The Education of Eva Moskowitz: A Memoir

by Eva S. Moskowitz

Overview

From Eva Moskowitz, the outspoken founder and CEO of the charter school Success Academy, comes a frank, feisty memoir about the rough-and-tumble battles to reform America’s education system.

Eva Moskowitz is a fighter with a reputation for having "sharp elbows"— if that’s a synonym for getting the job done, she’ll take it. A born and bred New Yorker, former City Councilmember, and "charter czarina," Moskowitz has taken on powerful unions and politicians to establish and grow her astonishingly effective and popular charter school program in four of the city’s five boroughs.

In this unabashedly candid memoir, Moskowitz tells of how she became a forward-thinking education entrepreneur and her fight to establish nearly three dozen schools—activism that has made her into one of the most polarizing figures in New York City and beyond. Now, having established a remarkable, even unprecedented, track record for guiding the city’s most disadvantaged children to high academic performance, Moskowitz addresses the battles she has won and lost, writing candidly about the people who seek to undermine her work—most notably New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio—and celebrating the powerful allies who have aided her cause, including former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Moskowitz’s insightful memoir is a deeply felt personal story and an impassioned call to action that bluntly identifies failing policies and the alarmingly powerful forces arrayed against improving an education system that is both deeply dysfunctional and prejudiced. The Education of Eva Moskowitz is sure to galvanize supporters, enrage her opponents, generate headlines, and urgently impact the national conversation on education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062449801
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	386
File size:	921 KB

About the Author

Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools and a former New York City council member. She has a PhD in American history from Johns Hopkins University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School. She lives in Harlem with her husband and their three children.

Table of Contents

1 Le Bilboquet 1

2 I Ain't Gonna Get Eva'd 8

3 Chaim's Children 14

4 The Ultimate Charter School Bake-Off 19

5 Weevils! 28

6 The Fucaloro Method 34

7 The Catch 42

8 Songs Of A Refugee 47

9 Get Us The Damn Space! 53

10 I Hope My Board Fires Me 61

11 Catnip Jelly 67

12 Culture Data 76

13 Tarzan And Jane Are Back Again 81

14 Take Offense, It's Okay 86

15 I'll Be Damned If I'm Going To Lose You 93

16 Even Olympic Athletes Cry 103

17 Froebel's Gift 111

18 I'm Such A Lucky So And So 117

19 An Eva Moratorium 125

20 The Audacity Of Hubris 132

21 With Whose Permission? 136

22 Doing Something Worth Writing 147

23 Mom. Why Don't You Open Up More Schools? 158

24 Thurgood Marshall Must Be Shaking His Head 164

25 Praying While Running 176

26 My Team Is On The Floor 185

27 Giving An Honest Definition To The Word "Public" 194

28 Competing In The Nationals 203

29 The Redhead With The Voracious Appetite For Data 209

30 The Triumvirate 222

31 180 Michael Browns 229

32 Time For Eva Moskowitz To Stop Being Tolerated, Enabled, Supported 235

33 How Many Unions Does It Take To Screw In A Light Bulb? 244

34 A Shot Across The Bow 259

35 Save The 194 264

36 A Tale Of Two Rallies 270

37 Tragic Things Happen 279

36 Releasing Atomic Secrets To The Russians 288

39 Eva Moskowitz And I Are Saying The Same Thing Now 297

40 Eva Moskowitz Is Going To Say Something Tomorrow 302

41 The Dominant Narrative About Charter Schools 306

42 How Much Do Parents Know Of What Goes On In Their Children's Classrooms? 320

43 The Education Of Eva Moskowitz 330

44 Lucky 336

45 Extra Credit 341

Acknowledgments 349

Notes 353

Index 361

Editorial Reviews

[Moskowitz] decided a long time ago that poor children of color are equally capable as the affluent white children in New York’s premier zip codes. And unlike most who simply bemoan the inequity and throw their hands up, she is doing something about it. And Eva has real skin in the game. Not just because these are her schools but more importantly, because her own children attend them.

Good School Hunting

[Moskowitz] writes beautifully, salting her own clear, passionate, yet often analytic prose with quotes and references plucked from many sources, from Twain and Dickens to Carnegie, Fielding, and Hardy.” 

EducationNext

Readers get the sense that Moskowitz, fiercely independent and confrontational, likes the fight: She knows she’s in it for the right reasons—building better schools—and isn’t giving up.

Weekly Standard

[Moskowitz] writes beautifully, salting her own clear, passionate, yet often analytic prose with quotes and references plucked from many sources, from Twain and Dickens to Carnegie, Fielding, and Hardy.”  — EducationNext

“[Moskowitz] decided a long time ago that poor children of color are equally capable as the affluent white children in New York’s premier zip codes. And unlike most who simply bemoan the inequity and throw their hands up, she is doing something about it. And Eva has real skin in the game. Not just because these are her schools but more importantly, because her own children attend them.” — Good School Hunting

“Readers get the sense that Moskowitz, fiercely independent and confrontational, likes the fight: She knows she’s in it for the right reasons—building better schools—and isn’t giving up.” — Weekly Standard

From the Publisher