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Thursday, February 28, 2013

UPDATE: Mathematica Study Reveals KIPP Cures Cancer! – @ the chalk face

Mathematica Study Reveals KIPP Cures Cancer! – @ the chalk face:



Article I authored available #openaccess in the journal Workplace #highered


workplace
You can access the article here from the journal’s website. It’s going to be one of a few others in an upcoming print edition. Basically, it recalls my first year or so as someone who has increased efforts in direct advocacy for public schools. It has been challenging in many ways and the article flushes out some realities to a lot of fictions.
I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to share.


Mathematica Study Reveals KIPP Cures Cancer!

No it doesn’t. [1]
But the Press Release, filled with italicized boldface reminded me of the Sniffling Accountant episode of Seinfeldin which Elaine champions the exclamation point.
Among the dramatic claims of “x months of additional learning growth,” I felt there was an underlying sense of “Methinks they doth protest too much”: “KIPP’s gains are not the result of ‘teaching to the test.’
And while KIPP benefits regardless of how accurate the report is about their accomplishments—because KIPP and other “choice” charters are compelled to pursue branding and the media will report often and inaccurately based on the Mathematica press release and almost none at all on the reviews to follow—I have stated repeatedly that the outcomes and data-fetish surrounding KIPP cannot justify for me the “no excuses” policies that also characterized the charter chain.
“No excuses” policies are often called a “new” paternalism, as David Whitman explains in an article praising “no excuses” schools in Education Next:
By paternalistic I mean that each of the six schools is a highly prescriptive institution that teaches 


Maybe the good stuff is forgotten sometimes.

Popout
Have you seen this video? Kind of nice.