Education Week looks at KIPP attrition

Education Week addresses the commentaries this blog has been doing on KIPP attrition.

Education Week 6/8/07
KIPP Student-Attrition Patterns Eyed

High Mobility Rates at Certain Schools Attract Criticism, Despite Suggestions That Problem Is Easing Over Time

By Erik W. Robelen

As the high-profile Knowledge Is Power Program network of schools continues to expand, KIPP leaders are taking a close look at student attrition amid arguments from critics that the loss of students at some of those public schools of choice is alarmingly high.

Attrition rates at a few KIPP schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, in particular, have recently drawn scrutiny. Fewer than half the 5th graders who entered three new middle schools in fall 2003 are still enrolled this academic year, when they would generally be finishing 8th grade, according to a KIPP analysis. At one of the schools, in Oakland, Calif., only about a quarter of the students from that 5th grade class have remained.

National attrition data on the San Francisco-based network of 52 mostly charter middle schools are unavailable. But information the network provided on a handful of other schools, as well as a review of national enrollment data by Education Week, suggests that levels of student mobility vary widely across KIPP campuses.

In certain KIPP schools, in fact, attrition appears very low.

Still, some observers are raising concerns, especially given the accolades KIPP has attracted. For one, if most of the exiting students are low-performing, they say, the average test scores could be higher than they would be otherwise, and not accurately reflect the schools’ actual success.

Unfortunately, the article is behind the EdWeek subscription wall. But we have to quote the reference to our efforts here:

Caroline M. Grannan, a parent activist in San Francisco, has repeatedly posted entries on the Web log www.sfschools.org that raise questions about attrition at Bay Area KIPP schools.

“I started looking more closely [at enrollment data] … and discovered this really staggering attrition at some of them,” she said in an interview. “They’re being held up as superior to public schools while there is this huge confounding factor. That’s a problem to me.”

The Bay Area schools also attracted the attention of The Washington Post, and in response to an inquiry from the newspaper, KIPP provided an in-depth analysis of attrition for three of its five schools in the area that appeared to have lost a lot of students. The network also made the analysis available to Education Week.

The KIPP analysis, which relied on exit interviews with families conducted by school staff, suggests that about half the departing students moved out of the area, while the other half chose to leave for reasons mainly tied to the KIPP approach. Only two students at one school, KIPP says, were explicitly told to leave.

For the students who did not move, the most common reason cited for leaving was to avoid repeating a grade. KIPP schools are aggressive about promoting students only if they demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to advance. Other common reasons cited were the extended school day and the strict discipline code.

— Caroline