SUCCESS ACADEMY NAMES LISA SUN AS CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER TO REIMAGINE K-12 PUBLIC EDUCATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Laura Wilker, 332-895-2237
Laura.Wilker@successacademies.
Ann Powell, 646-894-6407
Ann.Powell@successacademies.
SUCCESS ACADEMY NAMES LISA SUN AS CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER TO REIMAGINE K-12 PUBLIC EDUCATION
New York, NY, August 17, 2022 — Today, Success Academy Founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz announced the appointment of Lisa Sun as Chief Learning Officer. As CLO, Sun will be responsible for driving academic excellence and learning quality, as the network embarks on its 17th year of educating children from some of New York City’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The fifth-largest and highest-performing school district in New York State — # 1 on state tests, outpacing affluent suburbs — Success Academy has shown that children of color from low-income neighborhoods can excel at the highest level when they have access to high-quality teaching and learning.
With its first college graduates entering the workforce, and four more graduating classes enrolled in selective colleges and universities across the nation, Success Academy’s achievement is unprecedented in American public education. Yet the network is not easing up. With sky-high aspirations for all of its 21,000 students across almost 50 campuses, Success Academy presses forward with its commitment to continuous improvement — and to fundamentally reimagine what K-12 education can be. As CLO, Sun will be charting that course.
“Lisa is an extraordinary thinker, leader, and educator,” said Success Academy Founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz. “I am confident that she is the leader to guide us in dramatically increasing student preparedness, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Her courage and conviction to go where no educator has gone before is unparalleled, and her skill at leading, managing, and scaling will allow us to fundamentally re-imagine public education, from end to end.”
As CLO, Sun will set a high bar for rigor and develop a unique educational vision and philosophy that drives toward scholar success in college and life. Working to ensure that vision is translated into all aspects of teaching and learning, she will oversee the scope and sequence of all content disciplines — not only curricular design and implementation, but assessments, pedagogical approaches, training content and design, and school design from an academic perspective. Sun will also supervise the critical development of our training infrastructure, logistics, and delivery modes — working to build a model that can help teachers and leaders go from good to great at speed and at scale.
In contrast to a collapsing U.S. educational system, Success Academy’s learning quality target could not be more stark. Even before the pandemic, nearly two-thirds of students were unable to read at grade level. National assessment scores have been falling for several years, and the pandemic has made a bad situation worse, especially for our country’s most vulnerable learners. As a K-12 model and resource for educators, schools, and districts across the country, Success Academy plans to demonstrate how educational equity at scale is not just possible but achievable.
“We know that all students are infinitely capable,” said Sun. “As educators, it is our responsibility to unleash student potential — to develop their autonomy,self-assuredness, and capacity for sophisticated thinking. It’s an honor to lead this transformation and provide a proof point for the nation that we must fundamentally raise the bar.”
A graduate of Yale University, Sun began her career at Success Academy in 2010, as an assistant teacher at SA Harlem 2. After stints as a 4th grade teacher, an assistant principal, principal of SA Harlem North Central Middle School, and then principal of SA’s initial Bronx high school, Sun moved to Success Academy’s Network office to lead the high school curriculum design and instructional management team in 2018. More recently, as Executive of K-12 Learning, Sun directed SA’s Education Institute team in designing and developing K-12 STEM and Humanities curricula, in creating innovative approaches to educational measurement that comprehensively redefine standards for high-quality learning; and in enhancing training that increased school leaders’ capability to develop staff and realize top-tier student learning results.
About Success Academy
Since its founding in 2006, Success Academy has created the highest-performing public school district in New York state, and a national model of access to excellence for children across all demographics. We currently enroll over 21,000 children in 49 elementary, middle, and high schools. The majority of Success Academy scholars are children of color from low-income households in disadvantaged neighborhoods, admitted through a random public lottery. Our distinctive K-12 approach, designed as a holistic 13-year educational trajectory, leads to student outcomes that outpace even those in affluent suburban schools. To date, 100% of SA’s graduates have been accepted to college, many to highly selective institutions. Most are the first in their families to have the opportunity for higher education. We regularly share our curriculum and methods with educators and school leaders across the country. By scaling excellence and reigniting the civic mission of education, Success Academy is leading a movement to reinvent public education.
For more information about Success Academy, go to successacademies.org.
Share
