Student discontent and high attrition at Success Academy; hearings next week about their intent to ditch three planned high schools in Brooklyn
While most New Yorkers may not know what goes on behind the blue doors of Success Academy charter schools (more on that later), their relentless demand for more space and expansion definitely rings familiar, including many well-publicized events when Success Academy closed all of its schools to have their students and parents lobby in Albany for expansion and more space in public schools.
Any public school advocate will tell you that Success Academy almost always wins their fights for space. Eva Moskowitz, the firebrand CEO of Success Academies has Governor Cuomo’s ear, and the organization has access to boat loads of money. [Note from LH: not in this one case where DOE tried to give them the entire school building of PS 25 in Bed-Stuy without going through the legal process – assuming their attempt to close PS 25 would go through – but a judge blocked them.]
In 2014, Success Academy held multiple press conferences and sued the city, demanding public school space for three of its schools while granting space for five other of its schools. Mayor de Blasio explained that these three would mean displacing disabled D75 students. The city ended up renting and paying for private space for these schools at great expense. In 2017, they launched a $5M television ad campaign for more middle school space.
Success Academy’s argument has always been that they just don’t have enough space for the huge wait lists of families clamoring to be in their schools. We must open more! We must give them more space! [And yet studies show that half of the students accepted at the school never enroll.]
Yet Success Academy has quietly requested revisions to their charter authorizer, SUNY, with announced hearings on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30 , to cancel the opening of all three planned high schools in Brooklyn: Success Academy Williamsburg, Success Academy Cobble Hill, and Success Academy Bed Stuy 2. [You can sign up to speak or attend these online hearings here.]
Last June, they requested that their total planned high school enrollment from these schools be eliminated, and instead 118 additional students be added to Success Academy Harlem 1, located in the Norman Thomas building on E. 33 St. in District 2 this fall. Success Academy’s reason for the closing of the three planned high schools in Brooklyn is “due to facility constraints.” Yet as far as we can tell, they never requested more space from DOE, so this excuse seems questionable.
Moreover, because of a state law passed in 2014, the city is required to help pay the rent for private space of any new or expanding charter school in private space if they are not provided with space in a public school. As detailed in this report issued last year by Class Size Matters, DOE spent $2.9 million in FY 2019 alone, leasing nine buildings for Success charters. In addition, they spent $2.2 million that same year for two Success Academy charter schools to rent space in the Hudson Yards complex on the west side of Manhattan, even though the Success Academy charter management organization owns the space. Not to mention that Success CMO enjoyed a huge surplus in 2018 of more than $60 million according to the IRS data and $12 million for the charter schools themselves. In 2019, they received an additional $9.8 million to expand and open new schools, including a new high school.
Revising their charters and moving students around isn’t new to Success Academy. In recent years, they’ve changed planned enrollments at their middle schools and shuffled students from one area to another. What is notable about this hearing is there will be NO Success Academy high school in Brooklyn in spite of having five Success Academy middle schools in the borough.
Given what we know about Success Academy, and their promises to families that they will continue to offer high school seats to all graduating 8th graders, combined with their relentless push for space in public school buildings regardless of community opposition, we were curious why Success Academy didn’t fight for space for their high schools in Brooklyn.
Success Academy opened in 2006 with just one school and 83 Kindergartners. They now boast 47 schools serving 18,000 students. Success Academy doesn’t admit students from outside their system after 4th grade, so middle schools and high school entry is exclusive to students who have been enrolled in their elementary schools.
Gary Rubinstein has written about Success Academy’s attrition, calculating the rate per year at 17% after 4th grade when there is no more back-filling of students. Rubinstein analyzed the graduating class of 2020 and found:
“…there was a combined 353 students in the cohort [2nd grade]. By 6th grade, they were down to 263 students and by 9th grade it was 191. In 10th grade they were 161 students and in 11th grade, 146. And now, according to the New York Post article based on a Success Academy press release, they have 114 seniors. So only 32% of the students who were there in second grade made it through their program. And even more startling is that of the 191 9th graders that had been at Success Academy for 10 years, only 59% of them are on track to graduate three years later.”
Still, given the network’s rapid expansion, one would anticipate enough rising 8th graders for a Brooklyn high school. That is, unless you look at Bed Stuy 1, where the 2019- CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Student discontent and high attrition at Success Academy; hearings next week about their intent to ditch three planned high schools in Brooklyn
