Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Answer Sheet - Question raised about new KIPP study

The Answer Sheet - Question raised about new KIPP study

Question raised about new KIPP study

No sooner had a new study been released saying that middle school students in the charter school network called Knowledge Is Power Program significantly outperform their public school peers on reading and math tests than critics raised an important question about the report.
Mathematica Policy Research issued the study yesterday, my colleague Bill Turque reported, about the KIPP network, which now has 82 schools that serve children from low-income households. Seven are in the District, including three middle schools -- KEY, WILL and AIM academies -- which are among the highest performing on the DC-CAS standardized tests.

The study looked at 22 KIPP middle schools including AIM and KEY, and discovered that by seventh grade, half of them showed growth in math scores equal to an additional 1.2 years of school. Reading gains for KIPP were not as dramatic but still significant, the researchers reported, reflecting an additional three-quarters of a year of growth.
However, an initial analysis of the study conducted by Professor Gary Miron of Western Michigan University found that attrition data appears to have been misrepresented.
Miron conducted his initial analysis at the request of the Think Tank Review Project, a collaboration of the Education and Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder and theEducation Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at Arizona State University. Here’s a post from the project on Miron’s conclusions:
A key finding of the study is that attrition at KIPP schools is not much

Study says KIPP students outperform peers


Students in a charter school network outscored public school kids in reading and math, says a new report.
MORE ON EDUCATION


Progress report from big study of KIPP

In this study, any student who spends at least a year at KIPP is considered part of the KIPP group, not the control group, even if they spend sixth through eighth grade in a non-KIPP school. So if KIPP's achievement rate increase looks good after four years, it will be in spite of, not because of, low achieving students leaving early.

Is charter school board getting tough?


It looks that way, given the recent run of schools that have had charters revoked by the D.C. Public Charter School Board, or that have beaten the board to the punch and relinquished them on their own. On April 27th, the board pulled the charter of Young America Works, a vocational/technical high school in Northeast DC, citing health and safety issues along with academic problems.
At Monday evening's board meeting, two schools targeted for revocation surrendered their charters: Children's Studio and Academy for Learning through the Arts (ALTA). The board also moved to begin revocation proceedings against Kamit Institute for Magnificent Achievers (KIMA). If the board follows through as expected, it will mean that it has effectively closed nine schools since the beginning of 2009. In 2008, two schools relinquished sharters.
"Closure of a school at any time is disruptive to families. It has always been the priority of the Board and staff to ease the transition, and as always we will help families bring closure and find new schools," Board Chair Brian Jones said Monday, according to a statement. "But the fact of the matter remains that this Board is highly focused on offering the highest quality alternatives to D.C. families. Closing under-performing schools is a painful but necessary part of this process."

The three schools on the chopping block Monday suffered from shaky academics, spotty staffing, and in one case, breaking the rules by enrolling athletes who did not meet D.C residency requirements, according to board officials.
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Myla Clark, a 10-year-old fifth grader, attends a KIPP charter school in the district(TWP)
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