Parents, teachers, and students describe inadequate staffing, poor record-keeping, and an adversarial response to complaints

The Capital Preparatory Schools network has applied for a license to open a charter school in New Rochelle in 2025.  Capital Prep currently has charter schools in Bridgeport, CT, Harlem, and the Bronx and has attracted support from celebrities like Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sunny Hostin. The network’s mission is “to provide historically disadvantaged students with the college and career readiness skills needed to become responsible and engaged citizens for social justice,” and it claims to offer “a rigorous college preparatory curriculum.”

But there are reports that Capital Prep’s Harlem campus has faced many of the problems often experienced by other charter schools, including poor management, high staff turnover, and substandard education.  And when parents have tried to hold Charter Prep responsible for the quality of their children’s education, they have discovered what it means when schools are not accountable to the families they serve.

Writing for The Cut, an online division of New York magazine, reporter Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz interviewed 14 parents, students, and former employees at Charter Prep’s Harlem school, who described “an extremely dysfunctional school environment marked by high teacher turnover and frequent violence.”  “Without a full teaching staff,” The Cut reported, “students could go months without being taught some subjects and instead be found sitting in the lunch room for hours at a time.”  The Cut reported that the school had seven principals or interim principals in seven years, was often short on necessities like chairs and computers, and kept records with incorrect grades, transcripts, schedules, and test data. “Parents who sought answers found management uncommunicative and adversarial,” The Cut reported.

According to The Cut, Capital Prep lost almost 80% of its teachers during the first year of the Covid pandemic.  When the school returned to in-person learning in 2021, The Cut reported, “there were not enough chairs, and rooms would get so crowded students worked in the hallways. Class schedules got bungled: Some students were enrolled in courses they had passed years before, while teachers saw class sizes double or triple with children who weren’t supposed to be there.”

One parent told The Cut that her son’s transcripts had classes he’d never taken, passing classes that he never took, failing classes that he was never in. An employee who worked in records said that students would sometimes have scores for Regents exams they’d never taken. Another said almost all transcripts were wrong and that his attempts to flag the problems to management were disregarded. The disorganization also made some college applications unfeasible.  One teacher told The Cut, “These colleges started sending transcripts back, like, Oh, no, this ain’t right.”

According to The Cut, Capital Prep claims that 100%of its graduates are accepted into four-year colleges, but state data shows the graduation rate is around 70%. And teachers reported that even when students were accepted into college, they often didn’t arrive ready. “These are kids who are barely passing. You’re not helping them by sending them to these four-year colleges,” one teacher told The Cut. “They’re not prepared for the work, because CPH doesn’t have a sufficient college program.”

Students and parents protested conditions at the school.  One student told The Cut about a protest with over 100 students gathered outside the school carrying signs with slogans like “No Teachers, No Communication, Messed-Up Schedules;” school leaders threatened to call the police.  Another described a Change.org petition to “Save Capital Prep Kids.”  One parent said, “I was emailing the teachers. I was emailing leadership. I was emailing everyone. No one is responding to me.”  Another parent said, “There were times that they wouldn’t even allow me to go up to the office to speak to anyone. I wasn’t sure what they were trying to hide.”

Capital Prep Schools disputed the accuracy of The Cut’s story but declined to go into any specifics. “We accept and are saddened that some scholars and colleagues were not pleased with their experience,” a spokeswoman wrote in a statement. “However, we affirmatively state that many of the allegations included in your fact-checking list are fabrications.”

Amid sexual assault allegations against Combs, Capital Prep ended its partnership with him in November 2023.

Read the full story in The Cut here.