The Ends Do Not Justify the Mean(ness)
Amputation is an instant and effective weight-loss strategy, but I don’t recommend it.
Mathematica Policy Research releases a new report on Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools Tuesday, February 26, 2013: “The new KIPP evaluation covers 41 KIPP middle schools in 13 states and in the District of Columbia.”
Let me state for the record, and using a George W. Bush-style pre-emptive strike, that regardless of Mathematica’s conclusions about whether or not KIPP middle schools are succeeding, regardless of the myriad of data points, metrics, or outcomes upon which the report bases those conclusions, I remain steadfast in my rejecting KIPP charters, along with their relationship with Teach for America (TFA), their obsession with college-readiness grounded in test-prep, and their most corrosive commitments to “no excuses” and zero-tolerance practices.
I welcome reviews of the Mathematica study, and I anticipate that Mathematica, KIPP, and the media will offer less credible conclusions from the data than the reviews (and I suspect those reviews will receive far less coverage by the media). But, all in all, I cannot support KIPP and KIPP-like “no excuses” charter schools
Are teachers permitted to have expertise and credentials?
Mathematica Policy Research releases a new report on Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools Tuesday, February 26, 2013: “The new KIPP evaluation covers 41 KIPP middle schools in 13 states and in the District of Columbia.”
Let me state for the record, and using a George W. Bush-style pre-emptive strike, that regardless of Mathematica’s conclusions about whether or not KIPP middle schools are succeeding, regardless of the myriad of data points, metrics, or outcomes upon which the report bases those conclusions, I remain steadfast in my rejecting KIPP charters, along with their relationship with Teach for America (TFA), their obsession with college-readiness grounded in test-prep, and their most corrosive commitments to “no excuses” and zero-tolerance practices.
I welcome reviews of the Mathematica study, and I anticipate that Mathematica, KIPP, and the media will offer less credible conclusions from the data than the reviews (and I suspect those reviews will receive far less coverage by the media). But, all in all, I cannot support KIPP and KIPP-like “no excuses” charter schools
Are teachers permitted to have expertise and credentials?
This isn’t necessarily a rhetorical question, although the reader might have a different opinion. I’m happy to hear it. But the short answer to the title question is, “No, teachers are not permitted their expertise and credentials.”
Probably one of the best things I’ve ever read in education was this book-length study by sociologist Dan Lortie called Schoolteacher. It may have been originally published in the 1970s with some updates as recent as 2002. And there may be some better stuff out there, I don’t know. Ingersoll is another sociologist that seems to cut right to the heart of teacher professionalism, calling “teacher bashing” our new national pastime.
At one point, Lortie argues that teachers no longer have, or perhaps never had, a technical culture inaccessible to the layperson. For the sake of argument, let us assume that at some point, perhaps an unknown golden age in education, teachers were well-respected professionals with skills and knowledge only accessible to those who’ve undergone a period of training and apprenticeship. So, the detailed knowledge of planning, teaching, and
Probably one of the best things I’ve ever read in education was this book-length study by sociologist Dan Lortie called Schoolteacher. It may have been originally published in the 1970s with some updates as recent as 2002. And there may be some better stuff out there, I don’t know. Ingersoll is another sociologist that seems to cut right to the heart of teacher professionalism, calling “teacher bashing” our new national pastime.
At one point, Lortie argues that teachers no longer have, or perhaps never had, a technical culture inaccessible to the layperson. For the sake of argument, let us assume that at some point, perhaps an unknown golden age in education, teachers were well-respected professionals with skills and knowledge only accessible to those who’ve undergone a period of training and apprenticeship. So, the detailed knowledge of planning, teaching, and
