According to an article by Jenny LaCoste-Caputo in the San Antonio (TX, US) Express-News, one of the schools adopting the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is graduating well-prepared students. Under the headline “Charter school shatters stereotypes,” Ms. LaCoste-Caputo reported about eighth-grade students graduating from KIPP: Aspire Academy and enrolling in competitive, private secondary schools.
This class of eighth-graders, the second graduating class of the charter school that serves grades five through eight, has shattered stereotypes. Almost all the students are Hispanic and live within the boundaries of Loop 410. About 84 percent come from poor homes, and, for many, Spanish is the first language.
Yet this class has earned more than $500,000 in scholarships to private high schools, including exclusive boarding schools as far away as Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut.
Twenty students have full merit scholarships to attend prestigious private schools. Another 44 gained entrance into some of the city’s most competitive magnet school programs.
Their scores on the state’s Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test this year were among the highest in the city, beating out Alamo Heights Junior School and scoring on par with two of the richest middle schools in San Antonio — Tejeda and Bush in the North East Independent School District.
According to Ms. LaCoste-Caputo, the school’s director, Mark Larson, described the reasons for the success of the program of study at KIPP: Aspire Academy as a combination of discipline, commitment from teachers, and additional school time (10-hour school days, Saturday school, and mandatory summer school).
Link to Ms. LaCoste-Caputo’s story; there is a video accompanying the story. Find out more about KIPP schools at the KIPP Web site. Evaluations of KIPP (link) have become more encouraging as the project has developed and grown. One of the problems with evaluations, however, has been that the population of students who enroll in KIPP schools has been selected, making it possible that at least some of the success is due to having a savvy student body composed of learners who aspire to do well and have support for their aspirations; a rigorous evaluation by Mathematica Policy Research that will feature random assignment is on the horizon, and this could help blunt that alternative explanation.
Overrated.
Kimmy, I’ve had similar reactions. The founders seem to talk a good game, but I’d really like to see more solid data (see this 2005 post for an earlier marker about my reservations). How would KIPP do in comparison to some Edison or Direct Instruction schools with a randomly assigned group of students?
You are in error as to the selection of students. Students are selected at random! I have personally witnessed the pulling of names out of a box. There is not selection of best students from any district, the selection is the luck of the draw. As school counselor, I can tell you that many of our students come from very difficult home situations. The secret to success, I believe, is the love the teachers and staff have for the students, coupled with a lot of hard work and determination! Seeing is believing, why don’t you check Aspire out for yourself.
John, thanks for dropping the comment. Even more so, thanks for alerting me that you’ve seen names pulled from a box. How did the names get into the box in the first place? Did the names in the box represent all children in a given area (e.g., city, county, local education area) or were they names of applicants? If they were the latter, then that’s still a pretty selected sample.
As to the “love the teachers and staff have for the students”: There are probably a lot of schools where teachers and staff love their students, so that’s probably not the active ingredient. I suspect your reference to hard work taps a more potent ingredient.
I’d be pleased to visit Aspire (is that the one to which Ms. LaCoste-Caputo’s story refers?), but even if I saw wonderful examples of success there, I’d still want to examine unbiased evidence about effectiveness. After all, like just about everyone whom I’ve ever met, I have biases and I wouldn’t want them to color my lenses rosy. So, absent clear and compelling research data I’ll cling to the raft I call the Good Ship Skepticism.
Sometimes you really do have to see and experience to believe! I welcome you to come and do jus that. I’m confident that you will be well pleased with what you see and experience.