FASTER THAN A BULLET, STRONGER THAN A TRAIN, . . WHO WILL SAVE (TEACH) OUR KIDS . . . IS SUPER KIPP (kids in private prisons) SCHOOLS. THEY HAVE made serving low-income minority students their mission - and they are some of the most successful urban public schools in the countryNot only do their students regularly outperform counterparts in other schools, but their pupils' personal academic achievement also jumps markedly. The secrets of their success?They set high expectations. They feature longer school days - typically 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a half day every other Saturday - and a longer school year, with three extra weeks in the summer. That means 50 percent more instruction time.Although they make school fun, they also have strict discipline. And they teach character as well as academics.
Charter schools are public schools, when paying is involved. Clancy said the city was hit with a $250,000 increase in charter school payments for fiscal year 2010, bringing the total the city will lose from Chapter 70 funding to $4.99 million — the same amount that administrators said they needed to balance the 2010 budget.
Jay Mathews wrote a book about the "wonderful" KIPP schools. Jim Horn review it. Find out what he found out. The KULT of KIPP: An Essay Review Jim Horn Cambridge College.
It is hearbreaking to read that Ms. Nelson does not want to be "more miserable." She rather be as miserable as she is now, than trying to improve hers and others working conditions, and on the side to feel like a valued professional for once. “I am a teacher and I can’t waste energy — all I want to do is make the school better,” she said in an interview. “I saw early on that the union was not, in my opinion, looking to have amicable conversations with the administration. We were being encouraged to be even more miserable, and if I can avoid misery, I want to do that.”
Mostly because Obama and Arne Duncan have repeatedly praised KIPP, this piece is a must-read for CTA members and those who want to protect public education. Jim Mathews wrote a book titled "Work Hard, Be Nice" in which he presents his observations of and praises for KIPP's charter school founders, history, goals, and image. Jim Horne, Ph. D. wrote an essay review of this book that I would recommend to everyone who wants to defend public education with information.
Read about KIPP's teachers efforts to join a union
Read the reasons the KIPP teachers give for choosing not to stay with the union.
A South Fulton County Charter school faces withdrawals over punishment.
In Fresno, former KIPP Academy principal denies accusations
KIPP and TFA have formed, then, a marriage that is mutually supportive and sustaining, and both organizations are now fed by the same deep institutional revenue streams that flow toward social manipulation, privatization of public spaces, and limitless tax credits. Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder of TFA, is married, you see, to KIPP’s CEO, Richard Barth.
This is an excellent objective piece with details and observations about KIPP schools. There's something perversely evasive about KIPP's opening up just one school in Dallas, one school in Albany, N. Y., one school in Oakland, California., one school in Charlotte, N. C., one school in Nashville, Tenn., and so on—as if the program recognizes that its best chance at success is to be the exception rather than the rule in any city where it operates. Perhaps this approach made sense in the program's early years, when it needed to build credibility and attract financing. But now it has done both. Until KIPP tries to succeed within an entire, single community, it is, for all its remarkable rise and deserved praise, just another model program that has yet to prove it can succeed with all—or even most—disadvantaged children.