KIPP: Do-Rags Are "direct component of school-to-prison pipeline"

Recently, KIPP has had its share of bad news, and all of it has been self-generated.  Alleged pedophile, KIPP Houston's Mike Feinberg, was recently fired for having sex with a middle school student in the late 1990s.  Since the story broke about the co-founder's sexual abuse of children, both KIPP and Feinberg have been quiet as church mice. 

Now another embarrassing story is breaking, this time involving KIPP's ongoing efforts to culturally sterilize its students.  However, something must have happened on the way to the final brainwashing of KIPP high students in Lynn, MA, for male students are now protesting KIPP's arbitrary decision to ban do-rags. 

According to KIPP Lynn's dean students and culture (yes, KIPP has a dean of culture), do-rags are a "direct component of school-to-prison pipeline" and, further, they are "also reflective of some gang culture."  If that weren't enough to make any proud teen to don't his do-rag, then there is another consideration that Dean Shauna-Kaye Clarke wants students to remember, too:  ". . . they can recede your hairline. That’s not setting you up for success.”

If KIPP were really interested in addressing the "school-to-prison pipeline," the deans of culture at KIPP  would be concerned with the hemorrhaging of KIPP students who leave KIPP feeling that they are failures for being unwilling to give up their lives to make KIPP test results look better.  KIPP teaches students that those who leave are failures who are unwilling to do what is necessary to succeed.  The intense sense of shame that results does feed, we may presume, that school the prison pipeline that Dean Shauna-Kay seems to think can be diverted by ditching the do-rag.

KIPP Lynn kids aren't buying it, and that is the most positive sign I've seen of KIPP's failure so far.

KIPPster Jay Mathews, Practiced in the Art of Deception

Leader Feinberg

That's a line from the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want," of course.  If Jay could get what he wants, it would be a KIPP in every black or brown community of America, where Alpha male CEO "school leaders," with  shaved heads, white shirts, and bad attitudes ride herd on a clueless group of white female TFA "corp members," who were successfully brainwashed during the 6 weeks of basic teacher training to run themselves and their students into the ground if the Fisher-trained school leader commands it.  Whatever is good for the Family.

If Jay is not already part of the Family, he is trying hard to prove his worth.  In his latest celebration of the final installment of the Mathematical KIPP study, he begins by making stuff up, i. e., lying:

The $4 million study was paid for by the Atlantic Philanthropies, which focuses on improving the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. It will not be the last word on KIPP and other organizations that employ strong principals, creative teacher teams, extra time and strong rules of behavior. But the report provides more data for those of us arguing about this, and sheds new light on what works and doesn’t work at KIPP.

Fact: The only, though substantial, donation to KIPP from Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) was in 2006 for $14+ million. And AP never commissioned a KIPP study from Mathematica. To say this study was paid for by AP is simply untrue. KIPP bought this study from its hundreds of millions of dollars, and it would be just as easy to assume that the $4 million for the study had come from a mix of cash from the Waltons or the Bradley Foundation. Or Gates.  

How was the study shaped by KIPP's paid handlers?  This is from the Acknowledgements:

. . .the study and this report benefited greatly from input at various stages from Danielle Eisenberg, Jonathan Cowan, and Steve Mancini at the KIPP Foundation, as well as Carrie Hahnel at The Education Trust—West, Ila Deshmukh Towery at TNTP, and Jason Atwood at Teach For America. 

To Jay's credit, he does mention in his final paragraph that the study found some negative outcomes, despite the KIPP and TFA handlers:

Mathematica found that the schools had no significant impact on persistence and educational aspirations, based on surveys of students and parents. But KIPP students were more likely to report misbehavior such as losing their temper or giving teachers a hard time. 

Was that because they were more prone to mouth off or more prone to admit they had mouthed off? 

Actually, Jay, the researchers found that KIPP students are more apt to lie than to be more "prone to admit" their actions.  Trained as as they are in "grit" production but not so much in honesty, these children are more prone to prevaricate after the KIPP-notization process:   "the findings suggest that enrollment in a KIPP school leads to an increase in the likelihood that students report engaging in undesirable behavior such as lying to or arguing with parents" (p. xii).   

Does an association with KIPP cause one to lie, Jay??

The study does not mention the learned helplessness displayed by KIPPsters or the off-campus acting out that results from children in pressure cooker schools 9-10 hours a day.  

And this study only examines attitudes, behaviors, etc. in the 13 lottery KIPP schools in the sample, where teacher pay is higher, classes are smaller, and turnover is lower than other KIPPs. And we only have info from those who signed consent forms. So we know nothing of the behavior and perception issues of the other 31 schools in the study or the vast majority of KIPPsters who are locked down in total compliance penal pedagogy schools at the other 112 KIPP camps. 

There is more that Mathews leaves out, including the fact that KIPPs have about a third fewer special ed and ELL students.  I address some of these, including the misleading attrition numbers, in this post.

WaPo Editorializes on KIPP Study and Forgets to Report the Findings

When Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. presented the final piece of a study commissioned by KIPP, Inc. the other day ("KIPP Middle Schools: Impacts on Achievement and Other Outcomes", WaPo’s Editorial Board was quick to announce “KIPP Doubters Proven Wrong.”

OFFICIALS OF KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) have become accustomed to the doubters who think the success of the fast-growing charter-school network is too good to be true. KIPP’s positive outcomes are the result not of its unique learning approach but rather, so the familiar critique goes, of its ability to attract the best students with highly motivated parents. Now comes rigorous research that should put an end to those suspicions and hopefully prompt discussion of what other schools might take away from KIPP’s experience in working with low-income students.

A study conducted by the independent firm Mathematica Policy Research, which analyzed data from 43 KIPP middle schools, found that students in these charter schools showed significantly greater learning gains in math, reading, science and social studies than did their peers in traditional public schools. The cumulative effects three to four years after entering KIPP translated, researchers found, into middle-schoolers gaining 11 months of additional learning growth in math and social studies, eight months in reading and 14 months in science. KIPP, which operates in 20 states and the District, is portrayed as among the highest-performing school networks in the country.

Debunking claims that KIPP’s success is rooted in “creaming” the best students, researchers found that students entering KIPP schools are very similar to other students in their neighborhoods: low-achieving, low-income and nonwhite.

Yes, the characteristics that WaPo mentions are very similar.  What the Editorial Board ignores from the study are some other characteristics that show real demographic differences that influence test scores.  For instance, significantly fewer KIPPsters in the study were limited English proficiency and special education students (from p. xiv):

How facts have a way of intruding!  But let us continue.

A typical student enrolling in a KIPP school scored at the 45th percentile in his or her school district in reading and math, lower than both the average in the school they attended and the school district as a whole.

As to whether KIPP finds ways to shed its low-performing students, the study determined that 37 percent of KIPP students depart through attrition, in line with school district attrition rates.

This gloss presented in the final installment of the Mathematica study presents a misleading picture at best.

Yes, this final piece of the study shows an attrition rate very similar to the school district attrition rates, which on the face of it would appear to stem criticism that KIPP dumps its low performers and keeps only its high performers.  Yet in an earlier part of this study presented at AERA in New Orleans in 2011 presented findings that were not talked about in this final report.  For instance, when attrition rates were compared between middle school KIPPsters and public middle school kids from the same feeder elementary schools (rather than comparing to the entire district), the researchers found something quite different: attrition rates at KIPP were significantly higher than comparison schools following 5^th grade (16% compared to 11%), not significantly different for 6^th grade, and significantly lower at KIPP than comparison schools after 7^th grade (9% compared to 13%). (click any chart to enlarge)

Who were the 16 percent of students leaving KIPPs after 5^th grade?  Were they predominantly low performers?  Mathematica doesn’t break this out by grade level, but they do tell us that, over the entire middle school span, attrition for low performers was higher at KIPP (38%) than it was at the comparison schools (36%). I think it is fair to assume that, since most of the KIPP attriters left after 5^th grade, significant numbers were low performers. 

 

To complicate the achievement comparison picture further, we find that public comparison schools were getting large numbers of new students in grades 7 and 8, while KIPP had stable populations.  And  as the facts just above are not discussed in Mathematica’s final report, neither is this one.  These numbers are from the AERA paper presentation delivered by the same Mathematica researchers in 2011:

And what were the achievement characteristics of the late arrivers at KIPPs and the public comparison schools?  Glad you asked.  This quote below (my bolds) is from the paper upon which the AERA presentation was based: its title, Student Selection, Attrition, and Replacement in KIPP Middle Schools:

KIPP schools differ from district comparison group middle schools in how late arrivals compare with on-time enrollees. Students who enroll late at KIPP tend to be higher achieving than those who enroll on time, as measured by their grade 4 test scores, whereas the reverse is true at district comparison group schools (see Table III.2). At KIPP schools, on average, late arrivals scored 0.16 and 0.15 standard deviations above the mean for the local district in math and reading, respectively, at baseline (or the 56th percentile)…. Conversely, late arrivals at district schools had significantly lower average baseline test scores than on-time enrollees. In district comparison schools, late arrivals scored 0.29 standard deviations below the mean in both subjects (or the 39th percentile); on-time entrants scored 0.03 and 0.01 above the mean in math and reading, respectively (the 51st and the 50th percentile). All of these differences are statistically significant.

In short, late arrivals at KIPP were on average are much better students than the average public school student, while the large influx of late arrivals at the public comparison schools were regularly much weaker.

We may be begin to wonder, then, how much better KIPP test scores would be if philanthro-capitalists and the federal government had not poured hundreds of millions into KIPP’s 125 schools and if KIPP had the same kinds of students as the public schools, and if KIPP did not have a 9 to 10 hour school day, an if KIPP did not operate like a total compliance test factory, and if KIPP was not able to buy the editorial support of a once-respectable national newspaper.

Finally, the Editorial Board did not mention these troubling findings from the Mathematica study that have to do with behavior of children who have been locked down in a pressure cooker school where “grit” is valued over honesty:

On the negative side, the findings suggest that enrollment in a KIPP school leads to an increase in the likelihood that students report engaging in undesirable behavior such as lying to or arguing with parents (p. xii).

KIPP's Take from Private Sources Since 2003: $308,999,543.00

The post below is from Cloaking Inequity by Julian Vasquez Heilig:

Today I will profile Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools on The Teat. The Teat is an ongoing series on Cloaking Inequity (the protuberance through which milk is drawn from an udder or breast) that seeks to trace financial support which various entities receive that are involved in current educational policy debates.

The Teat Cow Haiku for today:

Every cow comes wrapped
in cowhide, but that does not
serve to hide the cow.

Cloaking Inequity exists because of KIPP. (For the full thread on KIPP go here) They released a response to a research study that focused on African American enrollment and leavers that was so erroneous that I had to respond publicly— CI was born.

I wrote at the time:

In April of 2012, KIPP responded to a press release for Is choice a panacea? An analysis of black secondary student attrition from KIPP, other private charters and urban districts, a peer-reviewed paper published in the Berkeley Review of Education (BRE) about African American secondary student attrition from charter schools across the state of Texas. KIPP began their response by criticizing the research on four main points. I will address those points.

One of the issues that KIPP raised was that they disagreed with the revenue that we discussed in our peer-reviewed academic paper. KIPP was just flat out dishonest in saying that they don’t spend more than traditional public schools. That information is available in the internet by double clicking on the numbers below. Texas state law requires that they report their revenues. Here is their charge and my response:

•  Vasquez Heilig makes the inaccurate claim that KIPP receives $3,361 more in total revenue than the Houston Independent School District, and incorrectly infers that KIPP Houston spends more per pupil than the district. In reality, KIPP Houston, like all public charter schools in Texas, receive less per pupil funding than district schools and no public revenue for facilities. Excluding private funds raised to cover facilities costs, KIPP Houston spends less per student per year than HISD.

KIPP is incorrect. NEPC also thinks so here. Its hard to argue with publicly available data that they themselves are required to report by law. Per student revenue for KIPP Austin ($17,286)and KIPP Houston ($13,488) relative to Austin ISD ($10,667) and Houston ISD ($10,127) is readily available online each year from the State of Texas. However, considering the current school finance debacle in Texas, where approaching $6 billion was cut from education in the last legislature, in retrospect, I think KIPP should be applauded for spending more on education…

The Teat will examine today where KIPP gets all that extra money. Thanks to Sylvia from Austin who pulled the KIPP development data from the Foundation Center in New York and forwarded it.  In sum, across the nation, since 2003, KIPP has received $308,999,543 from foundations, corporations and individuals. You can see the national spreadsheet here. KIPP in Texas has acquired about 25% of those monies— $75,981,765 from foundations, corporations and individuals. You can see the Texas spreadsheet here.

I don’t know Mike Feinberg personally. However, in the forums in which I have observed him, I find him to be eloquent and dedicated to children. I believe KIPP campuses have some redeeming qualities, I especially respect their focus on a college readiness (KIPP Houston came in 5th in the state for college readiness amongst Latina/o majority schools in my analysis— Note only 8 of 64 were charters). However, as the attrition numbers for African Americans reported in our KIPP study in the Berkeley Review of Education showed, and their less than forthright responses to our article and others where KIPP posits incorrect claims about revenue, KIPP just needs to be a little more honest about their operation.

Some NOLA KIPP Schools Lagging Behind State Average

KIPP, Inc. offers a draconian test factory model that specializes in its own patented varieties of behavioral sterilization and cultural neutering.  KIPP's Madison Avenue advertising campaign focuses on KIPP test scores, which are often higher than public school scores.  But then spending 60 percent more time in school drilling within a total compliance regime that regularly shoves out low performers has its own kinds of perverse rewards.

As a result of advertising, unlimited corporate cash (tax-deductible), and the Jay Mathews PR machine, KIPP is held up as the urban model to emulate, even though we know it can never be scaled up to a level that would be needed to educate the majority of American school children who reside in urban areas.  What is scary, however, is that public schools are starting to take on the total compliance regime of KIPP, Inc., thus achieving the primary aim of corporate reform schoolers in cities like New Orleans, which is to supply an endless stream of work-hard-and-be-nice bellhops and laundry workers for the Disney version of New Orleans that the white men of the Business Roundtable envision.

The reform schoolers' Cowen Institute at Tulane is sponsoring this week an evening a the very pissed-off looking Mike Feinberg, one of the two founders of this corporate madrassa schooling movement.  At one point a while back, the Cowen Institute claimed to be agnostic when it comes to charter schools.  It is good to see they have stopped lying and are going for the full gusto of corporate welfare schooling.  Their ad at the Cowen Institute:

Join us to learn how KIPP is closing the achievement gap in over 100 charter schools across the country, including nine in New Orleans. Leave knowing that success is possible for all children.

Mike Feinberg, Co-founder of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Foundation
and Superintendent, KIPP Houston
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center, Tulane University
Reception to follow

To RSVP, please email coweninfo@tulane.edu or call 504.274.3690

 
Well, I could not get to the state test scores of all nine of the KIPP stores in New Orleans (some have not had their grand openings yet), but I did find results from a couple of them that shows that, possible or not, KIPP is not getting it done in New Orleans in all of its schools.   (Click on charts that are too small to read).

Based on information from the Louisiana Department of Education, the KIPP Central City Academy shows lackluster performance on the state LEAP test when compared to the state average.  KIPP Central City's overall School Performance Score is 75.8, compared to the State average of 89.4  And when compared to the New Orleans Recovery School District, KIPP Central City even looks weaker.

  

 And have a look at KIPP Central City is saving money by packing these children in like sardines: 62% of classes with more than 33 students, compared to the state average of 3% of classes with more than 33 children.

The chart below shows test scores of KIPP McDonogh in comparison to District and State averages.  Scores show KIPP lagging behind State averages in most categories and grades, while, again, lagging even more when compared to NOLA Recovery School District.

The chart below shows that KIPP McDonogh 15 is even below the New Orleans Recovery School average when it comes to teacher quality.  Note, too, that class sizes exceed the District numbers as well, with 49 percent of classes with more than 26 students.

  

 The chart below shows KIPP McDonogh 15 lagging behind the State average school performance score (SPS), as well as trailing the State average growth rate in SPS for 2010.

 

Will someone ask Mike Feinberg to comment on how these figures should affect our understanding of the claim that KIPP demonstrates success is possible for all children?

KIPP Indianapolis: Too Connected to Corporate Power to Fail

If you don't know who Whitney Tilson is, he is to KIPP corporate fundraising what Jay Mathews is to KIPP media coverage: he is the go-to guy, connected at every cash-sensitive orifice to the philanthro-oligarchs who are always looking to avoid paying federal and state taxes by giving huge bundles of cash to the segregated and corporatized reform schooling movement, i. e. charter schools.  

In December 2009, Tilson had this to say about his recent visit to KIPP Indianapolis:

. . . a small percentage of our schools don't live up to KIPP's high standards (and they are VERY high).  KIPP Indianapolis was one such school. 

What would the typical school district do with an underperforming school?  We don't have to guess because most big-city school systems (aka, The Blob) have nothing but underperforming schools (I'd bet my last dollar that far less than 1% of inner-city public schools in America perform at even the bottom end of the KIPP scale).  The Blob's first line of defense is denial: if you don't measure the failure, then the failure doesn't exist, right?

KIPP, in contrast, measures every school's performance using a variety of measures, including both state and national tests, and (I hope you're sitting down) not only publicizes the data internally, but posts it on its web site for the world to see (www.kipp.org/reportcard/2008).  If you check out KIPP Indianapolis’s results last year, you’ll see mediocre results.

When The Blob is confronted with evidence of its failure (thank you, NCLB!), the next line of defense is excuses ("we need more money, what can we do with "these" students, etc.").  Often, more money does flow, which simply rewards those responsible for the failure.  It's little wonder that nothing ever changes...

At KIPP Indianapolis, in contrast, there were no excuses but rather genuine accountability.  After last school year, all of the adults at the school had to re-apply for their jobs -- and only five teachers were retained, plus a new School Leader and Assistant School Leader were brought in (Estee Kelly and Emily Pelino, respectively (both TFA alums, by the way)).  Now THAT'S accountability!  I don't know which is more shocking: the fact that this occurred at a public school in America (such dramatic action is almost unheard of), or the fact that such an obvious, common sense process to turn around an underperforming school isn't automatic when ANY school isn't doing its job.

With so much turnover among the teachers, Estee and Emily had a problem: where to find nearly a dozen kick-ass new teachers?  Fortunately, The Blob came to the rescue.  Thanks to budget cuts, a number of Indianapolis public school teachers were laid off.  Guess which ones?  Not the worst teachers -- nope, that would actually put the interests of children ahead of the interests of adults, which almost never happens.  Instead, as usual (the only exception I can think of being Michelle Rhee's courageous actions in DC -- and look at the firestorm that's created!), the layoffs were purely seniority driven, which means that many Teach for America corps members we laid off, many of whom were total rock stars.  KIPP Indianapolis of course grabbed them and they are now kicking butt for KIPP.

And so it goes...

And so it goes, indeed, Mr. Tilson. Despite the butt-kicking rock stars from TFA brought in at the beginning of 2009, and despite the increased heat under the KIPP pressure cooker, things are still in turmoil at KIPP Indianapolis, according to the Mayor's Report issued in October 2010, a year after KIPP's staff cleansing.  In examining the Report, one must wonder, in fact, what it would take to lose a KIPP charter in Indianapolis.

Special Needs Abuse and Neglect

It is beyond obvious that neglect and abuse of special education children cannot get your KIPP charter revoked in Indianapolis.  As unbelievable as it is, the KIPP Indianapolis charter was renewed for three years despite the egregious and ongoing violations already noted, as well as those below. (Click on any chart to enlarge).

The Fourth Year Charter Review (FYCR) determined that KIPP Indianapolis was not fulfilling its legal obligations regarding the proper maintenance of special education files and required considerable improvement.   The review revealed that all twenty-nine special education files reviewed were out of compliance.  The school had problems with timeliness in updating student Individual Education Plans (IEPs), documenting notification of participation by parents in case conferences. 

As a follow up to the FYCR, the Mayor’s Office contracted with external experts to again review the school’s special education files in the school’s fifth year.  At the time of the review, the school could not  produce a master roster of special education files, nor could the school locate all of the student files.  In fact, only six files were presented for review, despite twenty-nine being presented in the previous year.   Reviewers found that in April of the school’s fifth year, a number of students had yet to receive any special education services, despite having IEPs and receiving services at their previous schools.   Each of the six files reviewed were found to be out of compliance, either because IEPs were outdated, testing had not been completed, or case conferences had not been conducted.   Reviewers attributed the serious deficiencies to inadequate staffing and capacity at the school.   Two general education teachers working under emergency permits were tasked with managing the special education program, in addition to their regular, full class load.   The school contracted with an outside vendor to manage compliance in the area of special education, however the two teachers tasked with managing the program internally reported they did not have time or capacity to assist the outside vendor in managing file maintenance, nor could they meet the vendor’s deadlines for providing information.   A member of the board had been assigned to oversee special education compliance in February of the school’s fifth year, despite having only joined the board in January.

A subsequent file review was conducted in the school’s sixth year of operation as a follow up to the previous two reviews.  Twenty-eight files were presented for review.  Reviewers found that case conferences were not being conducted in a timely manner and that files were significantly disorganized – for example many files contained multiple drafts and copies of IEPs, making it difficult to discern which version was the official IEP being used by the school.  Additionally, the initiation and duration of services was not being recorded appropriately in a number of files.  Parental notification was not consistently recorded or documented and in some cases, parents had not yet signed student’s IEPs.   Finally, reviewers found that the files contained student information assumingly meant to be stored in enrollment records, such as birth certificates, transportation forms, free and reduced lunch applications and school cell phone policies.

In their application for renewal, the school’s new board provided evidence that it has engaged in sweeping changes to its program.  It indicated that an outside law firm has been contracted to provide file auditing services, program design and implementation support, and monthly check-ins to ensure program effectiveness.  Additionally, the school has hired a part-time school psychologist to oversee the program internally and improve documentation.  Two full-time special education teachers have also been hired to increase capacity.

The FYCR determined that KIPP Indianapolis was not fulfilling its legal obligations regarding the proper maintenance of special education files and required considerable improvement.  Subsequent reviews have concluded that significant issues continue to exist related to the proper maintenance of special education files. . . .


And despite Whitney Tilson's claim of transparency regarding KIPP test scores, it is obvious that the new rock stars only test in the subjects they choose to test in.  Why didn't they test in Language in 2010?  Let the Report speak (my bolds):

The Mayor’s Office retained a team of experts to again conduct a review in the school’s sixth year of operation.  The sixth year team found while standardized and classroom assessments were used frequently, assessments focused primarily on student recall and on preparation for ISTEP+ examinations.  In its regular oversight of the school, the Mayor’s Office has determined that KIPP Indianapolis failed to properly administer the Northwest Evaluation Association MAP test, as required by the charter agreement.  The school properly administered the test in Reading and Math, however failed to test students in Language.  As explanation, the former school leader stated they were unaware Language was a requirement, despite the school administering all three subjects for the previous five academic years. Therefore, the school was significantly limited in their ability to use student performance data to inform their Language curriculum without the MAP results. 

And how about the deployment of those rock stars brought in to rescue the KIPP brand in Indianapolis?

The Fourth Year Charter Review (FYCR) found that KIPP Indianapolis was approaching the standard of developing an adequate human resources system and deploying its staff effectively. While there was an explicit hiring process, designed by the CEO/Principal, staff were not appropriately certified in the instructional areas they’d been assigned. At the time of the review, KIPP was found to have a sufficient number of staff, deployed effectively and creatively.

Just prior to the fifth year of operation, the majority of staff at KIPP had been terminated or resigned, including the building principal. The school began its fifth year with a newly constituted staff.  Mid-year, the founding CEO resigned and two teachers were promoted to be co-leaders.  The school hired a new business manager, as well.

As a follow up to the FYCR, the Mayor’s Office retained a team of outside experts to evaluate the school’s performance in its fifth year of operation.   Evidence collected during the follow up visit suggested that a high number of staff were assigned to teach in areas for which they were not appropriately licensed.  The Mayor’s Office oversight systems finding that a number of staff were working under emergency permits that were set to expire, with no credible plan to resolve the issue were confirmed by the review team.  Additionally, the team found no process for mentorship of new staff.  In focus groups, teachers reported that human resource issues were the most significant challenge facing the school.  Teachers also reported feeling that professional development activities were inadequate and redundant.   Reviewers concluded that the teacher evaluation system was inconsistent and lacked constructive feedback for staff. 

The Mayor’s Office retained a team of external reviewers to conduct an additional site visit in the school’s sixth year of operation.  The team found that again, the school had experienced significant turnover and began its sixth year with a largely brand new teaching staff.   The majority of teachers hired for the sixth year were members of Teach for America, who the site team noted brought considerable competence and skill to the school.  Additionally, the team found that a formal system for teacher evaluation did not exist within the school.  In regular oversight of the school, the Mayor’s Office determined that teachers in the sixth year were still being assigned to areas for which they were not appropriately licensed.  In some instances, the teachers were permitted to teach without any license or previous experience as a classroom teacher.

And so while Arne Duncan is trying to assure that America's public school teachers are evaluated every year using student test scores, with promotion, tenure and firing on the line, these clowns at KIPP don't even have a teacher evaluation system, even as they administer the state tests only in the subjects they prefer to test.

If you would like a copy of the full report, email me.