The Non-reformy Lessons of KIPP
We’ve all now had a few days to digest the findings of the most recent KIPP middle school mega-study. I actually do have some quibbles with the analyses themselves and the presentation of them, one of which I’ll address below, but others I’ll set aside for now. It is the big picture lessons that are perhaps most interesting.
I begin this post with a general acceptance that this study, like previous KIPP studies, and like studies of charter effectiveness in markets generally characterized by modest charter market share and dominance of high flying charter chains, typically find that the kids attending these charters achieve marginal gains in math, and sometimes reading as well (as in the new KIPP study). These findings hold whether applying a student matching analysis or lottery based analysis (though neither accounts for differences in peer group).
In the past few years, we’ve heard lots of talk about no excusesness and its (supposed) costless (revenue
I begin this post with a general acceptance that this study, like previous KIPP studies, and like studies of charter effectiveness in markets generally characterized by modest charter market share and dominance of high flying charter chains, typically find that the kids attending these charters achieve marginal gains in math, and sometimes reading as well (as in the new KIPP study). These findings hold whether applying a student matching analysis or lottery based analysis (though neither accounts for differences in peer group).
In the past few years, we’ve heard lots of talk about no excusesness and its (supposed) costless (revenue