How self-selection works
A poster disputes that KIPP's application methods self-select for more-motivated applicants. Honestly, this seems so obvious that I'm really not convinced that the poster is sincere. But in case there's anyone who truly doesn't get it, here are some ways that happens.
- The student must have a family that pays enough attention and cares enough about schooling to fill out the application and otherwise pursue the process.
- The student and family must be willing to commit to KIPP's longer hours and days, including some Saturday school and an extended school year.
- The student and family must be willing to agree to abide by KIPP's many requirements, from strict uniform policies to making sure homework is done.
- KIPP gives a test to all incoming students. (I am told that in the community this is viewed as an entrance test, though KIPP says it's not.) In any case, the student and family must be willing to cooperate with this test requirement; in cases where the test is believed to be an entrance test, the student and family presumably must assume the student has a chance of passing it and getting in.
- Once in the school, the student must be willing to cooperate with KIPP's unusual practices, such as the SLANT behavior (students must "sit up, listen attentively, ask and answer questions, nod in response to the speaker, and track the speaker with their eyes). The student must also be willing to comply with the decibel rules (each classroom has a decibel meter, with approved levels depending on the activity). And the student must accept and comply with the KIPP discipline policy, which is based around shunning.
- In most districts, the student's default school would either be close by or would have busing. In many cases, that wouldn't be true of the KIPP school. So the family must be willing to deal with getting the child to school.
Labels: Charters
7 Comments:
Well, you have certainly done an adequate job of recounting the conventional wisdom of the status quo crowd. Too bad it's not true.
To your points:
1. Student must have a parent who pays attention: It is racist to assume that parents in neighborhoods KIPP schools serve are generally unaware. But beyond that, KIPP schools go door-to-door to recruit students. How aware does one have to be to open a door?
2. The parents can commit their kid without the student agreeing to it. And since you think so many inner-city parents are too lazy or unaware to read a flier or open their door, don't you think those same folks would love to have their kids put in a school that will take care of them for hours a day?
3. Any good teacher makes their kids do their homework, and many district schools have stricter uniform policies than KIPP schools do.
4. KIPP does not give a test to all incoming students. That is a falsehood. They give placement tests to the students who enter the school after fifth grade, but the vast majority enter in fifth grade.
5. Each classroom does not have a decibel meter. I have been in probably 10 KIPP schools and have never seen one.
6. Yes, the students must sit up straight and generally behave, when they're not engaged in group work or other activities. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
7. Many KIPP schools bus their students to school, so no, their parents don't need to do anything additional to get their kids to school.
Your willingness to extrapolate what you have seen at ONE KIPP school to all 50+ KIPP schools is so obviously biased that I'm not sure it is sincere.
It is not racist to assume that there are ****ed-up families in all communities. It IS naive to believe that dysfunctional families are going to pursue KIPP as an option.
Actually, if you read any of the reams of articles that have been written about truancy, you can see that dysfunctional families have a lot of trouble getting their kids to school.
The information that KIPP gives tests to all incoming students and that each classroom has a decibel meter comes from KIPP.
Sitting up straight and behaving is one thing; complying with the SLANT behavior is another. It takes a really docile kid to go along with that. Anyone who doesn't get that honestly has no contact with kids.
Of COURSE you meant to say that there are such parents in other neighborhoods, of course you did. I'm sure that if KIPP put schools in fancy white neighborhoods, selection bias would be your first concern.
KIPP schools have to deal with parents who have trouble getting their kids to school, too. They have truancy problems, too. They just work with them better than the public schools in the districts do. I'm sorry you believe that there are so many incorrigible parents who cannot improve their child's truancy if offered assistance by the school.
Please show me the press release, letter, or article that "comes from KIPP" and indicates that all, or most, or even a lot of KIPP classrooms have decibel meters. You made that up or at least dramatically exaggerated the extent of it; I'm calling your bluff.
Any kid can SLANT - it's not hard. The S in Slant is for Sit up. The rest of them are other things that every teacher asks their kids to do. Which of the letters in this evil acronym do you object to?
I'm not creative enough to make that up -- it would never occur to me that anyone would put a decibel meter in a classroom. It came from the parent handbook of KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy.
I don't object at all to the SLANT behavior. But only an exceptionally docile and compliant kid is going to comply with all those requirements.
No, ANY kid will SLANT if taught to. It becomes second nature once it's habitualized.
And once again, you extrapolate the practices of the one school you visited to all KIPP schools, despite the fact that you must know throughout all your research that KIPP schools vary dramatically in practices. You've found one KIPP school with objectionable practices and formed an online identity in your crusade against this national straw man you've built.
I understand that to admit that you're wrong - which your conscience would hopefully force you to do if you visited more KIPP schools - would be extremely painful since so much of your public persona is built on this anti-KIPP mission of yours. So it would undoubtedly take much evidence to change your outlook on these schools. No doubt, the desire to remain consistent and to avoid having to wipe egg off your face is what presents you from doing any real research about what KIPP is really about.
Anyone who believes this is seriously living in a bubble:
ANY kid will SLANT if taught to.
Have you ever taught? I have, for more than a decade. All of my kids do something very similar to SLANTing.
By the way, not that you care, but not all KIPP schools have their kids SLANT, either. I know generalizations are easier to deal in, and SLANT is much more generalizable to KIPP than are decibel meters, which you still haven't shown me are in use in more than one solitary school, but your attacks are rendered meaningless when they're utterly anecdotal.
SLANT is easy. Kids get used to it. KIPP kids are admitted by lottery and are no more genetically inclined to SLANT than any other kids. They just learn the behavior. Look at a KIPP school on day 1 with new fifth graders and I assure you there isn't much Slanting going on.
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