In the aftermath of the latest controversy plaguing high-performing New York charter school network Success Academy, its founder Eva Moskowitz has written a post for the Wall Street Journal explaining why Success’ strict behavioral policies work.

Though Moskowitz did not address the controversy surrounding Success’ tendency to repeatedly expel the same students, she did address the strict and often-described as “rigid” behavioral policies of the network that demand students sit straight up with their hands clasped and look at whomever is speaking in the eye- a policy called “tracking.”

“A school that fails to teach students this necessary skill [of focusing] isn’t doing right by them,” Moskowtiz said.

She describes being influenced by her mentor, Paul Fucaloro, a veteran New York City teacher of four decades bwho she being hired to be a trainer of Success’ teachers.

Besides strict policy on posture and “tracking," Moskowitz praises Paul’s more “sophisticated techniques.”

"He’d call on students randomly rather than ask for hands, so students had to prepare an answer for every question he asked. He made students repeat or comment on what their classmates said to make them listen carefully to one another. And he’d never repeat what a child said, as most teachers do, because—besides wasting precious time—it suggested to students that they didn’t have to listen to one another, only to the teacher,” Moskowitz said.

She acknowledges that these strict tactics have been met with frequent criticism- but will not back down for the benefit of all of her students.

Even her children criticize the “tracking” methods used by Success, but Moskowitz views it as tough love.

“ I’ve got two of these critics in my own home: my kids, who attend Success. They complain when they get into trouble for not tracking the speaker. They were listening, they protest. Maybe so. But sometimes when kids look like they’re daydreaming, it’s because they are, and we can’t allow that possibility,” she says.

Read Moskotwitz’s full post.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

11/17/2015