KIPP Sinks To New Low. Uses COVID-19 As An Opportunity To Abandon Two Memphis Schools.
The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter network is renowned as the ‘gold star’ of charter schools in the country. With over 200 schools throughout the country and over 100,000 students, KIPP is the kind of network that reformers are referring to when they talk about ‘high quality charters.’
In researching KIPP over the years, I have found a huge inconsistency in the performance of their schools. In some states with A to F grading schemes, there are KIPPs with As and KIPPs with Fs. And even if you’re not a big believer in the A to F school rating system, reformers love them so it must be considered at least ‘ironic’ when schools that operate with the same philosophy and training and materials get such different results in the same state.
The Tennessee Achievement School District, or ASD, is the Edsel of school reform. Created with a Race To The Top Grant and developed by TFA alum Kevin Huffman, who was state education commissioner at the time, and TFA alum Chris Barbic, the first ASD superintendent, the ASD completely failed in it’s mission to ‘catapult’ schools from the bottom 5% into the top 25% in five years. It is now eight years into the experiment and hardly any of the 30 ASD schools even made it out of the bottom 5%. Not to worry, both Huffman and Barbic resigned and are doing very well with their new project called The City Fund.
Three of the 30 ASD schools are run by KIPP. Five days ago I read in Chalkbeat TN that two of those KIPP schools are shutting down at the end of this school year. On the KIPP Memphis website they explain to the families “While the community welcomed our CONTINUE READING: KIPP Sinks To New Low. Uses COVID-19 As An Opportunity To Abandon Two Memphis Schools. | Gary Rubinstein's Blog