Whitmire: Both Fans and Critics of Success Academy’s Remarkable Results Will Find Something to Like in Pondiscio’s New Book. But Don’t Use It to Judge All Charter Schools
New York City’s Success Academy charter schools, which have an enrollment of 17,000 students, are both highly praised and highly criticized. The schools primarily educate low-income and minority students who consistently achieve exceptional academic performance.
Supporters of Success Academy believe that their success is due to their high expectations, strict discipline, and comprehensive curriculum. They argue that if regular public schools in New York City implemented similar strategies and had more flexibility in teacher contracts, they could achieve the same level of success. These supporters view Success Academy’s founder, Eva Moskowitz, as a reformer who is making positive changes in education.
On the other hand, detractors of Success Academy claim that their success is merely a façade. They argue that the schools cherry-pick high-performing students, inflict harsh disciplinary practices that are detrimental to children, and prioritize test preparation over actual education. These critics view Moskowitz as an enemy, especially due to her opposition to teachers unions.
Educator and writer Robert Pondiscio enters this ongoing debate with his book, "How the Other Half Learns: Equality, Excellence, and the Battle Over School Choice." In the 2016-17 school year, Pondiscio had unprecedented access to Success Academy Bronx 1 Elementary School, located in the high-poverty Mott Haven neighborhood. Despite his background as a senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which supports charter schools, Pondiscio provides an unbiased examination of Success Academy.
Pondiscio uncovers what makes Success Academy unique and successful. He highlights a 2016 report that revealed 10 of the top 25 schools in New York City’s state literacy test were Success Academy schools. Furthermore, 19 of the 25 highest-scoring schools in math were also Success Academy schools. Pondiscio notes that even the lowest-performing school in the Success Academy network surpasses other high-poverty schools.
Pondiscio is particularly interested in curriculum and credits the success of Success Academy to its rigorous and standardized curriculum. He emphasizes the importance of background knowledge, as espoused by education philosopher E.D. Hirsch, which is incorporated into the curriculum. Despite large class sizes, Pondiscio details the teaching methods that lead to high test scores in reading and math. He focuses on how the curriculum compensates for the learning deficits commonly associated with poverty, such as limited exposure to rich vocabularies.
Pondiscio concludes that while the curriculum is essential, the key factor in Success Academy’s success is the shared curriculum among teachers. This collaboration is lacking in many other schools, where teachers have significant autonomy in their instructional decisions. Pondiscio criticizes the prevalent practice of teachers relying on internet resources to create their curricula.
Success Academy’s schools function like streamlined race cars, with minimal distractions hindering the pursuit of academic excellence. Principals act as instructional leaders, ensuring that teachers adhere to specific classroom management techniques and instructional tactics. This laser-focus on instruction leaves little room for principals to handle non-academic matters, leading to the introduction of business operations managers who oversee logistical aspects of the schools.
Overall, Pondiscio’s book provides a comprehensive and nuanced exploration of Success Academy. It examines the factors contributing to their success while also addressing the concerns raised by critics.
Now let’s consider the negative aspects of the book that critics might focus on.
The main criticism of Success, apart from the argument that its strict discipline and test preparation methods are akin to child abuse, is that it favors certain students over others. However, supporters of Success can counter this argument by highlighting the fact that Success schools use a lottery system to select students, ensuring a fair selection process. This lottery system is seen as a more egalitarian approach.
But getting admitted to Success Academy is just the beginning. Parents who "win" a seat are then required to attend school sessions where they are made aware of the intense demands placed on them, such as ensuring their children arrive punctually in the correct uniform and fulfilling reading requirements with their child that need to be documented. Repeatedly, parents are reminded that Success Academy is not suitable for everyone.
This is where the filtering process starts. Parents who are apprehensive about the time commitments and concerned about their child’s behavior in class may reconsider and look for alternatives. It can be assumed that these are the children who are less likely to excel in the state exam. The school then turns to its extensive waiting list, which also goes through a quick filtering process.
One example that sheds light on this is the requirement for parents on the waiting list to attend a school uniform fitting. At first glance, this seems reasonable. In the event that their child gets a seat at the last minute, they will be prepared. However, here’s the catch: students whose parents do not bring them to the fitting are removed from the waiting list. This causes less committed parents to drop out of the running.
Ultimately, the families who show up for the first day of school are predominantly two-parent families (many of them religious), which is not the norm for the neighborhood. These are the exact type of parents who are eager to embrace the strict regimen they believe will give their children a chance to escape poverty and enter the middle class. It is clear that Success selectively chooses parents, but not in the malicious manner they are accused of.
Pondiscio also examines the disciplinary requirements imposed on the schools, particularly the interventions aimed at students deemed as outliers who disrupt classrooms. He presents two perspectives on these extensive interventions, which involve multiple mandatory meetings with parents.
The first perspective is that Success is making an effort to help all children and is willing to invest the necessary resources to achieve that. The second, less generous perspective, as Pondiscio writes, is that this may be a deliberate attempt to remove outlier children who do not meet the conduct and performance standards. Whether or not this is true cannot be completely ruled out.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume the less generous perspective is accurate. Isn’t Success doing what middle-class parents in suburban areas would do when faced with a disruptive child impeding learning? They would unite with other parents and raise their concerns with the principal until the disruptive child is removed. It’s worth questioning whether criticizing Success for doing the same with children from low-income families is hypocritical.
According to Pondiscio, the true secret behind Success lies in its culture. This culture is embraced by the majority of like-minded parents who willingly accept all the demands placed on them and their children. The strict discipline is not solely for the purpose of maintaining an orderly classroom; it’s also to ensure that students have access to a comprehensive and carefully designed curriculum.
Is this really such a negative thing? Pondiscio believes that families living in high-poverty neighborhoods deserve access to schools that perform as well as suburban, private, and exam schools. He argues that if we expect engaged and committed parents to send their children to school alongside those whose parents are less involved, then we need to explain why this standard applies only to low-income black and brown parents.
He’s absolutely right about that.
What concerns me about the book is that it suggests that because only Success Academy achieves these exceptional test scores and is not easily duplicated, it serves as a judgment on the broader school reform movement. Pondiscio suggests that the obstacles to overcoming generational poverty are so complex and daunting, influenced by numerous social and historical factors that are beyond a school’s control, that only a rare and specific set of conditions, under a demanding and visionary leader, can lead to success. Rather than a blueprint to follow, Success Academy may be more akin to a unique and unlikely occurrence.
Perhaps there is some truth to his argument. With thousands of charter schools across the country, only a few can compare to Success Academy’s test scores. Is this an indication of failure?
It is not too early to apply the same standards to many other charter networks that have a large number of graduates who have completed six years of schooling. These networks have surpassed expectations by a factor of two to four, based on the demographics of their alumni. Unlike Success Academy, these networks admit students in later grades and generally do not selectively accept only high-performing students, which may explain why their test scores are not as impressive.
One example of such a network is Uncommon Schools, whose college success rates are nearly as high as students from wealthy families, despite the fact that their students come from disadvantaged backgrounds in Newark.
Should Success Academy aim to achieve or surpass these college success rates? Perhaps, but that is not the main point. The point is that low-income parents who choose these high-performing charter schools deserve to have these options, just as the dedicated parents who believe in Success Academy’s model deserve theirs. The fact that students in these schools do not perform as well on state exams may not be relevant.
Success Academy may be an exceptional case, producing remarkable results for a specific group of parents. However, it is important to remember that there are numerous school reform experiments across the country that are successful without being considered unicorns.
Richard Whitmire, an education writer and the author of "The B.A. Breakthrough: How Ending Diploma Disparities Can Change the Face of America," disclosed that Campbell Brown serves on the board of directors for Success Academy and co-founded , but had no involvement in the reporting or editing of this story.
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