Where have all the KIPPsters gone?
The Chronicle's Chip Johnson wrote yesterday about the leaky roof at Oakland's KIPP Bridge College Preparatory, a serious problem with no easy solution. The building can't be reroofed during the rainy season.
Johnson repeats the usual praise of KIPP:
KIPP issue No. 1: Stratospheric attrition, especially of the most academically challenged subgroup
The most startling KIPP attrition statistic I've seen comes from KIPP Bridge, where 77% of the African-American boys in one class (the class that would finish 8th grade in 2006) left KIPP Bridge between 5th grade and the fall of 8th grade. It's not publicly known how many of the remaining 23% finished 8th grade and moved on to high school.
I've followed enrollment figures for all nine of California's KIPP schools. Six of them show the same pattern: very high attrition, far higher for the most academically challenged subgroup. (This is usually African-American males, but it's Latino males in some schools with small African-American enrollment. KIPP schools tend to be very segregated.) Oakland's KIPP Bridge shows the highest attrition of all.
Here are the figures for KIPP Bridge's class that finished 8th grade in 2006:
Total enrollment, all demographics:
87 students started 5th grade in 02-03;
60 continued to 6th grade in 03-04;
50 continued to 7th grade in 04-05;
36 continued to 8th grade in 05-06.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Those are fall statistics, so we don't know how many actually finished 8th grade and were promoted to high school.
Similar pattern for the class that is to finish 8th grade in 2007:
82 started 5th grade in 03-04;
78 continued to 6th grade in 04-05;
47 continued to 7th grade in 05-06;
number who finished 8th grade unknown.
African-American boys:
35 started 5th grade in 02-03;
19 continued to 6th grade in 03-04;
15 continued to 7th grade in 04-05;
8 continued to 8th grade in 05-06.
Again, those are fall figures, so we don't know how many finished 8th grade and were promoted to high school. This means 77% of the African-American boys who started at this KIPP school either left or were retained to repeat a grade (this is unknowable unless KIPP chooses to tell us) by the FALL of 8th grade. We also don't know, unless KIPP chooses to tell us, how many of those eight finished 8th grade and went on to high school.
38 started 5th grade in 03-04;
31 continued to 6th grade in 04-05;
17 continued to 7th grade in 05-06.
African-American girls:
38 started 5th grade in 02-03;
30 continuted to 6th in 03-04;
22 continued to 7th in 04-05;
15 continued to 8th in 05-06;
number who finished 8th grade unknown.
31 started 5th grade in 03-04;
33 were in 6th grade in 04-05 (this bump could reflect some retained from the grade ahead to repeat 6th, or newcomers);
17 continued to 7th grade in 05-06.
As an amateur doing this on my own unpaid time, I haven't researched attrition for non-KIPP schools serving comparable demographics. Boatloads of money have been poured into studying KIPP schools (too bad some of those megabucks couldn't pay to fix the leaky roof). One would presume that some of that money would pay for someone to do those comparisons. If so, I haven't seen the results anywhere.
KIPP supporters have defended this attrition by pointing out that low-income families often have unstable living situations and move frequently, a sadly valid point. But it's not clear why 56 percent of African-American girls would move away as compared with 77 percent of African-American boys.
To point out the obvious: any school that loses 77 percent of its most academically challenged subgroup, its true target students, is not solving the problems of public education. And any school that could keep 23 percent of a subgroup and disappear the rest could easily see that subgroup's achievement soar, no matter what pedagogical methods it used.
Again, six of California's nine KIPP schools show a similar attrition pattern.
KIPP issue No. 2: Discipline procedures
Candy bans and walking single file are the least of it (why do I suspect that KIPP tries to make that sound like the full extent?). KIPP's discipline system relies on shunning and public humiliation.
The punishment system, called The Bench, is for violations from physical aggression and vandalism to untucked shirt, chewing gum or talking to a benched student. It lasts for two days if the benched miscreant does everything right.
My information comes from the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy handbook. I understand that this is fairly standard in KIPP schools.
Transcribed from the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy handbook [bracketed sections are my inserts]:
KIPP issue No. 3: Grade retention
It's clear to anyone who follows news and discussion about KIPP schools that they are very aggressive about requiring that students repeat a grade. All KIPP schools that I know of are grades 5-8, and all that I know of are in districts where all or most of the feeder schools are grades K-5. This would imply that KIPP schools are set up to expect many incoming students to repeat grade 5, and to weed out those who refuse.
Various reports and enrollment figures also hint that many kids are retained to repeat grades.
I took my 7th-grader to visit KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy last September. We were curious because of its high test scores, and also because a KIPP parent had posted proudly on the sfschools listserve that his child had "tested into" the KIPP school. KIPP is not supposed to be requiring students to test into its schools.
What the KIPP staff told me immediately was not to assume that my daughter would remain in 7th grade if she enrolled there; she would be in the grade they assigned her, based on testing. In our all-choice district, I checked out several schools when we first started looking at middle schools, and I NEVER got a comment like that. The attitude outside KIPP is that it's assumed that your child remains at grade level except under specific, unusual circumstances.
So, this raises many questions, few of which I've seen addressed.
How many students does KIPP require to repeat a grade, compared with non-KIPP schools (including students who completed 5th grade elsewhere and are required to repeat it at the KIPP school)? Does requiring students to repeat a grade weed out challenging students, and if so, how many? Is repeating a grade likely to improve a student's test scores? Does that extend to long-term improved academic — and life — success?
I would hope that the researchers who are paid to study KIPP schools know to examine all those questions. But media covering KIPP schools should also be aware of all these issues and be asking those questions too — though not necessarily in a story about leaky roofs.
By the way, though, aside from the money poured into studies of KIPP, it appears to be showered with private funding — Bill Gates, Don Fisher, Eli Broad, the Wal-Mart folks &mdash everyone loves KIPP. Isn't there any way to direct a little of that money to fixing the roof at KIPP Bridge?
— Caroline
How to research California KIPP schools' enrollment data:
Go to the California Department of Education's Academic Performance Index website:
Near the top, click Data & Statistics
Click Dataquest
Level — choose School
Subject — choose Student Demographics (under Enrollment)
Submit
Single year — leave the default, 05-06
Name — just type KIPP (this will get you to all California KIPP schools)
Click the "gender, grade, ethnic designation" option
Select agency — now you can choose one KIPP school after another with that and the back button
You can change the year to get year-by-year figures. After that it's just a laborious process of carefully writing them down.
Most California KIPP schools began in 03-04 and so only have three grades. The Oakland one began in 02-03 and graduated its first 8th-grade class (or what was left of it!) in '06.
There aren't figures for this school year yet.
Johnson repeats the usual praise of KIPP:
"... considered a model for education reform ..." "... its 450 students in fifth through eighth grades achieve higher scores than their counterparts ..." "... most of the students at KIPP Bridge School are academically beyond their peers in the public schools."And he gives a rather soft-pedaled account of KIPP's disciplinary system:
"...students are required to walk single-file, candy is not allowed, and students and parents are asked to sign a contract and stick to it."Johnson obviously didn't intend that column to take a close look at the KIPP school itself. But it would be useful if he has more background before he writes about it again, because the facts about KIPP and especially about that particular school are pretty startling. This blog post, which I'll send to Johnson, restates some points that I've posted here previously. For the record, I'm an amateur volunteer San Francisco public-school parent, volunteer and advocate, and I study charter schools and other "it's a miracle!" education reforms with a skeptical eye.
KIPP issue No. 1: Stratospheric attrition, especially of the most academically challenged subgroup
The most startling KIPP attrition statistic I've seen comes from KIPP Bridge, where 77% of the African-American boys in one class (the class that would finish 8th grade in 2006) left KIPP Bridge between 5th grade and the fall of 8th grade. It's not publicly known how many of the remaining 23% finished 8th grade and moved on to high school.
I've followed enrollment figures for all nine of California's KIPP schools. Six of them show the same pattern: very high attrition, far higher for the most academically challenged subgroup. (This is usually African-American males, but it's Latino males in some schools with small African-American enrollment. KIPP schools tend to be very segregated.) Oakland's KIPP Bridge shows the highest attrition of all.
Here are the figures for KIPP Bridge's class that finished 8th grade in 2006:
Total enrollment, all demographics:
87 students started 5th grade in 02-03;
60 continued to 6th grade in 03-04;
50 continued to 7th grade in 04-05;
36 continued to 8th grade in 05-06.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Those are fall statistics, so we don't know how many actually finished 8th grade and were promoted to high school.
Similar pattern for the class that is to finish 8th grade in 2007:
82 started 5th grade in 03-04;
78 continued to 6th grade in 04-05;
47 continued to 7th grade in 05-06;
number who finished 8th grade unknown.
African-American boys:
35 started 5th grade in 02-03;
19 continued to 6th grade in 03-04;
15 continued to 7th grade in 04-05;
8 continued to 8th grade in 05-06.
Again, those are fall figures, so we don't know how many finished 8th grade and were promoted to high school. This means 77% of the African-American boys who started at this KIPP school either left or were retained to repeat a grade (this is unknowable unless KIPP chooses to tell us) by the FALL of 8th grade. We also don't know, unless KIPP chooses to tell us, how many of those eight finished 8th grade and went on to high school.
38 started 5th grade in 03-04;
31 continued to 6th grade in 04-05;
17 continued to 7th grade in 05-06.
African-American girls:
38 started 5th grade in 02-03;
30 continuted to 6th in 03-04;
22 continued to 7th in 04-05;
15 continued to 8th in 05-06;
number who finished 8th grade unknown.
31 started 5th grade in 03-04;
33 were in 6th grade in 04-05 (this bump could reflect some retained from the grade ahead to repeat 6th, or newcomers);
17 continued to 7th grade in 05-06.
As an amateur doing this on my own unpaid time, I haven't researched attrition for non-KIPP schools serving comparable demographics. Boatloads of money have been poured into studying KIPP schools (too bad some of those megabucks couldn't pay to fix the leaky roof). One would presume that some of that money would pay for someone to do those comparisons. If so, I haven't seen the results anywhere.
KIPP supporters have defended this attrition by pointing out that low-income families often have unstable living situations and move frequently, a sadly valid point. But it's not clear why 56 percent of African-American girls would move away as compared with 77 percent of African-American boys.
To point out the obvious: any school that loses 77 percent of its most academically challenged subgroup, its true target students, is not solving the problems of public education. And any school that could keep 23 percent of a subgroup and disappear the rest could easily see that subgroup's achievement soar, no matter what pedagogical methods it used.
Again, six of California's nine KIPP schools show a similar attrition pattern.
KIPP issue No. 2: Discipline procedures
Candy bans and walking single file are the least of it (why do I suspect that KIPP tries to make that sound like the full extent?). KIPP's discipline system relies on shunning and public humiliation.
The punishment system, called The Bench, is for violations from physical aggression and vandalism to untucked shirt, chewing gum or talking to a benched student. It lasts for two days if the benched miscreant does everything right.
My information comes from the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy handbook. I understand that this is fairly standard in KIPP schools.
Transcribed from the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy handbook [bracketed sections are my inserts]:
If a student makes one of the poor choices [listed infractions], he or she must be "off the team" and is subjected to the following until earning his/her way off:Needless to say, this discipline system is controversial among those who are aware of it (given that KIPP doesn't exactly trumpet it far and wide as a secret to success). Some view it as oppressive and racist that middle-class observers would admire a disciplinary system used on low-income children of color that most would never tolerate for their own kids. Others say kids from different cultures need and expect different types of discipline.Meeting with Student Discipline Committee (SDC) where they review the student's apology letter and decide whether s/he should be off the bench...
- No talking, except to staff (freshmen and sophomores) [KIPP refers to its students, who are in grades 5-8, as freshmen through seniors, and the student body as a team].
- Wearing a bench sticker
- Loss of all privileges
- Silent lunch away from the team
- Detention from 5-5:30
- Grade level appropriate letter explaining why s/he should be accepted back to the team
- Participation in a family meeting [it's not clear whether this means the student's family or is referring to the school community as a family] (in all cases except talking to bench student, gum, and untucked shirt)
- One or more logical consequences as decided by teacher/admin...
- Public apology at Grade Level Team and Family (juniors and seniors)
[If the SDC and/or asst. principal so decide, the student is benched until another review the following week.]
[There are also time-outs, with a time-out space in each classroom.]
KIPP issue No. 3: Grade retention
It's clear to anyone who follows news and discussion about KIPP schools that they are very aggressive about requiring that students repeat a grade. All KIPP schools that I know of are grades 5-8, and all that I know of are in districts where all or most of the feeder schools are grades K-5. This would imply that KIPP schools are set up to expect many incoming students to repeat grade 5, and to weed out those who refuse.
Various reports and enrollment figures also hint that many kids are retained to repeat grades.
I took my 7th-grader to visit KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy last September. We were curious because of its high test scores, and also because a KIPP parent had posted proudly on the sfschools listserve that his child had "tested into" the KIPP school. KIPP is not supposed to be requiring students to test into its schools.
What the KIPP staff told me immediately was not to assume that my daughter would remain in 7th grade if she enrolled there; she would be in the grade they assigned her, based on testing. In our all-choice district, I checked out several schools when we first started looking at middle schools, and I NEVER got a comment like that. The attitude outside KIPP is that it's assumed that your child remains at grade level except under specific, unusual circumstances.
So, this raises many questions, few of which I've seen addressed.
How many students does KIPP require to repeat a grade, compared with non-KIPP schools (including students who completed 5th grade elsewhere and are required to repeat it at the KIPP school)? Does requiring students to repeat a grade weed out challenging students, and if so, how many? Is repeating a grade likely to improve a student's test scores? Does that extend to long-term improved academic — and life — success?
I would hope that the researchers who are paid to study KIPP schools know to examine all those questions. But media covering KIPP schools should also be aware of all these issues and be asking those questions too — though not necessarily in a story about leaky roofs.
By the way, though, aside from the money poured into studies of KIPP, it appears to be showered with private funding — Bill Gates, Don Fisher, Eli Broad, the Wal-Mart folks &mdash everyone loves KIPP. Isn't there any way to direct a little of that money to fixing the roof at KIPP Bridge?
— Caroline
How to research California KIPP schools' enrollment data:
Go to the California Department of Education's Academic Performance Index website:
Near the top, click Data & Statistics
Click Dataquest
Level — choose School
Subject — choose Student Demographics (under Enrollment)
Submit
Single year — leave the default, 05-06
Name — just type KIPP (this will get you to all California KIPP schools)
Click the "gender, grade, ethnic designation" option
Select agency — now you can choose one KIPP school after another with that and the back button
You can change the year to get year-by-year figures. After that it's just a laborious process of carefully writing them down.
Most California KIPP schools began in 03-04 and so only have three grades. The Oakland one began in 02-03 and graduated its first 8th-grade class (or what was left of it!) in '06.
There aren't figures for this school year yet.
Labels: Charters
2 Comments:
I am really glad to see someone writing about the draconian discipline at KIPPS. People point to these schools all the time as great successes, and then say, "See what you can do without a union!" As if that's what the real difference is. They should say, "See what results a little humiliation will get you!!"
And of course as you point out the results are debatable.
I have a daughter at KIPP, and she looves it. She also loves how much she feels she's learning, compared with the school she was before (one public school in San Francisco). The discipline? She didn't have a discipline problem before, and she doesn't have one now. The best part is, the discipline checks at KIPP protect my daughter from the annoying kids, with whom she DID have a problem before. Go KIPP!
Post a Comment
<< Home