Kudos to KIPP

Submitted by Susan on Thu, 08/11/2005 - 1:21pm.

A few months ago, I toured three charter schools in Washington, D.C. as part of an event sponsored by the Progressive Policy Institute. It was a great opportunity to take at least a quick glimpse inside the mysterious world of charters, and it was like visiting three different planets -- that's how different the schools were. One was gritty, urban and caring. One was like a prep school on steroids. And one had a vibe between maternal and boot camp.

I was impressed by all of them, for different reasons. But I ended my day feeling strongly that if any of them were really on to something that could make a difference in a troubled urban system like ours, it was the KIPP: DC-Key Academy. (The maternal boot camp one.)

One of the reasons I felt that way was also one of the things I didn't really like about the school: standardization. In their khakis and color-coordinated tee-shirts (tucked in!), with their memorized cheers and inspirational phrases, there was a whiff of the kind of conformist enthusiasm that we like to sneer at in movies about Japanese factory workers.

But the fact was, the KIPP (for Knowledge Is Power Progam) kids were organized. The classrooms were orderly. You could hear a pin drop in the hallways. And the principal and the teachers had a plan. They all knew the plan, they believed in the plan, and they were implementing the plan. It was not a particularly visionary plan -- it was a roadmap to literacy and numeracy, good study habits and good manners. And in this setitng, that may not be visionary, but it is revolutionary.

So I wasn't too surprised to read in the Washington Post today about the results of new research into academic achievement at the KIPP schools. It shows that kids in 27 KIPP middle schools across the country, including KIPP: DC-Key, seem to making great gains in their basic academic skills. It's this kind of replicability that is KIPP's most exciting contribution to the urban education landscape.

You go, KIPP kids. There's something to build an inspirational slogan around.


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Several years ago I attended
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 08/22/2005 - 7:40pm.

Several years ago I attended a conference where the originator of the KIPP School was featured. He spoke of students and parents being told that their children had to attend many additional hours of instruction, as well as having their children placed back one or more grade levels if they were not performing at grade level at the time of acceptance to the school. He also spoke of the fact that parents and students were specifically told not to even apply if they did not agree to rigorous attendance, behavior, and other stipulations. These are luxuries that public schools do not have. We must accept the families that come to us. We cannot require attendance hours beyond the regular school day or counsel families who choose not to do so to attend elsewhere. He also admitted that there is considerable teacher burn out as many of the idealistic young teachers who had begun the program formed their own families and found that spending their evenings on call and regularly spending a portion of their weekend hours teaching was not something they could manage and have a home life with their own families as well. Many were leaving for "more lucrative" careers. While there is a place for charter schools that can operate outside the mandates of public institutions, it is unfair to compare the results of a school whose constituents willingly submit to its guidelines to the results of public schools which have little authority even to impose truancy regulations.

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KIPP schools
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 08/29/2005 - 9:37am.

At KIPP schools, we must accept any student who comes to us as well. Pre-testing at the beginning of the year shows that in many KIPP schools, the students enter at a lower performance level than the district average, though that is typically more than remedied after a year in the school. Public schools and their teaches often like to make excuses for why they cannot do what KIPP schools do, but I know a LOT of teachers who have replicated what our school does in their public school classrooms and have achieved similar, if not better, results, all the while accepting whichever students they are assigned by their schools. KIPP sounds a call to end the excuses, and those teachers who step up to the plate have been able to do things for their students that everyone should, and could, do.

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