Hudson Yards Success charter parents to Eva Moskowitz: The school "broke our children’s spirit and erased their self confidence in less than 3 weeks"

Leonie Haimson has the full letter on her blog: https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/10/hudson-yards-success-charter-parents-to.html

Ben Chapman of the Daily News reported yesterday that a group of parents whose children attend a new Hudson Yards middle school in the Success Academy charter network is protesting the rigid and abusive disciplinary methods of the network.  The school opened this year and enrolls about 200 students in grades 5 and 6, to be expanded to 480 students through eighth grade in future years.

The school is sited in a high-rise building on the far West Side of Manhattan.  The space also houses a Success charter elementary school and the Success Academy Education Institute, established to train teachers from throughout the country in the Success techniques.  The two schools in the building are supposed to serve as "lab schools" for the Institute. The commercial space in the mixed use tower was acquired for $68 million by Success in December 2016. 

The full letter from Hudson Yard parents to Eva Moskowitz, the Success CEO, is reprinted below, and describes how the principal and faculty at the school "broke our children’s spirit and erased their self confidence in less than 3 weeks." Many of the specific practices outlined below have been reported by parents at other Success charter schools.

New York's Greatly Hyped Success Academy Tainted by Racist Board Members and Radical Right-Wing Money | Alternet

Yet another Success Academy Board member has a long history of making incendiary racial comments.

Here's a link to an article on Eva you won't see posted on Chalkbeat.

http://www.alternet.org/success-academy-race-baiting-trolls

An excerpt:

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.) 

Go ahead and try to get info about these characters as they declare themselves private when inconvenient - one of the best arguments to make for why charters should not exist.

Harris Lirtzman found a nugget in a CB link that touches on this transparency issue.

We can regret Chalkbeat's place in the media solar system but it still breaks interesting stuff:  A classic example of CMO executives claiming 'public school' status for political purposes while wrapping themselves in 'private school' protections when they're useful ....

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/09/21/private-managers-of-public-schools-charter-leaders-enjoy-extra-buffer-from-public-records-laws/

Diane Ravitch reports on the same issue:

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

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.

CB today does link to a a review of Eva's book:EVA'S EDUCATION The latest review of Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz's new memoir calls it "the most intimate look to date into ... a woman who is as infamous as she is admired." The Atlantic, Chalkbeat 

Chalkbeat As Astroturf Journalism

Chalkbeat: Softball Interview With Success Academy attorney
The interviewer asks not a single question about the numerous charges vs. Success; their push out and disciplinary policies; and the numerous court cases/civil rights complaints and confirmed privacy violations at Success that Kim as the attorney for Success allowed to continue and defended time after time..... Leonie Haimson

See https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/09/why-emily-kim-former-attorney-for.html

True reformers have been growing increasingly critical of the constant pro-deform drum from Challbeat's so-called "journalism." Leonie nails them on this interview with former Success Academy lawyer Emily Kim: Chalkbeat

Success Academy's former lawyer is trying to start her own charter network. We sat down with her to hear her vision for schools.

A pushed out parent had these comments about Kim in Leonie's post:

Emily Kim had a personal hand in making sure my son's IEP was not met. This happened continuously from first to third grade. She conducted herself unprofessionally in meetings, emails, and during phone conversations. On more than one occasion I had to not only seek but retain legal counsel to try to protect his civil rights and to obtain his mandated services as required by his IEP. 

When I was banned from entering the school, Emily personally enforced the ban with no evidence of any misdeed on my part, and instead offered to find a new school for my child. The ban wasn't lifted until I appeared at a press conference with the Public Advocate Letitia James, in which Ms. James asked SUNY to investigate the abuse of special needs children.

Here is another example of Chalkbeat duplicity - publishing a link at another biased "journalism" site run by Campbell Brown - this biased anti-public school teacher absentee "study"

CHRONICALLY ABSENT Teachers in traditional schools are more likely to be chronically absent than teachers in charter schools, according to a new study by the Thomas F. Fordham Institute. The 74

The argument is that less sick days for teachers is better for students. And charters of course have less benefits -- not that charter school teachers have to come in when they are sick because they fear being fired. And by the way -- many new public school teachers without tenure also fear taking sick days. And also -- why believe any data coming out of charter schools?

Before it became Chalkbeat it was Gotham Schools. They used to have a party every year. At one of them Eva and her hubby showed up - I bet with a donation.

Arthur has been doing a number of pieces on what he terms "reformy" Chalkbeat. A quote from a recent piece:

Reformy Chalkbeat Peddles the Moskowitz Book

After reading a story by Juan Gonzalez, instead of asking, "Holy crap, how does she get away with this?" reformy Chalkbeat wonders why everyone is ganging up on poor Eva Moskowitz. That's the kind of coverage you get when Gates and Walmart subsidize the education press. You get "theories" as to why Moskowitz might be a controversial figure.

 Another piece by Arthur:

Reformy Chalkbeat Still Sucks

And if you haven't been following another Chalkbeat fave, super astroturf Families for Excellent Schools which will get 10 people out to some anti-teacher, anti-union event and get coverage from CB as if they were a legit organization instead of being funded by the same people who fund CB:

Authorities Close In On Pro-Charter School Nonprofit For Illicit Campaign Contributions

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/19/massachusetts-charter-school-group-fined-new-york/

Success Academy's Loeb latest Insults - How About Them Schwarzes?

To be clear: racism is not just carrying a torch in Charlottesville, or writing a bigoted comment on Facebook. Racism is also the failure of those in power to hold white supremacists accountable for actions and words that harm and demean people of color.
Cuomo, Klein and Flanagan may not be carrying tiki torches, but they are implicitly endorsing racism from certain donors like Loeb who send the biggest checks.

...Loeb has previously compared teachers’ unions to the KKK, and he referred to a Prem Watsa, an insurance company CEO of Indian ancestry as a “schwarze” – a derogatory Yiddish phrase for blacks. Yet he continues to sit on the board of the Success Academy charter school network, and he is among the top political contributors to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other prominent elected officials in New York. 

..... Zakiyah Ansari,

http://cityandstateny.com/articles/opinion/dan-loeb-and-the-political-price-of-racism.html

It keeps getting worse.  Loeb called someone a "schwarze" in email.  Message to Eva and Success: Not who you want heading

Daniel Loeb Vision of UFT Meetings

your school board where 93% of the kids are kids of color. Or any school board for that matter. Word is that with the resignation of DFER head Shavar Jeffries (still a scuzball in my book) there is not one person of color on the Success main board.

More News:  

Eva Vs. The People: Battle to Keep JHS 145X Open - Hearing Tonight - 5:30

While closing schools is not as widespread as it was under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it is still occurring and it is very troubling. The Department of Education still fails to provide proper resources for schools and then calls them failures... James Eterno, ICE blog

 I'm taking the subway up to Yankee Stadium tonight, not for a Yankee game, but to take the long walk from there to 1000 Teller Ave for the JHS 145 hearing. I never go to the Bronx, even for Yankee games, because it is as far away from where I live as possible and still be in NYC.

If Eva and her little band of slimeballs show up to tell us about their scholars I'm going to be retching, so I better not eat.

This is not about closing a struggling school but about yet another giveaway of a school building to Eva Moskowitz, who has enough money to rent Radio City Music Hall for a test-prep rally, but wants to toss poor kids into the street in another avaricious grab. And the DOE is closing the school - or trying to - because they fear the slings and arrows of the charter lobby publicity machine.

As for the UFT -- they are supposedly doing things behind the scenes. Ho-hum --when what is needed is a strong public stand against the Farina/deB giveaway to Eva. DeB thinks if he pays off charters they will lay off him in the election. Good luck with that.

I reported on teacher Jim Donahue's heroic efforts to help organize resistance -- Closing JHS 145 So Eva/Success Academy Can Ge..

When Jim spoke at the UFT Ex Bd they acted dumb -- it was Jim and MORE that asked for the item to be pulled from the March 22 PEP agenda which so far has not happened. March 22 may turn into a redux of Bloomberg era resistance.

James Eterno reported on tonight's hearing at the ICE blog:

SCHOOL CLOSING BATTLE IN BRONX TONIGHT

The common perception from the UFT is that school closings are not a real problem under the current Mayor Bill de Blasio and his Chancellor Carmen Farina. While closing schools is not as widespread as it was under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it is still occurring and it is very troubling. The Department of Education still fails to provide proper resources for schools and then calls them failures.

Tonight there will be a Joint Public Hearing to save Junior High School 145 in the Bronx. JHS 145 is slated for closure. Eva Moskowitz has already claimed the building for one of her Success Academy charter schools.

The only trouble with this arrangement is the school community at 145 is waging a valiant fight to save their school. Tonight is their Joint Public Hearing, a public meeting required before a school can be closed. If you can make it to the Bronx this evening, I suggest that you attend the hearing to show your support for 145. Get there before 6:00 p.m. to sign up to speak. Schools targeted for closure need the public to be behind them to have any chance of surviving.

I certainly know how the JHS 145 people feel as Jamaica High School, where I taught for 28 years, was phased out and then closed in 2014.

Here is an email from MORE leader Jia Lee on tonight's JHS 145 hearing.

Colleagues, 

An injury to one is an injury to all. Success Academy is slated to take over the building where JHS 145 has been for generations. Incredibly, SA has advertised for their new middle school even before the vote has taken place at the March 22 PEP. 

The staff and families of JHS 145 are fighting to keep their school open. They serve students who have been mislabled based on faulty test score metrics. A large showing of support for the school and resistance against charterization will send a message to the DOE that we will not stand by while they destroy public schools. 

Please join me at this joint hearing with JHS 145 and Success Academy

JHS 145

1000 Teller Ave. Bronx NY

Take any train to Yankee Stadium or 

take the A or 1 train to 181 Street in Washington Heights, then take the Bx35 bus toward the BX.

Report from Success Academy on non-Snow Day

Just overheard, three Success Academy staff members talking about their day yesterday. One was joking about how in one class, the teacher preached all day from a Bible. (Is that on the test???) Then they went on to make fun of a child who apparently spoke up about this. Real nice..... .......Public school teacher in co-located school

The Case of Eva and the Disappearing Sucess Academy Clueless Training Videos

....taking down of 430 out of 485 videos is an extreme — even paranoid — response to the analysis of one blogger about four of their videos.  I hope they put the videos back up soon but I’m assuming they won’t.
Update:  On Thursday September 6th the videos, for a brief while, temporarily reappeared, all of them, but a few hours later every video became password protected.  So we went from 485 to 56 to 485 and then to 0 all in 24 hours.....
these videos were posted originally, presumably, to help the public schools learn what they can do to be as high performing as Success Academies.  These videos were a public service.  If this is true, it seems very harsh, cruel even, to take them down just because some blogger links to four of them and criticizes them. If they’re going to do this, why leave up 56 videos?  The truth is that I did not sift through the 485 videos looking for incriminating stuff.  Basically, I can pick pretty much any video they have and the issues I had with the other videos I wrote about are all clearly there... 
 
One thing about this video is that the teacher seems to have some warmth while in the videos that were deleted, the teachers were somewhat hostile.  The other videos had teachers doing some very bad things, for example, making kids raise their hands to reveal to the entire class that they got a poor score on an assignment. Another deleted video had an assistant teacher putting a sticker on a child’s face as the assistant teacher circulated around the room.
The videos seem to show that Success Academy is a place where students live in fear of their over-controlling teachers.  It does not look like a place where kids get the opportunity to be kids.  I do think there there is a subset of kids who can do well in this environment, but most, I think, can’t.
........Gary Rubinstein

Gary Rubinstein is on the case. There were 500 videos up and Gary was critical of the 4 he watched. So Success took them all down. And then they put back their "best of" 50. And then they took those down and then.... well, let Gary tell the story:

Success Academy Scrubs Their Public Video Page: Updated

There’s a famous saying, I think it originated with Watergate, “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up.”

My last two blog posts have been based on videos I found on Success Academy’s public video site on Vimeo.  This is the collection of videos that they promised in The Wall Street Journal back in May after a few very public scandals.
Now Success Academy is very private about what happens in their schools so you’d figure that all their videos contain things that they are proud of.  Surely they spent considerable money producing these videos and there were many people involved in what sorts of things would be permitted to be in these videos.

There were 485 videos on the page when I first came across it a few days ago.  Randomly clicking on a few of them I found four videos among the nearly 500 that I analyzed, three in the first post and one in the second post.  I noticed in a comment today on the most recent post that the video I wrote about was taken down from the site.  Then I looked at the first post and found that two of those three videos were also removed from their site.  I went back to their site to find that all that remains of the 485 videos that were up just 24 hours ago is now down to just 56 videos.

 more at  Success Academy Scrubs Their Public Video Page: Updated

Chalkbeat Desparate to Prove Charter Co-locos work by ignoring those that don't

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Although some members of the community objected to Success Academy’s co-location, as school leaders, we felt it was our responsibility to make the best of sharing our space. When our schools work together, we’ve found that our students reap real rewards.”

— Jonathan Dant and Erin Lynch, whose schools share a building in Bensonhurst --- Chalkbeat

One of several posts that CB has run praising the purported benefits of co-locations. A function of their Gates grants?

I was at the PEP last week where another charter was shoved into a public school - 100 people from the school showed up to show this was inappropriate.

Here are the first 3 stories from the June 30 CB Rise and Shine where the negative story on Eva and charter co-locos is bracketed by positive stories. Note how they first present something that tries to make Eva look good - I don't believe it. I know what people at Seth Low think of Eva.


CO-LOCATION VICTORY The principals of Success Academy Bensonhurst and I.S. 96 Seth Low explain how a formerly contentious co-location ended up helping both schools. Chalkbeat
CO-LOCATION CONCERNS Williamsburg's J.H.S. 50 is a Renewal school showing signs of improvement. But its principal says it is being squeezed by the space demands of a Success Academy charter school that shares its building. New York Times
CHARTERS GET A BOOST Editorial: Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, argues that changes to state funding and a major national grant from the Walton Family Foundation will help charter schools thrive. New York Post

MORE CB pro-coloco posts.

http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2015/06/26/raise-your-hand-where-are-co-located-schools-working-well-together/#.V3bMupD3arU


http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2015/08/28/what-makes-a-school-co-location-work/#.V3bNIJD3arU

http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2016/06/29/first-person-years-after-co-location-fight-two-principals-say-sharing-space-has-made-both-schools-better/#.V3bNQpD3arU

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/media-center/press-releases/2012/12/gates-foundation-invests-nearly-25-million-in-seven-cities

The WAVE: Success Charter Is Reason Suspension Program Moving to Beach Channel Campus

School Scope’s Norm Scott charges that Success Academt founder Eva Moskowitz is “a politically connected and aggressive charter school leader, who closes her schools and uses the kids, parents and teachers as a political tool.”
 
My April 1 column in The WAVE - page 4.

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2016-04-01/School_News/Success_Charter_Is_Reason_Suspension_Program_Movin.html

Success Charter Is Reason Suspension Program Moving to BCEC

School Scope

By Norm Scott

 
 

Both Rockaway papers had major stories last week about the move of a suspension program out of IS 53 into Beach Channel Campus. Neither paper pointed to the connection to the incoming politically connected Success Academy charter as the reason.

Former Wave editor Howie Schwach was on the case on his
OnRockaway website:

Program for troubled teens coming to Channel Campus; Goldfeder wants study: Coming soon to Rockaway’s Beach Channel Educational Campus a program that will bring 150 hard core students, suspended from their schools for such transgressions as setting fires, assaulting staff and other students, using a weapon on school grounds and the like. The program, now running at IS 53 will soon be moved because space in that school is needed for a new Eva Moskowitz Success Charter School.

My only complaint is that Howie didn’t call her Evil.

I had to laugh at the headline. Phil, who supports charter schools, wants a study when the answer is right in front of his face.
Moskowitz is a politically connected and aggressive charter school leader, who closes her schools and uses the kids, parents and teachers as a political tool, and always gets what she wants. She did not want her precious “scholars,” who have been known to pee in their pants in terror, to have to be in the same building with kids, in Schwach’s words “who have gone the school suspension route a number of times or who have committed offenses that fall in the high end of the city’s Discipline Code, level four or five offenses such as assault, bringing a weapon to school or setting a fire. Violations such as those go to a Superintendent’s Suspension, which can bring time out ranging from a month to a full year.”

There was no accident that the socalled “hearing” was held on St. Patrick’s Day. The DOE and Mayor Bill de Blasio live in fear of Eva and know full well that if they did not move the suspension program millions of dollars of ads might appear charging him with endangering her children.

How about Phil joining many others around the city in calling for a study of the disciplinary practices at Success Charters?

I did find all three reports in the Rockaway press seeming to feel moving the program to Beach Channel out of IS 53 and into Beach Channel is a bad thing. What about all the students at IS 53 which has been living with the program so far? What have been the outcomes there? And what about these troubled kids under suspension? Do we abandon them? What exactly is the solution? A site outside a school setting? Where?

Howie reports there are 38 sites with one in each district for the District 88 Alternative Learning Sites, so there are 38 schools with the same program. If these kids are dangerous no matter what school they are in requires proper security and more importantly, counseling services for these students.

Rockaway politicians must delve deeper into the issues affecting all students and not just jump on bandwagons.

Don’t forget. Sunshine Boys opens April 1 at the Rockaway Theatre Company at Fort Tilden.
Norm blogs at ednoteonline.org.

-->

Breaking: Eva Moskowitz Files for Co-Location Space in Guantanamo

EdNotesNews report:
Soon after President Obama's announcement today that he would make one final attempt to vacate Guantanamo, Eva Moskowitz made her move to put a Success Charter into the base in Cuba before they dismantle the torture equipment. Charlotte Dial is expected to be the principal of the school.

"Fiddly dee", was Moskowitz' response when questioned why Guantanamo was an attractive space for a YASSIC (Yet Another Success School Interrogation Chamber). "We believe in striking while the iron is hot.
Too many children are being coddled," she said. "We expect test scores to go through the roof at SAG( Success Academy Guantanamo) as we try out new techniques to wring the most out of our children."

The Guardian: Eva/Success Mainstream Press Critics Grow

Within testing years, the enrollment drop rate observed at Success Academy is greater than the enrollment drop rates at next door public schools 70% of the time. Furthermore, in 61% of these cases, this difference is so large that we can reject the hypothesis that it occurred due to random variation in attrition rates, at the 5% significance level.”...

Success Academy, New York City’s largest charter school network, loses more than 10% of its enrolled student population each year once testing starts, compared to 2.7% at nearby schools... The Guardian

Now we're getting to it as Eva gets more and more scrutiny and will have to engage in bigger coverups and maybe even back off some of its policies over time. It might even begin to affect their ability to grow, in addition to beginning to see some test scores go down as they are more sensitive to tossing kids out and thus have to suffer their test scores - unless they find a way to lock them away on test days of maybe slip in surrogate test takers. Who knows what they are capable of?

I admit I was surprised to see the well-respected Guardian take a good look at Eva. Hopefully, more to come.

'Got to Go': high-performing charter schools shed students quickly

Monique Jeffrey and her son, Brendin Smith. Photograph: Monique Jeffrey
George Joseph
Sunday 21 February 2016 13.16 EST

Brendin Smith was only four years old when his mother, Monique Jeffrey, realized her son was no longer wanted at Success Academy. Jeffrey says that administrators at one of the charter school’s Brooklyn locations told her the kindergartener “wasn’t going to make it”. Jeffrey later found out that Brendin was one of 16 students who been placed on the school’s “Got to Go” list, a list uncovered by the New York Times that singled out students that the school wanted to shed.

Success Academy, the largest charter school network in New York City, also has some of the highest test scores. Critics have alleged that the city achieves this in part by driving low performers out.

A Guardian analysis has found that the school system loses children between the third and fourth grade, the first two years of New York state testing, at a rate four times that of neighboring public schools. Success lost more than 10% of its enrolled student population from grade to grade, compared to the average rate of 2.7% at public schools in the same building or nearby during the same years.

The analysis compared Success and traditional public school populations in high poverty neighborhoods and therefore excluded data from one Success Academy site on the Upper West Side where only about 25% of students were classified as “economically disadvantaged”. This school’s relatively well-to-do student population features the only example of a Success Academy class that grew in size from second to fourth grade.

According to Jeff Jacobs, a researcher at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, chance alone cannot adequately account for these enrollment drop differences. “Within testing years, the enrollment drop rate observed at Success Academy is greater than the enrollment drop rates at next door public schools 70% of the time. Furthermore, in 61% of these cases, this difference is so large that we can reject the hypothesis that it occurred due to random variation in attrition rates, at the 5% significance level.”

Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who focuses on education policy, said: “It could be that Success is counseling out weaker students, encouraging them to leave, or it could be that Success is not backfilling [replacing students] in the same way that traditional that Public Schools do, or it could be a combination of those two things.”

Whatever the cause, Kahlenberg said the decline “provides a tremendous advantage to Success that we have be aware of when we compare the test scores”. Not replacing lost students with new ones in later years could provide Success a significant test score advantage, since highly transient students tend to do worse in school.

Brian Whitley, a researcher at Success Academy, said some of this enrollment shrinkage is to be expected since, up until last year, Success did not accept new students after the third grade. In an email to the Guardian, Whitley also argued that enrollment numbers don’t take into account whether public schools are losing even more kids and taking in new ones to replace them. Last March, Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz told the Brian Lehrer Show that if Success added new students in older grades, the incoming students’ lower academic preparation would negatively affect the schools’ other students.

To make its calculations, the Guardian pulled data from 25 Success classes that had enrollment numbers from pre-testing grades up until the fourth, and pulled comparable data from public school classes that were either in the same building or one block away from Success Academy sites.

The analysis also found that at sites where the majority of Success Academy’s student populations are from low-income families, classes in the school’s later testing grades served far smaller proportions of students with disabilities (13.2% vs. 27.6% ), students with limited English proficiency (2.4% vs. 16.3%), and poor students (78.7% vs. 92.1%). Such demographic data from many of the earlier grades is not publicly available, and thus it is difficult to determine whether these types of students are dropping disproportionately within Success Academy’s shrinking classes as schools approach the testing years.

Whitley said the disparities in limited English proficiency students and those with disabilities are in part a result of the fact that these students are quickly “integrated” into the general population. “Regarding students in poverty, we have a random lottery that allows kids across the city to apply, so it’s possible that’s because the district as a whole would have fewer poverty students than one of the schools we are co-located with,” he said.

But some former Success parents argue that the high enrollment decline rates and lower high-needs populations are also driven, in part, by a concerted effort to push out students through tactics such as repeat suspensions.

In January, 13 parents filed a civil rights complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Success Academy discriminated against their children because of their learning disabilities and repeatedly suspended them without due process.

Fatima Geidi, one of the parents in the complaint, said the treatment her son received at Success was, in part, driven by his inability to quickly complete Success’ mock state exams, which ramp up in third grade, the first testing year.

“Third grade was the most serious year of testing ever and they were suspending Jamir like crazy,” said Geidi, who claims her son had received around five suspension by the middle of the school year. “One day on a practice exam, Jamir’s teacher yelled at him. She said she was going to fail him because he wasn’t writing fast enough. After that, Jamir had an anxiety attack and had to go to the hospital. That was it for me. I decided I couldn’t fight them anymore. My son was deteriorating right before my eyes.”

Over the past few years, Success Academy has had suspension rates four times the district average, and seven times the average for public schools.

Last week, footage released by the New York Times raised new controversy for Success when it showed a “model teacher” chewing out a student for being unable to solve a math problem and ripping up the first grader’s paper.

In the face of numerous allegations, Success Academy’s high-profile leader, Eva Moskowitz has remained defiant. After the video was released, Moskowitz, a former city council member, hired a new PR firm and held a press conference, denouncing the newspaper as biased.

In January, Moskowitz brushed off the importance of a federal investigation of the school fir discrimination, saying, “If someone makes a complaint, OCR [the Office for Civil Rights] investigates. It means nothing in and of itself other than that a complaint has been made.”

Documents obtained by the Guardian, however, indicate that the federal civil rights office had already decided to initiate its own investigation into Success Academy for disabilities discrimination, months before parents had filed civil rights complaints.

“I wouldn’t say an OCR investigation is something that should be taken lightly,” said John Jackson, a former senior policy advisor in OCR. “There are certain situations where without a complaint the Office for Civil Rights can do an investigation on their own. Typically they do that if they see some data if it looks a little awkward,” continued Jackson, noting that the Washington DC staff sometimes alerts regional offices when they find red flags in schools’ enrollment data.

“They may say, ‘Have you seen this data at Success?’ They’re in tune with the pulse of what’s happening across the country. They read newspapers.”

Should Eva Be Forced to Change Charter Name to "Success" in her Version of Guantanomo?

Is Success Academy really the model we want for the education of urban children of color, many living in economic disadvantage? "Got to go" lists? High suspension rates? Teachers who rip up their students' work (according to one teacher in the Times story, it happens regularly at SA)? Test score fetishism? Churning faculty, many of whom are young, white, and not adequately trained? Chanting in the classrooms and marching in the halls? Moskowitz's approach is premised on the idea that urban students of color need extraordinarily harsh discipline codes; she says so herself: - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/02/success.html#sthash.4dl03TsW.dpuf

Jersey Jazzman pretty much sums it up with his blog post:
"SUCCESS" by putting the word in quotes. The use of the very word "Success" by Eva is turning into a horrifying joke. There should be an attachment: By Any Means Necessary.

The latest "Success" School at Guantonomo

The blogosphere is alive with comment over the NY Times released video of child abuse at Eva's gulag. Ed Notes has been on the case: Video: Child Abuse on Eva's Plantation

Reporter Kate Taylor deserves credit for sticking to the Success story. I met Kate when, new to the Times ed beat, she attended a hearing for another Eva invasion in Brooklyn's District 13 in Sept. 2014. MORE had 8 people there to join community members to speak out. I remember noted charter abuser Steven Perry, looking to get a piece of the charter gravy, in the audience there to observe. But Eva only sent a few observers and no one to even try to make the case. Eva knew it was a slam dunk. I wonder if that arrogance turned on some light in Kate Taylor that has led her to where she may one day win an award for exposing the mess at "Success". Unless someone with power gets to the Times to stop Kate. (I've seen other NYT reporters who had a clue like Mike Winerip and Anna Phillips be moved out.)

I taught grades 4-6 and at times did engage in some behavior that if someone filmed would be embarrassing. But I can honestly say that it was rare behavior on my part and I did deal with older kids.

Jersey Jazzman makes a similar point:

I'm not about to say, on the basis of a one-minute video, that Dial should be fired immediately. If any teacher tells you that they've never said anything to a student that they later regretted, they're either lying, deluded, or a living saint.

I've been in touch on FB with a chunk of former students from my 1978 and 79 5th and 6th grade classes (I looped and had most of them for 2 years.) Their memories 40 years later seem pretty positive. When children are treated badly in school those memories last a long time. I can remember a few of the times where I was yelled at by a teacher even today.

But these little kids who are 5 and 6 years old? What damage! And to me it is also disturbing that so many "Success" parents want this for their kids. I have had disagreements with some of my colleagues in ICE and MORE over how to address these parents, who most make excuses for. I on the other hand have had numerous conflicts with those who are used politically to back Eva and at one point, as we began to see each other at meeting after meeting, began to have some decent dialogues going.

There are some wonderful commentaries out there on this issue. Here are a few.

NYC Public School Parents

The growing storm around Success Academy

Ravitch: NY Times: 8 Experts Censure Moskowitz SA Methods

deutsch29 - Mercedes Schneider

Moskowitz’s Success Academy Is Being Sued Again

Jersey Jazzman
"SUCCESS" 

Alan Singer at Huffington Post:  Success Academy's War Against Children

Jersey Jazzman gets into the race issue that touches so many charters where young, white, mostly women, are engaging black children.

The fact that Dial is white and the student is black makes this especially troubling. I'm all for teachers being authoritative, but too many students of color are living a school experience where they are dehumanized by teachers of a different race. To be clear: I don't think this is confined just to "no excuses" charter schools; we've seen far too many examples of bad behavior against students of color in public district schools to pretend that it's only the charters that are guilty of perpetuating a hidden curriculum.

See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/#sthash.T5K9chmx.dpuf

Let's get into the white teacher/black student issue in further depth in future posts since it ties in with our call for more teachers of color to create a diverse teaching corps that is a better reflection of the student backgrounds.

ADD-ON:

Russ on Reading

Fear and Learning at Success Academy

NYC Educator

Whatever Eva Wants, Eva Gets 

GEM/MORE Members Fought Eva Invasion of Cobble Hill School: Where was the UFT?

MORE/GEM stood up to Eva when she invaded the school where that child abuse video from the NY Times was shot. Where was the UFT?

MORE's Brian Jones at Success hearing

Sean Ahern was a teacher in the building where the video was shot. See my post yesterday:

Video: Child Abuse on Eva's Plantation

Another Eva invasion. A teacher in the building has been chronicling the impact of the invasion on a blog:

Inside Colocation

MORE members from their previous groups ICE, TJC and GEM, stood up to Eva when the UFT was running scared.

Darren made a video at the Cobble Hill Success Academy Colocation Hearing:

https://youtu.be/F_Xeelvfbm0




Sean comments:

From the photo I believe the Eva Plantation cited in this NYT article was pushed into The School of International Studies on Baltic Street in 2012 over the vociferous objections of staff and parent leaders who filled school auditoriums to protest what they rightly predicted would be the undermining of their school community.

MORE leaders, Julie Cavanagh and Bryan Jones helped to mobilize support in the District to oppose this push-in. International Studies lost the first floor except for the state of the art Culinary room which I was assured would not be touched (students in the program competed that year in the city wide C-CAP competition winning over $65,000 in scholarships to post secondary culinary schools), but the computer lab and numerous other rooms were lost, crowding students and teachers and undermining a safe and fairly well run school serving a predominantly Title I student body but one that was fairly diverse by NYC standards. What was a real "success" story, The School of International Studies, was undone by the Eva Plantation and her sycophants at DOE and NYSED. Another culinary team has not competed since.

Many teachers, myself included, left the school after their mass protests were ignored by the DOE, NYSED and NYT. The Principal who had founded the school remained silent throughout the protests and was subsequently promoted the following September to Tweed to train principals.

Peace,
Sean Ahern

Video: Child Abuse on Eva's Plantation

In 2014, an assistant teacher at Success Academy Cobble Hill secretly filmed her colleague, Charlotte Dial, scolding one of her students after the young girl failed to answer a question correctly. The children's faces have been blurred and their names obscured to protect their privacy... NY Times - on the case

http://www.nytimes.com/video/nyregion/100000004159212/success-academy-teacher-rip-and-redo-video.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

Our spies in Eva's buildings tell us this stuff is part of the fabric of the Success Academy culture. Maybe Success teachers should be required to wear body cameras.

Success Academy Teacher Quits: Evil Eva Should Be Investigated for Child Abuse and Teacher Bullying

I spent much of my time at school crying in the bathroom and the stairwell. I cried from the emotional harassment I faced from my leaders, I cried from simply watching my scholars go through such grueling days and intense ridicule, and I cried because I was exhausted, stressed, and anxious, constantly feeling like I wasn’t enough and that I couldn’t be enough. When I helped my own scholars work through their tears, I would often ask them what they were feeling, and they would say “scared.”... Former Success Academy Teacher

When they start calling them children, I will know that they are completely de-programmed.... Diane Ravitch

Is it time to call 911 on Evil Eva's operation?

Diane Ravitch posted a letter from a teacher who has resigned.

http://dianeravitch.net/2016/01/19/a-success-academy-teacher-quits-and-explains-why/

It is worth reprinting the entire letter here to see just how evil Eva is.

Diane writes:

I received an email from a teacher who resigned her job at Success Academy. She was very unhappy. She wanted to explain why she couldn’t stay. Like everyone who leaves Success Academy, she requested anonymity. I get these emails from time to time. Occasionally, I meet with the unhappy young people (both women and men). They sound like people leaving a cult. Even after they have left, they still refer to five-year-old children as “scholars.” When they start calling them children, I will know that they are completely de-programmed.

This young woman writes:

I left my job at Success Academy because I couldn’t, in good conscience, be the teacher they wanted me to be. I have a lot of trouble writing and talking about my experience with Success because it truly makes me ill. Thinking about the way teachers spoke to children, with such disgust in their voices, makes my stomach churn. Thinking about the way my leaders spoke to me, with that same disgust, leaves me feeling just as sick.

I was immediately targeted by the leaders at my school for being too soft. I didn’t deliver consequences enough, and I didn’t hold high enough expectations of my four and five-year-olds. I couldn’t get them to walk in two silent, straight, militaristic lines with bubbles in their mouths and their hands glued to their sides. I wasn’t “aggressively scanning” for “defiant” children on the carpet—that is, children not sitting on their bottoms with their backs tall and their hands locked in their laps. I owned up to all of this with my leaders. I admitted to them that I have a hard time with holding such young children to such high expectations. And to build off of that, I found it simply wrong to hold every single scholar to the exact same expectations. You can’t give a fish and a bird the same task and expect the same results.

But that’s precisely what Success does. They don’t care what the circumstances are: you will stand like a soldier, you will sit with a bubble in your mouth and your hands locked, you will do all of your work neatly and silently, you will “silent laugh” and “silent cheer” when you find things funny or exciting, you will transition from your seats to the carpet “swiftly, safely, and silently,” and if you don’t, you’ll do it again until it’s perfect, even if that means missing recess or blocks time. My biggest mistake was admitting to my leaders that I found this system to be too harsh. The moment you speak out at Success, they come after you. They call it a “mindset” issue. They threatened to put me on a performance plan without giving me any examples of what I was doing wrong, instead simply berating me for these same issues week after week until I would slowly break and obey them. I worked tirelessly to please my leaders. I had never quit a job before, and am an incredibly hard worker, so I was determined to make this work. I wrote long reflections on my days and reached out to veteran teachers for help. I was quickly reprimanded for this as well, though, being told that if I needed help, I should just go to leadership—that I should never make my struggle apparent, or talk about it with anyone at school. This is all part of keeping up the facade of Success. The bright classrooms, the stunning bulletin boards, the perfect posture — everything must look perfect. It all boils down to the same principle: these people care about the wrong things. They feel the constant need to prove themselves through their appearance and their high scores, and in turn they don’t allow for any of the genuine elements of childhood and education to take place in their buildings.

I spent much of my time at school crying in the bathroom and the stairwell. I cried from the emotional harassment I faced from my leaders, I cried from simply watching my scholars go through such grueling days and intense ridicule, and I cried because I was exhausted, stressed, and anxious, constantly feeling like I wasn’t enough and that I couldn’t be enough. When I helped my own scholars work through their tears, I would often ask them what they were feeling, and they would say “scared.” They told me they were scared to come to school. I was, too. We all entered that building each morning in fear. This all being said, scholars at my school smiled. There are happy children at Success. When they do well academically, or when they get a prize or a “time-in” for their success, they smile. When they do have recess, they laugh audibly and smile. But the fear, anger, and sadness deeply overshadows these small instances of joy. You can’t structure joy. But leave it to SA to try.

The Mess at Success: Bloggers Go Wild on Eva/Success Academy

Some great stuff from the blogging world on the Eva/Success Mess.

Here are excerpts and links:

Success Academy has grown far too large to keep the lid on everything now.  Moskowitz enrolls 11,000 students in 34 schools.  She has around 1000 teachers and staff.  With such numbers and given their policies, there will likely be 1000s of former “scholars” and 100s of former teachers in short order, and all of them are not going to be intimidated into silence about what they saw while there.  The simple fact is that Moskowitz absolutely cannot keep total control over what people say and know anymore, and it is her own policies of driving away students she does not want and burning out teachers that has put her in this position.  So even if she fully recovers from this month, I think it is likely we will see many more months like this........Daniel Katz, Ph.D.
Eva Moskowitz and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month

The real anomaly, however, is the fact that the exclusionary practice that Success Academy silently demands in order to "succeed" ever was mentioned in the New York Times, which has an editorial board that remains entirely enthusiastic about the paternalistic segregated charter reform schools that corporate America promotes as a hideous manifestation of educational justice in blackface....
Schools Matter
Success Academy Find Its Scapegoat

Eva says the "got to go" list was an anomaly, one of those wacky things that happens once in a blue moon.  Yet there have been stories for years of kids pushed out of Moskowitz Academies, for inconvenient behavior, low test scores, whatever. Eva is now demanding public funding for the Moskowitz pre-K but refusing to submit to required oversight by the city. Rules are for the little people, and that would be us, the people who serve all children. If there's an "anomoly," it's the fact that this particular list was placed in writing.......NYC Educator:  The Moskowitz Anomoly - Eva says the "got to go" list was an anomaly, one of those wacky things that happens once in a blue moon. Yet there have been stories for years of kids p...

Success Academy's tearful apology for a 'Got To Go' list of students isn't accepted by every parent

Moskowitz Presser Addressing "Got To Go" List Allegations Is Theater Of The Absurd

Melodrama, Moskowitz-style, via Eliza Shapiro at Politico NY:

Comment Exposes Success Charter And Achievement First Tactics of Child Abuse

They decided to start with younger and younger kids, so the communication of abuses would be harder to decipher. They decided to tell the parents one thing, and do another to the child. I once stood in the hall and listened to a dean yell so violently at a student (behind closed doors) that I couldn't even discern the infraction. The child was thoroughly convinced he had committed a sin so unspeakable based on her threats, that he was too afraid to report the incident to his parents, hoping the she wouldn't either.  

When you get detention for squeaking the rubber soles on the floor, or coughing. or sneezing in a disingenuous way; when you are taught that asking for help when you are told not to talk, is a level 4 "disrespect of a teacher" your world begins to change. Twilight Zone comes to mind.
........Abundant1 has left a new comment on your post "Eva's Got to Go, Not Children: NY Times Throws Another Grenade at Eva Moskowitz as She Holds Presser to Scam for More Money

----
Someone left this powerful comment on Ed Notes. We know how they work. To get rid of a child they don't want they start out with the small stuff - like demerits things described above. Young children especially those with some "issues" get that they are being picked on and then begin to react with frustration and begin to lash out and the school then has "documentation" of bad behavior.

Eva and her goons have people so scared of consequences - both staff and students, that a cone of silence has been placed over her operation. But now with some parents breaking the logjam, we are seeing something going on, not only with Success and Achievement First, but with KIPP. Teachers with long careers ahead are still too afraid to speak out publicly. And I still am betting they are forced to sign some non-disclosure agreement in their contracts.

These schools are run like the pre-Civil War southern plantations.

Success Academy, Achievement First, they are among the top offenders of tactics like this. The words in the article have been repeated time and again to city officials, and news reporters. We've had hearings and community gatherings. I spent my sons entire 5th grade in meetings trying to understand, advocate, advise, and reveal. Those who already knew had been resigned to the idea that the big money backers would make sure none of it would make a difference. As it had not made a difference over the decades that it took for these charter schools to become so prolific and take root in our communities. Now the story resurfaces as if it is news, but it is unmitigated child abuse that it is known by those in a position to change it, and or punish it, and here it is October 2015 still wrong and strong. God Bless people like Leonie Haimson who have not been deterred; and who continues to show up, and fight to expose and change the system of abuse for the children whose own parents barely know what is happening to them. 

When I see these mothers who are willing to participate in these propaganda commericals for these charter schools, I am sick about all that they don't know, and how their children are subsequently in a position to fend for themselves. 

I am glad this article repeats the one area that EVERYONE must know regardless of whether your child attends these schools or not. They are criminalizing these children to the point that the children are believing them, and begin to act as expected. When you get detention for squeaking the rubber soles on the floor, or coughing. or sneezing in a disingenuous way; when you are taught that asking for help when you are told not to talk, is a level 4 "disrespect of a teacher" your world begins to change. Twilight Zone comes to mind. 

What did the few parents who stood against their policies teach them? How to hide their abuses. They decided to start with younger and younger kids, so the communication of abuses would be harder to decipher. They decided to tell the parents one thing, and do another to the child. I once stood in the hall and listened to a dean yell so violently at a student (behind closed doors) that I couldn't even discern the infraction. The child was thoroughly convinced he had committed a sin so unspeakable based on her threats, that he was too afraid to report the incident to his parents, hoping the she wouldn't either. 

It is a layered problem, but lets start with the illegal stuff and take it from there. But when the office of child welfare stops taking calls, and when you do get through tells you it will be more than a year before anyone even thinks about investigating the complaint, hopelessness can set in. Even the NYC agency set-up to protect children with special needs, failed. It was clear there was a network of silence at work, that is well funded... Anyway, I go on... 

Hopefully this will be the year, this will be the story, this will be the child that will break the system's back. No more charter abuses! 

Alan Singer on Moskowitz's "Suspension" Academy's Code of Misconduct

John Merrow posted the Success Academy Network's disciplinary code which is distributed to all parents. Surprisingly I was unable to find it on any of the Network's numerous websites. 

I find the infractions petty and the penalties at Success Academy Charter Schools highly punitive, especially for younger children, but readers can judge for themselves. 

Success Academy rules are a manifesto for zero-tolerance policing policies brought into an elementary school. Research on the impact of zero-tolerance policies continually demonstrates that they are detrimental to both a student's emotional and academic growth, reinforce student behaviors they are supposed to eliminate leading to further suspensions, and increasingly exposed suspended to influences that virtually ensured further problems in schools and with the police. 

Some of the rules at Success Academy read like they could have been copied from a Department of Corrections guide for disciplining incarcerated prisoners. Others seem like a return to Maoist China "struggle sessions" during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s when people accused of misconduct made public confessions of their misdeeds and mis-thoughts. Students can be suspended from school or expelled for behavior that occurred outside of school time and off of school grounds. 

Alan Singer, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/moskowitzs-suspension-aca_b_8388616.html

Here is a link to the full Discipline code.

We know there are some teachers in public schools with major discipline problems who would love these policies -- but those schools either suffer from incompetent admins, many new and inexperienced teachers or an overload of kids with problems.

Charter schools do not have the latter but do have many inexperienced teachers who have not learned how to deal with kids with discipline issues. Thus the rigid code -- just dump the kid into suspension because the teachers can't handle them.

Eva and Success Academy Charter Exposed by John Merrow on PBS

Oh what fun when former charter fans like John Merrow finally get the picture. Watch Eva's face. We have been exposing the Eva scam since the day she started 9 years ago. Our movie 4 years ago did the kind of work that should have alerted Merrow and the rest of the press - suspend kids who might score low until their parents pull them out. Drive down the numbers of kids between kindergarten testing grades -- that is the way to beat the lottery which might lead to some low scoring kids slipping through.

The kid in the video who left Success is now in Jia Lee's school. She left this comment on Facebook:

Have to share this for so many reasons - I'm incredibly proud of Jamir, who attends our school in the East Village. His teachers, like all of my colleagues at the Earth School, believe in supporting the whole child. How we want to feel at school is discussed as a community and we develop, together, with our students, the strategies to help each other feel happy, supported, calm, engaged and safe. A code of conduct, like the kind described here, developed by an outside entity can be equated to a form of colonialism.

Jose Vilson has been doing some great stuff around this issue. I'm on the run but want to do a lot more on Jose's work in future posts.

Check out Diane's post with comments:

John Merrow Tangles with Eva Moskowitz over Suspending Kindergartners!

Links to the 9-minute video: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/kindergarten-young-suspend-student/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVfCMwLbiEs

Is kindergarten too young to suspend a student? At the largest charter school network in New York City, strict academic and behavior standards set t...

Teachers Rate Eva Moskowitz/ Success Academy Charters as "Toxic" and "Miserable Place to Work"

Don't even both applying. You might as well quit teaching...

They could barely get enough trolls...

http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Success-Academy-Charter-Schools/reviews

Success Academy Charter Schools

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Success Academy Charter Schools Employee Reviews

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Productive and comfortable work place

Enrollment Coordinator (Former Employee), New York, NY – September 3, 2015

SA was a great company to work for, everyone works as a team. Management is very helpful and coworkers are dedicated and enjoy working.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (1) – No (1)

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Miserable place to work

Teaching Assistant (Former Employee), Harlem – August 1, 2015

Pros: None

Cons: Bad hours, absurd discipline policies, awful culture

The modus operandi of Success Academy is to hire college kids right out of school. Hardly any of the "teachers" have any real experience or have any idea what they are getting into. The majority wash out within a year or two -- or get fired.

The atmosphere can best be described as Kafka-esque. The hours are long, and the kids are held to quasi-abusive standard of discipline. My 5th graders, for instance, were only allowed to go to the bathroom twice a day at predetermined times and are accompanied into the bathroom by a teacher. The students must remain silent during lunch. Special Ed students are quietly purged. Teachers are constantly being fired or quitting midway through the year, so expect co-workers to be mysteriously disappear, never to be heard from again.

Most of the year, the children do nothing but practice taking standardized tests. Unsurprisingly, when at the end of the year the kids score well on standardized exams, Moskowitz points to this as evidence that the kids are being given fantastic educations. Unfortunately, the truth is that most of these kids can't do anything outside of a state test.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (15) – No (2)

Horrible Place To Work

Teacher (Former Employee), West Harlem – July 17, 2015

Pros: intellegent staff

Cons: Culture of fear as someone put it so perfectly

I would NEVER recommend anyone to work for this school! It has turned me off to all charters, which is a shame because many of them are great academies.

Don't even both applying. You might as well quit teaching

Was this review helpful?  Yes (10) – No (2)

All Work and No Life, So Run Teacher, Run!!!!!

Teacher (Former Employee), Harlem West Middle School – April 8, 2015

Pros: Free snacks and good medical benefits

Cons: Lil to no prep time, no lunch time

A typical day at success was 7 to 6.
The building opens between 6:30-6:45
7:00 -7:20 was a whole school meeting
7:30-8:05 Homeroom (which the teacher covers)
8:05-55 Electives (which you as a teacher have to teach)
8:55-9:50 Snack time, library time, vocabulary time, (which you the teacher had to teach and cover)
9:55-10-45 was my only prep or break of the day and sometimes they would take that away for a meeting or training

10:45-11:35 taught a class
11:35-12:25 taught a class
12:25-12:55 Advisory time which you the teacher lead and teach as well
1:00 -2:00 Lunch time (which you the teacher cover as well)

2:05-2:55 taught another class
2:55-3:45 taught another class
3:45-4:35 taught another class

4:35-4:50 dismissal (which you the teacher lead)
4:50-5:00 you must stand outside until all students are dismissed then you go back up stairs
5:00-5:30 All teachers were required to report to detention and sit with and talk to students
5:40-6:00 All staff team meeting

At 6 :00 you were free to do what you wanted
At 6:30 our building permit was up so half the time they would kick you out the building

WARNING STAY ANYWAY FROM HARLEM WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL AND POSSIBLY EVEN SUCCESS Academy in general!

The Ceo made a recent statement in the New York Times about former employees stating,
"As for the teachers who said they did not like the environment, Ms. Moskowitz said: “Most of the people who leave are a little angry, like they don’t like their work and they don’t seem happy teaching, and we really can’t have people who don’t love it.”"

Translation meaning that those who left success were not cut out for teaching even though you had success teaching prior to teaching there.

Really!

Was this review helpful?  Yes (47) – No (2)

April 16, 2015

I had the above schedule two times a week on Monday and Friday with one prep. Wednesday I had one prep as well. On Tuesday and Thursday I had the same schedule as above except I had two preps and four classes to teach. But these preps were taking away sometimes for meetings or to cover a class when people quit, went to a training, or they were absent. Mind you before Christmas we lost 8 staff members, then after we lost 7 staff members. This is the norm here because the first year in this school building we lost 13 staff members before Christmas, and the second year in this building we lost 12 staff members before Christmas.

Productive and extremely fun and friendly work environment

Human Resources Intern (Former Employee), New York, NY – February 23, 2015

Success Academy Charter School has one of the best attitudes towards improving education. Everyone works their hardest to improve the Academy, and the culture they have created is full of energy and diverse. Have been there only one summer, but I felt like a part of the team.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (3) – No (14)

Great professional development

Operations Department, Operations Manager (Former Employee), New York, NY – October 30, 2014

We worked over 55 Hours a week. My co-workers were great. Hardest part of the Job was dealing with the time and physical lifting. The greatest part is communicating with staff and children.
I learned more in managing projects in business and the science of a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (4) – No (17)

Avoid working here if you really care for kids

Middle School Math Teacher (Former Employee), Bronx, NY – October 18, 2014

Pros: salary and benefits are very cheap

Cons: idiot supervisors, no work life balance, barely any prep times, must teach electives

Success Academy prides itself with test scores and such but the kids don't know as much as they say they do. You can clearly tell the main concern is high test scores and not foundational learning. At the end of the day principals just care for the test scores so network isn't up theirs. They also say they love feedback but truthfully this is one directional. The principal I worked with was very u professional, lacked the ability to spell or proofread anything she sent to the staff members and had the nerve to tell kids they needed to do it. She never practiced what she preached and many of the school's you will find this. If you know your subject we'll find another place to work.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (53) – No (18)

Education

Operations (Former Employee), New York, NY – September 25, 2014

Associates are great to work with. Each day is different but does require a lot of paperwork.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (8) – No (10)

Not the best place to work

Operational Role (Former Employee), New York, NY – September 15, 2014

Pros: healthcare is amazing, free beverages and snacks once a week

Success achieves amazing results with educating inner city children. However, working there is miserable. There is incredibly high turnover for a reason.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (46) – No (2)

Fast pace house of learning

Office Coordinator (Current Employee), New York, NY – May 15, 2014

Pros: long hours

Cons: not compensation for overtime

Excellent for college graduates. Have been here for 5 plus years want to go back to my first love the Medical Community.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (21) – No (16)

Avoid phone interviews at all cost

Grants and Contracts Manager (Former Employee), Brooklyn – March 5, 2014

Cons: inappropriate phone interviews

Please be advised that phone interviews may be conducted with excessive noise in the background which crates a very tough atmosphere for you the applicant when delivering key points about your experience.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (73) – No (9)

Dedicated colleagues, supportive work environment with room to grow

Marketing (Current Employee), Network – January 25, 2014

Cons: transitioning from start-up mode

As a mission-driven organization Success Academy attracts dedicated, intelligent employees and fosters a supportive team environment. The organization is growth-oriented, and supports the professional development of all staff. Employees are recognized for hard work and achievements - if you care about ed reform and are eager for new professional opportunities, Success Academy is a great fit.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (19) – No (44)

Great workplace. Staff feels like a family away from home.

Lead Teacher (Current Employee), New York, NY – January 21, 2014

Pros: career development, understanding leadership, healthy snacks, tons of resources, great benefits

Success Academy is a great place to work whether you're fresh out of college or have years of experience under your belt. There are many career paths and opportunities for growth within the organization. Leadership as supports your career development. Many workshops and professional development days are offered. You can even request to take place in out of Network workshops that relate to your area of teaching. For example dance teachers can request Alvin Ailey workshops. The scholars are creative, and passionate. Most desire to learn which makes teaching there fun.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (16) – No (46)

The interview told me all I needed to know.

Interviewee (Former Employee), South Bronx, NY – December 28, 2013

Pros: helping kids maybe?

Cons: disorganized and rude administration, no work-life balance, horrible interview, low salary

I interviewed at this place several months ago for an administrative position and ten minutes after the interview I emailed to tell them I no longer wished to be considered for the position. It was that awful. When I arrived, no one seemed to have a clue why I was there and the three people who needed to interview me had other meetings and event scheduled at the same time, so my interview took place in bursts of about 2 minutes with each person rotating between obligations. No one had read my resume, which clearly indicated I was currently employed full-time and had graduated college two years ago. All of them asked me when I was going to graduate and if I'd ever worked full-time. I was asked my astrological sign during the interview process, and the woman said she was glad I wasn't a pisces because her two children were pisces and they were morons. Uh...great? At one point I sat alone in a room for 45 minutes because my interviewers were all busy. I should have just left because the disrespect they'd shown to that point had been enough to convince me I would hate working there. The work environment seemed horrendously scattered and stressful, and the people I spoke with were rude and frankly a bit loopy. When I mentioned that I mystery shop as an unpaid, purely voluntary side gig, my interviewer said, "If you work for us, you have to quit that. This job is 24/7 and we discourage any outside activities since you should be on call at all times for us. This is a career, not a silly job." This was a 180 from the job posting, which said it was a 9-5 that encouraged the separation of work and life and wanted people who held outside interests. The salary was appallingly low for a "24/7" job in the South Bronx. There were several other huge red flags. Like I said, I withdrew my application immediately after the 2.5 hour interview from hell. It didn't seem like I would have gotten the job anyway, and I'm really okay with that.

Was this review helpful?  Yes (170) – No (17)

Great place to work!

Recruitment Intern (Former Employee), New York – October 1, 2013

As a Recruitment Intern at Success Academy Charter Schools, I had the opportunity to play an integral part in the recruitment and development of incoming teachers and administrators. I felt challenged, supported, and valued as a team member. I worked alongside passionate and committed individuals. My responsibilities included reviewing candidates, research projects, outreach efforts, and administrative tasks. I was able to work hands on with the recruitment and teacher development departments, which taught me about problem solving as well as how to successfully work with a team to achieve long-term goals. This work has instilled in me a belief that all children deserve an equal opportunity to a quality education.

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Not good role models

Teacher (Former Employee), New york – May 10, 2013

Pros: high pay

Cons: fear of termination

If yelling and calling parents, snapping fingers and degrading students is your thing, HSA is for you.

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Fulfilling Work Environment with tons of Learning Opportunities

Network Employee (Current Employee), New York, NY – April 4, 2013

Pros: fun work environment, colleagues are mission driven, tons of learning opportunities, great professional development

Cons: long work days

I started working at Success Academy about a year after graduating college. In my time at the organization, I have been entrusted with key projects and allowed to reach my full potential. I feel confident in making recommendations and have had exposure to varying levels of management across the organization.

Everyone here is mission driven which is a huge plus. It isn't an easy job but the work environment is fun and there is fulfillment gained in knowing that your work is changing the lives of children across New York City.

This is a great place to work if you are a learner and want to consistently develop as a professional.

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Schools Policies and Practices Come At the Expense of the Kids

Teacher (Former Employee), New York , New York – March 12, 2013

Pros: clean environment

Cons: cold, not a diverse work environment, politics prioritized over principles

A work environment that is so rigid creates high turnover and frequent firing of teachers for no reason -- little room or respect for autonomy -- students suffer even more than teachers from this frigid revolving door of burntout well meaning adults. Special education students denied accommodations too.

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Opportunities for Growth

Manager (Current Employee), Schools – February 5, 2013

Pros: free lunches if you work in the school! big budget!

Cons: little work/life balance

This company gives you so much experience in other areas, there is a lot of opportunities for growth and professional development. You don't get stuck in the red tape of decisions or promotions. There are also great benefits, such as healthcare at no cost to me, and great bonuses.

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Fulfilling work environment with a great, growing team

Network employee (Current Employee), New York, NY – January 29, 2013

Pros: see efforts in action in real time. growth opportunities. every day is different.

Cons: long work day.

At SA, the team does wonderful, cause related work that really changes children's lives. You get to see your efforts in action in real time. It's a very fast paced work environment where the bar is set high. Working here you are required to be flexible and be the solution. Everyone pitches in and rolls up their sleeves. If you have a recommendation that would improve the organization, you're encouraged to speak up regardless of your role or level.

Constructive criticism is on going and in real time. You're constantly being encouraged to better yourself and given the feedback to do so. The hours are long, but the benefit of knowing you really are making a difference makes it worth it.

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Toxic Work Environment & Ambivalent Senior Leadership

Manager (Current Employee), New York, NY – August 1, 2012

Pros: smart people, great benefits package, advancement opportunities

Cons: low morale, high turnover, culture of fear

Success Academy Charter Schools has exceptionally low morale and exceptionally high employee turnover due to the utter disregard and even disdain with which the senior management treat the majority of the employees.

Members of upper management have been known to throw work at employees, make culturally insensitive comments (a huge gaffe considering the diverse populations we serve), and to suggest that employees must have deep-seated personal issues if they seek encouragement or feedback from their managers.

It is a truly toxic environment that burns out many exceptionally bright and talented people. This does, of course, create a lot of opportunity for advancement because people are constantly leaving the organization. For those that can stick it out, there is good pay for a non-profit organization and very generous benefits.

It is unfortunate because Success has an important mission and offers a valuable service to the communities that it serves. Hearing success stories from families whose children are reaching their full academic potential in our schools is a rewarding part of the job, but it is a bittersweet one when you know that our incredibly dedicated teachers live in a culture of fear where the threat of dismissal hangs over their heads constantly if test scores are not constantly and dramatically improving.