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Writer's pictureJoanne Jacobs

KIPP schools are game changers

KIPP charters are game changers, concludes a new Mathematica study. Compared to similar students who applied to KIPP but lost the enrollment lottery, graduates of KIPP middle and high schools were "31 percentage points more likely to enroll in a four-year college within three years of high school," reports Jo Napolitano on The 74. "Their likelihood of graduating college within five years after high school shot up by 19 percentage points."

That's huge. It is nearly enough to close the college completion gap between Black and Hispanic students and white students, researchers say.

KIPP, which started in Houston in 1994, now operates 117 elementary, 121 middle and 42 high schools in 21 states. Most students come from low-income black and Hispanic families.


KIPP has longer school days and years, says Shavar Jeffries, who became the KIPP Foundation CEO in January. Teacher use data to "differentiate our instruction based upon where a kid is at any given point in time.”


The network has invested in counseling to help students find a right-fit college or other postsecondary path. Counselors help alumni complete degrees and pursue careers.


Makala Faniel enrolled in KIPP WAYS Atlanta in fifth grade. Now 25, she's now pursuing a bioengineering doctorate at Georgia Tech, she told Napolitano.

College readiness was built into the curriculum, (Faniel) said, and counselors routinely helped students research universities, choose the right Advanced Placement courses to boost their chance of acceptance, fill out the Common Application and apply for key programs within a particular school.
Faniel visited the University of Pennsylvania as a middle schooler and would graduate from the college in 2020 with a degree in material science.

When Faniel was considered grad school, she reached out to former KIPP teachers for advice. "How do I apply? What do I need?”


Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews, who wrote a 2009 book about KIPP, Work Hard. Be Nice, notes that KIPP high school students are encouraged take Advanced Placement classes and tests to prepare for college.


"Fifteen KIPP high schools in Texas, Colorado, California and Tennessee rank in the top one percent of U.S. schools measured by rate of participation in AP and International Baccalaureate final exams," he writes. His Challenge Index includes several other charter networks focusing on low-income students, such as IDEA, Uncommon, Uplift and Success Academy.

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21 Kommentare


Gast
15. Sept. 2023

I go to KIPP Connect primary and I Actually do really good studies, and they really teach good.

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Gast
15. Sept. 2023

I think you're slightly misrepresenting the study. KIPP middle school only had no significant impact on ability to graduate or ability to go to a 4 year school. attending both KIPP high school and middle school had the results you talked about, but that introduces a clear selection bias as the kids who weren't interested in dealing with KIPP high school left. the attrition rate also is huge. Far fewer kids do both KIPP middle school and high school.

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Gast
15. Sept. 2023

Im a Kipp alumni started ar Kipp indy in 2005 in Indianapolis Indiana and went to the high-school after but the high-school didn't work out so I had to change schools it was the best opportunity ever for me.

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Gast
14. Sept. 2023

The argument will be that the concept is not scalable. Any small school or small set of schools that find a way to perform above average. However, will the advantages decrease as the number of students involved are increased.


Also, would business and community leaders ever put their own children into a KIPP school or a school like KIPP.

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Gast
18. Sept. 2023
Antwort an

But can the pay/incentive system be scaled so that it would work across all public schools in the U.S. Or does the incentive system encourage teachers to dump their bad students back to the public schools. And given how KIPP works, it should only be compared to private schools and not public schools since it can pick its students in the long run.

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Richard Rider
Richard Rider
14. Sept. 2023

The "woke" disease can cripple efforts to provide a quality education school or program.

K-12 universal parental school choice would reduce many of today's education problems. But don't mindlessly assume that private schools are a panacea. Too often, they aren't.

Most private schools impose variations of the same woke, CRT, DEI, gender-fluid agenda we find in public schools. It may be a kinder, gentler version, but it's still woke.

If you are looking at the private school alternative, look closely at their policies and what they teach -- and don't teach.

Here's one handy tip -- the more expensive a tony private school is, the more woke it will be. It's not universal, but it's too often the case.

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Gast
15. Sept. 2023
Antwort an

A friend teaches basic literacy and GED prep to adults in Baltimore city. We discussed this often. As children their circumstances make learning difficult due to the stress of the environment. Having education available for the adults once they achieve some stability would help. Charter schools aren't there to help the failing children. They are there to help the ones trapped in a system that spends all its time tending to the ones who don't want to learn (or aren't in a place to learn). Magnet schools work but are unpopular. Everything in Baltimore is too politicized to think their will ever be a solution.

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