Dive Brief:
- A new piece from The New York Times highlights New York charter network Success Academy's high test scores and juxtaposes its academic success with the looming fear that Mayor Bill de Blasio will try to cap city charter numbers and raise rent.
- Among the network's critics are New York University education historian Diane Ravitch, who pushes against the glowing profile of the Success Academies charter network and its founder Eva Moskowitz.
- Ravitch is wary of the hagiographic depiction of the schools and Moskowitz, pointing out that the schools have high attrition rates and teacher turnover.
Dive Insight:
According to Ravitch, Success Academy's high test scores are a product of attrition, as she argues that low-performing or "non-conformist" students are pushed out. Ravitch writes in her Huffington Post editorial, "The only Success Academy school that has fully grown to grades 3-8 tested 116 third graders, but only 32 eighth graders." Pushback to this argument could be that many schools in disadvantaged areas have high attrition. What makes Success unique is the fact that it caps the number of students in each grade, so once a number of students leave, it does not let new students in. Success leaders say this is to build school culture, however, Ravitch argues that this is unreasonable and an unfair schooling model to place on a pedestal, since other public schools would be unable to replicate this plan.