Thread by @taylor_mcgraw

As a former Success Academy teacher, I have lots to say about this:

“At Success, we believe it would be an abdication of our responsibility to treat grades like candy and to have no standards for ourselves or your children.” (1/7) nypost.com/2020/04/27/doi…

It's true: grades were never treated like candy. But candy and toys were regularly deployed as incentives for grades and scores. During "test prep season" massive shipments of toys were delivered to Gr 3-8 classrooms. Admin instructed teachers to let students pick out... (2/7)

... their favorite toy prior to practice exams. The toys were placed on students' desks while they took the test. If students met their target score, they kept the toy & went to extra recess. If they didn't, the toy went back on the shelf while they had to retake the test. (3/7)

The students most likely to be punished & demoralized by this cruel system had IEPs — which were hardly met. And if that weren't enough, students' scores and reading levels were visible for all to see, on public trackers in classrooms and on the walls in the hallway. (4/7)

Can you imagine being 10 yrs old & reminded daily that you have the lowest reading level in the room? Being forced to spend 5 hrs a day for months taking and retaking multiple choice exams? They called it "Effort Academy." If you didn't pass, it was an "effort" issue. (5/7)

So, of course, it doesn't surprise me that SA is still issuing grades during a pandemic.

As a naive 23 yr old, I knew what was happening was crazy. We all did. We loosened the rules in our classrooms, supported our students best we knew how, but ultimately fell in line. (6/7)

At 30, I wish I could give 23 yr old me the courage to push back, to organize the other teachers, to issue demands, to fight for the students not yet able to fight for themselves.

I can only hope that a 23 yr old SA teacher reads this and is inspired to do what we didn't. /end