How Success Academy Fared Against Other Renowned Charter Networks

I posted earlier today about the miraculous statistics Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy Schools garnered on the new Common Core tests.

Scores across the state plummeted on the 3rd-8th grade ELA and math exams, but Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy schools bucked that trend with some amazing scores:

There were some charter networks that boasted victory — like the aptly named Success Academy Charter Schools.

At one Bronx school, a whopping 97% of students were proficient in math, and 77% passed English. Overall, the 14-school charter network saw 82% of students meet standards in math and 58% meet standards in English.

Success Academy students outperformed traditional public schools students on math exams by 52% and ELA exams by 32%.  

 

Success Academy students outperformed charter school students on math exams by 47% and ELA exams by 33%.

 

And one Success Academy school was head and shoulders above all the other Success Academy schools.

 

At Bronx Success Academy, students outperformed traditional public school students on the math exams by 67%, charter school students by 62%.

 

On the ELA exams, Bronx Success Academy students outperformed charter school students by 52%, traditional public schools by 51%.

 

Those are truly, truly awe-inspiring statistics.

 

At Politico, Stephanie Simon took a closer look at how some of Eva Moskowitz's famous compatriots in the charter world did on the new Common Core tests and found them dragging well behind Eva's schools:

 

The Democracy Prep chain posted uneven results, with particularly poor scores in sixth grade. In its Harlem charter, fewer than 4 percent of sixth graders passed the language arts exam, and fewer than 12 percent passed math. Its best results came at the eighth grade level, but even then the pass rate on both tests was under 33 percent — better than the citywide average of about 26 percent, but not a quantum leap above other public schools.

Democracy Prep officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The highly touted KIPP network also stumbled, with proficiency rates well below the city average for several grades and subjects. At KIPP Star College Prep, just 11 percent of fifth graders were proficient in math and just 16 percent passed the reading test.

Seventh grade was another weak point, with 11 percent proficient in language arts and 14 percent in math. KIPP also did not respond to a request for comment.

The poor results for KIPP, Democracy Prep and other renowned charters suggest that “we have to be more careful about claims of miracle schools,” said Michael Petrilli, an education analyst at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Michael Petrilli seems to forget that Success Academy charter schools did post miraculous results on the state tests - especially at Bronx Success Academy, where 97% of students were proficient in math.

It seems to me achieving a 97% proficiency rate on the state math exam when so many other schools, including schools in fellow charter networks like Democracy Prep and KIPP, saw their scores plunge rates Bronx Success Academy as a "miracle school."

Eva Moskowitz and the crew at the Success Academies, especially at the Bronx Success Academy, deserve "Huzzahs!" for their amazing achievements on these state exams.

And after those "Huzzahs!", maybe somebody ought to take a closer look at those statistics to see just how Eva Moskowitz and her crew got those awe-inspiring scores - especially at Bronx Success Academy.

Clearly Eva Moskowitz and the Success Academy crew have something to teach the rest of us - including the KIPPsters and Democracy Prep people - about how to run schools.

I do hope some independent entity does a study of the Success Academy test score results so that we can all learn just how they got such awe-inspiring scores.