New Harlem Charter School Opens Amid Praise
By Sybil Maimin
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Joel Greenblatt |
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Joel Klein |
Its name, Harlem Success Academy, is both a promise and a challenge. Opened in the fall of 2006 with a kindergarten and first grade and plans to expand through fifth grade (admission by lottery), this academically rigorous charter school boasts high profile leadership—executive director Eva Moskowitz was the talented and often feisty chair of the New York City Council’s Education Committee, principal Iris Nelson won the prestigious Pathfinder Reward for turning low-performing PS 65Q in Queens into a high-performing school, and stock picking guru and hedge fund manager Joel Greenblatt and partner John Petry contribute the significant difference between public monies and the school’s operating budget. Nelson admits to “pressure from many places. Failure is not an option,” she exclaims. “We made a commitment to succeed.”
Attesting to its importance as a potential model of good practices and to the celebrity of its founders, a recent opening celebration was attended by over 200 superintendents, principals, public and charter sector educators, city officials, parents, and boosters. New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein delivered an impassioned and supportive address. Acknowledging that he and Moskowitz had often been at loggerheads, he nonetheless admitted he “admires Eva’s relentless fight for ki ds that need education which for far too long this city and nation has denied them.” He said, “Everyone tells you how to do it in education, and I say, show me, don’t tell me.” To his surprise, “Eva fooled me—she is doing it, the hard work of transforming education.” Saying, “I want this school to succeed. . . . We need schools like this that will succeed to the highest level,” he decried the “soft bigotry of low expectations, the growing gap between black and white,” and the “cap on excellence and opportunity in our city.”
The curriculum at Harlem Success Academy is based on Success for All, a widely used whole school reform program that focuses on language and literacy and emphasizes cooperative learning, peer teams, constant coaching, monitoring, and assessments, and data-driven targeted instruction. Its mantra is “Every child can succeed.” Highly experienced trainers thoroughly prepare Harlem Success staff to utilize the reading, math, and family support portions of the program. Explaining the favorable outcomes at PS 65Q, Nelson says, “We were able to put together such a true implementation of the program, to fine tune it and take it to a higher level that we got incredible results. We hope to do the same thing here.” During the first months of Harlem Success, reading scores have been impressive. Explaining that all students, even outstanding ones, are tutored twenty minutes each day, Nelson muses, “It’s all about movement. Everyone can go to a higher level.” Harlem Success parents agree by contract to read one book a night to their children. Moskowitz explains compliance is encouraged by providing reading lists, ensuring local branch libraries have recommended books, sending phone message reminders, posting class totals of books read, and giving small gifts of appreciation to parents. Parent to student reading has gone from thirty to ninety-nine percent, and in three months 18,077 books have been read. Michel Thiam, mother of first grader Aida Bathily, reports, “So far, I am very satisfied. It’s a good, tough school.” Referring to her reading contract, she admits, “I think reading is very important and since I am from Senegal, I’m learning, too.” Unlike most schools, science is introduced in kindergarten and taught one hour each day to all pupils. A broad liberal arts curriculum includes chess, karate, soccer, art, and dance. Teachers have broad experience (many are from Teach for America). Future college attendance is expected of students, and each grade is referred to by its assumed college graduation year, and each classroom is named for the college of its lead teacher. In a delightful film showing daily life at the school, children regularly refer to themselves as “Harlem Success scholars.”
School supporter and visionary Greenblatt has made some smart decisions in the financial world. He is now betting on Harlem Success Academy. He has “always been passionate about education,” and notes, “The capitalist system has been very good to me.” In giving back, he wants to ensure that “everyone has an opportunity to get a good education.” Confident of success, he and Moskowitz have “an ambitious replication strategy” that would create 30 similar charter schools in the future.
