Success Academy Charter Schools Founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz on new evidence that shows charter schools outperform traditional public-sector peers.

New York, NY —Forty-three string musicians from Success Academy Charter Schools had elite company for their first orchestral performance – musicians from the world-renowned New York Philharmonic – when they took the stage of the United Palace Theater on Saturday, Jan. 31.

Please take a moment to read the guest Op-Ed published along with this column. It is a moving story told by a mother, Alvena Destine, whose daughter, now in third grade, was rescued from low expectations by a Success Academy public charter school.

It is also the story of hundreds more children who could similarly be rescued, but whose futures have been called into doubt by Mayor de Blasio’s inability, at this point, to make good on his word.

Maybe you’ve heard: Charter schools systematically force out kids who can’t cut it on tests. And special education students. And ones with behavioral problems.

That’s what critics — from somewhat rational Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña to outright hostile teachers union boss Michael Mulgrew — claim, to explain away the fact that some of the independently managed schools get results with low-income kids most district schools can only dream about.

When a school is not invested in its students, when it sets chronically low expectations, it cannot help them succeed. But when a school is committed to its students’ success, the children can do anything.

Whether you believe that our school system is in crisis may depend upon whether you are forced to send your child to a failing school, which the crisis-deniers plainly do not do.

Key Findings:

• On average, students at charter schools stay at their schools at a higher rate than students at nearby traditional schools.
• Students at charter schools left the city’s public school system at the same rate as students in nearby traditional public schools.
• When we consider any student identified as having a disability in kindergarten as a special needs student, these students remained at their charter schools through the 2012-2013 school year at a higher rate than similar students at nearby traditional public schools.

Stopping is the most powerful way to let your constituencies know what you really do and do not value, what you really will and will not tolerate. When a teacher stops a lesson dead in its tracks, it’s a big deal. When a principal stops the school day dead in its tracks, it’s a big deal. Everyone takes note.

Eva Moskowitz’s plans to expand her Success Academy over the next decade to 100 charter schools — including 12 high schools — gives the city a good opportunity to build on some, well . . . success.

On Thursday on these pages, we called for closing three charters where children aren’t learning. By the same logic, we want to encourage the growth of any schools, charter or otherwise, that work.

Principals talk a lot about vision. Take a look at any set of school leadership standards, and you’ll find a phrase comparable to “sets a vision of excellence” at the top of the list.