Barclays Center used for charter school rally yesterday

The Barclays Center has not, as far as I known, sent out the April 2018 community calendar announcing non-ticketed events.

But thanks to a 4/6/18 article from the education site Chalkbeat, Basketball, concerts and now…charter school testing rallies? Success Academy takes over the Barclays Center., we know what happened yesterday:

Success Academy, the city’s largest and most controversial charter school network, held its annual ‘Slam the Exam’ event at the massive arena on Friday. As some parents prepare the opt their children out of the next week’s New York state English and math tests, the rally was designed to energize more than 4,000 Success students to tackle the exams.
The spectacle also mirrored the charter network’s growth. “Slam the Exam” has expanded year after year, moving from the Washington Heights Armory, to City College of New York to Radio City Music Hall to the 19,000-seat Barclays Center this year — its grandest pro-testing gesture to date.

Note that the arena would only have 19,000 seats for an event with chairs on the floor.

Wrote Monica Disare:

Success Academy is known for its excellent test scores, but has also been criticized for focusing too much time, effort and energy on excelling at exams. Buying out the Barclays Center to celebrate testing will do little to quiet those critics. And Success Academy officials would not say how much the event cost or whether the money was raised through a donation or came out of the network’s own funds.