Last year, Success Academy doubled down on our commitment to play with the introduction of “Choice Time” in Kindergarten. Now, five days a week for hour-long periods, our youngest scholars head to the Blocks Room, or stay in their classrooms and choose among stations dedicated to sensory materials (clay, play dough), building materials (Legos, Tinkertoys), dramatic play, art, reading, creative writing, and board games.

It might be possible to find a museum or exhibit in New York City that allows you to investigate original scientific research, test out Rube Goldberg machines, or observe historical reenactments all on one visit. It might be possible — but you are more likely to find this kind of learning adventure at your nearest Success Academy middle school.

The Greater NY Scholastic Chess Championships, held each year in downtown Brooklyn, is one of the most competitive scholastic chess tournaments in the country. Our scholars did amazingly well as teams and individuals, with five individual wins in the top three, and seven team wins in the top three!

If there’s one thing we love even as much as reading at Success Academy, it’s helping our scholars find and develop their writing voices. From elementary school onwards, our scholars practice writing every single day. Once they’ve learned to convey strong and precise ideas with clarity, purpose, and structure, they have a lifelong tool for […]

A select group of Success Academy scholars headed south this past weekend to compete in the 2018 National K-12 Grade Chess Championships. This event, held in Orlando, Florida, is set apart from other national tournaments in that scholars compete in teams and divisions based on their grade in school rather than on their chess ranking. Scholars from SA Upper West (3rd grade), SA Union Square (4th grade), SA Hudson Yards (5th, 6th, 7th grades), SA Bed Stuy 1 Middle School (8th grade), and the SA High School of the Liberal Arts (11th grade) gave it their all during seven intense games, and they returned laden with trophies!

Even though Keagan Whitehurst-Nicks is still learning and growing — after all, he’s only in fourth grade — there are a few things that he’s absolutely certain about. The first is that he will one day host his own talk show, titled Keeping up with Keagan. Secondly, his favorite subjects are theater and math. Third, […]

As our scholars, staff, and families enjoy the holiday season and winter break, we want to express our gratitude for everyone who is working together to build magical schools for our kids. You’ve created a community that wants for all children what we would want for our own; in fact, there are almost 60 of you who are so committed to our schools that you are both employees and Success Academy parents!

Natasha Storonsky Becker and Katelyn Klipfel are not teachers, but play an essential role in helping Success Academy scholars learn and grow. As school psychologists, at SA Washington Heights and SA High School of the Liberal Arts, respectively, they work directly with scholars, teachers, school leadership, and families to foster not just scholars’ academic growth, but their social and emotional development as well. Recently, we spoke with Natasha and Katelyn to get a sense of the essential work they and other school psychologists across the SA network do, day in and day out.

It was 2017 — Eni’s first year of teaching at Success Academy. After graduating from Harvard University, she joined Success in July, and from that moment on, it had felt like she was on the world’s craziest roller coaster. There were ups and downs, highs and lows, and it all happened at breakneck speed.

Imagine yourself on a stage — you’re 11 years old and about to perform — but instead of tap dancing or singing, you’re here to calculate. You’re presented with a question: Find a number, n, so that when you multiply n by itself, you get the product 0.000081. There are only thirty seconds allotted to […]

Every fall at Success Academy, our school communities become extremely excited for several not-to-be-missed events. One, of course, is the annual Halloween Parade. Another is far less commonly found in schools these days: a good old-fashioned Spelling Bee. We love our Bees because they foster determination and confidence in scholars — plus they’re fun!

When Success Academy 10th graders Ebrahim Jaiteh and Kiera Toussaint first arrived at the Loomis Chaffee boarding school campus, they were slightly shocked by the sound of silence — and the number of trees. The setting, so unlike the noisy bustling streets of where they grew up, would be the first of many differences that […]

The arrangement of a Success Academy classroom requires thoughtfulness, strategy, and — most importantly — creative joy. With every change, no matter how small, the teachers of SA Fort Greene were enacting a vision of the learning environment they wanted their scholars to experience.

Brittany Giovinazzi, SA Operations Chief of Staff, knows all about the logistics behind the learning at SA schools. She’s been working in operations at Success since 2012, starting out as an Operations Manager at SA Harlem 3. This is Brittany’s seventh summer of school renovations, so we caught up with her to learn more about the management behind the magic.

At Success Academy, we’re obsessed with the special “lightbulb” moments that come from reading excellent books. Our kindergartners pore over picture-books, our parents and teachers spend all summer reading, and our executive leaders swap title recommendations. Everyone at SA is in love with the transformational power of books!

What do track and field runners at Duke, Stanford, and Georgetown have in common? They are all members of some of the most competitive collegiate teams in the nation — and they all have to balance intense training with rigorous academic workloads. Success Academy coach Ozzie Henderson thinks he has the next big star for top collegiate programs like these — someone who thrives both on the track and in the classroom: sophomore Ronn’e Bailey.

If you do the math, factoring in what the WNYC data showed about attrition for elementary, middle, and high school grades, a hypothetical group of 72 first-graders at a typical district school serving kids through Grade 12 would be expected to have about 11 students remaining by the time they were ready to graduate. Compare that to the Success total: 23 students remaining, 16 of them graduating seniors.

Yesterday, Success Academy 8th graders celebrated their graduation from middle school. Speakers from each of the seven graduating classes reflected on their middle school experiences and shared their hopes and ambitions for high school. Here are excerpts from their speeches. Nia Hardaway, SA Harlem Central Middle School June 14th has finally arrived! It seems like […]

On Thursday, June 7, our very first class of high school seniors graduated at the stunning Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, 100% of them college-bound, many with full scholarships.

On Monday, families, scholars, and teachers gathered at the 2018 Visual Arts Showcase, held at the Agora Gallery in Chelsea, to view and celebrate selected pieces from across the network.

One hundred and six students from 14 Success Academy schools traveled to Nashville this past weekend, joining thousands of players from across the country to duke it out in what is considered the Super Bowl of scholastic chess: the National Elementary School Championships.

This year, Success Academy honors 140 faculty and staff from across all our elementary and middle schools for their extraordinary achievements, dedication, and commitment to scholars. We recognize educators in the three categories below: Academic Achievement The Academic Achievement Award recognizes the teachers who have inspired their scholars to perform at the highest academic level […]

At the 15th Annual All-Girls National Chess Championships, Success Academy scholars knocked it out of the park! Twenty-seven scholars from seven schools travelled to Chicago to compete this past weekend, and they dominated the tournament.

Sixteen Success Academy scholars took on some of the nation’s toughest chess competition at the Junior High Championships in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month. They tested their skills and stayed focused over seven rounds. Sean O’Hanlon, SA senior manager of chess, noted that our scholars demonstrated high levels of effort and fortitude — even under […]