Visit to
September 7, 2007
Comments and photos by Whitney Tilson (WTilson@tilsonfunds.com)
I recently visited the Harlem Success Academy charter school
for the first time since its grand opening a year ago and was pleased to see
how well it’s done. The school has doubled its enrollment to 290 students
and added a grade (it’s now K-2, having opened as K-1). In addition to growing
this school to K-8, the Success Charter Network is planning to open 40 schools
in
The backers of all of this are my good friends and fellow value investors, Joel Greenblatt and John Petry, and spearheading the day-to-day activities is CEO Eva Moskowitz, also a good friend and a relentless crusader for better educational opportunities for low-income children (remember the awesome hearings she held when she was Chair of the NY City Council Education Committee?). See more on Eva below.
Thanks to Eva’s leadership, top-notch teachers, a solid curriculum, an extended
school day and year, and a culture that expects every child (called a “Harlem
Success scholar”) to graduate from college, the school is already knocking the
cover off the ball. Only 9% and 18% of entering first grade students last year
were at or above grade level in Math and
Speaking of science, how many schools do you know in which every student, starting in kindergarten, has a science class five days per week?
Also note that rather than whining about how onerous tests are and the horrors of “teaching to the test”, Harlem Success says (from its web site): “we test before students enter school to know children’s starting points. We then test using both internal curriculum assessments and nationally-normed tests. The internal curriculum assessments allow us to target academic interventions in real-time, track trends in student learning, make curriculum enhancements, and provide useful feedback to teachers and parents. The nationally-normed tests allow us to see how we match up to schools across the country while preparing our students to be strong test-takers.”
Below are pictures and further commentary from my visit. If you’d like to support the school, please join me at a Texas Hold’Em Poker Tournament to benefit the school: see www.scnschools.org/events/poker.
PS--To see web pages with photos and comments from my visits to other charter schools, see www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/KIPP, www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/KIPPAMP and www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Newarkcharters
PPS--Here’s an excerpt from an interview Eva did with the Education Sector:
Education Sector: What attracted you to education policy?
Eva Moskowitz: My entire family is from the world
of education. My grandmother was a typing teacher in the
ES: Why?
M: Because of public education. We had not a second-rate education system, but a tenth-rate system and I ran when it was politically incorrect to say that: you were a pariah if you said that there was a problem with the public schools. I remember a very prominent elected official advising me to never ever say during my campaign that there was a problem with public education. Criticizing the schools, he said, was the quickest way to not get elected.
ES: As a Democrat?
M: As a Democrat. I didn't know from Republicans. I was told as a Democrat that I had to be proud of public education. But I didn't follow that advice and I lost. But that was my reason for running. To me, one should be proud of an excellent system of public education, not a lousy one.
Eva ran again in 1999 and was elected.]
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Eva in front of the board that tracks how many books the Harlem Success students read (or have read to them). The school tracks sets expectations, assigns a reading list and follows up rigorously with parents to make sure they’re following through. Last year’s students read an incredible 50,847 books, more than 300 per student! For perspective, keep in mind that 58% and 54% of African-American and Latino 4th graders nationwide score Below Basic on the NAEP test, meaning they basically can’t read – a national disgrace and disaster.
This year’s students have already read more than 9,000 books, more than 30 per student!
Harlem Success clearly articulates the high expectations it has of its students.
This bulletin board all of the colleges that Harlem Success teachers attended – it’s a very impressive list, in marked contrast to the many studies which show that low-income, minority children disproportionately get teachers who attended non-competitive colleges, scored in the bottom quartile of GRE, SAT and/or ACT tests, were more likely to have failed the basic skills test for teachers, etc.
Each teacher’s home room is named after to college that teacher attended, and the door is decorated as the teacher sees fit with all of the students’ names.
Note that each class is the year that the student will graduate from a four-year college – in this case, 2024.
Note how well organized and brightly lit the room is (Eva even found special, extra-bright and 10x longer-lasting bubs), with student artwork already decorating the walls. Note also the boxes of building blocks in the foreground. Apparently this is unusual, as politically correct orthodoxy today frowns on this (wouldn’t want to challenge kids too young???), but Eva rejects this – along with all Alice-in-Wonderland-education-world drivel and nonsense.
Students’ artwork also graces the hallways.
This apron is in the science classroom. 80% of the science classes involve some type of hands-on experiment.
There are many reminders of the behavior expectations for the students.
I like these sayings.
Some great data to show the students the payoff from education.