A sweeping analysis released Tuesday by the Success Academy Charter Schools network found that nearly half of New York City’s public school students attend schools where fewer than half of students are proficient in math, reading, or both on state exams.
According to the report, 906 schools fall into that category, encompassing roughly 43% of the city’s 912,000 public school students. In more than half of those schools — 503 in total — a majority of students failed to reach proficiency in both math and reading.
The report, titled By Any Honest Measure, argues the poor performance is not the result of isolated failures but of a system that has allowed chronic underachievement to become routine.
“These are not accidents. They are the product of a system that has chosen, year after year, to protect itself rather than serve its students,” the report states.
“Imagine a hospital where more than half of patients died from routine procedures. A fire department that failed to respond to more than half its calls. A municipal water utility that delivered contaminated water to more than half its residents, or air traffic controllers whose lack of oversight regularly resulted in massive casualties.
“No other public institution would be permitted to operate in this way.”
But the level of failure in the nation’s largest public school system “has been normalized — and, worse, systematically obscured.”
The analysis found that roughly one-third of the 906 schools have appeared on New York’s accountability lists since 2012, with some carrying failing designations for decades.
Rather than confronting the problem, the report argues city and state leaders have masked the extent of the crisis through grade inflation, weakened standards, and policies that shield struggling schools from meaningful accountability.
Using a series of stark comparisons, the report argues that no other public institution would be allowed to operate under similar conditions.
“Imagine a hospital where more than half of patients died from routine procedures. A fire department that failed to respond to more than half its calls… No other public institution would be permitted to operate in this way.”
Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz called the study the most comprehensive review yet of New York City’s chronically low-performing schools, saying it exposes a long-running failure that policymakers have refused to address.
The report also contends that Albany and City Hall have perversely rewarded poor performance by directing additional funding to many struggling schools despite falling enrollment, instead of demanding better academic results.
The findings are likely to intensify the debate over school choice, charter schools, and accountability as parents and education advocates continue to push for alternatives to the city’s traditional public school system.
More over at The New York Post:
Staggering 900 NYC public schools failing students amid grade inflation, lax accountability https://t.co/36rUSrnNSf pic.twitter.com/WehQq85Qvi
— New York Post (@nypost) July 7, 2026
