Since January 2018, Chalkbeat New York has posted eight articles on New York’s Success Academy Charter School Network. The most recent article covered the graduation ceremony held for the network high schools SIXTEEN graduating seniors at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. An April article featured the Success Academy’s “Slam the Exam” test rally at the 19,000 seat Barclay’s Arena in Brooklyn. The bill for a 2013 high school graduation held at Barclay Center was $60,000.
According to its webpage, “Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to covering one of America’s most important stories: the effort to improve schools for all children, especially those who have historically lacked access to a quality education. We are mission-driven, in that we believe that every child deserves an excellent education, and that a strong press is vital to making that happen. Yet we are also fiercely independent, in that we do not take a position on the best path for achieving equity.” The webpage also stresses Chalkbeat’s commitment to local news coverage.
I do not understand why Chalkbeat did not cover student protests at the Success Academy Charter School Network’s high schools during the 2017-2018 academic year, especially since the protests were covered in New York’s regular press and in other web news magazines. Complaints about the cost of a new dress code and January 2018 protests against an oppressive disciplinary code were covered by the political website Politico. The Wall Street Journal had a feature on “growing pains” at the Network’s two high schools in March 2018. Student protests about unfair summer homework assignments were reported on in the Daily News. None of these issues were covered by Chalkbeat.
Why didn’t Chalkbeat cover student unrest at Success Academy Charter High School?
One possibility, and I sincerely hope it is not true, is that Chalkbeat is not as “independent” as it’s website proclaims. Chalkbeat’sstaff reporters are professional news people, but its Board and major donors have ties to pro-Charter groups.
Sue Lehmann, who describes herself as a “social entrepreneur” on her LinkedIn page, is a cofounder and the board chair of Chalkbeat. Lehmann has deep connections with Teach for America where she has been a board member since 1995 and a teaching award is named after her. TFA provides a steady flow of uncertified “teachers” to charter schools, including Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy Charter School Network. In 2016, two of Moskowitz’s TFA cadre were recognized with Lehmann Teaching and Learning fellowships.
Chalkbeat Board Treasurer Gideon Stein isa director of the Moriah Fund, a foundation that supports groups that promote charter schools. In 2012 the Moriah Fund donated $100,000 to a campaign by Families for Excellent Schools, a now defunct organization with deep ties to Moskowitz and Success Academy, to expand the number of charter schools in New York State. Board member Jill Barkin is a former Vice-President of Teach for America.
Elizabeth Green is a Co-Founder, the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Chalkbeat, and a member it’s Board of Directors. While Green has strong journalist credentials, she is also a VERY BIG Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy Charter School Network fan. Regular readers of Chalkbeat might be surprise, because Green published her pro-Eva puff piece in the The Atlantic, not in Chalkbeat. In the January-February 2018 issue, Green reviewed a new book by Eva Moskowitz. In the review, Green, who has known Moskowitz since 2007, described her as the “Charter-School Crusader,” as a Napoleon, and as “5-foot-2-inch redhead from Harlem named Eva Moskowitz,”as the “revolutionary” responsible for the “transformation” of public education in the United States. While Green writes that Moskowitz is “undeniably scary,” she believes Moskowitz has “created the most impressive education system I’ve ever seen.” In an echo of a well-known Moskowitz “frenemy” who likes to shout “Fake News” at news coverage he does not like, Green mentions Moskowitz’s penchant for dismissing journalists who criticize Network policies as “biased” abusers of journalistic privilege.
Chalkbeat’sdonors’ list also includes major foundations that prominently support charter schools. Among them are the Peter and Carmen L. Buck Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Sie Foundation,edChoice, Carnegie, and the Walton Family.
According to its Code of Ethics, “Chalkbeat provides balanced, unbiased, fact-based coverage aimed at informing the public conversation.”Chalkbeat team members are not supposed to engage in political involvement that “could compromise integrity or cause the perception of compromised integrity”; “Work on stories, projects, or initiatives in which they have a personal connection, vested interest or financial interest”; and “Give favored treatment to sponsors and donors.” In addition, Chalkbeat is committed to disclosing “the relationship whenever we produce stories that involve Chalkbeat board members or financial supporters.”
I ask the question again. Why didn’t Chalkbeat cover student unrest at Success Academy Charter High School?
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The hotlinks buttons have not always worked so I am including a list of my online sources.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/tag/success-academy/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/06/07/success-academy-graduates-16-students-at-its-inaugural-commencement/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/04/06/basketball-concerts-and-now-charter-school-testing-rallies-success-academy-takes-over-the-barclays-center/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324577904578558030693642950
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/11/1770952/-Success-Academy-Charter-High-School-Student-Rebellion
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2018/02/08/student-protests-at-success-academys-high-school-illuminate-challenges-of-charter-school-growth-244400
https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-success-academy-charter-school-stretching-comes-with-growing-pains-1521802801
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-success-academy-homework-20180606-story.html
https://ballotpedia.org/Moriah_Fund
https://www.wnyc.org/story/behind-pro-charter-school-group-fighting-de-blasio/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/nyregion/families-excellent-schools-deblasio-closing.html
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-strassburger-barkin-9421967/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/about/supporters/
Buck http://pclbfoundation.org/portfolios/education/
https://charterschoolcenter.ed.gov/funding/funding-opportunities
https://www.denverpost.com/2012/06/05/sie-foundation-donates-1m-to-denver-school-of-science-and-technology/
https://www.edchoice.org/
https://www.carnegie.org/grants/grants-database/#!/grants/grants-database/grant/223520930.0/