KIPP Memphis: Negative Growth and Lots of "flight risks"

Based on a new study of the segregated KIPP schools and their effects on test scores, KIPP Memphis is in the basement.  One of KIPP's Memphis schools has shut its doors this year, and four remain, even as they struggle against the earned KIPP reputation as the "Kids in Prison Program." 

A new CEO (the third in 3 years) has been brought in from Oakland, CA to try to staunch the bleeding.  Her name is Kendra Ferguson, and in an interview with the corporate education online rag, Chalkbeat, Kendra reminds us of why KIPP has a reputation as a penal business model, rather than as a humane educational model (my bolds):

[Chalkbeat] Maintaining or growing enrollment has been a challenge for many Memphis schools, and KIPP hasn’t been an exception. How are you addressing that?

[Ferguson] At the end of each school year, we have folks spending more time looking at who’s a flight risk and why they’re thinking of leaving. Is there assistance we can provide? Is there a transportation issue? … What is it that’s causing folks to want to leave?

It is not at all surprising that KIPP views its students as captives: what is surprising is that they would use this language in public.  

Meanwhile, the billionaires and hedge funders continue their unerring support for the incarceration and cultural sterilization of the children of the poor.

Memphis KIPP Calls It Quits

The KIPP school in Memphis that denied my access when I was writing my book on "no excuses" charters has decided to close shop.

It was the Memphis KIPP that had been taken over by the ASD because it had remained in the bottom five percent of public schools since its opening in 2008.  Because the school had to accept children from the neighborhood and could not recruit from the region, it's test scores remained in the basement.

When KIPP faces a situation like this, which represents a drag on the KIPP brand, they always cut and run. Or call it karma.

School Board Proposes Closure of 2 KIPPs

Shelby County Superintendent, Dorsey Hopson, has proposed closing a number of charter schools in Memphis.  Among them are two KIPP schools. 

. . . .The recommendation to close nine schools comes a week after an informal proposal that the district shutter up to 10 schools in order to help close a budget gap and avoid cuts to programs that keep students in the district.

Hopson recommended closing Northside and Carver high schools and Messick Adult Center and revoking six charters: Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering, KIPP Memphis Collegiate Middle School, KIPP Collegiate High School, Omni Prep Academy-North Point lower and middle schools, and Southern Avenue Middle School.. . . .

Unfortunately, another KIPP is not on the chopping block, even though it has been among the lowest-performing in the state for 13 years.

ASD Schools Still at Rock Bottom

Of the 11 Memphis schools that have been in the ASD the longest, all 11 are still in the bottom 10 percent — including three in the bottom 1 percent. But one school — KIPP Memphis Preparatory Middle — sits just below the 10th percentile mark. --Memphis Commercial Appeal, March 31, 2016

If KIPP Memphis Preparatory Middle sits just below the 10th percentile mark, another Memphis KIPP school remains far below that.  The KIPP Memphis University Middle School has been in bottom five percent of schools for the past three years (click image to enlarge):

When ASD was created with Race to the Top money in 2011, the charter industry promoters promised that the bottom five percent of Tennessee schools entering the Achievement School District would be catapulted into the top 25 percent of state schools within 5 years.  We are now in year 5, and we see what an outrageous lie that was to begin with. 

We can also see what the Gates Foundation has delivered since it came to Memphis (Shelby County) in 2009 with $90 million to begin the corporatization and teacher deprofessionalization process.  

From the Commercial Appeal:

Of the 168 schools that make up the bottom 10 percent in academic performance in the state, 56 percent are located in Shelby County, according to new data acquired by The Commercial Appeal this week.

Those 95 schools include 54 in the bottom 5 percent — a designation with legal ramifications that allows the state's Achievement School District to take over.

The Tennessee Department of Education issues its official priority list of bottom 5 percent schools every three years, with the next edition set for the summer of 2017. The bottom 10 percent list, provided to the newspaper by the state, is an unofficial warning to local districts about schools that are struggling and could soon be eligible for state takeover.

Of the 95 schools, 11 are under the ASD, 13 are charters and the remaining 71 are operated by SCS. A school had to have at least two year's worth of data to make the list, which is why several ASD schools new to the district are not represented. Some schools may have closed last year but still had two years' worth of data that was included.

Shelby County Schools Chief of Academics Heidi Ramirez said it's no surprise that so many schools in the bottom 10 percent in the state are located in Shelby County.

"I hope it is a call to action for folks to recognize that as much great work as we're doing in Shelby County Schools, on the resource trajectory we are on, we need additional supports to accelerate progress," Ramirez said. The district is already facing an $86 million budget gap for next year.

The 10-percent list also offers glimpses at early successes and struggles from both the ASD and the SCS Innovation Zone turnaround programs, created with Race to the Top federal funding and now kept alive through state and philanthropic dollars. Both have phased priority schools into their programs since the 2012-13 school year....

KIPP Collegiate Among Lowest Performers on Tennessee Priority List

Yesterday the KIPP Memphis operation backed out of a plan to take over South Side Middle School:

Teachers at South Side Middle School protested the takeover process last week, sending a letter to government officials and the media arguing that their scores had improved in the past year.

KIPP said the protest didn’t play into its decision to pull out of the process.

“We view the matching process as just that, a matching process,” said Jamal McCall, the executive director of KIPP Memphis Collegiate Schools. “With me doing our reflection, I was looking at where we are as a network, and my focus right now is on the quality of our current schools and ensuring that we continue to commit to those we currently serve and serve as we expand grade levels.”

Really, Jamal?  You doing the reflection? 

Meanwhile, KIPP Collegiate Middle remains on the state priority list of ASD's lowest performers as it continues to look for teachers who are willing to martyr themselves for a lost cause.

Achievement School District	Corning Achievement Elementary**
Achievement School District	Westside Achievement Middle School**
Achievement School District	Frayser Achievement Elementary**
Achievement School District	Whitney Achievement Elementary School**
Achievement School District	Georgian Hills Achievement Elementary Schoo**
Achievement School District	Cornerstone Prep - Lester Campus**
Achievement School District	KIPP Memphis Preparatory Middle**
Achievement School District	Aspire Hanley #1**

KIPP Memphis Collegiate $230,000 In Debt to Shelby County As State Test Scores Crater

Today's Commercial Appeal reported in the print edition that KIPP Collegiate Schools owe Shelby County Schools $229,443.42 for overpayment based on KIPP's projected enrollment or for failure to pay teacher retirement benefits, utility bills, etc. to the County.  There is no link because the story has been scrubbed from the Commercial Appeal website.

Shelby County is asking the State "to allow it to reduce payments to the schools to cover the shortage." 

Judging by KIPP Memphis state test scores below, there is reason to keep researchers off the premises.  The state website's 2014 School Level Data show the schools' scores backing up as time moves forward.

Below are scores for the three Memphis KIPP schools that are available from the website. (Click any chart to enlarge).  See here a former teacher's account of working with what seemed to this teacher "almost like a cult."

KIPP: ". . .it's almost like a cult"

Bill was an experienced urban teacher when he came to Memphis to teach at KIPP.  Like other teachers I have interviewed, he found himself so compromised and burned out that he did not last very long.  When he unexpectedly was offered an opportunity in another state, he bailed.  Here are a few excerpts from our conversation:

INTERVIEWER: How do you think KIPP achieves its purpose and its aims?

BILL: They don’t, not in Memphis, and, you know, I knew about KIPP __________ when I was working down there as well. They don’t achieve their aims. Here’s what KIPP’s MO is. They’ll take kids who are academically the lowest of the low, whose test scores—they’re not at the bottom—they’d already reached the bottom and had begun to dig. They’ve dug a hole. And they take all those kids. And then they tell the public, well, yeah, they’re not passing yet, but they are improving. Well, yeah, the kids have nowhere to go but up.

And through rote memorization, you can turn a kid into a robot. Doesn’t know how to think. Doesn’t know how to process. But you can turn a kid into a robot where he’ll get enough to improve on the test. But long-term, it’s not going to happen. Are there kids who come out of KIPP schools who do well in college? Absolutely. But there are kids who come out of every school who do well. Are there are teachers at KIPP schools who are good teachers? Yes. But from what I saw, I don't know where they come from, because they’re running off more good teachers than they’re keeping. Of the ten teachers who were at KIPP Memphis, and I didn’t know this until I actually arrived on campus. But of the ten teachers that they had for the 201_-201_ school year, only two survived.

. . . .What it is, is they take these, like I said, they take these young kids [young teachers] and they indoctrinate them into the KIPP way. Whether it works or not doesn’t really matter. It works from KIPP’s perspective; the teachers who stay are indoctrinated. It’s almost, and I hate to use this word, but I’m going to anyway. But it’s almost like a cult. 

. . . . 

INTERVIEWER: You didn’t hear dialogue with students?

BILL: No. No. It’s, like, you know, the students came in. The browbeating was all day, if you will. They were going to do things one way, the KIPP way. It’s what I kept hearing, it’s the KIPP way.  OK. The whole idea of grit and determination, you know, if you just do 80 hours a week, you'll be successful. I’m, like, really? How about worker smarter, not harder? Like I said, it wasn’t a good fit. And I knew it. They knew it. And when an opportunity arose, I jumped at it. I will say this. On some level, I feel really bad about leaving Memphis because I think, I’m pretty sure that there were a few kids that I could have reached if I didn’t get fired along the way. I’m a firm believer that if you save one, you save the world. And I miss teaching. I’m no longer in education. I’m now an ___________consultant for a _______ company. I miss the classroom. I miss the interaction with the kids. I miss being _________ , because I’m not _________ anymore. I’m just Bill at work.

. . . . 

INTERVIEWER: You mentioned that there was a possibility of turning kids into robots. Did you see kids being turned into robots?

BILL: Yeah, that’s all KIPP does. I’m convinced that’s what their whole MO is . . . they think that the idea to help young urban youth is to turn them into automatons. I don't believe that. I believe that in order to help any young person, you have to get them to think. And that means that they can disagree with you. Used to tell the kids all the time, you can disagree with me all you want. You'll be wrong, but that’s OK. It was actually a quotation from one of my professors in college. That’s where I got that. It’s the whole idea of Socratic teaching. The whole idea of Socratic, you know, dialoguing and critical thinking is to get these kids to think. They can form their own opinions. That’s my feeling. That’s not the KIPP way.

. . . .

INTERVIEWER: So how does your experience teaching at KIPP compare to your other experiences?

BILL: I’m a teacher. And I wasn’t teaching at KIPP. You know? I had moments, brief flashes where I was.

INTERVIEWER: What were you doing?

BILL: Just teaching, like I said, the conversations with the kids. That was the worst ______ months of my career. And yet, you can always try to find a silver lining in it with the kids. I keep going back to the kids. My wife and I have talked about this. You know, I was talking the other day. Will I ever be a teacher again? I don't know. I don't know what the future will hold. I would like to think that some day that I might be a teacher again. But it would have to be under the right circumstances. And the right circumstances to me, I don't necessarily need 100% autonomy in the classroom. I’m not a college professor. At the same time, I want to be appreciated for my experience. I want to be appreciated for the things that I do. You know, it’s the old saying, leave me alone. As long as the kids are learning, what does it matter? You don’t have to understand it. And so who knows what will happen? I’m happy now at my current position.

. . . .

INTERVIEWER: So when you're having your day and you're going along and suddenly KIPP comes to mind, is there an image that stands out to you?

BILL: Yeah, the administration telling me that they could change me into a KIPP teacher.

INTERVIEWER: How does that make you feel?

BILL: It made me feel almost like my entire career had meant nothing. And you know what really angered me about it? I had kids on the south side of _____________, who when they came to me as juniors had no idea that they were really going to go to college. And two years later, they were not only going to college, they were ready. And I still get emails from them. One of them told me that she went down to [local college]. She walked into class the first day and when the teacher handed them the syllabus, she started laughing. She knew that she wouldn’t have any problem. The work was obviously a little different, but she wouldn’t have any problem doing the work.

. . . . BILL: You know what it reminded me? I’m sitting here thinking about it. KIPP reminds me of Brave New World. They’re trying to feed the kids the soma. And I guess people all over the country are buying it because they don’t think that there’s any way else to reach these kids. So when you have somebody that comes in and says, wait a minute, there is a way to reach them, and really reach them, that person can’t last in society. Didn’t happen in Huxley’s book. And it didn’t happen to me at KIPP.