SUCCESS ACADEMY WORKS TO CLOSE THE OPPORTUNITY GAP — NOT JUST IN SCHOOL, BUT IN LIFE EXPERIENCES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Laura Wilker, 332-895-2237
Laura.Wilker@successacademies.
Ann Powell, 646-894-6407
Ann.Powell@successacademies.
SUCCESS ACADEMY WORKS TO CLOSE THE OPPORTUNITY GAP — NOT JUST IN SCHOOL, BUT IN LIFE EXPERIENCES
Organization Takes Almost 5,000 First and Second Graders to the Big Apple Circus
New York, NY, December 13, 2022 — It takes four days and a bit of patience to get 5,000 first and second graders and their chaperones under the Big Top of the Big Apple Circus, but Success Academy has had years of practice! Since 2006 when the first Success Academy opened, the K-12 network has made sure all scholars, most from low-income families, get to experience a trip to the circus at no cost to their families. It’s one of the many field studies that are standard in its curriculum, along with trips to the Paper Bag Players, pumpkin fields, apple orchards, and ferry rides.
“Our kids should be on equal footing with their peers, many of whom have more opportunities and exposure because of their socioeconomic backgrounds,” said Eva Moskowitz, Success Academy founder and CEO. “It’s an issue of equity and access.”
Ensuring educational equity means closing the experience gap as well as the achievement gap, and making sure that children have opportunities to experience the performing arts and the great institutions that abound in NYC. About twice a month, scholars take part in some sort of field study. This year’s field studies include a Circle Line cruise around the Brooklyn Bridge with a historian to supplement second graders’ in-class work learning about bridges, a virtual talk with Grace Lin, author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon/Night for fifth graders, and a meeting with Holocaust survivors for seventh graders’ World War II and Holocaust units.
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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 20,000 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.
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