Grand opening of the Harlem Success Charter School

The Harlem Success Charter School had its official grand opening last night (though of course it's been open for more than two months). This is the school started by my friends in the hedge fund business, Joel Greenblatt (see the article about the remarkable success he's had with a school in Queens at: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/businessfinance/15958/) and John Petry. The smartest thing they did was hire Eva Moskowitz to run it, and the three of them have plans to grow it to at least 30 schools -- assuming New York will raise the #^&* charter cap!

The school has 155 kindergarteners and first graders -- nearly all low-income and minority (the school is located on the corner of 118th St. and Lenox). It's off to a fantastic start, with the % of students testing at or above grade level in reading DOUBLING from 43% to 80% in only EIGHT WEEKS! This is due to great teachers, of course, but also to a program launched before school even started in which the school asked parents to read one new book to their child EVERY DAY. Initially, fewer than 40% of parents were doing this, but thanks to a variety of interventions, including text messaging parents, phone calls, celebrating successes, etc., it's now up to 99%! To date, the children have collectively had nearly 20,000 (!) books read to them! (That's well over 100 books PER CHILD.)

During the presentation, there was a video that included footage of the school's lottery, in which over 500 children applied, yet only 155 could be admitted. Joel Klein then spoke and focused his remarks on the OUTRAGE that successful schools like this one can't be replicated -- and countless thousands of parents are turned away and forced to send their children to chronically failing schools -- because of the charter cap. The hundreds of parents of parents in the audience were nodding their heads and applauding wildly. Getting parents REALLY ANGRY and really motivated about the status quo is a key step to reform.