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Eva Plans to Increase Her Charter Chain to 100 Schools

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2017 //
17

Eva Moskowitz told a gathering at Chalkbeat that she plans to expand her charter network to 100 schools.

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/10/16/eva-moskowitz-looks-back-at-her-turn-away-from-district-schools-as-she-plans-for-100-schools-of-her-own/

Her Network is celebrated for high test scores, intensive test prep, strict discipline, a high attrition rate, exclusion of children with disabilities and ELLs, and high teacher turnover.

She has become the darling of the Trump administration and billionaire hedge fund titans. The chair of her board, Daniel Loeb, made a racist remark about the highest ranking Democrat in the State Senate (he said she did more damage to black children than the men wearing hoods, I.e., the KKK) but was never held accountable. This was because State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins does not support charters.

Categories Accountability, Harlem Success Academy

Eva Moskowitz Will Appear at AEI to Boast of Her Success on October 3 at 3 P.M.

By dianeravitch
September 26, 2017 //
18

The libertarian American Enterprise Institute, funded in part by Betsy DeVos, will host an event on October 2, when Eva Moskowitz will reveal the secrets of success at her Success Academy charter chain in New York City.

Will she talk about how she screens out the kids with disabilities? how she screens out the kids who don’t speak English? how she pushes out the kids who are unwilling to conform or who are likely to get low test scores by suspending them day after day until their parents withdraw them? how she has the highest teacher attrition rate of all charters in New York City? will she boast about her plan to get rid of public schools or use them as dumping grounds for the kids she doesn’t want?

I won’t be there, unfortunately. I plan to #TakeAKnee for Eva.

Lessons from Success: A keynote and conversation with Eva Moskowitz

Tuesday, October 3, 2017 | 3:00–4:15 PM

AEI, Auditorium | 1789 Massachusetts Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20036

Join AEI as Eva Moskowitz, the CEO of Success Academy Charter School Network, discusses her new book, “The Education of Eva Moskowitz” (HarperCollins, 2017).

RSVP Watch Live Online

DESCRIPTION
In her new book, “The Education of Eva Moskowitz” (HarperCollins, 2017), Eva Moskowitz, the CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, offers a memoir about her battles to reform America’s education system.

Join AEI on Tuesday, October 3, as Eva Moskowitz offers a keynote address, followed by a conversation with Frederick M. Hess.

Join the conversation on social media with #EvaatAEI.

PARTICIPANTS
Frederick M. Hess, AEI
Eva Moskowitz, Success Academy Charter Schools

REGISTER
RSVP to attend this event.

To watch live online, click here on October 3 at 3:00 PM ET. Registration is not required.

American Enterprise Institute
1789 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036
P: 202.862.5800 | F: 202.862.7177 | http://www.aei.org

Categories Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy, Privatization

Eva Moskowitz to Chalkbeat: Buzz Off! We Are a Private Corporation, Not Public!

By dianeravitch
September 21, 2017 //
28

Chalkbeat thought that it would be interesting to gain access to the email correspondence of Success Academy Network to find out how they handled the Dan Loeb crisis. It’s reporter filed a Freedom of Information request. Dan Loeb is the billionaire who is chairman of the SA board who made a racist comment, writing that the leading African American legislator in the State Senate did more damage to black children than the KKK.

The SA Network refused to release any records because they are private, not public. Public records laws don’t apply to them, they said.

Thus, they are public only for getting money, but private when it’s time for accountability and transparency. Accountability and transparency, it turns out, are for the little people.

Chalkbeat writes:

“Success Academy Charter Schools, Inc. (SACS) is a private nonprofit organization that provides services to charter schools, but it is not itself a charter school or a government agency under FOIL,” wrote Success Academy lawyer Robert Dunn in response to an appeal of a Chalkbeat request for Moskowitz’s emails under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, which the network had denied. “Thus, it is not in and of itself subject to FOIL or required to have an appeal process.”

“In addition, Success officials said the emails would not need to be released because they qualify as internal communications that are exempt from the public-records law.

“The city’s most prominent charter school networks — including KIPP and Uncommon — have similar CMO structures, which appears to shield their leaders from at least some FOIL requests. While “the KIPP NYC public charter schools themselves are subject to the New York Freedom of Information Law,” KIPP spokesperson Steve Mancini said in an email, the “CMOs are not.”

“But some government-transparency advocates argue that the law is not so clear cut.

“Because CMOs are so heavily involved in the operation of public schools, it could be argued that the vast majority of their records are kept on behalf of public schools and should be public, said Bob Freeman, executive director of the Committee on Open Government and an expert on public-records laws.

“Even though nonprofits aren’t covered by FOIL, he said, “Everything you do for an entity that is subject to FOIL — everything you prepare, transmit, and receive — falls within the scope of FOIL.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy, New York City, Privatization

Leonie Haimson: Why Eva Moskowitz’s Former Lawyer Should Not Be Allowed to Open Her Own Charter School

By dianeravitch
September 20, 2017 //
6

Leonie Haimson, hardworking CEO of Class Size Matters and New York City’s foremost parent advocate, has written a letter to the SUNY charter committee explaining why Eva Moskowitz’s former chief attorney for the Success Academy charter chain, should NOT be allowed to start her own charter school.

Open the link to read the citations and the letter written by the parent of a student with special needs whose file was made public by Success Academy in retaliation for her appearance on John Merrow’s program about the abusive practices of Success Academy.

To the SUNY Charter committee and Board:

I urge you to reject the proposed authorization of the Zeta charter school, for many of the reasons cited by the Tory Frye of the D6 Community Education Council,[1] but also because Emily Kim, the proposed founder, was the chief attorney for the Success Academy chain while the network proceeded to repeatedly violate state and federal laws and deprive students of their civil rights.

More specifically:

· In October 2015, Success Academy retaliated against a parent of a special needs child who had spoken on a PBS show about his repeated illegal suspensions by Success, by posting her child’s disciplinary file online and sending the link to reporters nationwide. This action was a flagrant violation of his federal privacy rights according to FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. [2]

· Only after the parent, Fatima Geidi, filed a complaint with the US Department of Education, and several months ensued did Success Academy finally take down his file.[3]

· On January 20, 2016, parents of 13 current and former students of Success Academy filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the US Department of Education, accusing the network of discriminating against students with disabilities by denying them their mandated services, repeatedly suspending them without providing alternative instruction, and in some cases pushing them out. This complaint was joined NYC Public Advocate Letitia James; Councilman Daniel Dromm, the chair of the NYC Council Education Committee; Legal Services NYC; the Legal Aid Society; MFY Legal Services; the Partnership for Children’s Rights; and the New York Legal Assistance Group.[4]

· Subsequently, the federal Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into Success Academy’s discriminatory practices, the results of which have not yet been released.[5]

· SUNY itself was reported to have launched its own investigation into Success Academy’s push-out policies, and more specifically the infamous “Got to Go” list. [6]

· In April 2016, parents at Success Academy Fort Greene launched a new federal lawsuit, alleging “illegal, discriminatory” campaign against children with special needs , including sending their children to emergency rooms without cause, illegally suspending them, and threatening to call the Administration for Children’s Services if they refused to pick their child up early from school These parents are represented by Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and Advocates for Justice.[7]

· In addition, the application for this new charter school should be rejected since Ms. Kim is planning to co-locate her school in a district public school building, which would prevent the already-overcrowded schools in the district from having sufficient space to reduce class size, as previously agreed upon by the city in its original Contracts for Excellence plan. [8]

· In July 2017, a legal complaint was filed against DOE with the NY State Education Department for failing to comply with the its state-approved Contracts for Excellence class size reduction plan. [9] This complaint was prepared by the Education Law Center on behalf of Class Size Matters, the Public Advocate, the Alliance for Quality Education and nine NYC public school parents.[10]

Until the results of the investigations by the federal Office of Civil Rights and SUNY are released and these complaints and lawsuits are decided, it would be premature and ill-considered to allow Ms. Kim to open her own charter school, given her history of facilitating and defending repeated violations of children’s civil rights.

Below are additional personal observations by Fatima Geidi of Ms. Kim’s behavior, while her child attended Upper West Success Academy.

Yours sincerely,
Leonie Haimson, Executive Director

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy, Privatization

Kenneth Campbell: The Board of Success Academies Charters Harbors Racists and Rightwingers

By dianeravitch
September 15, 2017 //
9

Kenneth Campbell is a political consultant who worked in the Obama administration.

In this article, he points out that the offhand racist remark of hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb–chair of the board of Success Academy Charter Schools network–was not an anomaly.

He writes:

Loeb isn’t the only Success leader who traffics in incendiary racial commentary. Board member Charles Strauch has had a blog for years that specializes in right-wing race baiting and recycled conspiracy theories from the dregs of the Internet, many with a racial tinge.

Strauch’s blog, Wealth Creates Good, was taken down on September 5th, not long after I began Tweeting excerpts of his posts to Success, asking for a response. (An archive of some of Strauch’s post can still be viewed here.)

In one post, Strauch writes about one of his projects, praising it as a “labor of love by those of us who really care about helping blacks to help themselves,” a regular theme on a blog that he says is dedicated to Blacks who dislike being portrayed as victims by other Blacks, especially the “well-financed government-and-media-backed minority leaders.”

In another post, he chastises Joshua DuBois, a former aide to the Obama administration, disparaging him as “Political Black activist-Degree in Black Nationalism. Anti gun ownership lobbyist. How does this guy stay busy – keepin’ the faith?” DuBois, by the way, was the White House aide responsible for strengthening national unity through work with faith-based leaders and organizations. He holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Strauch has also used his blog to recycle outrageous allegations from the dregs of the Internet. Here he is, for example, sharing excerpts from a controversial story written about former President Obama, which questioned Obama’s objectiveness and ability to lead because he had taken “multiple subsequent journeys to Africa” and was raised in Hawaii. He also shared a crude satirical letter originally posted on Breitbart News and addressed to black students at Oxford University, asking: “what were your ancestors doing …? Living in mud huts, mainly. … You’ll probably probably say that’s ‘racist’. But it’s what we here at Oxford prefer to call ‘true.’”

And in yet another post, Strauch shares a fear-mongering op-ed, entitled “America is in decay.” The post, originally from National Review, claims that “for the first time – in recorded history – gender is meaningless,” which Strauch highlighted. He also highlighted an excerpt which blames “the End of Religion” as the fault of America’s “decay.” The excerpt reads: “The End of Right and Wrong … There are no moral truths because there is no longer a religious basis for morality.”

Strauch is not the only rightwinger on the Success Academy board. There are others who have donated millions to rightwing causes.

Campbell adds:

When Americans were sold the idea of charter schools more than three decades ago, the argument that they would be hubs of innovation that could reinvigorate all of our public schools gave them bipartisan appeal. Charter school leaders and their funders no longer share that vision. Instead of integrating some of their ideas into public classrooms for all children and educators to benefit, they are interested in dismantling public education for their own gain with little transparency and minimal public oversight. And, those who disagree will face the wrath of charter schools’ political organs and influence – just as Dan Loeb attacked Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Charles Strauch attacked black Democrats and civil rights leaders, and Moskowitz herself attacked the NAACP, accusing the civil rights organization of turning its back on students of color.

Success Academy’s Board of Directors and leadership have collectively contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to candidates and special interest groups, including many who challenge the rights of LGBTQ people – including LGBTQ youth – and who have worked to advance cuts to public education, youth meal programs, and young people’s access to health care.

Ultimately, it is our communities that must deal with the collateral damage. Youth and parents have been dragged into a political debate when all that truly matters to them is a high-quality education and leaders who invest in the welfare of our youth. Our communities are stronger when youth wake up in decent housing, attend a school in a clean and well-equipped school building that is staffed by certified teachers and coaches who oversee extracurricular activities; and, where students have access to a nurse or a doctor when they are ill; and, of course when youth have access to a solid meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The stench of colonialism is strong and getting stronger.

Categories Harlem Success Academy, Privatization, Racism

My Response to Andrew Tobias about the “Success” of Success Academy

By dianeravitch
August 30, 2017 //
24

Andrew Tobias writes about the economy and politics. I recently subscribed to his blog. I received a post gushing about Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charters, swallowing every claim she makes, and I wrote back to him. He has many links, which I would have to add by hand, so include only Eva’s report.

Here is the exchange:

From Andrew Tobias:


SUCCESS!!!

Next week your kids or grandkids start school, but here is the report card for Success Academy charter schools — #1 in New York State.

With 46 schools and 15,500 students this year, the Success Academy network is now the size of the state’s 7th largest school district. On this year’s state exams, 95% of Success students passed math and 84% passed [English] — making Success #1 for student achievement in New York State.

As long-time readers of this page know, over and over (and over and over): the Success Academy methods work, are replicable, and are free for the taking by any teacher or principal or school board member who wants to give them a try.

Consider this: with an average household income of just $32,191 — versus $291,242 for the kids in Scarsdale and $129,375 for the kids in Chappaqua — and with just 9% of its kids white or Asian versus 86% in Scarsdale and 88% in Chappaqua — the Success Academy public school kids outperformed both the Chappaqua and the Scarsdale kids. Chappaqua and Scarsdale are outstanding school districts, deserving of high praise, ranked near the top in the state. But Success Academy kids did better.

And consider this: of all 2400 public elementary schools in New York State, Success had 14 of the top 30.

Citywide, just 29% of the kids of color (and 61% of the white kids) passed the English test — versus 83% of the kids of color at Success Academy schools. In math, the results were even a little more dramatic.

New York’s 46 Success Academy schools are non-profit, public schools. Students are selected by lottery — not aptitude. With the Success results well known throughout the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods, almost every parent signs up for the lottery.

What Success Academy is accomplishing helps not just each student who succeeds (which is to say, almost all of them, and which would be important enough) but it also, thereby — and for all the generations that will follow — breaks the cycle of poverty and despair, of teenage pregnancy and crime, that so drag our society down.

What if all schools adopted variations of the Success methods — or any others that worked — so a lottery were not needed?

Imagine the impact on our nation’s future well-being if almost all her kids succeeded.

I wrote back:

Dear Andrew,

My friend Linda Gottlieb recommended your blog to me and I enjoy it.

However, I was shocked to read your praise for Eva Moskowitz’s charter chain this morning.

It is not replicable. It costs far more than real public schools. It “Succeeds” by attrition and exclusion.

Its schools do not “backfill,” meaning no new students are accepted after third grade, so every succeeding class gets smaller.

The chain does not accept students who don’t speak English or students with serious disabilities. Those students go to public schools.

It has the highest teacher turnover rate of any school in New York City, in some schools, 50-60% of the teachers leave every year. That doesn’t happen in good schools.

Eva M. has her own PAC and uses it to shower money on Cuomo and favored legislators.

Her board includes billionaires like Daniel Loeb, who also gives to the GOP Congress. She has a huge resource advantage over public schools in her neighborhood (http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-secrets-to-their-success.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FCqnJA+%28Jersey+Jazzman%29)

I have met with many SA teachers. They tell me they spend most of the year on test prep until the state tests are over. Yet despite these stellar test scores, the graduates of her eighth grade can’t manage to pass the entry exam for Stuyvesant or Bronx Science or the other exam schools. In the first two classes, not a single one passed the citywide exam for the selective high schools. In the third year, only two did. They didn’t prep for those tests.

Eva welcomed Ivanka and Paul Ryan to see her “miracle.” Dan Loeb, the chairman of her board, recently called the state’s top black legislator, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, worse than the KKK because of her opposition to charters. Meanwhile, Loeb supports the group of breakaway Democrats in the State Senate who keep the Republicans in control and able to block all progressive legislation. SUNY told Eva that if Loeb doesn’t step down, she won’t get any more charters.

How could public schools replicate what she does? Who would take the kids who have cerebral palsy? Who would take the kids who don’t speak English? Where would the kids go who are slow learners? Should we throw them all away, as she does?

The NAACP recently released a report critical of charters because of their exclusionary practices and refusal to be held accountable. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/07/26/naacp-report-charter-schools-not-a-substitute-for-traditional-public-schools-and-many-need-reform/?utm_term=.1e148b0796af

I suggest you do some research before you make such a misguided proposal. If you picked stocks like you pick schools, you would be bankrupt.

Diane Ravitch

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy, Privatization

Accountability for Racism! SUNY Tells Eva to Dump Billionaire!

By dianeravitch
August 26, 2017 //
26

The State University of New York committee that authorizes Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter schools told her to get rid of billionaire Daniel Loeb, the chairman of the Network’s board, because of a racist comment he posted on Facebook.

The story appears in The Wall Street Journal. I am not a subscriber. Perhaps someone who is can post the rest of the text.

It begins:

“The head of a group that approves New York charter schools said Monday that it would be “very difficult” for Success Academy Charter Schools to expand if hedge-fund manager Daniel Loeb doesn’t step down from the charter network’s board in light of his recent racial remark.”

Loeb slandered the leader of the Democrats in the State Senate, who is black, and said she had done more to damage black children than anyone wearing a hood.

He took down the post but the damage was done. Loeb is close to Eva, to Cuomo, and to the GOP. Civil rights groups have demanded that Cuomo return the hundreds of thousands that Loeb gave him.

What will Eva do?

Stand by her man or expand?

It is awkward to pose as a civil rights reformer when the chair of your board compares the state’s leading black legislator to the KKK.

Farewell, Danny boy, we hardly knew ye.

Categories Harlem Success Academy, Racism

Billionaire’s Racist Remarks Backfire, but Not Enough

By dianeravitch
August 23, 2017 //
42

Billionaire Dan Loeb thinks that he can get away with anything because he is so rich. Being a billionaire puts one in a bubble of immunity from consequences. It means you will never be poor. It means you are a Master of the Universe.

But there is one thing that even billionaires can’t get away with: making vicious racist statements.

When Dan Loeb said that legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins had done more damage to black children than the Ku Klux Klan, he found himself in the midst of a media firestorm. He was actually embarrassed, a feeling to which he is unaccustomed. He deleted his Facebook post and apologized. But it is hard to unsay what you wrote. His original post expressed what he believed and no one is persuaded that he doesn’t believe what he wrote.

Here is the fallout, as reported by teacher-writer Jake Jacobs.

Calls for his resignation came from many corners, but Loeb, who quickly apologized for the comments, announced he wasn’t going to resign. Loeb, who is a close donor/advisor to House speaker Paul Ryan, has made racist comments before and has also been connected to a number of dark money PACs looking to influence policymakers on charter expansion.

Betty Rosa, NY Board of Regents Chancellor said Wednesday that the issue is “beyond apologies.” NYC mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife agree, as does the NY Daily News editorial board, NYC Council leadership, city labor leaders and Reverend Al Sharpton, who already deployed his National Action Network to protest at Success Academy’s Harlem 1 school.

Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP, called Loeb’s comments “appalling”, while Joe Belluck, chair of the SUNY Committee on Charter Schools, which authorizes and oversees Success Academy schools, announced they are “reviewing options.” This news comes as the same SUNY committee is considering allowing charters to hire uncertified teachers, a controversial proposal originally championed by Success Academy because over 60% of their teachers leave each year.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries joined two other Congress members and other elected officials from NY for a rally in support of Senator Stewart-Cousins. They demanded Cuomo return Loeb’s campaign contributions and called for Loeb’s resignation. rejection of Loeb’s campaign contributions and calls for his resignation. Other groups, such as Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the Working Families Party, Citizens Action NY, the Badass Teachers Association, NY Indivisible and Hedge Clippers launched a petition asking Governor Cuomo to return the $170,000 that Loeb contributed to his campaign, along with potentially millions more that went to Cuomo through charter school PACs.

One such PAC, StudentsFirstNY, where Loeb serves as trustee, gave over $10 million to help Republicans win control in this solid blue state, blocking votes on the DREAM Act, funding for needy schools and affordable housing legislation, among other bread-and-butter issues.

But…Governor Cuomo will not refund the hundreds of thousands he received from Loeb. Hakeem Jeffries will still support charter schools. Republicans, with a numerical minority, still control the State Senate, thanks to renegade “Democrats” who ally with them. Eva still takes home at least $500,000 a year. And Dan Loeb is still a billionaire.

Categories Harlem Success Academy, Racism

Jersey Jazzman: The Secrets of Success Academy

By dianeravitch
August 23, 2017 //
88

Most of you who have been reading this blog over the past five years know the secrets of Success Academy’s “success.” Careful selection of students. Exclusion of those unlikely to succeed. Lots of outside money.

Jersey Jazzman has done us the favor of documenting these strategies.

He found exactly what you would expect:

“Schools like Success Academy almost always have structural advantages — advantages that have nothing to do with their governance — over the schools against which they compare themselves:

“Different student populations.

“Resource advantages.

“A less-experienced, less-expensive faculty.

“A longer school day/year and/or smaller class sizes and/or tutoring, made possible by #2 & #3 in combination with free-riding on the public district schools.

“Strict disciplinary codes which encourage students who do not thrive in a “no excuses” environment to leave.

“In the minority of cases where “successful” charters out-perform expectations, I have seen no compelling evidence that freedom from teachers unions and public district school regulations, curricular innovations, or parental “choice” are what lead to “success.” Instead, some combination of the five factors above almost always provide the most reasonable explanation for the difference in outcomes.”

Eva Moskowitz pretends that she has cracked some secret code and that her methods could be applied on a large scale.

But what she has done is not replicable for an entire district. If you exclude and kick out the kids you don’t want, where will they go?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Discipline, Education Industry, Education Reform, Harlem Success Academy, Privatization

Teachers: Are Your Pension Funds Invested with Dan Loeb?

By dianeravitch
August 19, 2017 //
26

Norm Scott, retired NYC teacher and active fighter against corporate reformers, posted a four-year-old article by Matt Taibbi about billionaire Dan Loeb, whose hedge fund solicits money from pension funds. Dan Loeb is the guy who recently made headlines by slandering a black legislator as worse than the KKK.

He is the chair of Success Academy Network. He hates teachers’ unions, but he loves their pensions.

TAIBBI’s article is a must-read. Taibbi reminds us that Randi Weingarten took the lead in removing from his fund any pension funds she has anything to do with.

Does your pension fund invest with Loeb’s hedge fund?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy, Pensions, Privatization, Racism, Unions
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