SUCCESS ACADEMY’S BLACK AND HISPANIC STUDENTS ACHIEVE PROFICIENCY RATES DOUBLE AND TRIPLE THAT OF NEW YORK CITY PEERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Laura Wilker, 332-895-2237
Laura.Wilker@successacademies.
Ann Powell, 646-894-6407
Ann.Powell@successacademies.
SUCCESS ACADEMY’S BLACK AND HISPANIC STUDENTS ACHIEVE PROFICIENCY RATES DOUBLE AND TRIPLE THAT OF NEW YORK CITY PEERS
Network Averages 76.4% Pass Rates in ELA and 82.7% in Math, While Expanding the Number of Test Takers from 7,400 to 11,000
New York, NY, September 29, 2022 — Despite declines from 2019 NY state exams, Black and Hispanic children at Success Academy achieved double, and in some cases triple, the pass rates of their district peers. The network of almost 50 schools, enrolling 20,000, achieved overall pass rates of 76.4% and 82.7% — with 33% and 56% scoring at Level 4 — in ELA and math, respectively. In NYC district schools, 49% of all students passed reading and 37.9% passed math. About 10% of district students opted out, whereas virtually all SA students took the exams.
“Many of our students were set back by the pandemic,” said Eva Moskowitz, Success Academy founder and CEO, “but given the challenges so many of our families faced, and the fact that the number of our test takers grew from 7,400 to 11,000, we are incredibly proud of what they were able to achieve.”
Among the nearly SA 11,000 test takers this spring, 47.6% are Black, 32.1% Hispanic, 8.4% Asian, and 6.9% white. About 76% are from low-income families.
The percentage of students scoring at the low (Level 1) and high end (Level 4) of the state exams also demonstrated a sharp contrast between the city’s district schools and Success Academy. Only 3.1% of SA students scored Level 1 in ELA, and less than 5% did so in math, compared to 22.5% and 38.5% for district students, respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, 32.8% of SA students scored a 4 in ELA and 56.3% in math, compared to 22.3% in ELA and 19.2% for district students.
Despite the pandemic’s toll, students at a dozen of SA’s elementary schools, all of them Title 1 schools, achieved pass rates of 91% or above on math, scoring within a few points of their 2019 pass rates of 99%. At five elementary schools, students scored above 85% on the ELA exam this year, compared with the network’s ELA average score of 90% in 2019.
Middle school scholars in G6-8 saw strong scores: in ELA, scholars in grades 6-8 at all 15 Success Academy middle schools averaged pass rates of 88% or better; in math, five schools averaged pass rates of 90% or higher in these grades. All Success Academy 8th graders took four Regents exams — Algebra I, ELA, Living Environment, and Global History and Geography — with pass rates of 93% or above on all four.
About Success Academy
Since its founding in 2006, Success Academy has created the highest-performing public school district in New York state, and a national model of access to excellence for children across all demographics. We currently enroll over 20,000 children in our 47 elementary, middle, and high schools. The majority of Success Academy scholars are children of color from low-income households in disadvantaged neighborhoods, admitted through a random public lottery. Our distinctive K-12 approach, designed as a holistic thirteen-year educational trajectory, leads to student outcomes that outpace even those in affluent suburban schools. To date, 100% of SA’s graduates have been accepted to college, many to highly selective institutions. Most are the first in their families to have the opportunity for higher education. We regularly share our groundbreaking curriculum and methods with educators and school leaders across the country. By scaling excellence and reigniting the civic mission of education, Success Academy is leading a movement to reinvent public education. All children can thrive and achieve in school, in college, and in life — Success Academy students and teachers prove it every day.
For more information about Success Academy, go to successacademies.org.
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