Kendall O’Neill
Megan Keaton
ENG 112
4 March 2012
Smith, Hendrick. "Schools by School Reform
KIPP." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork/sbs/kipp/>.
Knowledge
Is Power Program (KIPP) is a system that some charter schools, especially
middle schools follow. It has proven to be very efficient for a number of
reasons. KIPP exercises longer schools days and longer school years, students
and parents must sign a contracts, the ‘Commitment to Excellence’. Students
complete about 2 hours of homework a night and are disciplined in class if not
on task. KIPP’s school days are from 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM, they attends Saturday
classes and everyone must spend 3 ½ weeks in summer school. KIPP is a rigorous program and because of
that both student and parent must sign a ‘Commitment to Excellence’. This
simply says that the parent help the student stay on track, check homework, and
they must be involved in the school. The student pledges to work hard on their
classwork and homework. Each night a student receives approximately 2 hours of
homework on top of the 9 ½ hour school day. Parents are expected to oversee
that it gets done and teachers must remain accessible by phone until 9 PM in
case a student has a question. If a student fails to complete their homework or
acts up in class they become ‘on the bench’. Instead of being sent to the
principal’s office they are separated from the rest of the class and forced to
sit alone. This way the student never misses out on the lesson but doesn’t
enjoy being with his classmates.
This
program is so beneficial because it pushes the kids to be the best student they
can be, it keeps kids off the streets of their low-income neighborhoods, and it
tries to instill hard work in them when they are young. KIPP’s premise is that
“students are held with high academic standards – no exceptions, no excuses.”
With the extended school day, which keeps KIPP students in class 67% longer
than regular public school students, the kids have more time for productivity
and less time to spend getting into trouble in their neighborhoods. They attend
summer school so that the information they have been learning can be reiterated
several times and doesn’t become dormant or forgotten. According to a study,
KIPP took in 2004, 85% of KIPP alumni who were seniors were accepted into
college. KIPP expects a lot from its students and students expect a lot from
themselves, their school, teachers and parents to support them to get to
college and have the tools to be successful.
I’m
going to use this paper to show that while all charter schools may not be
successful there are a few programs that truly do work. While this program is
rigorous it could be the reform that the school system needs across the board.
·
“With a long school day (7:30 to 5 PM),
Saturday classes and three and a half weeks of summer school for everyone, KIPP
students spend 67% more time in class that regular public schools”
·
“In 2004, 85% of KIPP alumni who were
seniors in high school were accepted in to a university or college”
·
“KIPP’s routine includes motivational
and educational chants and sons. You will hear the kids chanting their
multiplication tables and singing…”
Morris,
David. "After 20 Years, Charter Schools Stray From Their Original
Mission." After 20 Years, Charter Schools Stray From Their Original
Mission. On the Commons Magazine, 7 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
<http://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/after-20-years-charter-schools-stray-their-original-mission>.
This
article came out only a couple months ago when charter schools celebrated its
20 year anniversary since they first one opened in late 1991. The article
compares what charter schools were originally intended to do and what they are
like now, 20 years later. The article compares the charter system to the
invasive plant kudzu. Kudzu is a Japanese weed that grows extremely quick and
steals nutrients from other plants as it grows over them, ultimately smothering
the original plant. Originally charter schools were created to use experimental
teaching methods, if they proved to be effective they were to give the methods
to the existing public schools to mimic. However that is far from what has
happened. Charters are now seen as a competitor that could replace public
education instead of a way of improvement. Charter school numbers continue to
grow while public schools begin to close due to lack of funding. “And this
cycle feeds on itself. More charters mean less money for public schools; the
more public education deteriorates, the greater the popularity and number of charter
schools.” The article continues by talking about Finland’s educational system
saying how it was one of the worst and it managed to turn itself around by
doing one simple thing. It made the process of become a teacher more difficult
than become a doctor or a lawyer. With the introduction to some of the best
teachers students began to excel and climb up the ranking to become one of the
top education systems.
This article shows us that charter schools started as a
way to help the public school education but are now hurting it. It focuses on
how charter schools have become corrupt rather than the reform the public
education needed when charters were first proposed. Charters are run by
organizations that are profiting from these schools. Charters are created for
experimental learning and even though they are preforming worse than local
public schools they aren’t being closed down because of the money investors
continue to bring in.
I’m going to use this article to show how charters
schools are exhausting the public education system and if they continue to grow
they will deplete the resources the neighborhood public schools need to stay
open.
• As
the cycle feeds on itself. More charters mean less money for public schools;
the more public education deteriorates, the greater the popularity and number
of charter schools.
• “Groups
of teachers and administrators who wanted to innovate and try new things would
band together and little laboratories of education would emerge… the idea was
simple: anything valuable culled from these experiments would be copied by the
district…”
• “
And so the kudzu like growth of charters and vouchers continues, stealing
essential nutrients from a dying public health education system
Clark, Charles S. "Charter Schools Will They Imporove
or Hurt Public Education." CQ Research. CQ Press, 20 Dec. 2002. Web. 23
Mar. 2013.
<http://library.cqpress.com.ezproxy.cpcc.edu/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002122000&type=hitlist&num=0>.
This
is compiled stack of research that talks about all aspects of charter schools.
It touches briefly on all accounts like is it going to hurt the public
education, the innovators with the original idea, is it just a passing fad?
Piece by piece it takes it breaks it down and remains objective. One section that
was focused on was ‘Do charter schools foster innovation and achievement?’ It
touches on teachers having the ability to incorporate art and music into
teaching math and science, the fact that public schools have to step it up to
compete with charter schools and the testing comparison between the two. Since
charter schools don’t have to follow any specific guidelines they are free to
teach as they see best fit. When the ability to incorporate art and music into
core subjects, it becomes more interesting and relatable to students. When this
ability to teach how teachers feel best fit, students leave the traditional
public schools to attend charter school. When students leave their neighborhood
school, the funding goes with them. One superintendent lost only 1.3% of his
student population but lost 1 million dollars in funding because of it. He was
interviewed and said that his students left but he was going to fight for their
return. There is lots of controversy about the testing results between charter
and neighborhood schools. While some statistics say that charters aren’t
testing worse, others say they are way behind those in the same district.
Testing levels in comparison of the two vary from state to state.
This article touches on a wide variety of topics
surrounding the concerns and benefits of charter school. It offers unbiased
material and different opinions from both sides of the argument. While it
doesn’t delve too deep in any one passage for extended time, it gives every
issue some light.
I am going to use this article to help me form more
opinions on these matters while I continue to research. I think this is going
to be one of my most helpful sources once I have gone completely through it. It
offers me statistics, maps, graphs, and quotes from those directly involved in
either the government, school boards or works in a charter school
• “We’re
better because of charters. I hate to say it, but we’re more aware of the
importance to what parents say and have become more customer-service oriented…
The charter schools stole our students; we will steal them back.”
• A
map showing the amount of charters in every state
• Snip
bits of CREDO (the Center of Research on Education Outcomes) which did a huge
study across the U.S comparing charter schools and the local public schools in
testing scores.
Raymond,
Margaret, Dr. Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States
Executive Summary. Rep. N.p.: CREDO.stanford.edu, 2009. CREDO.stanford.edu.
Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_EXECUTIVE%20SUMMARY.pdf>.
Center for Research on
Education Outcomes or CREDO did a study in 2009 comparing charters schools to
traditional public schools in fifteen states and the District of Columbia.
CREDO was able to use 70% of charter school students in their analysis on the
performance difference between charter and traditional public school (TPS).
“The study examined the differences three ways: a pooled nationwide analysis of
charter school impacts, a state-by-state analysis of charter school results,
and an examination of the performance of charter schools against their local
alternatives.” They did this by creating a ‘virtual twin’ meaning they found
someone in a charter school and found someone with the same demographics in a
TPS and compared their standardized test scores. The finding CREDO produced
show that only 17% of charter school students nationwide showed superior
testing results compared to their TPS. About half have the same results as
their TPS and 37% tested significantly worse. There are several factors that
cause results like these like state to state laws, how new the charter is, and
the type of student that attends these school. Charters from state to state can
have ‘caps’ meaning that there is a limit to the amount of charter schools in
that specific state. CREDO found that states that do have caps performed worse
than those who did not have caps. Charter schools in the first year have a
decline in proficiency and after two or three years begin to have an increase
in testing scores. Once CREDO finished this analysis they discovered that
schools catering to students in poverty and students learning English as a
second language performed significantly better than those of TPS.
This study that CREDO produced is very important because
it is the first of its kind. It has given the argument of charter schools being
proficient or not, data to use. This document shows that most of our charter
schools are no better than existing public schools but there is a sub group
that is flourishing. This document shows that there are different factors
across the country that can cause a charter to succeed or fail; those that fail
should be closed and those that succeed need to share their research and
success.
I am going to use this document to show how the majority
of our charter schools are failing. In my final paper I want to use this is my
argument to give evidence that while all charter schools may not be efficient
and helpful in their communities some of them are working and some of them are
truly helping guide students. I also want to use this document to show the
magnitude of even 5 years ago the amount of students wanting to attend charter
schools.
• “As of 2009, more than 4,700 charter
schools enrolled 1.4 million children in 40 states and the District of
Columbia. The ranks of charters grow by hundreds each year. Even so, more than
365,000 names linger on charter school wait lists after more than fifteen
years, there is no doubt that both supply and demand in the charter sector are
strong.”
• “In
our nationally pooled sample, two subgroups fare better in charters than in the
traditional system: students in poverty and ELL student. This is no small
feat.”
• “Despite
promising results in a number of states and within certain subgroups, the
overall findings of this report indicate a disturbing – and far-reaching –
subset of poorly performing charter schools.”
• “The
replication of successful school models is one important element of this
effort. Onthe other side of the equation, however, authorizers must be willing
and able to fulfill their end of the original charter school bargain:
accountability in exchange for flexibility. When schools consistently fail,
they should be closed.”
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