Gary Rubinstein is a teacher of mathematics and a strong proponent of evidence. Whenever a journalist or education evangelist claims to have found a “miracle school,” he goes for the data, and he digs deeper than test scores. The Success Academy Charter network, led by its founder Eva Moskowitz, has achieved national renown for its test scores. Gary has observed a winnowing of the students as they advance through the grades. He recently noticed that one of its schools had disappeared.
He wrote:
Success Academy is the largest charter school network in New York State. Starting in 2006 with one school, there are now around 40 Success Academy schools with around 20,000 students. And with a recent $100 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, it might seem that Success Academy will continue to grow at an exponential rate. But there is some evidence that growth at Success Academy is slowing down. In one case it seems that one of their schools, Fort Greene Middle School has shut down completely.
According to the New York State public data site, in 2022-2023, Success Academy Fort Greene was a middle school on Park Avenue in Brooklyn with 180 students from 5th to 8th grade. In classic Success Academy fashion, the 27 eighth graders is significantly fewer than the 55 fifth graders.
But when you look at the December 2023 enrollment data, suddenly Success Academy Fort Greene is no longer a middle school, but an elementary school located at 3000 Avenue X in Brooklyn. The enrollment of this school is 75 kindergarteners and 41 1st graders. I know that Success Academy is supposed to be capable of miracles, but turning 180 middle schoolers into 116 elementary schoolers is not one of them.
On the Success Academy website, however, there is no mention of a Fort Greene school of any type anymore, but instead there is a brand new elementary school called Success Academy Sheepshead Bay at the 3000 Avenue X address.
What happened is that Success Academy had to close down their Fort Greene middle school because of low enrollment. Why in the New York database, they let the new elementary take the name of the old middle school, maybe this is something they have to do for the charter cap, but I wouldn’t know. Still, any Success Academy school closing down is something that seems pretty newsworthy considering that they thrive on a reputation that they have cultivated that they must continually expand because of the demand for their schools…
Open the link to finish the post.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A strong proponent of evidence…
No matter what is said about Charter Schools,
State actors keep giving tests.
No matter what is said about test scores,
faith in score based degrees continues.
No matter what is said about the wrong wing,
privilege sanctioned by law is the hallmark
of aristocracy, NOT democracy.
No matter what is said about religious influence,
the “divine right of capital”, eclipses all beliefs.
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Here’s are more numbers that should not be ignored.
Eva Moskowitz earns a salary of nearly ONE MILLION dollars annually from public money that supports the education of 20,000 students compared to 1.1 million students in the New York City public schools.
Salary.com says the average school superintendent in New York city earns between $170,243 and $251,489.
The average teacher working for Success Academy earns less than $45,000 annually.
The average public-school teacher in New York City earns more than $52,000 annually.
The annual teacher turnover rate for Success Academy is 42% compared to 14% for the city’s public schools.
Healthcare: Success academy covers 80% of employees total health care costs…
New York city’s public-school teachers are offered a variety of health insurance plans, and several require no employee contributions.
Success Academy offers its staff a 503(b)-retirement plan that does not appear on Bankrate’s 9 best retirement plans.
New York City’s public-school teachers have the #1 best retirement plan on Bankrate’s list.
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Thank you, Lloyd.
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Envision the uproar if she was one of the appointed Superintendents. So much for Public Charter Schools.
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