Moskowitz’s Letter to Merrow: What She Reveals and Omits
On October 12, 2015, PBS NewsHour aired a segment entitled, “Is Kindergarten Too Young to Suspend a Student?” The piece features Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academies of New York. Here is the opener:
At the largest charter school network in New York City, strict academic and behavior standards set the stage for learning. That doesn’t exclude children as young as 5 or 6 years old, who can be given out-of-school suspensions if they don’t follow the rules. Special correspondent for education John Merrow explores what that policy means for both the child and the school.
What follows from the link above is a transcript of the nine-minute news segment, accompanied by an audio file. I suggest listening to the audio file, for two reasons: 1) The transcript has some errors, and 2) the audio file captures Eva Moskowitz’s pauses and voice inflection, which helps add depth to her spoken words.
The PBS segment also includes a note added on October 20, 2015:
Editor’s note: Since this story aired, Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy, has raised concerns that during her interview she was only asked questions about suspension policy in general and was not given an opportunity to respond to Jamir Geidi and his mother. NewsHour regrets that decision. You can read Ms. Moskowitz’ letter here and NewsHour’s responsehere.
Moskowitz felt misrepresented in Merrow’s news story, and PBS NewsHour admitted Moskowitz’s Letter to Merrow: What She Reveals and Omits | deutsch29:
