Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, May 6, 2019

Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts


Teacher Appreciation Week begins today. How better to launch it than by devoting the day to Gary Rubinstein’s review of podcasts about Success Academy?
Gary began his teaching career in TFA, but turned into a sharp critic of TFA and a dedicated career teacher.
Gary Rubinstein came across a trove of podcasts about Success Academy, and he suspected theyheld the key to the “success” of Success Academy in New York City. SA is the quintessential “no excuses” charter chain. It’s rules are strict, even draconian. The chain is driven by a philosophy that black and brown children must be disciplined and surveilled closely. No error must go uncorrected. Every infraction must be swiftly punished.
I debated whether to publish Gary’s posts as they appeared or all at once. I decided on the latter course of action. So today is devoted to podcasts about Success Academy. Though it is based in New York City, its impact is national. The chain presents itself as a model for American education. Nonsense.
Here is Gary’s first report.
Of all the charter school networks in the country, there is none that is more controversial or more secretive than Success Academy.  If ‘success’ is defined as high 3-8 state test scores, then Success Academy has earned its name.  But critics charge that this ‘success’ comes at the expense of other, more important measures of success.
This past November, a seven part podcast was published by a production company called startup.  Soon after it was released, there were some excerpts of some of the most negative parts of the podcast printed on some blogs, but generally it seems to have came and went.
I was very interested in this podcast for a lot of reasons.  I’ve been following Success Academy for years and have been piecing together evidence about all the different CONTINUE READING: Today Is Dedicated to Gary Rubinstein’s Review of Success Academy Podcasts | Diane Ravitch's blog