Success Academy Charter Schools, the New York-based charter school network, is a lightning rod in education. It attracts ardent defenders and adherents and similarly passionate detractors.

Its success—90% of its students test at proficient in reading and 98% do so in math—is striking in its own right regardless of the students it serves. Given that 94% of its 17,000 students are from minority backgrounds, it’s beyond eye popping.

These realities have helped build a lot of hype around Fordham Institute senior fellow Robert Pondiscio’s new book, “How the Other Half Learns: Equity, Excellence and the Battle Over School Choice,” about Success Academy, for which he gained unprecedented access as an observer of all that Success does to achieve its outcomes.