A New Era for Success Academy: The Robertson Center Opens!

This is an exciting week for Success Academy.

At a ceremony on Monday, we opened The Robertson Center, which brings together state-of-the-art training facilities for educators with Success Academy’s first K-8 lab school. The Robertson Center will serve as the headquarters of Success Academy Education Institute, an ambitious enterprise intended to dramatically accelerate the pace of school improvement across the country by sharing the curriculum, training, and management practices that have allowed us to rapidly expand while maintaining record-breaking levels of student achievement.

Named for legendary investor and philanthropist Julian Robertson, whose critical early funding helped us jump-start the development of the Education Institute, the Center honors his deep commitment to making public education work for all children. The Robertson Foundation has provided support for many years and has enabled Success Academy to grow to serve more New York City children and families.

We launched the digital arm of the Education Institute in June, a robust platform that provides free, open access to Success Academy’s curriculum and school design. Since then, more than 17,000 visitors from 46 states, 64 countries, and almost 600 organizations have explored the site.

Located in Manhattan’s bustling Hudson Yards neighborhood, the Robertson Center takes these capabilities to a new level. With this dedicated space, the Education Institute will host public programs — including workshops, interactive webinars, and conferences — that convene and mobilize educators to look for innovative solutions to profound educational challenges and, through the lab school, give them real-time, practical demonstration of our proven approach to teaching and learning. Cutting- edge technology that connects training and lab school classrooms will permit seamless integration of adult learning and classroom practice, as well as high-quality distance learning.

Shortly after the ceremony, the Foundation announced a new gift of $20 million to support the next phase of Success Academy Education Institute. This extraordinary act of generosity will dramatically enhance our capacity to share our model and equip educators from across New York City, the country, and even the globe with tools and training they need to build exceptional schools that deliver a life-changing education to their students.