Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 13: The Reach of the KIPP Model

Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 13: The Reach of the KIPP Model:

Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 13: The Reach of the KIPP Model

With the help of the media and national marketing campaigns paid for by white philanthropists and their hedge fund managers, the "no excuses" KIPP Model has had a huge impact on others charter schools, as well as on public schools that serve the poor.  

Below is Chapter 13 from Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys through 'No Excuses' Teaching (2016).  

Chapter 13

The Reach of the KIPP Model

During the early years of charter schools, policymakers who were eager to see various types of charters expand emphasized the philosophy of “let a thousand flowers bloom,” which led to new charter school growth with a variety of pedagogical approaches and organizational options.  By 2009, however, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was looking to discourage the proliferation of models and to replicate and scale up the test score successes among the charter school industry’s “biggest brands” (Toch, 2009, p. 26). 

With most of funded charter research focused on test score successes of KIPP, the influence of the KIPP Model reaches far beyond the KIPP’s 183 schools.  For the 6,700 other charter schools with 2.89 million students (in 2015), the KIPP Model has been and remains the charter school system to emulate. 

With billions of dollars in federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grants available in 2009-2010 to fund new charter schools to replace as many as 5,000 low-scoring public schools nationwide, highly touted charter models like KIPP suddenly became even more prominent.  Even in 2009, the short list of highly regarded charter chains, which included Aspire, Green Dot, Yes Prep, and Uncommon Schools, all sought to emulate the longer hours, high expectation, and No Excuses of KIPP. 

By 2014, there were more than a dozen other highly-touted charter networks emulating the No Excuses and “joyful rigor” of the KIPP Model. These charter chains and those that share their commitment Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools, Part 13: The Reach of the KIPP Model: