Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
Eva and her Success Academy representatives did not abide by the rules.
She would have her folks go around collecting names and information from
sign in sheets and then use them for her own outreach. She had been
asked to discontinue this practice. I was also told that she "crashed"
several other events and finally had to be told she was not welcome to
have her schools participate any more.
A report from a contact:
Yesterday District 14 held School Fest sponsored by Town Square. (Links for info below).
I was there because our community book bus was open for visitors and I was handing out literature and encouraging people to visit. As I strolled through, many of our local public schools and day care centers were exhibiting and telling parents about their programs. A few of our charters were also there as well as education vendors. All the schools, public, private and charter, Pre-K through high school and a college or two, were together. The atmosphere was open and friendly. We even heard magnificent Afro-Caribbean drumming pieces by one local vendor.
But something seemed odd.
The biggest and most controversial charter chain was not present. Success Academy had been there every year prior with their flashy displays. I wondered if Eva finally thought she didn't didn't have to tell the neighborhood about her three or four schools in our community or recruit students.
Wrong! Eva was banned, I learned, from any more Town Square events by its chairperson. I was told this on very good authority, not by Susan Anderson herself who is a community parent.
Eva and her Success Academy representatives did not abide by the rules. She would have her folks go around collecting names and information from sign in sheets and then use them for her own outreach. She had been asked to discontinue this practice. I was also told that she "crashed" several other events and finally had to be told she was not welcome to have her schools participate any more. This is a victory for our community. I applaud Susan Anderson and her Board of Directors for taking a stand with Eva and insisting that Eva Moskowitz' unethical behavior had to cease and desist.
CONCOURSE VILLAGE — Parents, students and teachers are fuming mad about a city proposal to expand a Success Academy
charter school into a Bronx building that already houses three middle
schools, arguing the addition will make the school crowded and
dangerous. "The impression I get is that their kids are more
important than our kids," said Jim Donohue, an eighth grade English
teacher at Arturo Toscanini, one of the middle schools in the building. "I don't understand why they get to push half a school aside." ....DNAinfo
Really, how much has changed in Tweed since BloomKleinCott left?
The Department of Education
has proposed adding grades three through five of Success Academy Bronx
3, now located at 968 Cauldwell Ave., into the building at 1000 Teller
Ave., which currently houses three schools serving grades six through
eight: Arturo Toscanini, the Urban Science Academy and New Millennium Business Academy Middle School. The building also contains an Alternate Learning Center for students who are serving suspensions of up to 90 days.
They don't know the half of it as Eva's minions start demanding space for every non-classroom activity they can make up - a farting room, anyone?
Bronx Middle School Parents Angered at Success Academy Co-Location Proposal
I can pretty much guarantee at least 1 or more current schools will be gone to make space for Eva to grow.
The area is near Yankee Stadium --- there must be some gentrification going on --- use my personal gentrification warning signal - where Eva wants to go.
Is Eva having trouble staffing up her schools for next year? She sent emails to recruit teachers as far away as CT and NJ... Leonie Haimson
The height of ed deform coincided with one of the most severe recessions in history - akin in some ways to the 30s when Phds had to teach in NYC schools. TFA and charters had droves of applicants and replacement parts in spite of the high staff turnover rates.
Eva's goal for 100 schools and a school system of her own nested inside the NYC school system, clearly faces problems in getting teachers to work at her schools for long periods of time. Turnover is high. At some point one of their unregulated and unlicensed people will do something so dumb as to get lots of press and scrutiny. It is inevitable. She knows how disastrous that would be and she is smart enough to try to assure some quality control - not as educators but in finding people who are sane - not so easy - I can tell some stories of people I saw working over the years.
Now that the economy is improving and the word is also out so publicly that there is an assault on teacher rights and their job securities - anti-tenure law suits, Cuomo-like attacks, etc from all over the place -- the teacher as enemy.
Are the chickens coming home to roost?
Postscript: I will have video up from last night's Anti-Eva forum on the Lower East Side.
This ad for a March 28, 2009 conference to
save public schools at John Jay College in NYC, illustrates a prime example of
the manipulation of the community by charter school advocates. The
Harlem Success Schools led by Eva Moskowitz has pushed its way into
public school spaces with the support of the NYC Department of
Education. The push by Bloomberg and Klein to support charter schools
is an admission of their failure to solve the problems that exist in
public schools.... Ed Notes, March 26, 2009
Almost 6 years ago this was a scary event - chanting and hectoring - the future of the death
of public schools.
I taped this event and made this ad on for a conference we were planning the eve of the founding of the Grassroots Education Movement - in fact, this conference was the event that made GEM a viable organization. Kudos to the amazing Angel Gonzalez whose organizing abilities came to the fore.
Angel and I went up to Harlem for a rally Eva was holding where they were giving away food and prizes and it drew a thousand people, including the corporate and political scum like Joel Klein and Bloomberg and Walcott.
At this point the group that turned into GEM was still an offshoot of a committee ICE had formed to address the issues of ATRs, high stakes testing, closing schools and the charter invasions - the 4 basic pillars upon which GEM was built. This group was the first time people from various NYC ed orgs like ICE and NYCORE had worked together. And we can't forget ISO (International Socialist Organization) which jumped on board early on and whose members helped organize meetings and events.
I had a lot of footage but in the process of
switching computers seemed to have lost it. Luckily I salvaged this bit
for the ad.
It is implausible to
assume that Success Academy accomplishes magic in the early grades and
then barely manages to hold ground in upper grades. In fact, this is
another piece of evidence suggesting that Success Academy amounts to
little more than an accounting trick....The New York Daily News published
an opinion piece written by what they termed “a researcher” and a
“graduate student” that used the veneer of data to argue that Success
Academy is a true success and miracle story.[1] Careful analysis reveals
that many of the claims are outrights lies and the rest are
half-truths. ... Ravitch blog
Ok. I could have used "hyperbole," as the much more genteel Ravitch does below. And how about that sucky puff piece in the NY Times mag last Sunday? Gag.
For your reading pleasure -- This bears cross-posting from Diane's blog. Let's hold so-called "journalists'" feet to the fire and call them out for what they are -- paid propagandists.
And how nice to see that people are picking up my idea that her charters were never about education, but about building a political machine - from the very beginning - since Eva began her first school so many years ago - I was putting this forth. Call me Claire - Voyent.
A data analyst who worked for the past several years in the New
York City Department of Education wrote the following about Eva
Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain. Most of the data he cites
comes from public records maintained by the city or state education
departments. His footnotes are at the bottom of the post.
Building a Charter Chain, and a Mayoral Campaign, on Lies
Over the past few days a deluge of, what for lack of a better word
can only be described as Success Academy propaganda material, has
appeared in the New York City media. The New York Daily News published
an opinion piece written by what they termed “a researcher” and a
“graduate student” that used the veneer of data to argue that Success
Academy is a true success and miracle story.[1] Careful analysis reveals
that many of the claims are outrights lies and the rest are
half-truths.
Let’s start digging in.
Claim #1: “Success Academy schools serve a similar share of special
needs students relative to their zoned counterparts.” This is a lie.
According to the latest public data on the New York City Department of
Education’s Progress Report website [2] the 4 Success Academy schools in
Harlem had a total of 2540 students enrolled. Of these students only 17
were special education students with the highest level of need. That’s
0.6% of their students. By contrast the average percent of special
education students with the highest level of need at community
elementary/middle schools throughout New York City was 9.4% and 14% in
Harlem. The average community school in NYC serves 1,500% MORE of the
highest need special education students than Success Academy.[3] Such a
vast disparity, in what to a significant extent are disabilities based
on neurological, medical and physical differences, can’t be explained by
anything other than Success Academy not serving the neediest students
in the community.[4] You might think it would be hard for the
researchers who penned the propaganda in the Daily News to top this lie.
They will manage to surprise you.
Claim #2: “the school is more successful in teaching students
English…27% of Success Academy students passed the ELL writing exam,
compared to 19% at nearby schools.” This is a lie. The school is not
successful at teaching English Language Learners. The “researchers”
somehow forgot to mention that Success Academy only serves ELLs who are
already amazingly good at English.
According to the New York State data
[5] over 90% of the ELL students at Success Academy are proficient or
advanced in kindergarten (that is before Success Academy would have had
much of an effect). Seems that Success Academy only serves English
Language Learners who already know English. There ARE data suggesting
that Success Academy IS very successful at kicking ELLs out (perhaps the
few intermediate level ELL students who manage to slip through the
lottery).[6]
Claim #3: “Success Academy students scored on average 39 points…
ahead of others from equivalent backgrounds.” This is a lie. It is only
by misrepresenting the “equivalent background” that they can make this
claim. As we have seen in the first two lies that were exposed above,
these “researchers” have not even come close to controlling for
“equivalent backgrounds.” They have not controlled for level of special
education need. They have not controlled for English Language Learner
performance levels. They have not controlled for parent characteristics.
They have not controlled for home environment. They have not controlled
for peer effects of creaming some of the most advantaged students in
each neighborhood.[7]
Claim #4: “the overall rate of attrition at Success Academy is far
from alarming.” This is a lie. The “researchers” make this claim by
comparing the yearly rate of attrition at Success Academy to that of
other, nearby community schools. But that is an absurd comparison to
make. After all, the data show that Success Academy is serving some of
the most economically, linguistically, and academically privileged
students in Harlem.[8] On top of that parents must actively choose to
enter a lottery to get into Success Academy and must put up with Ms.
Moskowitz’s hazing.[9] The fact that even after such a thorough
screening process every single year, year after year, another 10% of the
student body leaves IS rather disturbing.
Claim #5: They dismiss as a “side argument” the notion that “the
choice not to backfill drives up scores.” It is a moral imperative to
point out that only charter schools are given this “choice.” Public
schools serve all students, from all circumstances, at all times (even
when charter schools kick those very students out right after “census
day,” the day districts use to calculate enrollment for budget
purposes). It is disturbing that this difference seems to carry such
little weight with so-called education reformers. It can only make one
wonder how invested they really are in the success of each and every
student.
It is also disturbing that these researchers seem unable to use basic
logic and arithmetic. An Independent Budget Office report showed that
charters are more likely to lose the students who score poorly on the
New York State exams and who are more often absent.[10] Losing 30% of
the students who will test poorly before they enter the first testing
grade (i.e. 10% attrition each year through 3rd grade) can have a huge
effect on test outcomes. Since it is reasonable to assume that Success
Academy replaces those students with ones more likely to do well on the
exams, the whole Success Academy effect can be explained by
attrition.[11]
Let’s use the data from Harlem Success Academy 1 as an illustration.
This year’s 8th grade cohort, the one that started kindergarten in the
2006-07 school year, dropped from 83 students in kindergarten to 63
students in 3rd grade. This means that at least 25% of the cohort
disappeared even before the first exam.[12] As the disappearing students
are the ones least likely to do well on the exams that means that in
3rd grade these students can be expected to score proficient on the New
York State exams at a rate that would be about 25% higher than would be
expected based solely on other factors (such as the creaming and
self-selection noted above). This effect fully accounts for Success
Academy’s, now obviously banal, outcomes.
Claim #6: “growth data from 2013 suggests that in the upper grades,
on average, students maintain their high early achievement rather than
moving further ahead.” Now this one is interesting since the researchers
are more or less admitting that a Success Academy education amounts to
very little. If students are not growing more the more time they are
spending in these schools, what exactly is Success Academy
accomplishing? This little fact shows that the rest of their essay
amounts to little more than apologetics and lies. It is implausible to
assume that Success Academy accomplishes magic in the early grades and
then barely manages to hold ground in upper grades. In fact, this is
another piece of evidence suggesting that Success Academy amounts to
little more than an accounting trick.
However even this is a half-truth since the most recent (2012-13) New
York City Department of Education Progress Report data show that
Success Academy lagged well behind its “peer” schools in English exam
growth.[13] Success Academy scored in the 39th percentile on English
exam growth for their overall student population and in the 21st
percentile on English exam growth for the students who began with scores
in the lowest 1/3 of students citywide.
Claim #7: “The implication is that, through “drill and kill”
instructional techniques, Success Academy is teaching students only
low-level skills…The reality is much different.” Here the “researchers”
mislead in various ways. They state that “Success Academy students get
more science instruction than their peers.” It is unclear how they know
this since no evidence is cited. They forgot to mention that according
to a Success Academy teacher “We do not teach history or foreign
languages in elementary school.[14]” The teacher also revealed that
“Test prep starts in November.” A former teacher noted that the “Entire
school focused on remaining at top of network schools assessment wise.”
[15] From another interview, “All of the other grades, besides seventh
and eighth grade, have been doing test prep since…the beginning of
November. So that means they weren’t having English class, they were
just doing stupid passages by random authors of no literary basis,
quality, and just doing multiple choice questions for the past two
months or so. [16]”
The “researchers” also somehow forgot to mention that exactly zero
Success Academy students scored well enough on the Specialized High
School Admission Exam to be admitted to one the city’s top high
schools.[17] This forgotten piece of data supports the teachers’ claims
that a very narrow sort of test prep characterizes Success Academy
curriculum, as little of it appears to generalize to other exams.
Conclusion: Given all the other tricks in the Success Academy
playbook including suspension rates 2-3 times the district averages
[18], teacher attrition rates approaching 75% a year [19], the ability
to spend thousands of more dollars per student thanks to deep pocketed
ideological foes of public schools [20], the ability to grade its own
exams (public schools are legally prohibited from doing so), and lots
more instructional time, Success Academy must be considered an utter
failure.
Today's reports at Chalkbeat point to the phony show Eva put on yesterday about gaining space for her 3 poor little denied charters. Even the usually fawning press looked through the cracks to see that there were actually negotiations going on while Eva openly lied to say they were not.
What the press is not getting is that what Eva is really complaining about is that she is not getting the 3 hand-picked public school buildings she really wanted:
The beautiful building in Harlem housing the Mickey Mantle school for special ed kids - PS 149.
The very large August Martin campus in Queens.
And the Murry Bergtraum massive building in lower Manhattan.
I've been saying since day 1 of the Moskowitz political operation - this is about real estate -- the long-range plan is to totally take over public school buildings in targeted locations where the buildings themselves have value -- imagine the day when Eva occupies the entire building after getting the public schools kids tossed -- like she wants the autistic kids out at Mickey Mantle. Her hedge fund pals offer to "buy" the building for a song -- "hey, the DOE won't have to pay to maintain it -- we'll help you out by taking it off your hands - then shortly after - whammo -- air rights and condos. Imagine what Murry Bergtraum in lower Manhattan is worth?
She will not satisfied with the substitute buildings de Blasio is offering and will look to any excuse to raise a ruckus to try to get back into the buildings she wants.
Here are the links from Chalkbeat.
Inn fighting
Success CEO Eva Moskowitz ratcheted up pressure on the de Blasio administration to find new space for three of her schools.
Interview with former Success Charter parent exposes shady tactics.
Great work by GEM's Darren Marelli.
An interview with New York City Parent Karen Sprowal. Ms. Sprowal tells the story of her kindergarten son's 12 days at Success Academy Charter School. Ms. Sprowal describes how her son was pushed out of the charter school and eventually embraced by a neighborhood public school, PS 75.
Which kids are really getting hurt in the charter wars?
Rally To Support de Blasio and Public Schools in Harlem Tomorrow
Where: Outside PS/ MS 149
When : 4: 00- 5:00 March 10
41 W. 117th St between Lennox Ave and Fifth
Subway: 2 or 3 to 116th
Even as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s handling of the issue of charter school co-locations has disappointed many, it has signaled the end of the era when the likes of entrepreneur Eva Moskowitz is granted whatever entrepreneur Eva Moskowitz wants, regardless of how many public school children are displaced, short changed and treated as if they are second rate citizens.
Over the past week and more, Moskowitz has received absurdly favorable press in New York City papers, even as she once again removed children from schools during school hours, this time to bus them to Albany as if they were adult lobbyists. After years of incredibly favorable treatment by the Bloomberg administration, de Blasio has had the political courage to stand up to Moskowitz and her billionaire backers.
As a result, Moskowitz and her friends in the media are doing all they can to paint her and Success Academies as victims and create the false appearance of overwhelming public support for Moskowitz and the horrific and destructive policies of Mike Bloomberg.
They have flooded the air-waves with slick, heart-tugging commercials, engaging in a multi-million dollar public relations campaign designed to do nothing less than trick the public into forgetting that de Blasio won by a margin of 75% over Joe Lhota, in large part because of de Blasio’s rejection of Bloomberg’s education policies, of which Moskowitz is such a perfect example.
Today we have an opportunity to once again reaffirm the public will, let Moskowitiz’s billionaires know that they do not own our schools and our city, and let de Blasio know he is not alone.
Please, if you can, come and let your voices be heard loud and clear. Come and remind Moskowitz’s billionaire backers that we live in a democracy. Above all, come and help insure that all of our children are shown the dignity that all children deserve.
Patrick Walsh
Chapter Leader
PS/ MS 149
Harlem
Harlem Success 1, Eva’s oldest school, suspended 22% of its pupils at least once during the 2010-11 school year, while the average for regular elementary district schools was 3%.
While she refuses to pay rent for normal services and space costs, it was reported in 2012her
network received $28 million from foundations and corporations over
the last 6 years, with a combined $23.5 million surplus, and two
outside political consulting groups on the payroll.
I'm pumping these out as fast as they come in over this morning's charter lobby outrage against ALL parents, students and staff who were led in a forced march over the Brooklyn Bridge while public schools were on lock down so they couldn't join the counter marches and rallies to demonstrate there is severe opposition to the charter lobby.
Re: Eva Moskowitz’s March for Separate and Unequal Education
Eva’s Stunt Would be a Fireable Offense for Anyone Else
Today’s march is a political maneuver by Success Charter Schools CEO Eva Moskowitz to perpetuate a dark tale of two school systems in which charter schools thrive and traditional public schools struggle to survive.
Her chosen candidate for mayor, Joe Lhota, has pledged to double the number of charter schools in the city. Moskowitz and Lhota are marching together in favor of separate and unequal education, while Bill de Blasio has said he would charge charter schools rent and support a moratorium on co-locations and closings to make the system fairer and more equitable.
Make no mistake: closing schools for half the day, as Moskowitz has done today, to “facilitate” the participation of parents, students, and staff in a political march would be a fireable offense for most public school principals.
But Moskowitz is not viewed by City Hall as an ordinary figure, so she’ll get away what would be a career-damaging stunt for anyone else. She’s been given special treatment by Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Education, and she fears the favoritism and perks will end under de Blasio.
NYGPS and Bill de Blasio: Ending the Tale of Two School Systems
New Yorkers for Great Public Schools (NYGPS) is a coalition of thousands of parents, students, educators, and community organizations. We have called for a moratorium on divisive school closings and co-locations that have pit parent against parent, student against student and school against school. A majority of City Council members and several mayoral candidates—including Bill de Blasio—have embraced our view.
We are committed to ending the tale of two school systems and giving all public schools a fair and equal chance to succeed. We are focused on strengthening all public schools and ensuring that charter schools don't receive special treatment or get away with neglecting the needs of the city's most vulnerable students.
Charters must be held to the same standards as traditional public schools. Our next mayor should require charter schools to report on finances, instruction, school policy and operations to increase their transparency and accountability within the overall school system. Well-off charter schools should pay fees for their use of traditional public school facilities in a way that is fair and equitable.
Top 5 Reasons Why Eva’s #TaleofTwoSchoolSystems Must End:
1)Charter Schools Serve Fewer than 5% of the City’s 1.1 Million Students
Charter schools enroll fewer than 5% of New York City's 1.1 million students and data shows high rates of attrition at some Success Academy schools for ELL students and students with disabilities. Only 6% of students enrolled in charters are ELLs, compared with 14% citywide, and only 9% of charter students have IEPs compared to about 15% citywide.
To continue to give charter schools special treatment would be to neglect the needs of 95% of the city’s 1.1 million students. It’s unfair and unacceptable.
2)Charter Schools Often Receive More Funding Than Traditional Public Schools
3)Eva Has Received Special Treatment from Bloomberg’s DOE
The relationship between Eva Moskowitz and the Dept. of Education has been extremely cozy with a level of access to resources and special favors unknown to most other administrators. The disturbing exchanges, made public by FOIL’ed email exchanges, show Eva’s special treatment. She told former Chancellor Joel Klein, "help on space much appreciated," referring to her divisive co-locations, and confided to him, “we will have market share and will have fundamentally changed the rules of the game."
Eva’s co-located charter schools createseparate and unequal health standardsin public school buildings, as many Success charter schools were bumped to the top of the line in the removal of toxic PCB’s while public school students were left exposed to hazardous chemicals. Many of the toxic treatment for her charter schools occurred without informing the Dept. of Education.
4)Eva’s Multi-Dollar Network Refuses to Pay Rent for Public Space
While she refuses to pay rent for normal services and space costs, it was reported in 2012her network received $28 million from foundations and corporations over the last 6 years, with a combined $23.5 million surplus, and two outside political consulting groups on the payroll.
5)Eva Uses Zero Tolerance Discipline to Push Out High-Needs Students
Eva’s schools are notorious for excluding high needs students. The“charter school tapes,” unveiled by Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez, highlight over a dozen cases where the charter school network has used “zero tolerance” discipline policiesto suspend, push out, or demote high needs students who might lower scores on state exams.
Harlem Success 1, Eva’s oldest school, suspended 22% of its pupils at least once during the 2010-11 school year, while the average for regular elementary district schools was 3%.
Further, as reported byNew York Magazine, her approach is militaristic: New students are initiated at “kindergarten boot camp,” where they get drilled for two weeks on how to behave in the “zero noise” corridors (straight lines, mouths shut, arms at one’s sides) and the art of active listening (legs crossed, hands folded, eyes tracking the speaker).
It’s true that Success owes its success to more than just
general student attrition. But Rubinstein only examined the overall
numbers. When you look at specific student demographics, even more
troubling patterns emerge. I’ve been dissecting the student data of
prominent NYC charters since Democracy Prep and I sparred
over its unmistakable pattern of steadily losing students with
disabilities and students learning English. (They promised a “debunking”
of my post. I’ll assume it’s still forthcoming.) At Success, the pattern is similar, if not more stark. Not only
do its classes contain disproportionately few students with
disabilities and English language learners (ELLs), but their numbers
almost invariably decrease with each passing year. This should have no
uncertain effect on test scores.
I actually get hot thinking about a slam at the arrogant Democracy Prep crowd which for some reason annoy me even more than Eva's crew. (I admit to having had some great discussions with some Success parents and officials -- we have been sparring for so many years.) Democracy Prep recently pushed out a program for GED students.
But how much fun is it to see Eva jump so far ahead that there will be intense scrutiny? Even her usual trolls have toned it down.
Owen concludes with:
What’s sad about this is how unsurprising it’s become.
High-achieving charters, with no exceptions that I’ve found, enroll
fewer needy students, witness substantial attrition of these students,
or both. These patterns could reflect some implicit policy, or they
could result from the extraordinary behavioral demands charters impose
on students. The proximate cause doesn’t matter so much when it comes to
test scores, though. Scores resting on high-needs student attrition
shouldn’t withstand even the mildest scrutiny, yet they garner
unreserved praise from the likes of Mayor Bloomberg and the Post. It’s just an added irony that one of Moskowitz’s Success expansions literally pushed at-risk students out of an existing school. I need not dwell on how disturbing all this is. Any notion of
success should be predicated on serving the neediest students right
alongside those who make “no excuses.” Anything less is reprehensible.
What
a waste! While nearby schools and children's organizations budgets are
cut and are struggling to survive. Harlem Success Academy on117th and
118th on Malcolm X Blvd. in Harlem is throwing away tons of new books
and school supplies today. It is sad that they would not donate these
needed resources to other schools and organizations in the neighborhood.
Luckily
neighborhood children and parents were able to dig through the discarded
educational material and grab valuable supplies.
One child said she
found almost all the school supplies she needed for
September-pencils, paper,markers, gluesticks, rulers
- even a new Harlem Success drawstring bookbag! New math, reading and
science books, new clipboards, notebooks, science
supplies, scissors were thrown away. Paper, art supplies, furniture, pc
cables, wifi routers, looseleaf notebooks, folders, reading
lamps, globes, maps pens, markers and many other new items were also
discarded.
Eva Moskowitz, the founder of the school just asked for more
money per child, from $1350 to $2000 for her school. I guess she can
afford to throw away new supplies. As of 10pm they were still throwing
things out. If you are looking for school supplies, I suggest you get
out there tonight between 117th closer to Lenox Ave. . Shame on you
Success Academy. I guess you are doing better than we thought with charter schools.
Please join us tonight at the Harlem PS149/Harlem Success I charter expansion hearing at 41 W 117th St. at 6 pm. The parents, students, and teachers at PS 149/The Sojourner Truth School are phenomenally eloquent and remain passionate and resolute after 5+ years of fighting Eva Moskowitz and the DOE.
Please come out to support them, to hear their stories, and to bolster them and the NAACP against the continuing PR storm.
IS 33 Old Building -
I'm covering this one as I monitor the extent of opposition in District 14 towards Moskowitz invasion. She has no foothold with parents there yet though I imagine some will come out tonight. IS 33 is in the middle of housing projects and has always been viewed as one of the least safe environments. The last time I was in IS 33 there were gunshots. No, not from the UFT directed at me.
Date, time and place of joint public hearings for this proposal. June 16, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.Foundations / Urban Environment / P368K@I033K
70 Tompkins Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11206
Questions about the proposal can be directed as indicated in section IV above.
Speaker sign-up will begin 30 minutes before the hearing and will close 15 minutes after the start. Interpretation services will be provided in Spanish. To request interpretation services in another language, please contact Mr. Taylor at the e-mail address or telephone number above.
VI. Date, time and place of the Panel for Educational Policy meeting at which the Panel will vote on the proposed item.
June 27, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
Prospect Heights Campus
883 Classon Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11225
Summary of all public comment received to date.The following comments and remarks were made at the joint public hearing on February 17, 2011, regarding the co-location proposal:
1. The CEC 14 representative stated that the DOE’s engagement process moved too quickly. Specifically, she stated that the CEC was not able to meet with the Success Academy Charter Network or to spread information to their community about the proposal. She also stated that the signatures supporting the proposed school came from the Bronx, not from the District 14 community.
I would like to share my experience from the Harlem Success Academy Recruitment Hiring Fair at Eva Moskowitz's headquarters. First of all, I received an invitation to Ms. Moskowitz' Recruitment Event from a head hunter at Execu Search. (This particular headhunter found my name and profile on Linkedin).
After my experience at 310 Lenox Avenue (Eva Moscowitz's headquarters), John Dewey is probably rolling over in his grave if he witnessed what was said and observed at the recruitment event. I was also extremely offended in how Eva used the word 'Sped' to describe special needs students. As a teacher and as an individual who has a disability, I find this offensive. Also as a parent, I would not want my child in a school setting where administrators and teachers call children 'sped' kids. Second, her headquarters looks extremely sterile and cold, all white, blue and orange with a modern appearance. There are many cubicles with HR assistants working all over the second floor of her office. (Ms. Moskowitz has the entire second floor in the building for her network).
When I first arrived at HSA Headquarters, I was greeted by the receptionist who gave me my ID tag and was then escorted into the small conference room. In the conference room, there were already prospective employees (teachers, administrators). We were getting ready to watch the HSA promo video. The promo video involved many statistics about Ms. Moskowitz's network about HSA, for example:
MORE BELOW THE FOLD
Recently, the charter school lobby helped orchestrate a rally at the NAACP NYC offices protesting the law suit on closing schools. Charter schools closed down for a few hours in the morning, making blatant use of children and parents for political purposes. On June 3, the NAACP held a press conference in front of the headquarters of Success Charter School Network to emphasize the law suit is about bringing equality to ALL children, not just a favored few.
This is unedited video of the press conference called by the NAACP in front of Eva Moskowitz' headquarters. There is a lot of powerful stuff packed into these 54 minutes. I will attempt to edit it a bit and put up an abridged version if I find time. This is definitely worth watching even if you scroll through it. Mulgrew is near the end and he does very well. Mona Davids was a bit late but got to say here piece at the very end - and she makes a powerful comparison to apartheid in her native South Africa.
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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.
“Because of the NAACP’s stand for all children, they are being criticized by those who seek to only divide our community, pitting parent against parent, and distorting the facts about the lawsuit against the NYC DOE.” - NAACP Press Release
NAACP and Community Rally/Press Conference at Success Charter Offices at 310 Lenox, between 125th and 126th. Time is still slightly in flux – 8:30/9 am.
This one should be fun. WOW! Is the worm turning on charters or what? Some major Harlem politicians are supporting this: Rangel, Wright, Dickens, and of course, Bill Perkins, the dean of politicians challenging the charter lobby.
Two years ago (end of school year 2009) when GEM (only a few months old) went up to Eva invaded PS 123 there were few political forces willing to take on charters. Even Bill Perkins at that time seemed ambivalent (I remember having a conversation with one of his aides). But the PS 123 situation woke him up and he began to take a stand. Throughout the summer of 2009 he invited us to take part in discussion at his office. His hearings in March 2010 created a storm (I still have many hours of tape) and led to a charter supported primary challenge which Perkins beat back easily. That was a moment where the supposed parent "support" for charters in Harlem was exposed.
Now the charter lobby has tried to bully the NAACP into withdrawing from the law suit with the UFT to stop the closing of schools and charter co-locations as Gotham reported:
Parents visited the NAACP’s local offices to ask the group to exit the school closure suit. (GS, Post)
One of the parent spokespersons - Valerie Babb, a parent at Harlem Link (always makes me chuckle when I see this school mentioned) - was quoted. Leonie pointed out that she works for the New York Charter Center. I also had a communication from Babb as I mentioned in this comment I left at Gotham's report on a visit by 20 "parents" to NAACP head Hazel Dukes' office:
So I'm beginning to get it. "“We’re not going away,” said Valerie Babb, mother of a first-grader at Harlem Link Charter School." Valerie Babb is an employee of the NYC Charter Center. Babb sent out an email to charter school parents to attend the recent Brooklyn Premiere of "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" sponsored by Mona Davids' competing charter school parent org. (I printed the email at ed notes: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/05/to-charter-school-operators-you-want.html).
So, it's all about the children, eh? Politics and jobs don't enter into it I guess. How many other charter school parent activists have jobs connected to the charter school machine? Reminds me of the day when principals helped get jobs for certain parents who supported them. Link to comment: http://disq.us/24qbfb
I'm going to try to get up and shlep my way to this event with trusty camera. Here are some recent items I've been posting - just a select few.
Gotham has a linkon this story. Kitchen Sink is at it again - I left a comment - go leave yours.
It's actually a sad day for charter school interests looking to glom onto free real estate. I guess you were too busy planning your exit from the public schools to set up your own shop, but those of us who remained and fought that system would never classify what we did as failing black and brown kids by condemning an entire racial group.
In my school we had great success with a number of students (I can give you a tour of the colleges they went to) and also failures. It is the former group that you are all bragging about succeeding with - just like we did over the last 40 years. Instead of focusing all out efforts on reaching those kids, you have opted for a dual school system that makes conditions worse for the very kids who need the most help. And the charter school lobby has supported the onslaught by the DOE due to narrow self-interest - the self-interest of the adults I might add. Nice work!
But the charter lobby is out in force. This just came through:
United Negro College Fund head attacks lawsuit/NAACP
- an article Michael Lomax (a charter puppet) co-wrote with - DRUMROLL - Michelle Rhee, the Sarah Palin of ed deform as someone dubbed her.
Noguera Punts on HSA
The NY State Ed Dept, which Fred Smith exposes on their politically tainted testing procedures has also been complicent in the charter school invasions. John King who is taking over when Steiner leaves is 100% charter school. It really is invasion of the body snatchers. But HSA is chartered by SUNY and here is some back and forth on the NYCEd News Listserve regarding Pedro Noguera related to this item I posted yesterday - Success/Brandeis co-location comments due BY NOON ...
Leonie Haimson asked: Has Pedro Noguera (Chair of SUNY Charter Schools Institute) expressed an opinion on this co-location? Has he visited any of the co-located charters in D3, to your knowledge?
Here was the response:
Months ago, at the meeting where SUNY granted the charter (without a specific D3
location), Dr. Noguera did say that he wanted to look carefully at the site that
got chosen before approving it. I am told he didn't want SUNY to be a "rubber
stamp." That said, if he now has an opinion on this specific co-location, I have
not heard it, nor of any Success-related visit by Dr. Noguera to the Brandeis
complex.
It is so odd to me, now that SUNY held this hearing to do a final site
evaluation, that the SUNY Charter Schools Institute is responsible for receiving
public comments and making a recommendation to the SUNY Board about approval. As
far as I know, there were no Board members at the location hearing this week.
The CSI would seem to be in the business of supporting charters, and I find it
weird that they are the buffer between the overwhelming community opposition and
Dr. Noguera/the SUNY Board.
And, oh year, it is a good time to bring back one of our favorites about Meryll Tisch, who is the leader of the pack.
Click on photo to link to an article on K12 and Tisch Family
Gotham: Eric Grannis, charter board member and Eva Moskowitz’s husband:
Charters should integrate. (Daily News)
Michael Fiorillo
Grannis' piece in the Daily News is nothing more than transparent attempt to justify his wife's invasion of the Brandeis HS building on the Upper West Side. In other words, the usual charter operator's dissembling and deceptive use of civil rights rhetoric in service of privatization.
I go further than Michael. HSA is ready to move to the white middle class where test scores come easy. My racism detector has been activated. Just like I reported the other day when Eva (rich white woman) organized poor Black people to oppose the NAACP law suit against closing schools and charter co-locos. (Eric Grannis supposedly reads ed notes so he should be happy to see his name in print.)
Maybe we'd serve minority students better if, instead of creating good schools for minorities to make up for the bad schools minorities have had for so long, we just created good schools for everyone. As the Supreme Court has said, "he way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
Gee, Eric, how disingenuous of you. If you wanted to integrate your charter schools why don't you offer buses to all those white parents who want to attend HSA and bus them into Harlem at your local HSA schools there. Let's see how attractive the white parents consider your schools then. Or is it just about Brandeis or Bust?
I posted a video over the weekend where you can see the new (white) faces HSA is looking for snickering at the Brandeis HS press conference where parents and community opposed the HSA takeover of whole sections of public real estate. What next Eric, HSA condos?
Brandeis HS - Opposing HSA Invasion - May 26, 2011
A PS 241 teacher describes the impact on her school from having a Harlem Success Academy school in her building. I challenged and captured some comments from HSA future parents, the face of the attempt to gentrify charter schools on the upper west side.
For those of you who don't read the comments, here is a very valuable follow-up:
Michael Fiorillo said... Norm, you are are absolutely right: one of the unspoken dynamics in charter expansion in NYC is that they are a real estate play. Whether it is the expropriating of public school facilities, or as a prelude and anchor for further gentrification of communities (i.e. Gideon Stein, Success Charter Network Board member, and head of Argyle Holdings, "Developers of premier properties in Northern Manhattan").
As with Geoffrey Canada's incursion into the St. Nicolas Houses, while public housing units all over the city are being allowed to become run-down and (reputedly) units are being warehoused, the people pushing these schools are also tightly aligned with real estate and urban redevelopment interests in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. It's possible that, rhetoric and PR aside, this is what Grannis has in mind when he writes about "integrating" charters schools: at current rates of demographic change, Harlem and Bed-Stuy will be increasingly white neighborhoods. Maybe the black families being recruited are just placeholders until the neighborhood "tips" sufficiently. Of course, even then you will still see the faces of adorable black children on all the 4-color, glossy promotional materials.
Finance and real estate, the twin electromagnetic poles of urban political juice, see mutual benefits from charter expansion. They continue to grow because, despite the fact that they are educationally inferior to public schools and an economic drain and diversion away from them, they represent a coalition of powerful interests.
Remember "synergy," a Wall Street/consultant/B-School buzz word from a decade or more ago? The idea was that assembling disparate companies would lead to new opportunities and dynamism within the whole.
That's some of what's going on with elite support for charter schools, the hoped-for synergy of corporate control of school management, curriculum, instruction, labor relations and infrastructure. It's a gold mine for them, and cold, watery soup for everyone else.
Brandeis HS - Opposing HSA Invasion - May 26, 2011
A PS 241 teacher describes the impact on her school from having a Harlem Success Academy school in her building. I challenged and captured some comments from HSA future parents, the face of the attempt to gentrify charter schools on the upper west side.
Make sure to watch the companion video below posted by Angel: Moskowitz Charter Takeover @ Brandeis HS - Ms Rackmill Speaks
On May 21, 2011 Community Board 12 in upper Manhattan convened a panel to discuss charter schools. Dennis Walcott was supposed to be on that panel but never showed up. Chair, SUNY Charter Schools Committee Pedro Noguera and NY Charter School and James Merriman CEO of the NYC Charter School Center said their piece and left before Julie Cavanagh and Mona Davids said their piece.
Here are two videos I made.
Julie in 21 minutes presents a comprehensive case against the charter school movement.
Here I extracted a 5 minute piece out of the above if you don't have time now focusing on just some statistics. Like Eva spent $1.3 million over a 2 year period to create demand. Julie breaks down how much money that comes out to if divided up amongst the public school children her schools displace.
Cheers
Norm Scott
Education Notes ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
Education Editor, The Wave www.rockawave.com
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
On April 14th, I attended a District 14 Community Education Council meeting where Eva Moskowitz, the CEO of the Success Academy Charter School Network, was supposed do a small presentation about her plans to open three more Brooklyn Success Academies. She was also expected to field questions from the public. I have written about charter schools and this particular charter chain on more than one occasion, but I continue to be shocked by its approach and steadfast commitment to shirking the truth. For those who don't know, Success Academies is a network of charter schools in New York City. There are currently seven Success Academies open and all are co-located inside public school buildings. Moskowitz's schools have a track record of under-serving the neediest students and counseling out students who have significant academic and behavioral needs. In addition, Moskowitz's schools have received preferential treatment from the Department of Education and she has been allowed to open school after school despite mounting public opposition. (http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-02-25/local/27057283_1_e-mails-charter-space-in-school-buildings)
There are many who believe that Eva Moskowitz’s schools represent the kind of change we need in education, and this is certainly the message Moskowitz spends millions to market. However, the reality is far different. At this CEC meeting I witnessed two Success Academy staff members avoid answering community member's questions and make numerous false statements—all in the hopes of preserving their image.
Before the CEC meeting began, we received word that Moskowitz would not actually be present at the meeting—she would instead be sending a couple of her marketing staff members to field questions and give her presentation. The meeting began with a small crowd seated in the auditorium of I.S. 71. After a rousing performance by the P.S. 257 marching band and a few CEC announcements, the microphone was given to a Success Academies employee, Nicole Foster. As she took the microphone, parents, teachers and principals in the crowd held up large signs expressing their opposition to Success Academy schools coming in to District 14. Before Foster even began speaking, the CEC president brought forth some concerns about the way in which this meeting was scheduled and pointed out some glaring errors on the part of the Success Academies staff. Right from the start, it was clear that this was going to be a tough crowd for the two, young Success Academies staff members.
Ms. Foster began by thanking us all for being there and stressed how excited Success Academies was to be coming to District 14. They were, she claimed, attending this meeting in order to start a "respectful dialogue" with the community. Yet, she did not address Moskowitz's absence. How important is dialogue with the community to your organization if your own CEO doesn't show up to meet the community? She talked briefly about her background, the Success Academies philosophy and their plans to open more charter schools in District 14. Next, she called upon two Harlem Success Academy parents to speak to the audience. They told brief stories about why they believed so strongly in their school. The two parents certainly seemed excited about their schools; however, they didn't refer to anything very specific about why their schools were so extraordinary. It seemed an odd move bringing in these parents. If there was, in fact, such a high demand for these Success Academies (as their staff members claimed), why bring parents in from Harlem to convince us?
Soon after the parents finished their presentations, the crowd had a chance to ask some powerful and critical questions. Throughout this back and forth, the Success Academies employees tried to make nice and appear gracious and respectful, but they were challenged by the community's questions and struggled to communicate anything more than half-truths.
One of the first questions was about why Success Academies felt any need to come to District 14. Foster responded that there was "demand" for their charter school. When asked to explain this demand, Jenny Sedlis (Director of External Affairs) joined her colleague at the front. She claimed there was a demand because 1,400 families had entered the lottery for the 168 spots available at their school slated to open in District 14. When probed further and asked repeatedly how many of these applicants were actually from District 14, Sedlis became flustered and said that all the applicants were from "Brooklyn." Success Academies is claiming a false demand for their schools. It is not accurate to say that there is a demand in District 14 for this school, if the applicants do not actually live in the district. Success Academies choose District 14; the district did not choose them.
There are some serious questions, too, as to how Success Academies got parents to enter their Brooklyn lottery. A special education teacher from PS 147 testified that during his school’s parent-teacher conferences, a man stood outside handing out Success Academy advertisements to the PS 147 parents. When questioned, the man admitted he was being paid ten dollars an hour to solicit parents for Success Academies. The PS 147 teacher challenged the consistent Success Academies line about parent choice: "When advertisements are given in the face of people, when they put them in front of them, without dialogue beforehand…that is not choice! That is ‘this is what you should do.’” He shared how parents at his school came in asking, “Should we be worried about our school?”
Foster’s response was evasive at best. She spoke lightheartedly about how their network has reached out to the community and daycare centers in the past. She failed to address any of the teacher’s concerns, but instead kept referring to how Success Academies is trying to engage, now, in a dialogue with the community. (Let’s not forget that the lottery for their school closed on April 1st. Seems like it might be a little late to be starting this dialogue.) While Foster put on a smile to respond to this public school educator, the outright disrespect her organization showed towards PS 147 (and so many other public schools where they do the same kind of soliciting after/before school) cannot be denied. While his school is in the midst of doing something positive and productive--conducting meetings between teachers and families--Success Academies shows up to tell these parents they should consider another school, creating confusion and sowing seeds of doubt.
Another educator from PS 147 challenged the Success Academies model. He spoke of high teacher turnover rates in their schools, and cited a case in which one Harlem Success Academy went through four principals in just five years. He asked Ms. Foster, “How can your school be a replicable model?” as they so often proclaim. He spoke also of their contradictory statements about testing and test prep. While they claim not to be a "test-prep" factory, their teachers don orange t-shirts with the words, “Slammin’ Exam Teacher!” Furthermore, the PS 147 teacher alleged, the schools’ CEO, Ms. Moskowitz, has openly advocated for rewarding teachers monetarily for high student test scores.
When Ms. Foster took back the microphone she began again with her previous tactic, to sound nice, but communicate little substance or truth. She made general statements about the Success Academies philosophy—“The tests are not our end-all…but they are our moral obligation. We have to ensure our students do well on these exams…So, we try to get the students excited about the tests.” While Foster seemed to be communicating the message the Success Academies schools are not unilaterally focused on testing and test-prep, a former HSA teacher tells a different story: "There is a one word focus at any HSA school: testing." (Anonymous comment left: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/harlembrooklyn-success-academy-video.html)
Foster's response to teacher turnover was even more misleading. She said that many of the teachers at Success Academies don’t leave, they simply move on to other positions within the network. She didn’t exactly specify what jobs these teachers took up, aside from mentioning a few school leaders who were former teachers. Surely the 50% turnover rate at Harlem Success Academy 1 (see for yourself on the State’s Accountability and Overview Report) is not due entirely to teachers becoming principals. Some teachers likely do move up, but what happened to the rest of them?
Throughout the evening, Foster and Sedlis continued to use three phrases repetitiously: “partnership, respectful dialogue and parent choice.” An educator from Harlem, whose public school has been forced to share space with a Harlem Success Academy, spoke strongly about how these empty phrases are tossed around by Success Academy employees. He spoke of how Moskowitz brought parents into his school for a co-location hearing and how they aggressively called his school, “a failure.” There was no basis for this accusation--Moskowitz had been pining for this school building and used this public hearing as an opportunity to attack and overwhelm this public school. (See http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxueWRuZG9jc3xneDoyMjFlOTliYmVlNjUxMmIw&pli=1 for access to the emails between Moskowitz and Klein. See pages 47 to 50.)
He spoke also of the numerous injustices his school and students have been subject too since the co-location began. Each year, Harlem Success Academy has taken more and more space away from his public school. Kindergarten, first and second grade students at his public school have been forced into classrooms in a sub-level basement—all to make room for Harlem Success Academy. Foster attempted to respond, explaining that in each co-location there is a team of people who work together within the building to divide space equally and fairly. The Harlem educator responded and shared how his school community consistently and opening opposed the move to basement classrooms, and how, in the end, they were not allowed to be a part of this decision. They were told to move their classes into the basement. Foster continued to stress how her schools work in partnership with their public school neighbors. It is easy to say you partner with a community or a school, but to actually do it requires a degree of honesty and consideration Success Academies have not shown themselves to possess. Partnership requires a give and take; Success Academies only know how to take.
As the evening continued, a consistent pattern revealed itself. The community raised concerns. Then, Sedlis and Foster deflected and attempted to minimize what the community brought forth. The most glaring untruths came later in the evening. Someone from the audience mentioned her concern that Success Academies fail to enroll equitable numbers of students with special needs and English language learners. Nicole Foster actually said that the new District 14 Success Academy school will have 25% English Language Learners. She then went on to say that Success Academies enroll more special education students and more ELL’s than the public schools with whom they share space. Her statements could not be further from the truth.
Let’s look first at English Language Learner enrollment. New York State complies information on all schools and creates an “Accountability and Overview Report” for most schools in the city. The 2008-2009 reports can be found online. See the chart below to see the enrollment of English Language Learners at three Success Academies and their co-located neighbors.
For some reason, “Accountability and Overview Reports” do not yet exist for the other Success Academies schools. Most likely, this is due to their youth—some have only been open a year or two. However, the public schools they share space with enroll significant numbers of ELL students.
English Language Learners in other Public Schools co-located with Success Academies
P.S. 241, co-located with HSA 4
24%
P.S. 123, co-located with HSA 5
20%
P.S. 30 Wilton, co-located with Bronx Success 1
28%
P.S. 146 Edward Collins, co-located with Bronx Success 2
16%
Foster also claimed that her schools enroll higher numbers of special education students, but the numbers just don’t add up. On the Department of Education website (schools.nyc.gov) you can view all kinds of statistics for each public school in our city. Statistics for charter schools are not as easily accessed. In the beginning of February, I came across a new link with enrollment data on each school’s page. It was titled, “CEP School Demographics and Accountability Snapshot, 2010-2011.” This was, at the time, a snapshot available for all schools—public and charter. I recorded the data for the Success Academy schools, as well as the public schools that have been forced to share their space with this charter chain. Within a couple of weeks, this link was removed from all of the charter school web pages, however it is still available on public school pages. (It is listed near the bottom of each school's “Statistics” page.) The data used in the graphs below comes from these snapshots. If the Success Academies schools would like to provide updated and detailed enrollment information, I would love to see it.
The first graph shows the percentage of students enrolled in special education classes, both Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) and self-contained classes.
While it is undoubtedly clear that our public schools serve more students in need of special services, the differences are even more glaring if you examine the number of students in self-contained classes alone. Students who need self-contained classes typically have the highest needs.
The Success Academies Network is not interested in serving high-needs students and have counseled out many students when they felt overwhelmed by their needs. Go into any of the schools co-located with a Success Academy and you will find former Success Academy students—students who “won” the lottery, but were then asked to leave. Success Academies seem to have adopted an attitude now shared by many charter schools—it is accepted practice to exclude students instead of giving them the support they need to succeed. (The NY Post just ran an article about these exclusionary practices, "Charters Nix 23% of kids: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/charters_nix_of_kids_jXEEhJtQx9eQiGUiD3vInN)
The job of a public school is to work with all of the students who enroll, regardless of their strengths, weaknesses, needs or shortcomings. When a student presents with a need, it is up to the school to help meet that need. Although they receive substantial public funds, charter schools are not public schools and easily avoid doing the true and hard work of educating our neediest children.
As the CEC meeting ended around 8:15 pm, two tired and weary Success Academies employees exited I.S. 71. I wondered, how they do it every day? How do they work for an organization that, in the name of educational equity, creates division, tension and inequality in our communities? Moskowitz invests extraordinary resources in the presentation and preservation of her organization's image. But as one community member said at the end of his testimony, "Imagine if that money went to kids!"
In advertising and marketing, truth is usually obscured or manipulated in an attempt to convince people (consumers) of something--to buy a product, to take a trip, to take a drug, to buy a kind of food, to go to a school. McDonald's spends millions of dollars every year marketing and promoting its food. It fills its advertisements with images of seemingly healthy people stuffing their faces with unbelievably unhealthy food. It slaps up joyous slogans and avoids including the information about their food's damaging nutritional content that might dissuade people from buying it. McDonald's advertising campaigns are not focused on sharing any truths. Rather, they hide the truth in the name of increasing profit. The Success Academies Charter School Network is guilty of similar practices. Moskowitz wants us to believe what her organization says and ignore what it does. But if we ignore what is happening, our children are the ones who will pay the price. They deserve honesty and integrity, not lies and deceit.What is it going to take for more people, especially parents, to see through the empty slogans of Success Academies?
