Re: How To Improve Your School Without Improving Your School

[aburke5054@aol.com]

 Leaving aside your perverse distortion of Booker T. Washington's views and his contribution to American society, I thought the days were past when someone would argue that African-Americans can't be trusted to make their own decisions. But here you are arguing precisely that.
 
 Just when you think things can't go any lower on ARN, count on you guys to take things even lower.
 
 Art
  
 -----Original Message-----
 From: jhorn@monmouth.edu
 To: arn-l@interversity.org; ARN-state@yahoogroups.com; arn-l@interversity.org
 Sent: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 9:17 AM
 Subject: Re: [arn-l] How To Improve Your School Without Improving Your School
 
  Nice piece, Peter. As I was reading your post, I kept thinking about the Hampton Institute of late 19th Century, where black future teachers washed out at an 80% rate. Those who graduated, however, including Booker T. Washington, were 100% convinced that working hard (any work) and being nice (always) would bring their people prosperity, freedom, and equality. If only it had been true, we would not need the KIPP work camps of today to reinstill the message of embracing your subjugation by choosing to be a slave.
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
 From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org on behalf of Peter Campbell
 Sent: Mon 1/22/2007 11:00 AM
 To: ARN State; ARN Main List
 Subject: [arn-l] How To Improve Your School Without Improving Your School
 
 There were nine KIPP schools in California as of the 2005-2006 school
 year. Six of the nine schools saw decreases in enrollment as their 5th
 grade kids moved up from the 5th grade to the 7th grade (the 8th grade
 at one school).
 
 . KIPP Academy Fresno went from 60 to 48 kids from 5th to 6th grade,
 a 20% decrease in enrollment.
 . KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy in San Francisco went from 73 to 56
 kids from 5th to 7th grade, a 23% decrease in enrollment.
 . KIPP Academy of Opportunity in LA went from 88 to 66 kids from 5th
 to 7th grade, a 25% decrease in enrollment.
 . KIPP Bayview Academy in San Francisco went from 81 to 55 kids from
 5th to 7th grade, a 32% decrease in enrollment.
 . KIPP Los Angeles College Preparatory in LA went from 88 to 57 kids
 from 5th to 7th grade, a 35% decrease in enrollment.
 . KIPP Bridge College Preparatory in Oakland went from 87 to 36 kids
 from 5th to 8th grade, a whopping 59% decrease in enrollment.
 
 These decreases in enrollment were especially noticeable for
 African-American boys at four of these schools. Enrollment of
 African-American boys went from 35 to 23 at KIPP Academy of Opportunity
 in LA, a 34% decrease in enrollment; 19 to 10 at KIPP Academy Fresno, a
 47% decrease in enrollment; 24 to 12 at KIPP Bayview Academy in San
 Francisco, a 50% decrease in enrollment; and 35 to 8 at KIPP Bridge
 College Preparatory in Oakland, an extraordinary 77% decrease in
 enrollment.
 
 Drop-outs, or at least transients, are a common phenomenon in
 low-income schools, even good ones. So these numbers would not be
 surprising if they were associated with your average public school. But
 KIPP is not your average public school. Many supporters of KIPP see it
 as the answer to the problems that vex inner-city schools. But it
 seems, at least from what we can tell from the California enrollment
 data, that even KIPP cannot solve the drop-out/transient problem.
 
 But then you start to wonder: is KIPP causing this high drop-out rate?
 If it's not causing kids to drop out, then there might certainly be a
 correlation between KIPP's "unique approach to educating low-income
 kids" and the fact that so many of them, at least in California, don't
 make it out of KIPP.
 
 Consider what we know about KIPP:
 
 . KIPP students are required to go to school Monday to Friday from
 7:30 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon.
 . They go to school on Saturday from 9 in the morning until 1 in the
 afternoon.
 . They are required to complete two hours of homework every night.
 . They are required to attend an extra month of school in the summer.
 . They are required to wear a uniform.
 
 All told, KIPP students spend about 70% more time in school than their
 regular public school peers. KIPP students are subject to a strict code
 of discipline that punishes offenders by forcing them to wear a sign
 around their neck that says "bench" or, according to one source,
 "miscreant." So it seems reasonable to ask this question: is KIPP
 contributing to this drop-out/transient problem? I doubt rather
 seriously that anyone at KIPP wants any of their students to drop out.
 But declining enrollments actually benefit KIPP by making their
 achievement data look better than it might actually be.
 
 Now it gets even more complicated. According to a recent SRI report,
 Bay Area KIPP schools in California are attracting already
 high-performing students from local schools. Some KIPP principals
 expressed concern about "creaming" these already high-performing
 students from other schools when there remains a large number who are
 low-performing and underserved. One principal expressed dismay with the
 school's struggle to enroll Title I students, whom she considered to be
 her target population. (see p. 18 of the report)
 
 So it seems reasonable to ask this other question: how much is KIPP
 actually contributing to the achievement of these already
 high-performing students? As class numbers decrease, the performance of
 these high-achievers shines brighter and brighter. Supporters claim
 this is due to KIPP's unique approach. They might be right, but not for
 the reasons they suspect. It might be possible that KIPP's unique
 approach forces enough of the low-achievers out to make the achievement
 of those that remain seem better than it really is.
 
 In part 1 of a Hedrick Smith piece on KIPP, a Latino boy named Ray, a
 16-year-old 8th grader enrolled in KIPP 3D Academy in Houston, talks
 about his first experience at KIPP.
 
 At 3 minutes, 14 seconds into this video segment, there is a glimpse
 into how KIPP achieves its results.
 
 Here's the transcript:
 
 Hedrick Smith (voiceover) - At the start of school, Ray had his first
 confrontation with 3D Academy's principal, Dan Caesar.
 
 Ray: We were going over our chants, and -- just being myself, still
 trying to figure out how this school works and everything . . .
 
 Dan Caesar - We say, "Is 3D in the house?!?!" and all the kids raise up
 their hands and say, "YES!" and Reynaldo raised up his hands and said
 "NO!"
 
 Ray: I waved my hand. I said, "No." And then he looked at me and he
 said it a second time. And I said "No" again.
 
 Dan Caesar - I knew right then, "Here's the first test, the first
 person testing our culture." So I let him know in front of everybody in
 the room that that's not going to be tolerated. We all want to be here.
 We chose to be here. If you don't want to be here, find the door.
 
 So much for KIPP's motto, "No excuses."
 
 --
 Posted By Peter Campbell to Transform Education on 1/22/2007
 
     
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