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Success Academy Charter Schools
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Success Academy Charter Schools, originally Harlem Success Academy, is a charter school operator in New York City founded by investor Joel Greenblatt. Eva Moskowitz, a former city council member for the Upper East Side, is its CEO.[4][5] It has 47 schools in the New York area and 17,000 students.[6]
Key Information
History
[edit]Hedge fund managers Joel Greenblatt and John Petry founded the school and helped to recruit Eva Moskowitz as CEO.[7] The first Success Academy charter, Harlem Success Academy, opened in 2006 with 157 students chosen by lottery.[8] She subsequently opened more schools in Harlem, and then schools in other New York City neighborhoods. The charter schools are funded by taxpayers and donations.[9] The school was the subject of the 2010 documentary, The Lottery.[10]
In February 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio decided to stop the city's former policy of providing free space in public school buildings to charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, and to evict those schools, including three Success Academy schools already in those buildings.[11] The decision was reversed in April after New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped into the controversy. The city ended up finding space for three Success Academy schools.[12]
John Paulson donated $8.5 million to Success Academy in July 2015 to help open middle schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan.[13] The Success Academy Education Institute was formed in Summer 2016, to distribute the network's curriculum and teacher training resources online to educators across the country.[14]
In 2014, New York City charter schools won the right to provide pre-kindergarten, and Success Academy opened its first pre-kindergarten in fall 2015.[15] In 2015, New York City issued a mandatory contract granting its Department of Education oversight over all pre-kindergarten providers.[16] Success Academy did not sign the contract, citing that the city does not have authority to regulate its charter schools. In June 2016, Success Academy canceled its pre-kindergarten program and filed a suit in the State Supreme Court.[17] The appeals court ruled in favor of Success Academy in June 2017, stating that the city could not regulate a charter school's pre-kindergarten programs, while also awarding $720K in back payments to Success.[18]
Academics
[edit]Success Academy gives four weeks of training to teachers in the summer and regular weekly training in the school year. Principals in the charter network spend most of their time coaching teachers.[19] The State University of New York's Board of Trustees has voted to approve regulations that allow Success Academy to certify its own teachers.[20]
As measured by standardized test scores, the students at Success Academy outscore contemporaries in both urban public schools and wealthy suburban schools in the New York City area.[21] In New York City, 47% percent of public school students passed state reading tests, and 43% passed math tests. At Success schools, corresponding percentages were 91% and 98%.[22] These scores come from a student group made up of 95% children of color, with families having a median income of $32,000.[23] No new students above the fourth grade are accepted at Success.[21]
The schools emphasize testing, including giving prizes to students, and publicly ranking how well each student does on the practice tests.[21] As of October 2017, Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that Harlem Success Academy students received approximately 137 extra days of learning in reading and approximately 239 additional days of learning in math.[24][25][26]
Schools
[edit]
Success has 45 schools with 17,000 students from kindergarten through high school.[27] [28][8] According to the New York Post, Success Academy had 17,700 applicants for 3,288 available seats, which resulted in a wait list of more than 14,000 families for the 2018–2019 school year.[29]
- The Bronx[30]
- Bronx 1
- Bronx 2
- Bronx 3
- Bronx 4
- Bronx 1 Middle School
- Bronx 2 Middle School
- Brooklyn[30]
- Bed-Stuy 1
- Bed-Stuy 2
- Bensonhurst
- Bergen Beach
- Bushwick
- Cobble Hill
- Crown Heights
- Flatbush
- Forte Greene
- Prospect Heights
- Williamsburg
- Bed-Stuy Middle School
- Ditmas Park Middle School
- East Flatbush Middle School
- Lafayette Middle School
- Myrtle Middle School
- Manhattan[30]
- Harlem 1
- Harlem 2
- Harlem 3
- Harlem 4
- Harlem 5
- Harlem 6
- Harlem East
- Harlem North Central
- Harlem North West
- Harlem West
- Hell's Kitchen
- Hudson Yards
- Midtown West
- Union Square
- Upper West
- Washington Heights
- Hudson Yards Middle School
- High School of the Liberal Arts – Manhattan
- Queens[30]
- Queens Village 1
- Queens Village 2
- Rosedale
- South Jamaica
- Springfield Gardens
- Ozone Park Middle School
- Rockaway Park Middle School
Controversy
[edit]In 2014, an assistant teacher made a video recording of a colleague publicly scolding a student who failed to answer a question correctly and tearing up the student's paper. Education experts stated that the teacher's behavior was inappropriate and discouraged learning.[31][32] A 2015 article in The New York Times reported that discipline, social pressure, positive reinforcement, and suspension are applied to students, as teachers are rewarded for better behavior and performance. Former teachers claimed that they quit because they disagreed with Success' punitive approach to students.[21]
Some parents of special-needs students at Success Academy schools have complained of overly strict disciplinary policies which have resulted in high rates of suspension and attempts to pressure the parents to transfer their special-needs children out of the schools. State records and interviews with two dozen parents indicate that the schools failed at times to adhere to federal and state laws in disciplining special-education students.[33]
In April 2019, a former Success Academy parent filed an official complaint against Success Academy Charter Schools on the grounds that Success Academy systematically removes students with disabilities.[34] The State Department of Education found that Success failed to meet legal requirements for those students.
Statistics gathered by the New York State Education Department show much higher rates of suspension at most Success Academy schools than at public schools. School spokesmen have denied improper treatment of any student, and founder Eva Moskowitz has defended school practices as promoting "order and civility in the classroom".[33]
The selection method for admission has come under fire for an "abdication of responsibility" to educate all children within a geographic area. Moskowitz responds by noting that traditional neighborhood schools can "institutionalize housing segregation, making a child’s zip code his educational destiny" while charter schools are tools for "social justice" by allowing parents to choose schools beyond geographic constraints.[7]
In May 2019, the U.S. Department of Education found Success Academy Charter School had released personally identifiable information about a student's discipline records to the press.[35] This disclosure was in response to a PBS NewsHour segment with John Merrow that was itself investigated by the PBS ombudsman, Michael Getler, for having excessively relied on a single identified student, whose family was unwilling to release his school records to PBS investigators to provide journalistic context into the student's depiction.[36] The show went beyond documenting the practice of the school in disciplining students at an unusually young age over minor infractions, into suggesting that the school engaged in this practice to weed undesired students out before state testing begins in the third grade.[36] Success Academy in their rebuttal did not disclose the name of the student, but only one student had publicly identified himself in the NewsHour segment. Given the public allegations of corrupt motivation, Success Academy attorneys that they had no choice but to respond with details of their own,[35] along the lines of objections they had provided PBS before the show aired.[36] Getler concluded that the student's relatively small but important role on the show did not warrant exposure of his extensive record of misbehavior at that school, but chided the episode for not having pursued on-the-record sources for their more severe allegations.[36]
A Success Academy spokesperson resigned due to what she described as "systemic abuse of students, parents, and employees"[37] in June 2020. This resignation occurred in midst of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, during which Success Academy faced scrutiny for racist practices within schools and the organizations strict academic and disciplinary policies, that largely impact Black and Brown children.[38]
Robert Pondiscio, author of How The Other Half Learns (2019), which chronicles the structure and achievement of the Success Academy, believes that Moskowitz would quickly expand the system to 100 schools if the charter sector was not "hard up against the charter school cap in the State of New York".[39][better source needed]
Awards and recognition
[edit]In 2012, Harlem Success Academy Charter School 1 became the first city charter school to be awarded a National Blue Ribbon.[40] Harlem Success Academy Charter School 3 was awarded a National Blue Ribbon by the U.S. Department of Education in 2015.[41] In 2016, both Harlem Success Academy Charter School 4 and Bronx Success Academy Charter School 1 were awarded National Blue Ribbons.[42] Success Academy Bed‐Stuy 1 in Brooklyn and Success Academy Harlem 2 in Manhattan received National Blue Ribbons in 2018.[43]
In June 2017, Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools awarded Success Academy with the 2017 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools, an award recognizing the best academic outcomes in the nation for low-income students and students of color.[44] In 2015, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and other charter advocates developed the concept of a multi-million dollar, multi-year Great Public Schools Now project to create 260 new charter schools representing 50% of the charter market share in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to serve as a model for the expansion of charter schools in the United States.[45][46][47]
A grant for $250K to support college-readiness programs was also awarded to Success Academy at the National Charter School Conference in Washington, D.C.[48][49]
In September 2017, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that Success Academy was one of the recipients of the Department of Education's charter grants.[50] In April 2019 the Department of Education awarded the Academy with a $9,842,050 Charter Schools Program (CSP) grant to "open new schools and expand existing schools"[51]
The schools have been the subject of two documentary films, The Lottery and Waiting for "Superman".[52] By 2019, according to The Washington Post, the Success Academy network of 47 schools serving 17,000 students, is the "highest-performing and most criticized educational institution in New York", and perhaps in the United States.[6] Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the Harlem Success Academy was "the poster child for this country."[53]
References
[edit]- ^ "Success Academy Careers". Success Academy. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts – Manhattan". Success Academy. January 9, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "History". Success Academy. September 13, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ Kamenetz, AwaCassidyBecca, Anya (January 30, 2013) "The Invasion of the Charter Schools" Village Voice
- ^ Solomon, Serena (February 20, 2013) Success Academy aims to open 7 new schools Archived 2013-05-08 at the Wayback Machine DNAinfo
- ^ a b Mathews, Jay (August 17, 2019). "A revealing look at America's most controversial charter school system". Washington Post. Perspective. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
- ^ a b Elizabeth Green (December 6, 2017). "The Charter-School Crusader". The Atlantic (January/February 2018).
- ^ a b Fertig, Beth (September 28, 2016). "Success at 10: Longtime Students Look Back". wNYC. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
- ^ "What New York City's Biggest School Reformer Sees in Donald Trump". The New Yorker.
- ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (June 10, 2010). "Education by Chance". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
- ^ Baker, Al; Hernández, Javier C. (March 5, 2014). "De Blasio and Moskowitz do battle". The New York Times.
- ^ Brown, Stephen Rex (April 26, 2014) "City secures spaces for three Success Academy charter schools" New York Daily News
- ^ "Hedge Fund Billionaire John Paulson Gives $8.5 Million To Open New Success Academy Schools". Forbes.
- ^ "Success Academy Charter Schools Plans to Share Curriculum Online".
- ^ "New York Consolidated Laws, Education Law – EDN § 3602-ee. Statewide universal full-day pre-kindergarten program".
- ^ Shapiro, Eliza (October 16, 2015). "Pre-K contract sparks new fight between Success Academy and City Hall". Politico. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
- ^ Taylor, Kate (June 1, 2016). "Success Academy Network Cancels Pre-K Program Amid Contract Dispute". The New York Times. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
- ^ Taylor, Kate (June 9, 2017). "Success Academy Wins Round in Fight Over Preschool Oversight". The New York Times. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
- ^ "From Harlem to Capitol Hill, a lesson in producing better teachers". The Washington Post.
- ^ Taylor, Kate (October 11, 2017). "Some Charter Schools Can Certify Their Own Teachers, Board Says". The New York Times. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ a b c d Taylor, Kate (April 6, 2015). "At Success Academy Charter Schools, High Scores and Polarizing Tactics". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
- ^ Board, Daily News Editorial (September 27, 2018). "Testing our patience: What new state exams say about progress in the city schools". nydailynews.com. NY Daily News. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ "Success Academy Wins Award for Closing Achievement Gaps (And Scores Two Victories in One Week)".
- ^ "Charter School Performance in New York City" (PDF). Center for Research on Educational Outcomes. October 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ Brody, Leslie (October 4, 2017). "Study Finds Test-Score Growth at NYC Charter Schools Outpaces District Schools". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ Prothero, Arianna (October 4, 2017). "Charter Networks Show Big Gains Over Other New York City Schools". Education Week. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "Our Results - Success Academy Charter Schools". Success Academy Home Page. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
serving 17,000 students across 45 schools
- ^ "New York Attacks Success".
- ^ Chapman, Ben (April 4, 2018). "Success Academy charter school sees huge number of kids apply". nydailynews.com. NY Daily News. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
- ^ a b c d "Schools". Success. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
- ^ Taylor, Kate (February 13, 2016) "At Success Academy School, a Stumble in Math and a Teacher’s Anger on Video" The New York Times
- ^ Haag, Matthew and Zerba, Amy (February 13, 2016) "Experts Discuss the Success Academy Video" The New York Times. The newspaper contacted eight experts with backgrounds in teaching and research to comment on a video of a Success Academy teacher responding to a student because of her math mistake.
- ^ a b Gonzalez, Juan (August 28, 2013). "Success Academy school chain comes under fire as parents fight 'zero tolerance' disciplinary policy". New York Daily News. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ Zimmerman, Alex (April 22, 2019). "Success Academy forced out a student by suspending him and taking him to a police precinct, lawsuit claims". Chalkbeat New York. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
- ^ a b Brown, Rex (June 4, 2019). "Charter school honcho Eva Moskowitz leaked student's disciplinary record after his mom criticized repeated suspensions, federal investigators find". nydailynews.com. New York Daily News. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
- ^ a b c d Getler, Michael (October 26, 2015). "A Bruising Battle in the Schoolyard". pgs.org. PBS. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
Then he goes on to ask: "Could out-of-school suspensions be a factor in the network's academic success? Eva Moskowitz's critics think so. They accuse her of suspending very young children over and over to persuade parents to change schools before state testing begins in third grade. Could that be true? We do know that some Success Academy students are suspended over and over."
- ^ Zimmerman, Alex (June 23, 2020). "Success Academy spokesperson resigns over 'abusive practices at NYC's largest charter network". Chalkbeat New York. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
- ^ "Success Academy Faces Fierce Criticism Over Its Handling of Racial Issues". www.ny1.com. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
- ^ "Robert Pondiscio on How the Other Half Learns". econtalk.org. Library of Economics and Liberty. May 18, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
- ^ "Five city schools earn 'Blue Ribbon' honors for their test scores".
- ^ Disare, Monica (September 29, 2015). "Seven New York City schools earn Blue Ribbon award". Chalkbeat New York. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ "10 NYC Schools Selected as 2016 National Blue Ribbon Winners".
- ^ "8 New York City schools – including 2 Success charters – win federal 'Blue Ribbon' status for 2018". Chalkbeat. October 1, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ Brighenti, Daniela (June 12, 2017). "Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz is having a very good week". Chalkbeat. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
- ^ "Backers want half of LAUSD students in charter schools in eight years, report says". Los Angeles Times. September 21, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
- ^ "The Great Public Schools Now Initiative". Los Angeles Times. September 21, 2015.
- ^ Amartey, Pj. "Our Vision". Great Public Schools Now. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
- ^ Chapman, Ben (June 12, 2017). "Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy wins $250G Broad Prize, will use money to support college-readiness programs". New York Daily News. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
- ^ "The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools".
- ^ Phenicie, Carolyn (September 28, 2017). "Education Department Awards More Than $250 Million in Charter Grants; Winners Include Success, IDEA". 74's. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
- ^ "Success Academy Awarded $9.8 Million by U.S. Department of Education to Open and Expand Schools". Success Academy. April 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
- ^ Almond, Kyle (October 13, 2010). "Documentaries spark education debate". CNN. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
- ^ "A great day in Harlem, A great day in Harlem". The Economist. March 30, 2010. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
External links
[edit]- Success Academy Charter Schools website
- How Success Academy Got Its First Seniors to College
- "Success Academy 1: The Problem" - StartUp (podcast). First of a seven-part series from November and December 2018
Success Academy Charter Schools
View on GrokipediaSuccess Academy Charter Schools is a network of tuition-free public charter schools in New York City founded in 2006 by Eva Moskowitz, a former city council education committee chair.[1] The organization operates dozens of K-12 schools serving primarily low-income Black and Hispanic students, emphasizing rigorous academics, extended school days, and a no-excuses culture of high expectations.[2] Success Academy's defining achievement is its superior student performance on state assessments, with its schools consistently ranking among the top in New York for math and English proficiency rates that far exceed city district averages and often lead statewide benchmarks.[3] For instance, in recent years, nearly half of its Black and Hispanic students have scored at the highest proficiency level in math, outperforming not only peers from similar demographics but also many affluent White and Asian students in traditional public schools.[4][5] Additionally, 100% of its graduates have been accepted to four-year colleges for multiple consecutive years, reflecting strong preparation for postsecondary success despite serving high-need populations.[2] The network's methods, including data-driven instruction, frequent testing, and strict behavioral standards, have drawn praise for driving these results through causal mechanisms like intense focus on mastery and teacher accountability, but also controversies over allegations of excessive discipline and counseling out underperforming students to sustain high aggregate scores.[6][7] Critics, often from teachers' unions and traditional public school advocates, contend these practices create a high-pressure environment disproportionately affecting minority students, though empirical attrition data shows patterns common to many urban charters and not unique to Success Academy's model.[8]
History
Founding and Initial Launch
Eva Moskowitz, a historian, former teacher, and New York City Council member who chaired the Council's Education Committee from 1999 to 2005, founded Success Academy Charter Schools in 2006 after conducting oversight hearings that exposed chronic failures in the city's public school system, including poor management, low academic standards, and resistance from teachers' unions to accountability measures.[1][9] Motivated by the need for high-performing alternatives for low-income students, particularly in underserved communities, Moskowitz established the network—initially named Harlem Success Academy—to deliver rigorous education unconstrained by traditional public school bureaucracies.[1][10] The inaugural school, Harlem Success Academy 1, launched in August 2006 at 34 West 118th Street in Harlem, enrolling 165 students in grades K-2 selected through a random lottery process, with a focus on primarily Black and Hispanic children from low-income families.[9][11][12] Moskowitz served as the initial principal, implementing a data-driven, discipline-focused model from the outset to prioritize academic excellence over excuses related to socioeconomic challenges.[9][10] The launch faced early hurdles, including operational adjustments in a challenging urban environment, but the school quickly demonstrated viability by attracting strong parental demand through its lottery system.[13][11] By the end of its first year, Harlem Success Academy 1 had laid the groundwork for expansion, with Moskowitz leveraging New York State's charter school authorization process under the 1998 law to build a replicable model emphasizing teacher quality, extended instructional time, and relentless focus on results.[1][9] This initial effort marked a deliberate departure from district schools' status quo, prioritizing empirical outcomes for disadvantaged students amid broader debates over charter efficacy and union opposition.[10]Expansion Within New York City
Success Academy initiated its expansion beyond the initial Harlem campus shortly after opening Harlem Success Academy 1 in August 2006, capitalizing on demonstrated student demand and academic results to secure approvals for additional charters. By 2009, the network had grown to four schools, all in upper Manhattan, focusing on elementary grades with plans to add middle school extensions. This early phase involved leasing spaces and negotiating co-locations with New York City Department of Education facilities, amid resistance from teachers' unions and district officials over resource allocation. The network's growth accelerated in the 2010s, branching into the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. In the 2014-2015 school year, six new Success Academy schools opened, including expansions in existing buildings and new sites, bringing the total to over 30 campuses citywide. This surge aligned with state-level policy shifts, such as the temporary lifting of the charter school cap under Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015, enabling further approvals despite ongoing disputes over facility sharing. By 2018, Success Academy served approximately 15,500 students across dozens of schools, with ambitions to reach 100 campuses, driven by lottery waitlists exceeding available seats.[14][15] Expansion continued into the late 2010s and early 2020s, though tempered by reinstated charter caps and local opposition to co-locations. In 2023, proposals for three new elementary schools sharing space with district schools in Queens and the Bronx were abandoned after community and DOE pushback, highlighting tensions over building capacity and equity claims from traditional public schools. Despite such hurdles, the network reached 47 schools by 2021, serving more than 17,000 students primarily from low-income and minority backgrounds across the four boroughs.[16][10] As of 2024, Success Academy operates 59 schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, enrolling about 22,000 students through blind lotteries that reflect sustained parental interest. This scale positions it as New York City's largest charter network, with growth sustained by performance metrics outperforming district averages, though reliant on SUNY Charter Schools Institute oversight for renewals and expansions.[17][18]Recent Growth and Out-of-State Initiatives
In recent years, Success Academy has sustained growth within New York City, expanding to approximately 60 charter schools serving over 22,000 students as of 2025.[19][20] The network continues to add capacity through new campuses, including a planned K-12 facility opening in 2026 and additional elementary and middle schools in the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island starting August 2026, each projected to reach 540-600 students by their fifth year of operation.[21][22] Marking its first major out-of-state expansion, Success Academy announced on September 25, 2025, that it will open initial schools in Miami-Dade County, Florida, for the 2027-2028 school year.[23][24] The initiative, backed by $50 million from billionaire investor John Paulson, targets eventual enrollment of up to 8,000 students across multiple campuses in the region, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis praising it as an opportunity to import a proven high-performance model.[25][26] This move follows legislative changes in Florida favoring charter growth and represents a strategic push beyond New York's regulatory constraints.[27]Educational Philosophy and Methods
Core Principles and "No Excuses" Approach
Success Academy Charter Schools' core values are represented by the acronym ACTION, which guides the behavior and mindset of students and staff: Agency, encouraging ownership and responsibility for meeting high standards; Curiosity, fostering wonder and inquisitive questioning; Try & Try, promoting grit and perseverance through repeated effort despite challenges; Integrity, emphasizing honesty, openness, and moral character; Others, prioritizing mutual respect and community support; and No Shortcuts, underscoring the necessity of sustained time and deliberate practice for mastery.[28][29] These values are explicitly taught, modeled, and rewarded across the network, forming the foundation for an honor code that requires truthful conduct and high moral standards both in school and beyond.[29] Central to the network's philosophy is the principle of "joyful rigor," which integrates demanding academic content with engaging, hands-on methods to cultivate both intellectual depth and enthusiasm for learning.[30][31] This entails extended instructional time—such as 80 minutes of daily direct math instruction in elementary grades—alongside inquiry-based projects, discussions, and extracurriculars like debate and chess to build critical thinking and independence.[29] The approach rejects complacency, insisting that all students, regardless of background, can achieve excellence through structured effort and environmental support.[2] The "No Excuses" approach, emblematic of Success Academy's operations, embodies a commitment to absolute accountability for student outcomes, attributing success or failure primarily to school practices, teacher efficacy, and individual agency rather than socioeconomic barriers or external factors.[32] This model features rigid, consistent discipline to minimize disruptions—enforced via clear rules, immediate corrections, and a focus on respectful conduct—to ensure uninterrupted focus on academics.[29][33] High behavioral expectations are paired with data-driven instruction and frequent assessments, aiming to close achievement gaps through relentless preparation rather than lowered standards.[34] While proponents credit this framework for outsized gains in math and reading proficiency among predominantly low-income, minority students, critics argue it can foster a high-pressure atmosphere prioritizing compliance over holistic development.[32][35] Success Academy maintains that such rigor, tempered by joy and support, equips scholars for college and lifelong success, as evidenced by near-universal four-year college acceptance rates since 2016.[21]Curriculum Design and Instructional Practices
Success Academy's curriculum is custom-designed and vertically aligned from kindergarten through high school, prioritizing rigorous mastery in core academic areas while integrating hands-on exploration and cross-disciplinary connections to build student confidence and college readiness.[30][36] In elementary grades, daily allocations include 80 minutes of direct instruction in reading and mathematics, with science lessons conducted five days per week by specialized teachers covering topics in life, physical, earth/space sciences, and engineering design.[30] The English language arts component emphasizes voluminous independent reading, guided reading groups, and phonics instruction via the Success for All program in kindergarten through first grade, progressing to complex read-alouds such as Charlotte's Web in second grade.[30] Mathematics instruction incorporates elements from curricula like TERC Investigations and Singapore Math, focusing on conceptual problem-solving, number sense, operations, geometry, and fractions, supplemented by fluency-building exercises such as Number Stories and No Hesitation Math beginning in first grade.[30] Arts education features 45 minutes daily, rotating through visual arts (drawing, painting), music, dance, and theater, with electives available in upper elementary grades.[30] Middle school curriculum extends this foundation with inquiry-based approaches, including 70-minute daily humanities blocks for English language arts and history, where students engage in literature analysis, evidence-based discussions, "Art of the Sentence" writing exercises, and World History sequences leading to Regents exams in global history, living environment, algebra, and ELA.[36] STEM subjects emphasize proportional reasoning, physics, chemistry, and biology through collaborative problem-solving and projects like the Science Symposium, while electives in debate, chess, athletics, and performing arts allow for passion-driven pursuits.[36] High school offerings adopt an advanced liberal arts model with student-led inquiry, AP courses in math and history, computer science, and honors tracks, alongside core sequences in four years of history and multiple science disciplines.[37] Across levels, project-based learning units occur twice yearly for six to eight weeks, complemented by field studies at museums, farms, and cultural sites to link classroom content to real-world applications.[30][38] Instructional practices center on data-driven differentiation, small-group rotations, and frequent assessments to tailor teaching, with teachers receiving in-the-moment coaching during lessons to refine delivery and maximize engagement.[39] Elementary and middle school days feature extended instructional time, standardized teacher preparation protocols, and routines that prioritize independent reading workshops, collaborative discussions, and hands-on experiments to foster curiosity without excessive direct lecturing.[4][38] Classroom management employs the Smart Classroom Management system, which trains students from the outset to follow routines independently, enforcing clear behavioral expectations such as sustained attention, respect, and perseverance to minimize disruptions and sustain focus on academic tasks.[40][41] This aligns with a "no excuses" framework, where strict discipline— including uniform posture, continuous eye contact with instructors, and immediate correction of off-task behavior—supports high achievement in reading and math by ensuring uninterrupted instructional time, though critics have described such methods as overly rigid.[42][43] Special education and English language learners receive integrated support, such as push-in services and full immersion, contributing to reported proficiency rates like 95% in math for students with disabilities in 2019.[30]Teacher Training and Classroom Management
Success Academy provides extensive teacher training through its Education Institute, which offers a blended model of online courses, workshops, and in-person events to develop instructional skills and curriculum implementation.[44] The program does not require prior teaching experience or an education degree, instead emphasizing intensive onboarding, weekly professional development equivalent to 13 weeks per year, daily coaching, and mentorship for a diverse staff.[38][45] A key component is Teacher Excellence Training (TET), which introduces foundational practices, while the mid-year Re-TET refresher spans four weeks in January, focusing on analyzing student work, modeling reasoning, recording lessons for self-review, and receiving targeted feedback.[46] Teachers report heightened confidence and accountability from Re-TET, with associated student outcomes including dramatic improvements, such as one class increasing ELA passing rates from 35% to 75% and another tripling its rate post-training.[46] Classroom management at Success Academy centers on Smart Classroom Management (SCM), a system designed to foster student autonomy by establishing routines without external incentives for basic compliance, such as rewards for pushing in chairs.[41] SCM follows a three-step process: teams define a clear vision for routines in planning meetings; teachers practice them rigorously with students until 100% execution is achieved, repeating as needed; and the rationale behind routines is explicitly explained to build buy-in and self-assuredness.[41] This approach prioritizes mutual accountability, where students monitor teacher habits and perform tasks independently, enabling more instructional time and reducing teacher workload—evident in early-year examples like kindergarteners autonomously completing math routines by week two.[41] Routines cover transitions, morning work, and habits of attention akin to SLANT (Sit up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod, Track the speaker), promoting efficiency in mundane tasks to allocate time for creative problem-solving while upholding non-negotiables like respect and perseverance.[47][38] Teachers adapt SCM to their style but maintain consistency from the school year's outset, teaching rules via interactive activities to ensure a safe, engaging environment conducive to academic growth.[48][49]Academic Performance and Outcomes
Standardized Testing Results
Success Academy charter schools consistently achieve proficiency rates on New York State grades 3-8 standardized assessments in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics that substantially exceed those of New York City Department of Education (DOE) schools and statewide averages.[50][51] In the 2024-25 school year assessments administered to grades 3-7, 92.5% of the 9,280 Success Academy students tested achieved proficiency (levels 3 or 4) in ELA, compared to 56.3% in NYC DOE schools; in Mathematics, the rate was 96.2%, versus 56.9% in DOE schools.[50] These figures reflect year-over-year improvements, with ELA proficiency rising more than 10 percentage points and Math by 1.2 percentage points from the prior year.[50]| Subject | Success Academy Proficiency (%) | NYC DOE Proficiency (%) |
|---|---|---|
| ELA | 92.5 | 56.3 |
| Math | 96.2 | 56.9 |
Demographic-Specific Achievements
Success Academy Charter Schools primarily enroll students from low-income and minority backgrounds, with approximately 93% identifying as Black or Hispanic and 72% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch as of recent federal grant applications.[52] These demographics reflect the network's focus on underserved urban communities in New York City, where achievement gaps persist in traditional public schools.[53] In math proficiency on 2024 New York State exams for grades 3-8, Black students at Success Academy achieved a 95.5% pass rate (levels 3-4), more than double the 43% rate for Black students in New York City Department of Education schools.[50] Hispanic students similarly posted pass rates exceeding those of their district peers by wide margins, contributing to the network's overall leadership in state math rankings.[50] [54] Among high-achieving subgroups, 49% of Black students and 55% of Hispanic students scored at the highest level (4), rates that placed Success Academy ahead of state averages for all demographics.[4] English Language Arts (ELA) results for the same period showed 92.5% overall pass rates for Success Academy students in grades 3-7, with Black and Hispanic subgroups passing at approximately twice the rate of comparable NYC public school students.[54] These outcomes indicate narrowed or reversed achievement gaps relative to socioeconomic and racial peers, as Black and Hispanic students at the network often outperform white and Asian students in affluent districts on state assessments.[5] Independent analyses of prior years' NYSED data confirm this pattern, with elementary Success Academy schools ranking in the top 2% statewide across racial subgroups.[55]| Demographic | Math Pass Rate (2024, Success Academy) | Math Pass Rate (2024, NYC Public Schools, Comparable Group) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 95.5% | 43% | Levels 3-4; network aggregate[50] |
| Hispanic | >80% (estimated from network highs) | ~40-50% | Twice district peers; leads state for level 4[50] [4] |
