Success Academy keeps showing how great public schools can be — when they’re focused on excellence for the kids, rather than serving adult “stakeholders.” The latest: The Post reports over 93% of Success Academy eighth graders passed four state Regents exams, when passing five is the central qualification for a Regents high-school diploma.
These kids are predominantly poor and black or Hispanic, and they were stuck in remote learning for more than a year. But they’re outperforming students in the regular public schools who are three and four years older.
That’s because the Success Network doesn’t fall back on excuses: It’s determined to teach, to help every scholar reach his or her highest potential. Even during COVID, every student learned from live instruction. (In one concession to the remote-learning challenge, Success dropped the passing score from 70 to 65, but that’s still a higher standard than the regular system uses.)
As a result, most of these young men and women not only passed, but scored at a high level in Algebra I, Global History, Living Environment and English. This, when fairly few city eighth graders even take one Regents exam.
Meanwhile, the state education establishment is working to please “equity” advocates who want to do away with the exams, watering them down and seeking every opportunity to cancel the tests.
No wonder students and families are fleeing city-run public schools and flocking to charters and other high-quality alternatives.
The only thing preventing more kids from enrolling at high-quality charters like Success is the state cap (preserved at the behest of the teachers unions) that prevents more such schools from opening.
Happily, GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin vows to eliminate the charter-school cap if elected in November. That makes him the clear choice for any voter who cares about public education, or simply about kids.