Title: At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’ - The New York Times
Headings: At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’
At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’
Frequent Suspensions
Under Pressure
Mixed Messages

Content: In another example, a current employee said, a network lawyer in a conversation with colleagues described a particularly unruly student’s withdrawal as “a big win” for the school. In a written response to questions, Success Academy’s spokeswoman, Ann Powell, said that the “Got to Go” list was a mistake and that the network quickly got wind of it and reprimanded Mr. Brown, the principal. Ms. Powell said that Success schools did not push children out, and that what might look like an effort to nudge students out the door was actually an attempt to help parents find the right environment for their children. Some on the list required special education settings that Success could not offer them, she said. Image
From left, Folake Ogundiran, Folake Wimbish and Nicey Givens all withdrew their children from the school. Credit...
Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
Mr. Brown said in an email that he thought the disruptive behavior of the students on the list was dragging the whole school down, and “I felt I couldn’t turn the school around if these students remained.” Once he was reprimanded, though, he and his staff tried to work with those students, he said. Even so, five left before the end of the school year, and four more departed over the summer. As to the child’s withdrawal being a “big win,” Ms. Powell said, “if we have a parent whose child really needs to be in a different school, which was a better learning environment for him/her to succeed in and the parent had trouble accepting their child’s needs, might that be characterized as a ‘big win?’ Yes.”