I stopped teaching for a year to attend graduate school
because I wanted to step on the brakes and think about what I have been doing
with the last 5 years of my life. For
the past 2 years, I worked at a KIPP school in the southeastern region of the
United States; I was a middle school English teacher. As a result of the accumulation of experiences at KIPP, I have
been inspired to spend substantial time thinking and reading about the
organization of KIPP. And what I
have discovered is based on both reflecting on my experiences in KIPP and reading
research about KIPP.
In short, I am skeptical of the efficacy of the organization
as it currently exists, but I will come back to this idea later in Part 2;
first, I want to briefly explain what KIPP is, then I will summarize some of
the main critiques against KIPP, and lastly I will bring to the table what I
believe to be a salient issue regarding a leadership that permeates KIPP that
has not yet been addressed in my readings.
What is KIPP:
KIPP is a charter school network with 109 schools in major urban cities and several rural areas across the United States and District of Columbia. About 80 percent of students who attend KIPP come from low-income backgrounds and 90 percent are black or Hispanic (Mathews, 2009). KIPP schools fall under the umbrella of ‘No-Excuses’ charter schools, which means KIPP schools have a longer school day and calendar year, a strict discipline and academic code, a college preparatory curriculum, and a focus on a strong school culture with community values (Bean, 2010). Recently, the book Outliers by New York Times columnist Malcolm Gladwell and the documentary Waiting for Superman have praised KIPP for lowering the achievement gap between upper and lower classes in the United States. Even Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has praised KIPP schools as, “…a proven strategy ready to go to scale.” In essence, public perception of KIPP seems to be extremely high, and even amongst educational organizations such as Teach For America – arguably a teacher pipeline into KIPP – perception of KIPP seems to be high.
KIPP is a charter school network with 109 schools in major urban cities and several rural areas across the United States and District of Columbia. About 80 percent of students who attend KIPP come from low-income backgrounds and 90 percent are black or Hispanic (Mathews, 2009). KIPP schools fall under the umbrella of ‘No-Excuses’ charter schools, which means KIPP schools have a longer school day and calendar year, a strict discipline and academic code, a college preparatory curriculum, and a focus on a strong school culture with community values (Bean, 2010). Recently, the book Outliers by New York Times columnist Malcolm Gladwell and the documentary Waiting for Superman have praised KIPP for lowering the achievement gap between upper and lower classes in the United States. Even Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has praised KIPP schools as, “…a proven strategy ready to go to scale.” In essence, public perception of KIPP seems to be extremely high, and even amongst educational organizations such as Teach For America – arguably a teacher pipeline into KIPP – perception of KIPP seems to be high.
Works Cited For Part 1 & Part 2
Bean, Max. (2010). The No Excuses Charter School Movement. Message posted to:
http://edcommentary.blogspot.com/p/no-excuses-charter-movement.html
Elmore, Richard. “Self-Organizing Systems Lecture.” Harvard Graduate School of Education. Larsen Hall, Cambridge, MA. October 31, 2011
Mathews, J., 1945-. (2009). Work hard. be nice. : How two inspired teachers created the most promising
schools in America (1st ed.). Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Payne, C., & Knowles, T. (2009). Promise and Peril: Charter Schools, Urban School Reform, and the Obama Administration. Harvard Educational Review, 79(2), 227-239.
Robelen, E. W. (2007). KIPP Student-Attrition Patterns Eyed. Education Week, 26 (41), 1,.
Romi, S., Lewis, R., Roache, J., & Riley, P. (2011). The Impact of Teachers' Aggressive Management Techniques on Students' Attitudes to Schoolwork. Journal Of Educational Research, 104(4), 231-240. doi:10.1080/00220671003719004
Upton Sahm, Charles (March 13, 2009). Why KIPP Schools Work. Retrieved from: http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0313cs.html.
Zehr, Mary Ann. (March 31, 2011). Study Finds High Dropout Rates for Black Males in KIPP Schools. Retrieved from: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/31/27kipp_ep.h30.html?tkn=TVVFjx6pS%2F3QXxwZpXXoJbMnmNSLeyGYhryE&cmp=clp-edweek
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