Trying to Understand the KIPP Approach - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Trying to Understand the KIPP Approach - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Trying to Understand the KIPP Approach

by Deborah Meier

Today, Deborah Meier starts a month-long blog conversation with Elliott Witney, a former KIPP educator who now serves as the executive director of strategic initiatives and innovation in the Spring Branch independent school district in Houston, Texas. Mr. Witney was school leader at the first KIPP—Knowledge Is Power Program—charter school for 10 years.

Dear Elliott,
First, thank you for agreeing to take part with me in this public discussion. I think this is a particularly interesting and important discussion to have because we are associated with reform movements that, in many people's minds, could hardly be further apart. And, probably, I'd have agreed, until our mutual friend, Emily Gasoi (with whom I rarely disagree) studied KIPP Houston, for her dissertation research. She suggested that we might find considerable common ground.
Emily's commendations aside, however, I'm generally predisposed to a negative reaction to the KIPP model—both for its reputation for accomplishing testing "miracles" and for its approach to discipline. Some years ago I visited a KIPP school that both challenged and reaffirmed some of these preconceptions. Talking with the KIPP teachers I felt more comfortable than I expected. They said they had a lot of autonomy in directing the work of 

UPDATE: Former TFA Corps Members Planning TFA Protest in Chicago Schools Matter: Why I Am Going to DC April 4-7

Schools Matter: Why I Am Going to DC April 4-7:

Former TFA Corps Members Planning TFA Protest in Chicago

by Jim Horn

Click to enlarge.

Why I Am Going to DC April 4-7

by Jim Horn

I am coming to ODOE2 to remember and honor so many who cannot come and for so many of the forgotten victims of high stakes standardized testing.

I am coming to DC for that Louisiana 4^th grader in 2002 whose heart could be heard pounding across the desk by the teacher who had to tell him he would be in the 4^th grade for the third time because he didn’t pass the state test.

I am coming to DC for that other 4^th grade child who scooted from his wheelchair and hid under the bed, for god’s sakes, because he was ashamed to tell his mother he had failed the test again.

I am coming to DC for unknown numbers of the kids who have hurt themselves because a test labeled them as failures.

I am coming to DC for those in prison who learned failure at an early age by high stakes testing.

I am coming to DC for the parents who attended all the “Lean on Jesus” test prep prayer meetings hoping for a miracle.

I am coming to DC for the tens of thousands of teachers and principals whose 

Charter schools possess no magic formula: Opposing view:

Charter schools possess no magic formula: Opposing view

More money gives KIPP schools an edge.

(Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• KIPP received, on average, as much as $5,760 more per pupil than local school districts.
• KIPP gives students more time in schools while placing a reasonable limit on class sizes.
• Given the additional money, public schools can certainly emulate this approach.

Studies of charter schools have usually shown they provide no benefits. But studies of schools run by KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) have shown strong performance. A new study suggests that KIPP middle schools may boost test-score growth by as much as eight months to eleven months over three years.

What sets KIPP apart from other middle schools? The core of the formula is clear: Students learn when they have opportunities to learn. So we would expect to see that the opportunities to learn are different at KIPP.

OUR VIEW: Charter school experiment a success

They are. But I doubt it's because of teaching methods or some magic charter formula. The true secret is more money, something public schools are starving to get. In 11 districts in the 2007 school year, KIPP received, on average, as much as$5,760 more per pupil than local school districts, according to a recent study. KIPP leverages this generous supplemental private funding in a straightforward way: giving students more time in schools while placing a reasonable 

Federal Judge Orders Michelle Rhee Suit to Go Forward, will Broaden to Concealment and Fraud Claims:

Federal Judge Orders Michelle Rhee Suit to Go Forward, will Broaden to Concealment and Fraud Claims

A US federal judge has denied a Motion to Dismiss by former DC Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee in a wrongful termination lawsuit over the mass firings of DC Public School teachers back in 2009. Case to be amended to add concealment and fraud claims against Rhee and her CFO Noah Wepman.

For nearly three years, efforts by hundreds of DC Public School teachers who were victims of the much publicized mass firings by former Chancellor Michelle Rhee- herself hailed as a reformer and darling of major media- have failed to gain any traction in the courts.

However, in what may be a turning of that tide, US District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras has denied Rhee’s motion to dismiss claims by a music teacher that his firing was concocted by using a misapplied or non-existent job title to enable his poor evaluation and subsequent firing.

The suit involves Willie J. Brewer Jr., a 53-year-old teacher who worked for DCPS for 28 years before being terminated in October of 2009 due to “budgetary constraints” under a RIF (Reduction in Force). Under this circumstance, the pecking order of teachers to be terminated as determined by Rhee, were first those with poor performance evaluations. However, Brewer claims he was an instrumental music teacher and that his RIF competitive standing was erroneously governed by the standards for a vocal music teacher, a position that required a skill set different from his own. As a result, Brewer claims he scored a poor evaluation and was terminated.

Brewer has set out to prove that his circumstance was not the result of mere error but an illegal systematic effort by Rhee to replace teachers en masse- perhaps supported by Rhee’s own public statements regarding her ideology to aggressively fire, en masse, teachers she deems as failing.

(Read Judge Contreras’ Memorandum and Order for US District Court for the District of Columbia Civil Action No. 11-1206 http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?

Atlanta cheating scandal puts national education policy on trial — MSNBC

Atlanta cheating scandal puts national education policy on trial — MSNBC:

Atlanta cheating scandal puts national education policy on trial

Ned Resnikoff, @resnikoff

1:09 PM on 04/01/2013

• Twitter96
• Facebook412

33

In this file photo taken Jan. 18, 2011 Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall, center, speaks with school board member LaChandra Butler Parks, left, and Cecily Harsch-Kinnane, vice chair of the board, right, during the city’s specially called public school board meeting in Atlanta. On Friday, Hall was indicted for allegedly conspiring to cheat on standardized tests across the Atlanta school system. (Photo by David Goldman/AP Photo, File)

The long-simmering cheating scandal in Atlanta public schools exploded Friday when a Fulton County Grand Jury indicted former Atlantic Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall and 34 other education professionals in the school district. According to astatement from the office of the Fulton County District Attorney, the indicted parties allegedly “conspired to either cheat, conceal cheating or retaliate against whistleblowers” in order to boost the school district’s scores on Georgia’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT).

Prosecutors say that the educators cheated on the CRCT in order to reap “the benefit of financial rewards associated with high test scores.” Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), school districts which turn in low standardized test scores could be seriously penalized and even lose federal aid. Critics of NCLB and other recent school 

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-2-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Julian Vasquez Heilig Adds Graphics to the NEPC Story

by dianerav

Read here to see the illustrated version of the Wolf attack on me and NEPC.
What do we need to protect us from future Wolf attacks? Garlic? A mirror?
Maybe just common sense and concern for the commonweal.
But what do I know. I am but a humble blogger with a doctorate in history, not a statistician.

Texas Leads the Nation in Testing, But Not in Education

by dianerav

A great post here by Carolyn Heinrich of the University of Texas.
She explains that Texas spends more than any other state in the nation on testing, but is seeing no returns on its heavy investment.
The cost is not just in dollars, but in the amount of time that students spend preparing for tests and taking tests, not to mention the distortion of the purpose and content of education.
This is a great analysis of how a well-meaning state can make disastrous decisions that hurt the quality of education.

Occupy the DOE: The Song

by dianerav

Matt Farmer is a public school parent in Chicago. He is also a lawyer. If you have not seen his cross-examination in absentia of Penny Pritzker, the billionaire member of the Chicago Board of Education, you should.
Now Matt is in his way to the rally in DC this week, from April 4-7, and he wrote a great song, which is here.
Watch, listen, and think. Who is closing the schools? Why? Who benefits?

New Orleans: What If Most of the Choices Are Bad Ones?

by dianerav

Parents in New Orleans are likely to learn that their child is enrolled in an F school. Under federal law, they have a right to transfer to a higher-performing school.
But here is New Orleans’ dirty little secret: Most of he choices available to parents are also F rated schools.
This stunning article takes you inside the story that has been mythologized in the national media.
Consider this:
“More than seven years into the New Orleans choice experiment, documents and interviews reveal the schools

NEPC: Patrick Wolf Should Apologize

by dianerav

Yesterday, Patrick Wolf published a vitriolic attack on me and on the National Education Policy Center.
This was in response to a post I had published saying that vouchers had failed in Milwaukee. They are supposed to “save minority students from failing schools,” but they do no better and sometimes worse than public schools. I cited Wolf’s evaluation, state test scores (which showed no edge for voucher students), and the fact that 75% of the voucher students in his study did not remain in the voucher schools to graduate. The 75% attrition rate appears in Wolf’s report. I did not know that he subsequently lowered the attrition rate to 56%, although that too is a pretty staggering attrition rate. I also noted that Wolf recently wrote an editorial in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune chastising his home state of Minnesota for not requiring more school choice. This caused me to

Jindal Poll Rating Plummets

by dianerav

Bobby Jindal is the poster boy for the radical assault on everything that belongs to the public.
He has attacked public education, public hospitals, public higher education, and anything else that is in the public sector. He wants to outsource, give away, rent, lease, or sell whatever he can at bargain prices to the corporate sector.
A few weeks ago, he released his tax reform plan, in which he eliminates the personal income tax and the 

Why The Business Model Is Not Right for Children

by dianerav

A reader comments:
The profitization of public education on the backs of students, parents & teachers is obscene to the spirit of the human being business we call Education. Families raise the children, educators prepare them for the free world as American citizens armed with knowledge and compassion to contribute to the good of this planet.
No matter how critical the corporate deformers think testing should be to the rest of us, WE educators have something they do not…experience.
The business model just doesn’t work quite the way they think it should in education. We aren’t manufacturing 

Connecticut Principal of the Year: Advice to Politicians about High-Stakes Testing

by dianerav

Tom McMorran was named Connecticut’s principal of the year in 2012. Here he offers a lesson to our nation’s politicians about the Common Core standards and high-stakes testing. Send this to your state legislators and your member of Congress and the Senate.

Tom sent the following comment:

It is time to school our politicians about CCSS and High-Stakes testing.
Here is a day in course level 101.
Tom McMorran
2012 High School Principal of the Year NASSP
Philosophy 101:
In order for an argument to carry weight and cause one not only (1) to believe it, but also

Is This the Goal of “Choice”?

by dianerav

When ALEC and its faithful friends in think tanks and state legislatures promote “choice,” what do they really mean? When the Walton family and their family foundation attack public sector institutions and advocate choice, what do they really want? When they push the Parent Trigger and call it “empowerment,” who do they want to empower?
This reader left a comment in which he sees a strategy and a goal in the laws and policies pushed by ALEC, the Waltons and others intent on privatizing the public sector.
He writes:
“It is a tenet of ALEC that charter schools should be completely 

Lawsuit Filed in Connecticut, Claims Vallas Contract Illegal

by dianerav

Jonathan Pelto reports that Connecticut State Commissioner Stefan Pryor, Paul Vallas, and the Bridgeport Board of Education are being sued for illegally hiring Superintendent Paul Vallas.
Pelto writes:
“The CTMirror story goes on to report, “State law requires all superintendents in Connecticut to be certified by the State Department of Education, which requires a candidate have a master’s degree plus 30 credits in courses relating to becoming a superintendent and eight years of teaching or administrative experience. These requirements can be waived for up to one year by the state’s education commissioner while the candidate

How ALEC Is Changing the Face of Charters

by dianerav

When the charter school movement began in the early 1990s, the promise of advocates was that charters would be held accountable for results. There were two promises, really: one was that there would be accountability; the other was that there would be results. If the results didn’t happen, the schools would close.
Now there is a new approach to charters, sponsored by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). To learn more about ALEC and to see its model legislation for education and other issues, look here.
It is a tenet of ALEC that charter schools should be completely unregulated, unsupervised, and unaccountable. The goal is choice, not accountability or results.
ALEC pretends to be conservative but pushes model legislation to give the governor and sometimes his allies the

A Miracle in Maryland?

by dianerav

Matt Di Carlo is a cautious social scientist who looks at education policy from every possible angle.
Like me, he does not believe in miracles in education. Education is a steady, slow, incremental process of development that is hard work. Changes comes slowly.
Yet here is Di Carlo on the dramatic gains that Maryland has made on NAEP, outpacing the nation.
How did they do it?
Maryland has charters, but not very many, and they are unionized.
Maryland has high per pupil spending.
Maryland did not implement any of the market-based

Virginia Launches Bold Attack on Public Education

by dianerav

The Virginia Legislature passed legislation proposed by the governor that opens the door to privatizing any school in the Commonwealth that is found to be “failing.”
Rachel Levy has the details here
Governor McDonnell’s “Opportunity Education Institution” is an ALEC-inspired dream.
It creates a governor appointed commission that will take over schools with low test scores.
Levy writes:
“The Institution will be run by a board of gubernatorial appointees, which includes the executive director. There is

Diane in the Evening 4-1-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Louisiana Teacher to NBC: Not for Sale! by dianerav Just got this in the email. It was posted on Facebook: Deborah Hohn Tonguis posted in LA Public Teachers: Our Classrooms are Not for Sale! Here is my email response to Holly Boffy, who sent an email request to all of the Louisiana Teachers of the Year to participate in an upcoming visit by NBC. She has no shame… From: Holly Boffy Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 9:53 PM Subject: Unique opportunity in the New Orleans area Dear Teachers of the Year, If you live in ... more »

UPDATE: News Flash Update: CT Post proves validity of lawsuit with news story about suit against Pryor, Vallas and Bridgeport Board of Education - Wait, What?

News Flash Update: CT Post proves validity of lawsuit with news story about suit against Pryor, Vallas and Bridgeport Board of Education - Wait, What?:

News Review: Vallas’ illegal contract leads to suit against Bridgeport Board of Education, Commissioner Pryor and Vallas

by jonpelto

As first reported by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas in the CTMirror, Attorney Norm Pattis has filed a lawsuit in Superior Court alleging that Superintendent Paul Vallas’ contract to serve as Bridgeport’s superintendent of schools is illegal. Pattis is the attorney who brought the case that led Connecticut’s Supreme Court to rule that Governor Malloy’s attempted takeover of the [...] (Read more...)

What is Commissioner Pryor’s Chief of Staff doing as the Vice President of a Charter School Board of Directors?

by jonpelto

Add one more item to the list of real or perceived conflicts of interest surrounding Commissioner Pryor, the State Board of Education and Governor Malloy’s education reform efforts. It turns out that in addition to serving as Chief of Staff for Connecticut Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor, Adam Goldfarb has been serving as Vice President [...] (Read more...)

News Flash Update: CT Post proves validity of lawsuit with news story about suit against Pryor, Vallas and Bridgeport Board of Education

by jonpelto

The CT Post has posted their initial coverage of the lawsuit against Connecticut Commissioner Pryor, Bridgeport’s Acting Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas and the Bridgeport Board of Education.  In doing so, they help make the case that the Bridgeport Board of Education’s decision to grant Vallas a three-year contract as Superintendent of Schools was illegal.

The CT Post’s Linda Lambeck write, “A lawsuit was filed Monday against city School Superintendent Paul Vallas, the city school board and Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor over Vallas’ his lack of certification.

The suit was filed by retired Judge Carmen Lopez, a city resident, and Deborah Reyes-Williams a city parent. The complaint was filed in Bridgeport Superior Court by attorney Norman Pattis. The suit asks that Vallas be removed from the role of superintendent and 

NEWS FLASH: Commissioner Pryor, Acting Superintendent Vallas and Bridgeport Board of Education sued for granting Vallas illegal contract

by jonpelto

Why I fight, and why you should too | Crazy Crawfish's Blog

Why I fight, and why you should too | Crazy Crawfish's Blog:

"Was Abe A RINO Too?" John Boehner Has No Use For Lincoln In Context

by crazycrawfish

 Reblogged from mykeystrokes.com:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sent a memo to all House Republicans today, telling them what a great job they're doing. Of particular interest, though, was the Speaker arguing how "noble" he and his party are for trying to balance the budget. From the memo:

The book Congressman Lincoln by Chris DeRose, which I recently read, includes a chapter focused on Abraham Lincoln's efforts to help craft a new national agenda.

Read more… 554 more words

Great example of how today's GOP often twists meaning and history from its actual context to make historical figures say what they wanted them to say, but not what they actually did. Today's GOP could only still be the party of Lincoln, if Lincoln said and did the opposite of everything he actually did. No problem. With just a little 

Why I fight, and why you should too

by crazycrawfish

I recently received a comment on my blog that struck a chord. . . and triggered a memory of who I used to be and who I am.  It addresses a number of questions people ask me about my own feelings on a wide range of issues, and I found it both focusing and inspirational and thought I would share it with you.
Let me just say that I’m not a teacher, and my kids are only now starting going to public schools. While I did work for the Louisiana Department of Education until recently, that was in the data department and my only role dealing with children’s issues directly was ain an advisory position on a student discipline adversary panel. So I understand why people ask me:

“Why do you care so much? Why do you fight, for teachers, for other people’s kids? You’re not a teacher and you could afford non-public school for your kids.” (Most white middle class families living in Baton Rouge go that route.) “You could afford to move to a wealthier school district with kids and families just like yours. (If they don’t go the former route most take this one.) “Why do you stay in a school district that lags many in the state when there are top notch ones in parishes 

Daily Kos: Eugene Robinson: The racket with standardized test scores

Daily Kos: Eugene Robinson: The racket with standardized test scores:

Eugene Robinson: The racket with standardized test scores

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

It is time to acknowledge that the fashionable theory of school reform — requiring that pay and job security for teachers, principals and administrators depend on their students’ standardized test scores — is at best a well-intentioned mistake, and at worst nothing but a racket.

I read that first paragraph of this column by Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Eugene Robinson and found myself wanting to stand up and cheer.  For years those of us in the trenches in education have tried to make people aware that the Emperor of Educational "Reform" in the form of test-driven accountability was naked:  it had little to do with real reform, and was destructive of meaningful learning and teaching.  Given that the editorial board of his paper has been among the champions of test-driven reform, this is of special significance.Robinson's column is not perfect.  He considers standardized achievement tests "a vital tool."  But to misuse use a tool can be worse than not having it -  using a sledge hammer to set a broken bone is more destructive than helpful, and that has been how we have used standardized tests in the so-called reform movement.
I am glad for Robinson's column, even as I am going to criticize some additional parts of it.

Criminal indictment of Beverly Hall: Is it illegal to be an overly demanding boss? | Get Schooled

Criminal indictment of Beverly Hall: Is it illegal to be an overly demanding boss? | Get Schooled:

Criminal indictment of Beverly Hall: Is it illegal to be an overly demanding boss?

by Maureen Downey

Oglethorpe University President Lawrence Schall doesn’t dodge the hard stuff. Proving it again today, he dons his legal robes  — he is an attorney –  and discusses the nature of the charges against former APS school chief Beverly Hall.
He is not the only one questioning the breadth of the criminal charges facing Hall and other educators as a result of a cheating scandal first exposed by an AJC investigation of test score disparities.

Former Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall is among the 35 people indicted in APS cheating scandal who must surrender at the Fulton County Jail today. (AJC photo)

The Concerned Black Clergy is holding a 10 a.m. press conference today where local attorneys are scheduled to speak about the overreach of the charges.
The press conference is being held at the Fulton County Jail where the 35 accused APS administrators, educators and others indicted Friday are due to surrender.
A 65-count indictment accuses former APS Superintendent Beverly Hall …