The unfortunate thing is that now that this hack of a comptroller has put them on his political agenda, KIPP will undoubtedly be tempted to spend their money like the district does, on extra accountants and secretaries, rather than on rewards for some of our city’s highest-performing educators. You anti-KIPP folks are tremendously anti-teacher.

Why can’t you be a responsible adult, EW, and either admit you were wrong (and BTW, also slandered NYC Educator) or show us the evidence that you were right?

Since you personally called me out both on this comments page and in your blog (I was that “very first commenter” on this post) I thought I would return the favor here: http://thecommonschool.blogspot.com/

You should feel honored; I resurrected a dead blog purely for the purpose of explaining why you are wrong both about my comment and about KIPP.

The poster addressed my school in particular, and that’s what I was responding to. I’m afraid I will remain anonymous, and so will my school. You may believe me or not, as you wish, but I was referring to our NY State Regents results, which are certainly verifiable.

Whether or not I agree with you, I have no objection to your opinions. I have objections when people tell me what my opinions are, as that poster did repeatedly.

I suppose there’s documentation to prove that then? Documentation that’d satisfy the objective, politically pure state controller?

Oh, and leave us not forget that where there’s a “very best regular high school(s) in the city” there’s also a very worst high school in the city. Got any thoughts on what ought to be done about it and how many kids lives ought to be squandered before whatever “it” is gets done?

> As for the quality of my job performance, another topic about which you know nothing whatsoever, I’d prefer to rely on the impressions of those who’ve actually seen me teach.

Another, albeit unintentional, vote for charters. What do you think drives parents to take their kids out of the convenient, default school but their impressions of how lousy they are and their impressions of how good the KIPP schools are?

> I’d add also, colorful though your forays into mind reading may be, they’re not nearly as accurate as you may think.

Har! Another thoughtful, well-reasoned argument in favor of the traditional public education system.

The state audit found that the KIPP documentation was so piss-poor that it couldn’t be determined how the trips were paid for.

Instead of trying to change the subject, why don’t you address your erroneous statement and/or fabrication in the original post?

For that matter, why don’t you address that KIPP Academy couldn’t provide documentation for criminal background checks for 28% of their staff?

Thank you for your comment

One serious disadvantage of discussing topics about which you know nothing is you’re almost certain to make errors. As it happens, my school is one of the very best regular high schools in the city, and our test results are consistently excellent.

They just hate the idea that working a little harder will make them better teachers, too.

As for the quality of my job performance, another topic about which you know nothing whatsoever, I’d prefer to rely on the impressions of those who’ve actually seen me teach. Oddly, their impressions vary wildly from yours.

I’d add also, colorful though your forays into mind reading may be, they’re not nearly as accurate as you may think.

There is a time to work, and a time to play. It’s unfair to dangle paradise in front of a hard worker and tell them they can only spend part of the day enjoying it. A reward should be a reward. If you want real staff development, take them to a casino where you can have meetings during the day and fun at night as most businesses do.

As for you being anti-teacher, what a disgrace. If a person can’t make a good argument, let’s go to name calling. You have always defended teachers, and defended Eduwonk even when you disagreed with them.

I think Eduwonk owes you a personal apology for their disparaging you and your post. (It’s so Leo) Your post used an article and quoted the article. KIPP’s accounting is under investigation, and you had every right to let the masses know.

btw, our district used to take the science teachers to the Hall of Science for staff development until the powers that be took that funding away. They also took away MERC,(located in all 5 boroughs) a one-day science staff development for all city teachers. It was a day filled with exciting ways to incorporate science into all aspects of the curriculum and still be “hands on”. It was fun and informative at the same time and we left with materials. We had that program for so many years until Klein dumped it. Now he is once again putting money into science. This is a guy who looks at bottom line rather than the actual programs.

My point is it’s unfair to put NYCEd down for the type of staff development NYC educators get. It deflects from the fact that KIPP is not only using funds in a way that needs to be investigated, but that those KIPP teachers should have been rewarded with an actual vacation, but weren’t.

What NYC Educator doesn’t realize is that the administration and the teachers at KIPP schools are on the same team. There is not a very distinct line between the two positions, as teachers have a lot of leadership responsibilities. It’s not like some administrator sitting in a corner office decided to enslave the teachers all year and then take them to the Bahamas to try to make them feel better about their long hours. Rather, many decisions are made jointly and almost all are made with teacher input. This is how good schools are run, but NYC Educator is so stuck in the district paradigm that he can’t see excellence when it does happen.

This ridiculous distraction is such an incredible waste of time and energy – I hope KIPP officials and teachers aren’t losing a second of sleep over it. NYC Educator, like all the KIPP haters, derides anything that makes him look bad for his school not doing as well. If the teachers work long hours, they are being mistreated by The Man; if they get vacations in the Bahamas, they are being treated too well and something shady is afoot; if they get good results it’s because they get the best kids (not because of those long hours they’re forced to work, of course); if they have sloppy bookkeeping it’s because they are evil profiteers (not because they don’t waste all kinds of money on countless secretaries and administrators like the district does); or if they get good results, it’s because all their bad students leave (despite evidence to the contrary and lower mobility than the district schools).

The fact is, the KIPP haters (and haters of other charter schools) will exist forever, no matter how much evidence exists to counter their claims. They just hate the idea that working a little harder will make them better teachers, too.

Better yet, ask why so many people leave there? Do any checking on turnover rates?