Success Academy in the News
NY Post
4/9/13
by Yoav Gonen
The city’s largest charter-school network saw more than 12,200 families apply for seats at one of its 18 schools this year — nearly five applicants per open slot.
Gotham Schools
12/17/12
by Philissa Cramer
If all goes according to Success Academy Charter Schools’ plan, this year’s seventh-graders at the network’s first school won’t have to hunt for a high school.
The network is asking the state for permission to expand the school to ninth grade in 2014, the year that its first cohort will hit high school. SUNY’s Charter Schools Institute, which authorizes the school, is holding a hearing about the proposal on Tuesday and will decide whether to approve it as early as January.
Gotham Schools
10/19/2012
By Rachel Cromidas and Philissa Cramer
The Success Academy Charter Schools network is jumping into a new market — higher education. Thanks to a new agreement with Touro College, this year Success Academies officials are teaching courses that will help the network’s newest teachers earn master’s degrees.
New York Post Op-Ed
09/10/2012
By Eva Moskowitz
Last week, Success Academy Harlem 1 won the nation’s top education prize, a Blue Ribbon Award for academic excellence as one of the state’s top-performing schools. It’s just the second time since the award’s inception in 1982 that a Harlem elementary school has achieved this distinction.
Fox 5 NY
09/07/2012
Success Academy Harlem 1 has been named a national Blue Ribbon School, one of only five New York City schools, and one of just two charter schools in the state to win the prize.
New York Daily News
08/29/2012
For parents at a new charter school in Cobble Hill, the first week of class marks the the end of an ugly fight.
After fiery opposition from some local elected officials and residents, one of the Success Charter Network’s newest schools opened its doors on Baltic St. on Monday.
New York Post
8/26/2012
On Aug. 13, while his mother, Jenna Sternbach, was meeting other parents and teachers, 4-year-old August went to “dress rehearsal” at his new school in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. “He hadn’t been particularly excited about school before,” says Sternbach, a freelance publicist and stay-at-home mom. “Now he can’t stop talking about it.”
The Wall Street Journal
07/26/2012
During the eight years I served as chancellor of New York City's public schools, the naysayers and the apologists for the status quo kept telling me "we'll never fix education in America until we fix poverty."
I always thought they had it backward, that "we'll never fix poverty until we fix education." Let me be clear. Poverty matters: It's debilitating psychological and physical effects often make it much harder to successfully educate kids who grow up in challenged environments. And we should do everything we can to ameliorate the effects of poverty by giving kids and families the support they need. But that said, I remain convinced that the best cure for poverty is a good education.
New York Daily News
07/23/2012
When looking at the statistics for the Harlem Educational Activities Fund and Success Academy Charter Schools, two public education efforts in New York City — one a supplement to the system, the other a constellation of charter schools — we see how well things can be done by leaders and teachers who make themselves indispensable to their young charges.
New York Post
07/22/2012
The Success Academy Charter Schools, which I run, are criticized for taking advantage of Mayor Bloomberg’s policy allowing us to use excess space available in the buildings of district-run schools.
It's painful, charge our critics, for the families that these schools serve to see the contrast between their dreary classrooms and ours, which we spruce up with cheery paint jobs, new carpets and extensive technology.
Actually, it’s far worse than that: 88 percent of our students read proficiently; fewer than a third do at these district schools. Our students also get two hours more instruction per day, science daily and teachers who receive far more professional development.
GothamSchools
07/18/2012
Two years ago, just one in three students at Achievement First Bushwick were rated “proficient” on the state’s reading tests. It wasn’t exactly the kind of result promised from a high-performing charter school in a “no excuses” network.
But the school has nearly doubled that rate in the two years since, according to state test scores released Tuesday. On the 2012 English language arts test, nearly 60 percent of students at the school were rated proficient, compared to 47 percent of students citywide.
Ed Colorado Reform
07/17/2012
Charter school advocate Eva Moskowitz pumped up a friendly Denver crowd Tuesday evening with a talk that stressed the importance and urgency of education reform for the future of the nation.
Huffington Post
07/09/2012
As a parent of three school-age children living in New York City it is hard to avoid all the talk about the success of Success Academy. Success Academy is a New York City-based free charter school with some of the highest test scores in the state of New York. As they state on their site, "Our schools are founded on a simple premise: Every child can achieve success when they have access to a high-quality, free public education."
New York Times
06/14/2012
Eva Moskowitz, the charter chain operator, has been planting schools in
New York City at a breakneck pace, with five expected to open in August.
But that hasn't kept Ms. Moskowitz, a well-known workaholic, from taking
on another job: that of author.
New York Times
06/07/2012
Seeking to convince mayoral candidates, months before the 2013 election, to take a stand in support of the growth of charter schools — a hallmark of the Bloomberg administration — charter advocates and students gathered on Wednesday in front of City Hall, for a spirited, after-school rally.
GothamSchools
06/06/2012
In what organizers are calling the largest gathering of public school parents ever in New York City, thousands turned out for a rally to support the charter school movement and to warn future politicians that their constituency is a sleeping giant in upcoming elections.
New York Post
05/24/2012
It was like a Bronx stampede.
Two South Bronx charter schools in the Success Academy network attracted a stunning 5,900 applications last month from families seeking to avoid the local public schools -- even though there were only 190 open charter slots available.
Huffington Post
03/27/2012
Last month I visited the Harlem Success Academy Charter School in New York City. Led by former NYC Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, the school promotes a model of success based on individualized curriculum, merit-based teacher incentives, and specialized testing from day one. The results speak for themselves -- with students performing in the highest percentile in reading, math, and science. Parents report high satisfaction rates, and children are provided the opportunity to gain a quality education in an environment based on their needs.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
03/23/2012
While the original goal of charter schools was to provide options for low-income children stuck in bad schools, charter operators like Eva Moskowitz of Success Academies have pushed recently to expand into middle-class Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Walcott said he believes in "the expansion of charters throughout our system in all neighborhoods."
"Charters shouldn't be relegated to one class of parents or students," he said.
New York Daily News
02/19/2012
Want to get called horrible names? Want to get hauled into court? Want to get shouted down at public meetings? Then dare to start a dozen free, outstanding public schools in New York City. That’s the story of the Success Academy Charter Network.
The New York Times
02/13/2012
I tell parents, ‘you deserve the best customer service on the planet. We have your most prized possessions, more important than your iPod, your car. This is the customer service that should outshine anything else. We have your child.’ I pride myself on knowing who your kid is, figuring out who they are as a learner. And providing them with the best service.
GothamSchools
01/12/2012
Bloomberg said the city will open 100 new schools before he leaves office in 2013, including 50 charter schools. The city will help some charter networks — such as KIPP and Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy schools — grow faster and also bring in new charter school operators to the city.
01/03/2012
A judge today rejected a midyear effort to collect more than $100 million in rent and facility fees from co-located charter schools. “It would be extremely harmful to wrench charter school students from their school of choice during a school year, should any charter school be unable to pay for renting public school space, forcing these students to seek placement elsewhere,” New York State Supreme Court Judge Paul Feinman wrote in his decision today.
New York Daily News
12/12/2011
Meanwhile, the Harlem Success Academy charter schools run by Eva Moskowitz are high-flyers where most kids are not only passing tests, but acing them. The key to these schools’ success is not ideological fealty but simply hard work on the part of the educators and the kids themselves, who transcend every stereotype of urban youth.
New York Daily News
11/29/2011
The Success Academy charter network is seeking to open an elementary school in Cobble Hill’s K293, a structure that has space for 700 desks, despite being occupied by three other schools. A Success charter would do wonders for an area served by a couple of good elemenataries and too many laggard, overcrowded facilities. Success runs nine charters, all of which have provided world-class educations to student bodies that are overwhelmingly poor and minority.
11/27/2011
Eva Moskowitz, the former city councilwoman who runs a fast-growing network of charter schools, said her schools had created a “religion around blocks,” and she proudly advertises their fully outfitted block labs alongside the chess program and daily science classes.
The Daily Beast
10/23/2011
America’s financial elite needs a compelling answer to Occupy Wall Street. This could be it: educate Harlem ... with our poker chips. Life, after all, is a lot like poker. No matter how innately smart you may be, it’s very hard to win if you are dealt a bad hand.
The New York Times
10/07/2011
Fresh from a bruising battle to open a charter school on the Upper West Side, Eva S. Moskowitz, the former city councilwoman who runs a network of charters in New York City, is gearing up to expand into middle-class areas by opening a school in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, next fall.
New York Daily News
09/26/2011
What year do New York City parents dread the most? The year when their children enter middle school.
GothamSchools
09/23/2011
After years of volatility, letter grades on progress reports for the city’s elementary and middle schools are the most stable and accurate they’ve ever been, according to Department of Education officials.
CNN
09/21/2011
Last week, the College Board dealt parents, teachers and the education world a serious blow. According to its latest test results, "SAT reading scores for the high school class of 2011 were the lowest on record, and combined reading and math scores fell to their lowest point since 1995."
New York Post
09/09/2011
At the Harlem charter school where Sean O’Hanlon teaches the students to play chess, he has a basic strategy to introduce kindergartners to the board game -- “I let them know we’re going to have fun.”
New York Daily News
09/06/2011
It's the day after Labor Day. Do you know where your children are?
New York Post
08/27/2011
What is going on inside our worst public schools? Journalist, entrepreneur and gadfly Steven Brill went in them to find out, and the dismal sights he saw may not surprise you.
Reuters
08/21/2011
Every year I tell students in a journalism seminar I teach about the junior reporter for The American Lawyer – the magazine I founded and edited –who committed a classic error when he submitted a draft of a profile about some lawyer in the news who had made it big.
The Wall Street Journal
08/20/2011
The reformers who want to save the public schools are starting to make a difference, against ferocious opposition.
New York Daily News
08/16/2011
New York's courts are wisely pulling out of the business of setting education policy - and the first beneficiaries are 180 kindergarten and first-grade students lucky enough to win seats in a hugely promising new charter school.
New York Daily News
08/15/2011
The important fight that Mayor Bloomberg has waged against the United Federation of Teachers, the city teachers union, and its ally, the NAACP, over charter schools was resoundingly won by the champions of reform in court. But the real victory came when state test scores were released last week.
New York Daily News
08/14/2011
Editorials It must be awful wearying these days to be a committed charter school opponent like actor Matt Damon or the teachers union or the NAACP. The facts keep proving them wrong.
The New York Times
08/13/2011
A plan to establish a charter elementary school on the Upper West Side, a subject of fierce debate in the neighborhood, has cleared a critical hurdle after a State Supreme Court justice dismissed a lawsuit challenging the approval process for the school’s opening.
The Wall Street Journal
08/13/2011
An embattled charter elementary school proposed by former City Council member Eva Moskowitz has cleared another legal hurdle to open on the Upper West side.
New York Post
08/13/2011
Editorials Need more proof of the wrongheadedness of the United Federation of Teachers-NAACP lawsuit, which seeks to keep lousy schools from closing and productive ones from expanding? This week’s test scores should suffice.
07/22/2011
The State Supreme Court ruled against a lawsuit Thursday that would have prevented the Department of Education from closing 22 failing city schools and co-locating 15 public schools in DOE buildings. The injunction to stop the plan was filed last month by the United Federation of Teachers and the NAACP, but Justice Paul Feinman denied the request Thursday night, saying that there was no evidence the failing schools could be "so easily turned around."
The New York Times
06/30/2011
...the schools that best represent the reform movement, like the KIPP academies or the Harlem Success schools, put tremendous emphasis on testing. But these schools are also the places where students are most likely to participate in chess and dance. They are the places where they are most likely to read Shakespeare and argue about philosophy and physics.
ABC New York
06/27/2011
Hundreds of parents whose children go to New York City charter schools are demanding action. The school year for those charter school kids begins in less than a month, and many still do not know where they will be going because of a lawsuit against the city.
The Economist
06/23/2011
COLUMBIA, New York University and the Universities of Michigan and Oregon are colleges six-year old Alexander Ferguson is considering attending come 2022, brags his mother Iris Ayala. But because of a lawsuit affecting charter schools in New York City, it is not clear if Alexander’s current school, Harlem Success Academy, will open after the summer break.
New York Daily News
06/23/2011
She may be just a first-grader, but Eliana Asiedu already has big plans for her education. "I want to go to college. That's where you get to know everything," said Eliana, 6, as she stood in the lobby of New York University's Cantor Film Center one day earlier this month.
New York Daily News
06/20/2011
Wealthy men suffer as much as anyone else, as literature, theater and Fox News tell us. So now is the time for Mayor Bloomberg to face what might be called a "high noon" moment. It demands he put up and take a heroic walk, or shut up and go down in history with knees too weak to make the necessary hike.
NY1
06/17/2011
A battle over shared school space in Harlem got heated last night when the head of New York's chapter of the NAACP showed up at a meeting to discuss the plan. Hazel Dukes got an earful from parents.
New York Post
06/13/2011
The Bloomberg administration's policy of allowing charter schools to share building space with traditional public schools has not led to a significant spike in class size, according to study released today by a charter-school group.
The New York Times
06/10/2011
In some ways, it seems like a natural cause for the N.A.A.C.P.: students — many of them poor, most of them black — treated as second-class citizens when the public schools they attended had to share buildings with charter schools. But black children have been major constituents of charter schools since their creation two decades ago. So when thousands of charter-school parents, students and advocates staged a rally on May 26 in Harlem, it was not so much to denounce the litigation as it was to criticize the involvement of the N.A.A.C.P.
New York Daily News
06/06/2011
In an irrational dance, the UFT and the NAACP have filed a suit against New York City aimed at stopping some charter schools, which for the most part don't use unionized teachers, from sharing space with district public schools.
The New York Times
06/03/2011
The N.A.A.C.P. on Friday defended its involvement in a lawsuit to block 20 charter schools from opening in public school buildings this fall, saying it was trying to halt city plans to create what it considered a two-tiered education system.
Black Voices
06/01/2011
The second and third graders tore into the classroom at Harlem Success Academy 2 like a tornado of little arms and legs. A cacophony of giggles and squeals preceded them. Minutes later these little dervishes of energy were studious and silent, but for the click of chess pieces and the clack of the timers they popped after each move. The tension was thick. The players were focused. The inaugural chess tournament of the Harlem Success Academy scholars was underway, and the competition was on.
Amsterdam News
06/01/2011
NAACP New York State Conference President Hazel Dukes said that charter school supporters are looking for a fight and that the NAACP will not back down in its fight against inequalities in the public schools system when it comes to the placement of charter schools.
The Daily Beast
05/27/2011
It was an inspiring sight: a protest rally 3,000 strong in the heart of Harlem. Students, parents, and teachers wielding signs and slogans, all standing up for their right to pursue a quality public-school education. But the target of their anger was unexpected: the NAACP.
GothamSchools
05/26/2011
About 2,500 people rallied in Harlem this morning, calling on the NAACP to withdraw from its lawsuit with the teachers union against the city Department of Education. That lawsuit seeks to stop the closure of 22 schools as well as the placement of several charter schools in district school space.
Amsterdam News
05/26/2011
Thousands of charter school parents gathered at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building on Thursday morning to protest the NAACP's involvement in a lawsuit by the teacher's union. Parents at the rally, who were mostly Black, want the NAACP to withdraw from a lawsuit that's threatening to close several existing public charter schools and to prevent others from enrolling new children.
New York Daily News
05/26/2011
Parents rallied in Harlem Thursday to blast the NAACP's involvement in a lawsuit to halt the closure of failing schools and expansion of charter schools. The families, many with kids in city charter schools, and advocates criticized the civil rights group for joining the teachers union in a fight to block the closure of 22 schools and stop 17 charter schools from opening or growing.
My Fox NY
05/26/2011
Thousands of children, parents, teachers and more rallied in Harlem to protest a lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers and the NAACP. To them, the fate of this lawsuit will decide if their children can go to a charter school next year.
My Fox NY
05/26/2011
The NAACP has joined a lawsuit by the United Federation of Teachers against the Department of Education that threatens several charter schools in the Harlem area. The suit calls for preventing several charter schools from opening, relocating or expanding. Many charter school parents are shocked by the NAACP's position.
The Wall Street Journal
05/10/2011
Teachers are extremely effective messengers to parents, community groups, faith-based groups and elected officials—and their unions know how to deploy them well. Happy unions can give a politician massive clout, and unhappy unions—well, just ask Eva Moskowitz, a Democrat who headed the New York City Council Education Committee when I became schools chancellor in 2002.
The Atlantic
05/10/2011
Who better to lead an educational revolution than Joel Klein, the prosecutor who took on the software giant Microsoft? But in his eight years as chancellor of New York City’s school system, the nation’s largest, Klein learned a few painful lessons of his own — about feckless politicians, recalcitrant unions, mediocre teachers, and other enduring obstacles to school reform.
The New York Post
05/09/2011
Those who proclaim to be speaking for the community in opposing a new charter school for the Upper West Side certainly aren't representing me or the 700 other parents who applied for seats for their children at Upper West Success Academy.
New York Daily News
04/27/2011
Speaking at Teachers College last weekend, newly installed Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott warned that the poisonous debate around education reform is hurting our children. Nowhere is this more apparent than inside some school buildings, where the vitriol being aimed at charter schools co-locating with district public schools is threatening to derail some of our most promising learning environments.
My Fox NY
04/26/2011
Supporters of the Upper West Success Academy rallied this morning in front of Brandeis High School. They are pushing back against a lawsuit that doesn't want their charter school housed inside.
The New York Times
04/13/2011
Last Friday, not long after my cover story in the magazine was posted online, I heard from Joel Klein, the former New York City schools chancellor whose ambitious education reforms were, at least indirectly, the subject of the article. (It was an in-depth profile of M.S. 223, a public middle school in the South Bronx.)
New York Daily News
04/12/2011
So rabid are some parents and elected officials in loathing charter schools that they are all too willing - no, eager - to deny aspiring children the chance for high-quality educations. This is the awful theme of a lawsuit filed Friday to block the city's most successful charter school operation from locating in free classroom space in the old Brandeis High School building on the upper West Side.
National Public Radio
03/29/2011
Reducing class size is thought to be a ticket to classroom success. But Eva Moskowitz, founder and chief executive of the Success Charter Network, argues that schools could -- and should -- spend the money elsewhere. She is interviewed on Talk of the Nation.
The Washington Post
03/28/2011
That class size should be small is revered like an article of faith in this country. Its adherents include parents, education groups, politicians and, of course, the unions whose ranks it swells. In many states it is even required by law. Yet small class size is neither a guarantor nor a prerequisite of educational excellence.
DNAinfo
02/17/2011
HARLEM -- When 10-year-old Deeyonna Cooper reads books at home, it's a family affair. The fifth grader at Harlem Success Academy often reads to her mom and she also likes to read to her dog. "When I read to my dog, he just twists his head in confusion," Cooper said with a giggle.
New York Post
02/14/2011
Finding a way to provide high-quality schooling for these children -- now, not 20 years from now -- is the central educational issue of our day. What should be done? First, clear away obstacles to the growth of charter schools.
The Daily
02/09/2011
A good education is the lifeblood of the American dream. For millions of young Americans, that dream is now in jeopardy because the education system is failing them. A group of leading educators and reformers gathered at The Daily recently to talk about what needs to be done to save our schools.
Education Week
02/03/2011
New York City Chancellor Joel Klein announced late last year that he'd be stepping down from his post and taking up a newly created position as CEO of the Education Division at News Corp. On Tuesday, I had the chance to chat with Joel about his tenure, his takeaways, and changes in the reform landscape during the past decade.
NYC Dads Group Blog
02/03/2011
The NYC Dads Group constantly looks for ways to root ourselves in the local community as well as participate in enrichment workshops for active dads. We were able to accomplish both last week as we spent an evening with Eva Moskowitz, learning about her proposed plan to open a new charter school...
New York Daily News
01/31/2011
The Panel for Educational Policy will write a new chapter in the history of the school wars tomorrow with a vote on allowing one of the city's best charter operators to open shop on the upper West Side. This one is easy: Of course parents...
New York Post
01/28/2011
Do middle-class parents deserve good, free public schools for their kids? That's the question the city's Panel for Educational Policy will answer Tuesday, when it votes on whether to let a new charter school -- the Upper West Success Academy, run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz...
New York Observer
01/25/2011
The failures and shortcomings of traditional public education, particularly in urban areas, are too numerous and well known to be listed here. But there are glimmers of hope and innovation, and few know that better than parents in poorly served neighborhoods who have won the charter school lottery...
New York Times
01/24/2011
The guests sipped wine and nibbled sushi, guacamole and Gruyère — lawyers, bankers, preschool teachers, managers and consultants of various kinds, bound by the anxious decision they must confront in the months ahead: where their 4-year-olds will go to school in the fall...
West Side Spirit
01/20/2011
The truth behind Eva’s Moskowitz’s battle to open an UWS charter school. By Josh Rogers. An Upper West Side father whose child was zoned out of P.S. 87 told Eva Moskowitz he was “shocked” when he heard the loud chanting against the charter school she hopes to open in the fall...
NY1
12/28/2010
Click here to watch Success Charter Network Founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz talk about her plans to open a new charter school on the Upper West Side on this edition of "Inside City Hall."
NY1
12/22/2010
Click here to see the winners of the Harlem Success Academy's recent third-grade math bee discuss the secrets of their successes with NY1's Parenting correspondent Shelley Goldberg.
The Economist
12/20/2010
Eva Moskowitz and Diane Ravitch debate the nature of learning.
The Wall Street Journal
12/14/2010
In this short video, The Wall Street Journal shows how math lessons at Harlem Success Academy 4 inspire scholars to create new problem-solving strategies.
New York Post
12/09/2010
When I was growing up in Florida, we lived in a neighborhood with great local public schools. I never realized until now just how lucky my parents were.As a mother of three, I feel strongly that it shouldn't have to be so difficult to access a great school for your children. ...
Wall Street Journal
12/04/2010
Our embrace of charter schools was especially controversial. But why should any student have to settle for a neighborhood school if it's awful?
New York Daily News
11/15/2010
Times have changed since Joel Klein took the reins of the Department of Education back in 2002, but the overarching challenge remains the same: spur drastic reform within a system that stubbornly resists change. When Klein took office, he was faced with a public school system...
My Fox NY
10/26/2010
The fight over charter schools is turning ugly on the Upper West Side. The issue is a proposed school within a school. Right now there are seven Success Academy charter schools open in the city -- outperforming other city public schools in the communities th...
New York Post
10/25/2010
The runaway popularity of charter schools must have really struck a nerve -- because their foes sound like they're ready to, uh, strike those who support the schools. "I will strangle any parent I find who moved from [PS] 75 into a charter school," City Councilwoman Gale Brewer said last week...
New York Post
10/24/2010
Why is the Success Charter Network opening a new public charter school on the Upper West Side? Because that neighborhood — like the rest of the city — needs more great public schools, and parents there are demanding more options for their children. Anyone who ...
New York Daily News
10/22/2010
The upper West Side is gripped by a psychosis that provokes vile rhetoric and a disgraceful mob-like frenzy. Exhibit No. 1 is state Sen. Bill Perkins, who has fought like the devil to block charter schools that are providing world-class educations to poor children. Addressing the possibility...
New York Daily News
10/17/2010
New York's road to better education is about to take a crucial turn, as the Success Academy charter school network moves to open a 193-seat facility not in its usual inner-city neighborhoods of Central Harlem or the South Bronx, but on the decidedly...
New York Post
10/03/2010
'Waiting For 'Superman'" is already fueling debate about charter schools and their potential to close the achievement gap between low-income and middle-class students. The film follows five children who hope to win the lottery for seats in local ...
New York Post
08/02/2010
The plunging scores on state tests released last week were a black eye for the city's public schools -- but provided "vindication" for a charter-schools crusader. Five years ago, the United Federation of Teachers used its political clout ...
New York Daily News
06/22/2010
While the political battle over expanding charter schools has been won, their educational success must be trumpeted so as to rebut the bogus charges that are endlessly leveled against them. Opponents try every which way to call into question...
New York Magazine
04/25/2010
Eva Moskowitz, the controversial leader of the fastest-growing charter network in the city, wants to save New York public education by, in a sense, destroying it. By Jeff Coplon. It’s 7:50 a.m. on a Monday as the ex–City Council member arrives inside Harlem...
10/19/2009
On the bus ride to the farm, the children sang rounds of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” and a boy yelled, “I love pumpkin pie!” But it soon became clear that this was a field “study”— as the teachers ...
