultaneously validating students’ cultural histories and sense of identity. Despite these laudable results, the program never had near the financial investment of Success Academies (Moskowitz spent $5 million alone on an advertising campaign when her school buildings were under threat by New York City Mayor BillDiBlasio), and instead of being scaled up, Mexican-American Studies was deemed illegal by the state of Arizona and shut down in 2011. The decision was eventually overturned after a costly and lengthy court battle; yet rebuilding the program will take years and, in the interim, countless Arizona youth were denied the opportunity to take Ethnic Studies courses. All of this exists in sharp contrast to the ways in which Success Academy has grown exponentially over the past decade, starting with one school in Harlem in 2006 and now counting 47 schools across New York City.
In the meantime, Ethnic Studies advocates have workedtirelessly, often without financial resources, investments from hedge fund managers, or the high-profile political connections enjoyed by Moskowitz to create curricula that honors students’cultural backgrounds, teaches critical consciousness, and fosters academic achievement without forcing students to make painful choices to abandon their heritage and humanity to adhere to White middle class norms.
I typically begin and end my teacher education courses with aquestion: What is education for and why does it matter? As much as we want to believe that education enhances social mobility, we know that it actually reproduces inequality- a phenomenon that Eva Moskowitz laudably seeks to address. My hope is that my students, who will all become teachers in one of the poorest states in our union, understand that asking and re-asking this question is foundational to our work as educators. If our answer focuses on educational access at all costs, then we end up with models like Success where kids learn to obey, sit with folded hands, and forsake their identities. But if our answer involves cultivating students capable of participating critically and humanely in our democracy, then we will conceptualize schooling differently and imagine new possibilities. As Moskowitz passionately argues, poor and marginalized youth deserve access to opportunity. They deserve challenge and rigor. They deserve an education that prepares them for college. But they also deserve an education that acknowledges their humanity – a process that makes all of us more fully human.
Sources:
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/startup/v4he75
https://scholars.org/brief/how-ethnic-studies-can-reduce-racial-achievement-gaps
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Maybe these emotional and social costs that families are paying, maybe those are the costs of catapulting across the vast achievement gap.”
Have any of SA’s graduates actually “catapulted” across the “vast achievement gap”? SA has been operating long enough now that they should have some graduates launched into the world. Are those young people, in fact, now on the other side of the “achievement gap”? Are they better off than they would have been had they stayed in public school? Can SA produce any research to back that up?
Incidentally, the very term “achievement gap” is quite racist. It’s basically saying that, yes, black people really are inferior – look how much less they “achieve”.
It’s a ridiculous term, for who’s to say what achievement is, and it’s meant (or should be meant) to indicate a societal or at least systemic failing, not the lagging of a group.
Old fashioned racism is behind Eva’s every word and racial discrimination dripping from her every deed. There are gaps, but they are not achievement [sic], test score gaps. Test scores just measure parent income, so those “gaps” have nothing to do with insipid test prep or prudent lack thereof. Charter schools, especially Success Academy charters make physical “gaps” by exacerbating segregation.
There is a gap of space between the white school and the black school in the U.S. For a brief moment in time, the Democratic Party was forced to re-examine its backlash against busing and integration when Biden was justifiably criticized for opposing mandatory busing in the 1970s. The physical segregation gap is the problem; and if Brown v Board were truly upheld, and integration enforced nationwide instead of being left to “consumer” choice as it is today, the victims of Success Academy’s marketing schemes would be faring better alongside white classmates and therefore not forced to silently walk the painted prison line with their hands locked behind their backs in Success Academy Penitentiary Schools.
Pardon my grammar in the first sentence. It’s so much easier to edit on 8 1/2 by 11” paper than in 1 by 2” comment box on little phone. It would also be easier to concentrate if my teacher’s salary afforded me an apartment with central air conditioning near where I teach, but that money has to go to wealthy charter scam investors, wealthy corporations that make bogus online tests, and Big Tech.
You have to know this is coming, eh LCT!
“Test scores just measure parent income”
No they do not “measure parent income”. Standardized test scores correlate with parental income/wealth. A correlation is not a measurement. It is a statistical artifact that means little without an explanation of how that correlation was obtained.
One of these days, one of these days we will stop using the edudeformer language of the “measuring of students” and correctly use the language to describe more truthfully what is happening in the teaching and learning process and how that affects the students.
True, Duane, state test scores do not measure, sort, quantify, rank, gauge, weigh, or calibrate students with any validity. There is only one thing of which Common Core is a yardstick: The tests accurately show how far out of touch with reality the corporate reformsters got, a yawning intellect “gap”.
You don’t get well-rounded Ed from people who are not well-rounded.
It’s not like square pegs in round holes. More like beach balls in cubbies. They have to be deflated.
well said: we cannot get what we need from people who don’t have it themselves
This isn’t really about race so much as it is about poverty and class and the struggles of students who come from severely at-risk families. The racism is what allows opportunistic and greedy charter operators to make outrageous claims about their success and — most importantly — to get away with their exclusion of students. A charter school that served middle class white students — or even high numbers of middle class students of any race whose parents have college degrees — could not regularly flunk kids when their inexperienced teachers failed to teach them properly. They could not treat their students like dirt – regularly humiliating them publicly — and not have parents complain. These practices can only be used against the students – and their parents – who have the least political power.
There are now quite a few Success Academy charters where the majority of students are middle class, with college educated parents, and where white students are one of the largest groups. Those students are simply not treated with the same harshness, which was made clear when those students got to a Success Academy middle school run by a principal who had been trained in one of their Harlem middle schools with virtually no white students. Not surprisingly, some of the far more affluent parents immediately complained about their children being treated in this manner that was regularly used in Success Academy schools teaching mostly at-risk kids and very few white students. And instead of being told “we will continue to treat your unworthy child in the manner in which we want”, Success Academy removed that principal who did not understand that there was no need to use the harshest practices on students who you aren’t trying to exclude.
I always found it very interesting that Eva Moskowitz has been more than willing to break the FERPA law and release the private records of non-white students whose parents complained about their child’s treatment in their school. But what happened to the assistant teacher who surreptitiously videotaped the actions of the teacher that followed Moskowitz’ “best practices” so perfectly that she was celebrated as the “model teacher” at her Success Academy school? That teacher gave that video to the NY Times. Moskowitz should have been trying to publicly destroy that assistant teacher the same way she tried to publicly destroy the young children – who were not white – whose parents complained about the horrendous treatment their children received. But somehow Moskowitz did not say one negative word about this teacher whose videotaping revealed what SA’s “best practices” really are. Moskowitz would destroy a child’s reputation, but not say one bad word about a teacher who surreptitiously videotaped her classroom? Why not?
Moskowitz is a classic bully. Her targets are vulnerable kids, or politicians or parents. I’m guessing that Assistant Teacher wasn’t someone Moskowitz could get away with bullying. Moskowitz refrains from criticizing those who she knows have the power to fight back. She offered over the top praise about Betsy DeVos, insisted Trump didn’t deserve the criticism he was getting, and when the chair of her board Daniel Loeb made his racist views clear, she barely said a word. She only bullies the people and children who have less power and can’t fight back. Somehow that Assistant Teacher must not be among those she knew she could easily bully.
Success Academy is a total fraud and their propaganda efforts depend on racist white education reporters and politicians who seem to believe that in a city of 1.1 million public school students, finding any African-American or Latinx students who are succeeding in school is impossible. The marveling at a charter school teaching less than 2% of the students in a public school system where 40% of the students are proficient is both racist and shows a serious lack of understanding of numbers. It never occurs to them to wonder why Moskowitz isn’t expanding to smaller cities where her cherry picking would be far more evident.
Imagine if you could go into a public school system where over 30,000 students in every grade were doing well and you were given unlimited funds to teach 100 of them. Or 200 of them. Or even 1,000 of those 30,000 students. Of course you could cherry pick students if you were given unlimited money and the tacit agreement that any practice you used that got rid of the students who weren’t doing well was perfectly fine.
Why haven’t there been no excuses charters thriving in white suburbia? Because no one would accept the charter CEO who insisted that the white 5 and 6 year old students who were excluded were violent or horrible. And if the charter ordered 20% or 30% of those white middle class students to repeat first or second grade again, no one would believe the charter CEO who claimed her inexperienced teachers were wonderful, it was just that all those middle class white students were all failures.
The success of Success Academy depends on racism. I have no doubt that the students who are allowed to remain in SA charters would also do very well academically in a school that did not use those harsh discipline practices. Just like many tens of thousands of those students do well in public schools all over NYC. Just because those students are invisible to white politicians and education reporters does not mean they do not exist.
What a terrible disservice Eva Moskowitz has done to convince the public that African-American students need harsh practices that white students don’t need because she has cherry picked the students who would do well in any schools and abandoned the students whose test results she can’t use to promote herself.
No school with such high rates of attrition and suspension can truly be considered a success. The “success” is a product of branding, not legitimate transformation. If “Success” were a pubic school, it would likely be under a civil rights review. The school has already been investigated for violating students’ rights, but it is much harder to make a case against a school that does not have to record incidents in the same way that public schools do.
If Moskowitz was using those practices in a school where most of the parents were college educated and affluent, she could not get away with it either.
Anyone can design a school that rewards and praises and celebrates the students who do well, and severely punishes, publicly humiliates and scapegoats students who don’t. Unfortunately, human nature is such that parents of the students who do well — who see their children being rewarded and celebrated — often don’t notice or are unconcerned with the students who don’t do well. The people who care about the students who don’t do well in such a school are their own parents,
Whether or not those parents come from backgrounds where they have little political power and are easily dismissed and ignored by those in power, or whether they come from backgrounds where their complaints are heard, is the one determining factor into whether a charter operator can lie about their school.
In theory, any public school in NYC could do what Success Academy too often does and simply flunk 1st or 2nd graders who won’t pass a state test and keep them in 2nd grade or first grade indefinitely. But the public school system has a responsibility to teach those students, so flunking them endlessly, suspending them over and over again does not make them disappear. For charters, it does make them disappear and their responsibility ends.
That is a serious flaw in the system. It incentivizes the bad behavior of charters like Success Academy and incentivizes them to lie about it and villify very young children to get away with it.
I think it is Eva Moskowitz and her crew’s villification of the very youngest children that made me start looking closely at her schools and seeing the numbers of missing students and noticing the dishonest propaganda being offered that blamed the children — at 5 and 6 years old! — for their failures. I then kept reading Moskowitz taking full credit for the success of the academically strong students who are allowed to remain and her implications that those students would be utter failures if not for Success Academy. Success Academy alone is entirely responsible for a lottery winning student’s success and the student one is entirely responsible for his failure.
It shocked me that anyone fell for that kind of dishonest and absurd rhetoric. Student succeeds — it’s all us, we did it all with our brilliance! Student fails — he is a violent awful child with terrible parents and his failure is entirely his own fault. The fact that he is 5 or 6 and isn’t the scholar he should be is all because of his terrible parents or just his own bad nature. Our school is absolutely blameless – look over here at this kid who is thriving solely because of our wonderful teachers. That proves that other kid is entirely to blame for his failure.
When did education reporters get so gullible and frankly, stupid? Truly, that is what they fell for. Kid who thrives, thrives because of Success Academy’s wonderfulness. Kid who doesn’t thrive is all to blame and is clearly violent or mentally disturbed or has parents who just don’t value education and prefer him to fail. It’s so sad because when a very few stories get reported, you see that the kids they drummed out often had parents who were going far beyond – coming to school frequently and doing everything they could to try to make it work for their kid. But because the bottom line is not what Success Academy can teach their kid, but whether the kid will bring glory to Success Academy, it doesn’t matter.
Too many white reporters deep down seem to believe Moskowitz and her innuendo about how violent so many of the Kindergarten students are. There is no way they would believe that of a white suburban school where huge numbers of 5 year olds were either suspended, flunked, or simply dropped out without the reporter wondering why and not accepting the principal’s excuse that their parents hated top performing well-funded schools and wanted their kid in a terrible one instead.
There is something very ugly about their using racism to get away with those things. The ugly things they want white people to believe about young African-American children and their supposedly outrageously high rates of violence in Kindergarten is not okay just because they praise a small percentage of other African-American students whose strong academic performance reflects well on them.
It’s like those who claim that because Ben Carson praises Trump, that means that all the racist things Trump has done to gain power are perfectly fine.
“Anyone can design a school that rewards and praises and celebrates the students who do well, and severely punishes, publicly humiliates and scapegoats students who don’t. ”
Yeah, they’re called Catholic schools.
There was some complaining among parents of Upper West Success Academy parents this spring when their kids did not get into good DOE middle schools in D3. The accusation was that Success Academy’s grading system disadvantaged their kids. Apparently it’s very difficult to get over a 95 at Success Academy, whereas at many public schools there is grade inflation leading into the middle school application process. I wonder how quickly Success Academy will change their policies to placate the wealthier parents.
Professor Crawford-Garrett: France’s schools, when they had a knowledge-based national curriculum, were remarkably successful at shrinking the achievement gap between races and classes. When they shifted to an American-style skills-based curriculum, the achievement gap widened dramatically. This is recounted in E.D. Hirsch’s latest book, Why Knowledge Matters.
England has a knowledge-based curriculum. But no matter how strong and deep the curriculum, it is no substitute for policies that shrink economic inequality and lift families out of poverty.
Exactly right, Diane. Both are needed, but there’s a hierarchy of needs at work here. Those who have worked with impoverished kids know this. That kid who is hungry and worried about his mother’s being sick to death because the rent is not payable isn’t going to be miraculously lifted up because of his overriding concern about his scores on the upcoming state test.
“If our answer focuses on educational access at all costs, then we end up with models like Success where kids learn to obey, sit with folded hands, and forsake their identities.”
The single measure of SA’s education is “some of the highest standardized test scores in the state of New York (often outperforming wealthy suburban districts)”– with its subtext screaming between the lines, “poor black & brown kids did this!!” Though I take those results with a heaping tablespoon of salt, let’s imagine for a moment that the stats wouldn’t come tumbling down under scrutiny. I still would have to re-write Crawford-Garrett’s statement thus:
“If our answer focuses on high standardized test scores at all costs, then we end up with models like Success where kids learn to obey, sit with folded hands, and forsake their identities.” Dienne asks all the right questions: where are the graduates? Are they better off than they would have been had they stayed in public school? Can SA produce any research to back that up?
But I’d rephrase again, and extend the 3rd-degree to every test-score mill in the country—public, charter or voucher: “If our answer focuses on high standardized test scores at all costs, then we end up with [INSERT HERE every harmful effect of NCLB et al accountability systems]… Are the graduates better off than they were pre-NCLB? Is there any research to back that up?”
EPISODE ONE. “The Problem”. Just finished part one. Lisa Chow and her producers got incredible access to SA schools, so it is interesting and revealing.
If they are trying to cut down the middle to say “good scores are the one goal, it’s completely authoritarian from day one, it might not be for everybody” it’s a generous portrayal and they are thoughtful and professional and I commend them for being fair to both sides. BUT…
They fell for the fake perception, at least in the first episode, that the test scores are a common sense way to decide which schools are good or bad, where tax dollars should go, and which kids can get extra resources. Educators have always said the tests themselves are designed to fail public school kids en masse, for no appreciable education purpose other than policy compliance, since 2002.
They left out the stark reality that nation’s richest billionaires have been behind the movement in NYS, flooding campaign cash to politicians who mass expanded charters. The construction bonds alone allowed the Wall Street investors to double up their capital within no time. But the policy was passed over the screaming objections of educators, parents and students, hatched in the backrooms of ALEC and CAP. So the real-world truths were not in there yet, making it obvious this was a journey for the documentarians.
I saw a critique by Gary Rubenstein who said it was about 80/20 pro-charter, aka rigged, but I understand the reporters needed access – they do show how the teachers operate and the kids’ experience. I am fascinated as a teacher to see how they operate, scripting the classes in 45 seconds intervals to produce incredibly servile scholars, unable to talk at lunch and singularly focused on math and ELA test prep.
Again a riveting subject and polished presentation, but if the reporters signed non-disclosure agreements, their work could be censored – theres no way to discern which fears crossing these industrialists and just leave the public to figure it out. If the NY Times cannot be bothered for 20 years to report on the financial ties between the charter billionaires, legislators, the lobbyists and the schools, it’s incomplete.
A review on Glassdoor from July 15th, says it all:
I worked at Success Academy Charter Schools full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
If you can make it 1 year with Success Academy, and are truly passionate about education. You can take one year of experience with Success to obtain a job with any other CMO in the city and earn 10k-25k more annually depending on your role.
Cons
Before we begin, if you click on “Rating Trends” in the above section next to metrics box above, you will notice that Success’ rating on Glassdoor jumped from a 2.6 star rating in February 2019 to a 3.2 star rating as of the day of this review. The improvement did not occur because there have been sweeping reforms to organizational practices, it is because there was an internal push to improve ratings to help with staffing for the upcoming year. Success is so desperate to recruit and train staff at the school level, there was a push over the past 5 months to improve organizational perception they have manipulated ratings much in the same way the schools improve outcomes by stacking classrooms with only high performing students while squeezing out low performers, behavior outliers, and leaving a bare bones SPED program for the 19-20 school year. Eva’s army will do anything to insulate her to get ahead in this toxic CMO. Let’s begin. • Top management does not seem to care about or reward appropriate behavior: The most committed, eager, and talented employees are systematically broken down through practices that induce anxiety and chip away at self-confidence in order to “keep employees on their toes.” Sadly, organizational leadership has resided to pushing a culture that ignores commitment and dedication to drive a culture of subversion and competition. Management does not understand that the greatest competition to its mission exists outside of the walls of its schools, takes every opportunity to tear down employees who are committed, doing what is right for the scholars, and making strides as young educators/administrators without acknowledging the sacrifice that comes from 60+ hour weeks. • Lack of recognition for proper job performance: SWAG and Freebies are nice, but management that is capable of doing more than throwing you a sweatshirt and a gift card would help organization culture. Relishing moments of success with staff around student academic growth, with operations after larger events, or any member of staff after impactful/ small moments would do more than a freebie. Leaders speak, things don’t. • Negative feedback: there is a corporate culture that focuses on the negative and never the positive. The rationale behind this is, as mentioned above, “to keep staff on their toes.” By design, feedback is constantly negative, and designed to make staff constantly strive to “do more for the children.” What management does not share is that a significant portion of their annual income comes from the outcomes of the monthly operational audits, and test scores of your scholars. Remember, when you are receiving feedback from your supervisor, it is often referred to as Radical Candor to mask the fact that their goal is drive compliance and not development, and it will be assuredly negative, anxiety inducing, with no tangible benchmarks or real coaching to help you improve. This negative feedback never allows you to rest, but is designed to help your managers rest a little easier knowing you are working to their ultimate goal of receiving 100% of their bonus. Some food for thought: As a first year teacher/assistant teacher, your principal will receive a year end bonus that is equivalent to 30-50% of your salary that is based on primarily test scores and attendance. The harder you work, the better your data, the bigger the payout for your managers. • Substantial organizational inequities: Read above. • Autocratic management, rather than participative management: Your principal will rule their elementary/middle school kingdom with an iron fist, stomp their feet and yell about their vision, make it known you are nobody, you are easy to replace, and you probably do not have what it takes to be at Success long term if you do not immediately comply with their wishes. The notion of collaboration and improvement is dead at Success. • Culture of entitlement from school leadership: If you watch Parks and Rec, you are most likely familiar with ‘Treat yo’ Self.’ This is the mantra for school leadership. There is a popular saying you will hear at any Leadership convention of “there is no budget.” This Carte Blanc culture feeds, actually buys lunch for your leadership, multiple times a week. Think about that when you don’t have time for a prep, or are hour 17 in the school after a long event with the expectation of being at work at 6:30 am the following morning. • Low organizational loyalty at every level of the organization: Turn over is high, and there is actually a strategic initiative that came down from the top to try and address this, but there is very little change that is coming because it wound unravel the current model and require a tremendous cultural shift/upskilling of employees that the organization is not interested in investing in with current turnover. • Fear of delivering “bad news” to supervisors and/or management: When something goes wrong, it invariably will no matter how much planning you put in to the job, your supervisor/principal/school manager will have no problem humiliating you, calling you names, or threatening your job over things like a scholar being fidgety when they have to go to the bathroom, missing juice boxes at an event, or DOE transportation cancelling on you because of a driver strike. Sharing things not going perfectly to plan creates a culture of fear that reduces communication of reality and insulates those at the top in a culture of delirium. • Less-than-competitive compensation: Every other charter pays significantly better and DOE/other model public schools provides better hours. The job requires consistent 60+ hours per week with a base pay of 48k -55k for educators. That equates to just around $15 dollars an hour without overtime at 60 hours/week. Operations teams had bonuses slashed and re-purposed to salary based on the change in law with it sold as a great change for them to earn more, when in reality it was nothing more than complying with the law. Education managers had their pay cut significantly as Success has reduced the SPED services coordination and management function to a non-critical role. • Poor training and promotional opportunities: The reality is that most of you school leaders will be under 30 years old, less than 5 years in classroom, have never passed the Principals exam, and focus more on behavior management than teacher development. If you can run your team/classroom like you would a boot camp, you will succeed. If you want to learn to how improve Lexile levels or work with ESOL students more effectively, that will not happen under the current leadership/management model. • Unfair, unequal and unclear organizational responsibilities: Expectations are set, shifted, reset, and never fully clear. If you are skilled at spinning things to management to make them feel like they led to a positive outcome the entire time, you will be able to navigate this. As an early career individual, that probably won’t happen. • Poor communication practices or methods within the organization: I have dozens of emails riddled with profanity, threats, and statements that would lead to the termination of management in any other organization that would make you question taking a job with success. • Unspoken Discriminatory Practices: A school manager one time told me in confidence that they were disappointed a teacher was pregnant and thought it was “gross” that anyone would consider having a child. Taking Mat/Pat leave, taking disability leave, requesting concessions based on disabilities, and if you are over 35 are just a few other things that are looked down upon/career ending at Success. The organization believes the dedication to the mission is more important than the overall well being of organization’s staff. As a member of leadership, I was part of many of these conversations, and always mortified by what was said by School Managers/Operations Leaders/Principals/BOMs/Education Managers/APs. You as an individual will be squeezed out if you need support/take advantage of your benefits.
We thought about leaving NYC because of the school offerings here. We did not understand how bad they were until the time came to enroll for kindergarten. That’s when we were given a book that had a snapshot of the different schools in our area. Less than 20% were testing proficient in Math and ELA. That was grade school. Middle school numbers got worse and if there was a decent one, they were overcrowded and even moving into the area did not guarantee a a spot.
I always thought families left the city because of the cost of living. When we started flipping through that kindergarten book; then we understood. Many families decline jobs to come to NYC or leave once their child hits school age. They even move out of the city and commute in just for the schools.
Now because of Success Academy, we are actually thinking of staying as long as we can. Can you imagine that? Instead of moving out where we could have more space and lower expenses, we consider our son and how he is doing and the friendships he has made at Success and that would be a huge reason for us to find a way to stay here. For certain, because of Success Academy, schools are no longer a reason for us to leave the city, as several have done.
To continue from my previous comment…this is our 5th year at SA. The critiques and accusations I briefly read out do not mirror, reflect or just plain come close at all to our experience at the Harlem location we have been fortunate to attend. For our son nor his friends or teachers we have talked to (current or former).
Our son and friends are so happy and excited every day we drop him in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon. I have even dropped in unannounced to observe (which they allow for) and have gone on field trips. I see his teachers every day at pick up and also can text/email/call them with the expectation of hearing from them within 24 hours. Many times they have responded in a couple of hours. These kids are encouraged and loved on all day long. They are treated with respect. We find them to be reasonable in their expectations and classroom management. This is not a boot camp, please stop presenting it as such. Even from the title… what cost? Having clear expectations and following through on them? No talking out of turn, following dress code, having homework done? The horror stories are exaggerate folklore, hit jobs or one offs, not reflective of their system or approach.
School and network staff are not evil and out to get vulnerable children and families. A lot of thought has gone into creating a classroom environment where children are not distracted, where they participate, where they know the expectations… where the school days are consistent and there is flow from one class to another and one grade to another. These children speak with confidence and clarity. They present their ideas to adults expecting to be heard.
They think through how to create this environment where children can thrive and be excited about learning and then continue to monitor and tweak their approach. They know these kids, that kids in general have a lot of energy. They are given outlets for that energy. They get dance breaks in the lower grades. They all have recess, and an extra curricular like art, dance, chess, every day. They have hands on science during their school day as well.
We went on a school tour loved the school. Though because of the big scary stories out there, we went into my son’s kindergarten year on guard, watchful to see if they were true. Nothing has been further from the truth. We are so grateful we decided to find out for ourselves we did not miss out on this opportunity.
Shannon,
In your telling, Success Academy sounds idyllic. This raises a few questions:
Why does SA have the highest teacher turnover of any school in the city every year?
Why do so many scholars leave before high school graduation?
Do you work for the SA communications team?
Hi Diane,
Busy day today and do not want a back and forth.
Thank you for reaching out with questions, sorry if they sound cursory, after writing my missive 🙂 I’m short on time. I wrote it though because I feel so sad every time I read the attacks on SA that I do because they are so far from our experience. My son’s best friend (who we met on day 1 of kindergarten) actually his mom got a job near by just to come to SA because his cousins had a good experience and they had the choice to pursue gifted and talented education here in the city.
They drive in from Queens, it takes her an hour. She had a job originally near her home. They since have enrolled his younger sister and both children are thriving.
Nope, not with SA staff or network at all. I’m a parent. Not paid and I get no benefit from sharing. If anything, my life would be more peaceful if I didn’t share but then maybe other parents might miss out on their opportunity.
As far as teacher turnover… I roomed with 2 1st year teachers when living in another large city. One came home crying every day and every moment of her day was spent driving to work, teaching, lesson planning, grading, getting yelled at by parents (this was gradeschool). The other taught science at a public magnet high school and also had long tough days.
SA teachers are out of the door at 4:15 and they have things set up so not every teacher is doing every task and they do not have to carry the brunt of lesson planning which is extremely time intensive.
They hire a lot of young teachers who I feel don’t understand how good they have it in some ways. None of our son’s teachers have left just after one year for sure. We even had a long visit recently with one who did leave. He is finding himself as he wants to explore other fields. He was a fantastic teacher and did a great job with the kids first year back after shutdown. Another teacher has been with the school since it founded. Another left because her husband had a job change and they left the city.
I guess you could also ask why does NYC in general have a high turnover rate. Many of the teachers are from out of state and end up pursuing other things and many are from the neighborhood. I really don’t know but I do not hear of a lot of teachers storming out. And I wonder how it mirrors other professions here in NYC. Maybe other schools should have a higher turnover rate. Why don’t they mirror other professions here in the city where people are also dedicated and pursuing their passions.
I don’t really have enough information for you on that question but regardless, the children always have great learning experience.
Since we are in elementary school, I don’t have any experience to share about highschool. I know there is a demand for more space of the higher grades. I know families leave the city. I know my son’s teacher had a son who went through Success from K-12 and was part of one of the early graduating classes. He is in college and they are very happy. I know when we run into SA highschoolers on the street, my son feels bold to approach them and they always take time to talk to him and have not had anything negative to share. Have we run into a ton, no. But the highschools are not near us so I’m surprised we have met the few we have.
If it means anything – we used to commute in from the Bronx. My husband used to work near this Harlem school we are at. Now he works elsewhere and had to move. Instead of switching to a school near my husband’s work and moving close to there, we decided to move close to our son’s school because we were so happy. Even though the rent is higher.
I can share only what I know and what I have experienced. We wouldn’t go to these lengths if Success Academy were the awful place it is often depicted to be.
Okay, another missive. Really have to run. Wishing you really, all the very best. Have a wonderful week.
Keep enjoying Success. But I will keep wondering why 50% of teachers at these amazing schools leave every year, a rate far higher than any other charter school or public school. And I will keep puzzling why only 17 of the 100 kids who started in the first class at SA made it to graduation. And why, as Gary Rubinstein has documented, the attrition rate never gets better.
Good luck!
Shannon, can I ask how you feel about Success Academy ignoring the NYS Charter Law that requires charters to place special emphasis on serving at-risk students? They have done the exact opposite since the start, cherry-picking the best test takers in a community by “counseling out” the most hard-to-educate students, who end up in schools like mine. I get that you are having the dream experience, so much so that it sounds just like ad copy, but do you think charters like SA should continue to discriminate against the highest need kids and continue to hurt public schools by creaming and siphoning resources?
Dear Jake, I feel great about the job Success Academy is doing for tens of thousands of students across the city. They have a lottery so cherry picking does not apply. My son’s class actually welcomed in students after the shutdown that were behind and many that need services. I also hear they serve students with less financial support from the DOE than the typical public school so siphoning resources does not apply. To any other intricacies, I refer you to “Charter Schools and Their Enemies” by Thomas Sowell. There is an interview with him about the book on YT if you want to look up a recap.
Thousands of parents apply for success by lottery and do not get in. They love their kids just as much as the ones that got in and their kids are just as smart, capable and bright. Those kids would be thriving at Success if there were more spots available. That’s what people can’t seem to believe. That kids are capable.
From your tone, you want to discredit my experience – I’m not sure what your motive is? Diane, this is what I mean that my life would be more peaceful if I didn’t share. But I will and now I’m just more resolved to advocate. I’ve sat in on parents sharing with elected officials. You know what one rep of one elected official said? Something to the effect of…. just be happy for yourself. Your opportunity.
If another parent hadn’t taken time to share with me personally, we may have missed out on this beautiful place where our son is thriving. I cannot imagine the headache we would be dealing with right now if he weren’t there.
The tone of this letter convinces me that “Shannon” works for Mercury Communications, the high-powered PR firm that is employed by Success Academy. Maybe next time she can explain the high attrition rate of students and teachers. Or the Black chess master suing for racism. Or the fact that only 10% of the SA applicants to elite high schools passed the exam. Or the fact that SA has recruiting posters on city buses if the demand is so great. Or expand on their “underfunding” when they have a long list of billionaire benefactors.
Wow, I’m a parent – sharing my experience. l’m actually not employed by anyone at the moment and am trying to figure all of that out as we just found out this morning that our rent is going up (like many here). I just looked on Street Easy, rent all over the city is sky high. So your assumption that I’m not speaking from my experience surmising that I am employed by a PR firm hired by SA is ironic.
What I have to share from is my experience, which is not a one off.
No one seems relieved that families in reality are having a good and even great experience at SA.
To me, the fact that they have benefactors does not correlate at all with the accusation that they are siphoning funds away. The word siphoning alone displays your negative leaning towards charters or maybe just Success Academy. I don’t know if that’s the case and I don’t really care beyond coming here to share in good faith and having that attacked.
But aren’t we all keyboard warriors. Is that what we have been reduced to?
Less money follows each student from the DOE budget that goes to charters here in NYC.
Re. advertising, some schools might have more openings than others because there are more schools in the neighborhood. Not everyone can come in from another borough where they have only one or two elementary schools, to Manhattan. There is a great demand in other boroughs here in NYC. There are middle schools in Manhattan, even other Manhattan families would like to go to but cannot because there is no space. Beyond that, ask them why they are spreading the word through advertisement? It is a good question but it does not mean there are not thousands of families on wait lists or not able to get in. We were waitlisted when we first applied.
If you have kids in NYC and have had to jump the hoops to try and secure a good education, you know why I’m grateful that our son’s education is in a good place for as long as we decide to stay.
I’ve spoken with and have friends who have worked in the public schools here. I admire all the hard effort but there are always reasons given why the kids aren’t expected to do well. The norm that is offered through the traditional public schools is not right and should be challenged. Parents have a right to choose better for their kids. They cannot wait for the issues in public schools to resolve.
I cringe to think that when I moved to NYC, a whole generation has since moved through the school system. More than not have fallen behind or certainly did not reach their full potential.
If SA had been available to them – or schools like it, each of those lives would be on a different trajectory. Empowered with hope. And it wouldn’t have to be just SA. Trade schools, other charters… waiting for the traditional public schools means, like I said, babies that were in preschool graduated (if they made it that far) with little prospects in their minds and at their hands.
I did share before what I could in response to questions in reply to my original comments. No one actually answered my question from an earlier reply – why doesn’t DOE turnover reflect other industries here in NYC? Many come here in all industries that are passionate about their pursuits and many that do not stay or move on to other professions. Are you saying the SA teachers that leave only go on to teach in other schools? Not all SA teachers have a strictly teaching background. They can go do other things or they just decide to leave NYC.
And yet, the kids are still thriving in the many ways I have already spoken about which to me is priority – the kids. Who I have witnessed, thriving.
To other things, I cannot speak because it would just be conjecture on my part.
Success Academy is not perfect and doesn’t claim to be. But they are great. Amazing. We love them. We are grateful to all of the staff and teachers that have been there for our son. We are grateful for the friends he has made and the friendships we as parents have made with other families.
I am grateful to Eva who continues to take the hits. No amount of money is worth that. I really don’t think people are irreplaceable – in general. But because of her SA has grown and thrived despite all those who seem to wish it ill will – forgetting the thousands and thousands of families that have been helped.
Eva doesn’t know me from Adam, so before you go saying whatever – I reap nothing by saying that. Except for some possible accusation to be lodged at me yet again.
So back to they are not perfect. No one is. But they are amazing. They also are ever tweaking/evolving and asking for feedback. I can talk to my son’s teachers every day of the week if I want.
I am grateful for SA.
My time is gone. I wish you both well this morning.
Beyond that, if anyone has any interest in family experience I’m happy to reply when time allows. Regarding issues the school can answer, I invite you to reach out to them directly.
Wow, I shared a reply that took longer than I had time for. I don’t see it. I am a parent. I am actually not employed or beholden to anyone at the moment. I can answer things within my realm of experience.
Quick recap in case the other response does not post…
I am grateful for SA. For Eva. For being able to be at peace about our child’s education for the remainder of our time in Manhattan.
I wonder why DOE turnover doesn’t reflect other industries where people who come to the city are also passionate. Teachers come from all over the country and many come with not only with education in education 🙂 So they have other avenues to pursue if they wish. Are they only transferring to other teaching positions with other schools?
Yet the kids are learning and thriving. Which is the upmost matter.
A whole generation has moved through the school system since I first came to NYC. I mourn the many thousands that fell behind or at the very least di not reach their potential. They did not have to fall behind and could have reached their full potential.
I mourn the families that have left NYC because of the poor school offerings here.
Success Academy is not perfect. They will even say that. They are not sinister either. They are amazing actually. They are ever evolving and tweaking to only offer better and better to NYC families.
I guess I should take it as a compliment that my writing makes you think I am part of a PR firm or SA team – I do like to write.
I hope you can take a genuine interest in knowing families really are thriving at SA. I can share only from my experience of having been their for 5 years now.
Wishing you and Jake well.
Hi Shannon, I’m sorry you don’t yet know the extent of the cherry-picking that goes on, it seems you didn’t listen to the above podcast series in which SA employees describe firsthand the systematic, wholesale rejection of low-performing students. It’s never too late to listen.
It’s been reported in past years that only 50% of students who win the lottery actually enroll because the “headache families” are discouraged through a series of mandatory seminars, registration events and “dress rehearsals” that weed out parents without a lot of free time. Under the guise of “high expectations” they put up hoops and hurdles, including charges for uniform fees, to make sure the least desirable families go elsewhere.
Your denial it is happening seems a bit close-minded, but the dwindling numbers of student cohorts from lower to higher grades should provide the first clue, and before you offer up any SA talking points about retention/attrition rates, I can guarantee you I have personally been teaching students rejected by SA for many years, including this year. It’s crystal clear why. They are multi-issue, hard-to-educate youngsters with less than ideal family supports. They are disruptive, they are homeless, they are neglected, they are sometimes being raised by a grandparent. They slow things down and score poorly on tests.
Charter schools were created to serve these “at risk” children in 1998, but the boutique corporate chains right away decided to do the opposite, catering to savvy, involved parents such as yourself who describe an efficient, calm, dream-like experience, as if SA’s teachers had a secret magical wand to teach better than nearby public schools. The truth is, their relative success comes through discrimination, which prompted Letitia James to file civil rights complaints, only to see the billionaire Betsy DeVos dismiss the case. One group of students rejected by SA who persisted did win a multimillion dollar damages award, however, proving the discriminatory cherry-picking is real, is harmful, and cannot be swept under the rug.
I appreciate that you are an unpaid advocate meeting politicians on behalf of SA and their billionaire benefactors, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the NYS Charter Law section 2850(2)(b) that explicitly requires SA to specialize in serving “at-risk” kids as they continue to under-enroll and reject them in reality. Please bring this to them and share their response back here, because this gets to the core of the illegal practices that benefit a select few families as public schools are diluted, displaced and disparaged.
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Hi Shannon, thanks for your personal experience. I’m sorry you don’t yet know the extent of the cherry-picking that goes on, it seems you didn’t listen to the above 7-part podcast series in which SA employees describe firsthand the systematic, wholesale rejection of low-performing students. It’s never too late to listen.
It’s been reported in past years that only 50% of students who win the lottery actually enroll because the “headache families” are discouraged through a series of mandatory seminars, registration events and “dress rehearsals” that weed out parents without a lot of free time. Under the guise of “high expectations” they put up hoops and hurdles, including charges for uniform fees, to make sure the least desirable families go elsewhere.
Your denial it is happening seems a bit close-minded, but the dwindling numbers of student cohorts from lower to higher grades should provide the first clue, and before you offer up SA talking points about retention/attrition rates, I can guarantee you I have personally been teaching students rejected by SA for many years, including this year. It’s crystal clear why. They are multi-issue, hard-to-educate youngsters with less than ideal family supports. They are disruptive, they are homeless, they are neglected, they are sometimes being raised by a grandparent. They slow things down and score poorly on tests.
Charter schools were created to serve these “at risk” children in 1998, but the boutique corporate chains right away decided to do the opposite, choosing instead to specialize on finding savvy, involved parents such as yourself who describe an efficient, calm, dream-like experience, as if SA’s teachers had a secret magical wand to teach better than nearby public schools.
The truth is, their relative success comes through discrimination, which prompted Letitia James to file civil rights complaints, only to see the billionaire Betsy DeVos dismiss the case. One group of students rejected by SA who persisted did win a multimillion dollar damages award recently however, proving the discriminatory cherry-picking is real, is harmful, and cannot be swept under the rug.
I appreciate that you are an unpaid advocate meeting politicians on behalf of SA and their billionaire benefactors, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the NYS Charter Law section 2850(2)(b) that explicitly requires SA to specialize in serving “at-risk” kids as they continue to under-enroll and reject them.
Please bring this to them and share their response back here, because this gets to the core of the illegal practices that benefit a select few families as public schools are diluted, displaced and disparaged. I’m sure you know SA is bankrolled by a board of billionaires like Paul Singer, Dan Loeb, Paul Tudor Jones and Julian Richardson who want to destroy public education, labor unions and the social safety net. I guess as a Thomas Sowell fan, this is all part of your right wing vision to introduce more competition into schools, but as a NYC teacher, I side with the 90% of kids that include the most hard-to-educate and would love to hear how SA’s corporate PR and policy experts respond to the above question.
Thanks in advance for your reply.