More KIPP

Let the debate continue…New evaluation by SRI of Bay Area KIPP schools (pdf) has overall good news and just enough threads for KIPP critics to tug on around the attrition issue.

2 Replies to “More KIPP”

  1. Which is it?

    SRI says: “Students with lower prior ELA and mathematics achievement on the CST were more likely to choose KIPP than higher performing students from the same neighborhood.”

    Okay.

    In her Slate review of Paul Tough’s book cited in the blog above, Sara Mosle says: “Although its schools technically operate by lottery, researcher Richard Rothstein has shown that parents who seek out KIPP academies and other charter schools are invariably more educated and more competent than parents who don’t. Indeed, according to Tough, KIPP’s own internal data show that its students enter KIPP already outperforming their poor, minority-group peers.”

    So, um, KIPP attracts higher performing kids?

    1. Which is it?

    2. And even if the district has kids which are at the 20th percentile statewide, and KIPP gets kids who are at the, say, 23rd percentile statewide, and the district kids stay at 20th, and the KIPP kids go to 50th+, why is this even a conversation?

  2. 1. The SRI conclusion quoted above was based on three SF KIPP schools over 2006-2007. Don’t know what sample and time frame Rothstein based his claim on. Note, however, that “invariably” is a strong claim.

    2. Why, indeed?

    Art

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