Knowledge Is Power Program Research Articles

“The Kids in Prison Program”: A Critical Race Personal Counternarrative of a Former Black Charter School Teacher

Background/Context: In New Orleans, Louisiana, in the years following Hurricane Katrina, predominantly white education reformers have used entrepreneurial support to dismantle the predominantly Black city’s public education system. Using racial domination without community approval, these education reformers have educationally disenfranchised the Black community by implementing No Excuses (NE) Charter School Management Organizations (CMO). The rise in these organizations has also led to the mass firing of the city’s majority Black educator base and the hiring of majority white educators. Scholarship on NE CMOs notes their use of dehumanizing behavioral practices meant to control their student populations. Accounts, however, are limited from those who have witnessed, experienced, or resisted these dehumanizing behavioral practices. Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study: Through the critical race theory (CRT) lens of racial realism, this paper provides a critical race personal counternarrative (CRPCN) that characterizes the racist and racialized disciplinary and surveillance practices used to control Black students’ bodies. It examines my experiences as a teacher within an NE CMO, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) school in New Orleans. Furthermore, this paper underscores my own Black fugitive pedagogic acts alongside my Black students, acts that allowed us to create fleeting moments of freedom inside and outside our classroom. Research Design: I relied on critical race methodology to construct a CRPCN against KIPP, which prides itself on positive behavior practices and social justice. The evidence I drew on included free-written notes, conversations with former students and teachers, media (e.g., photos and videos), and scholarly literature. To analyze data, I drew on CRT concepts of racial realism and the permanence of racism in U.S. society to underscore Black fugitivity, anti-Black surveillance, and discipline. Conclusion/Recommendations: Racial realism provides a lens for identifying the evolution of racialized surveillance technologies on Black bodies within the United States. Although critics characterize racial realism as overly pessimistic, this paper notes one way that scholars, educators, students, and parents can draw on this tool of racial resistance to accept the current racial reality, uncover racially oppressive schooling practices, and highlight strategies of survival through fugitive acts.

The Impacts on College Enrollment of a Charter Network Serving Disadvantaged Students: Evidence From KIPP Middle School Lotteries

Recent studies of charter school effectiveness have questioned whether charter school networks can produce a lasting impact on students’ long-term outcomes. Our study is the first to examine this issue at the network of Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools, which primarily serve disadvantaged students of color and constitute the nation’s largest charter school network. Using admission lotteries as a random assignment instrument, we estimate the impacts of 13 KIPP middle schools on college enrollment and persistence in college over the first two postsecondary years. Building on prior studies of KIPP that show KIPP middle schools have strong positive effects on middle school achievement, we find that KIPP middle schools also positively affect rates of enrollment in 4-year college programs. The magnitude of the estimated impact of a middle school admission offer (6.9%) and enrollment at a KIPP school (12.9%) is substantial relative to nationwide disparities in college enrollment across racial groups.

The Effect of Attending a Charter School in Newark, New Jersey, on Student Test Scores

We exploit information about parental preference and a randomized component in the assignment of students to schools within a deferred acceptance (DA) mechanism to estimate the causal effect of enrolling in a charter school in Newark, New Jersey, on student test scores. The estimates incorporate variation from students attending about 70% of the city’s charter schools, accounting for about 85% of charter school enrollment. Enrolling in a Newark charter school that participated in the DA assignment process leads to a large and statistically significant increase in math and English Language Arts (ELA) scores. Enrolling in a charter school that is operated by either the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) or Uncommon charter school networks has an especially large effect.

Partial identification of the distribution of treatment effects with an application to the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP)

We bound the distribution of treatment effects under plausible and testable assumptions on the joint distribution of potential outcomes, namely that potential outcomes are mutually stochastically increasing. We show how to test the empirical restrictions implied by those assumptions. The resulting bounds substantially sharpen bounds based on classical inequalities. We apply our method to estimate bounds on the distribution of effects of attending a Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter school on student achievement, and find that a substantial majority of students' math achievement benefited from attendance, especially those who would have fared poorly in a traditional classroom.

Do no-excuses disciplinary practices promote success?

ABSTRACT The urban education reform landscape is being transformed by the rapid spread of charter schools. Leading the way is a group of high-performing, no-excuses charter schools, represented by networks like Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), Achievement First, and Uncommon Schools. Although critics have raised concerns over these schools’ highly structured disciplinary practices, these schools have justified these practices on the basis that they increase student achievement. In this article, we provide the first review of literature on the impact of no-excuses disciplinary practices on various measures of student and organizational success. We find little evidence to support the connection between no-excuses disciplinary methods and students’ academic performance on standardized tests—and some evidence that these methods may undermine nonacademic outcomes, such as students’ social and behavioral skills.

“No Excuses” charter schools for increasing math and literacy achievement in primary and secondary education: a systematic review

“No Excuses” charter schools for increasing math and literacy achievement in primary and secondary education: a systematic review

Practice Summary: Improving Bus Routing for KIPP Charter Schools

KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) provides school bus service to the majority of its students over a relatively large geographic region. We applied the Clarke-Wright heuristic in to quickly find routes that adhere to capacity and travel-time constraints. These routes improved transportation spending and reliability significantly over the previous routes that KIPP used.

Student Selection, Attrition, and Replacement in KIPP Middle Schools

Skeptics of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) charter school network argue that these schools rely on selective admission, attrition, and replacement of students to produce positive achievement results. We investigate this using data covering 19 KIPP middle schools. On average, KIPP schools admit students disadvantaged in ways similar to other local students, and attrition patterns are typically no different at KIPP than at nearby schools. Unlike district schools, however, KIPP schools tend to replace students who exit with higher achieving students, and fewer students are replaced in the later years of middle school. Overall, KIPP’s positive achievement impacts do not appear to be explained by advantages in the prior achievement of KIPP students, even when attrition and replacement patterns are taken into account.

Protocol for a Systematic Review: “No Excuses” Charter Schools for Increasing Math and Literacy Achievement in Primary and Secondary Education: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Protocol for a Systematic Review: “No Excuses” Charter Schools for Increasing Math and Literacy Achievement in Primary and Secondary Education: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Race and class categories and subcategories in educational thought and research

Educational thought and research often operates with whole-race (‘Black’, ‘White’, and ‘Asian’) and whole-class (‘low-income’) categories. For both explaining disparities and assessing them normatively, it is essential to pay attention to subdivisions within those groups. Regarding affirmative action, on average African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants, and to some extent their offspring, have educational and motivational advantages over, and a distinct normative standing from, African Americans that is masked in the use of ‘Black’ as the operative category in affirmative action. With regard to assessing – both explanatorily and normatively – the performance of ‘high commitment’ charter schools, such as the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), that make substantial demands on parents of admitted students, compared to traditional public schools serving the same population, it is essential to internally differentiate the relevant race and class categories with respect to the degree of poverty, English language learner status, and parental capital.

Why KIPP Is Not Corporate: KIPP and Social Justice

Critics see the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), a network of 141 charter schools, as part of the corporate based school reform movement (e.g., Horn, 2011; Grey, 2011), a view shared by many traditional public school educators. So-called corporate based school reform strategies allegedly exploit students and teachers, employ very narrow metrics of success, and seek to maximize growth and revenue rather than student well-being. Using the now substantial empirical literature on KIPP schools, supplemented by fieldwork, this article refutes these views. Compared to traditional public schools in disadvantaged communities, KIPP schools increase student achievement and attainment, and seek to build community rather than commodity among teachers, students, and parents. KIPP schools are driven much less by individual profit than by social justice, at least as defined by Gramsci (1971) rather than the more fashionable Freire (2007).

Do KIPP Schools Boost Student Achievement?

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is an influential and rapidly growing nationwide network of charter schools serving primarily disadvantaged minority students. Prominent elements of KIPP's educational model include high expectations for student achievement and behavior, and a substantial increase in time in school. KIPP is being watched closely by policy makers and educators as a possible model for urban education, but existing studies of KIPP's effects on students have been subject to methodological limitations, making them less than conclusive. We measure the achievement impacts of forty-one KIPP middle schools across the country, using propensity-score matching to identify traditional public school students with similar characteristics and prior-achievement histories as students who enter KIPP. We find consistently positive and statistically significant impacts of KIPP on student achievement, with larger impacts in math than reading. These impacts persist over four years following admission, and are not driven by attrition of low performers from KIPP schools.

BOOK/MEDIA REVIEWS

Charter Schools and Corporate Makeover of Public Education: What's at Stake? by Michael Fabricant and Michelle Fine. New York, Teachers College Press, 2012, 151 pages, $25.95, paperback.Charter Schools and Corporate Makeover of Public Education: What's at Stake? by Michael Fabricant and Michelle Fine provides in depth information on truths and untruths of charter schools in America. Oftentimes media presents ideals of charters as savior of schools. This is contrary to data which suggest very small percentages of charters are successful. It further supports that new reform, supported by Republicans and extreme right Democrats, is not only way to reform and rebuild failing educational status of America. This rift among traditional and extreme reformers has built a bridge between what is needed and what is successful in addressing in America. Public systems across nation are fighting for survival against big business, local chambers, wealthy business men and political movement toward charter schools.With support of President Barack Obama, this fight for reform is becoming hard to win. The move of charters has become even more popular since oratorical support of President Obama. As Fabricant and Fine clearly state in this book, is time to review academic, social, and political impact of a movement that is well funded, has strong media support, is cascading through low-income communities, and now has authority of first Black president (p. 14).Fabricant and Fine present many jewels in this book from callout for all to pay closer attention to rapid movement of charter schools as to all problems in education, to reimaging schools. An exceptional gem is exclaim for attention toward national policy and its focus on creating legislature to shape schools into image of few exemplar charters such as Harlem Children's' Zone and Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools. This movement, supported by billionaires club and foundations such as Gates Foundation, Walton Foundation, and Broad Foundation, has placed millions of dollars in elections to support politicians who can push charter movement.This book provides a detailed history of charters and how founding father of charter schools, Albert Shanker, has even become skeptical of charter schools as it has evolved since its inception. Shanker stated that, as founder of charters, he views charters as a partial answer to problem and not the answer (Kahlenberg, 2007). Investors have taken his model for community reform from small community-based schooling to business ventures for economists, with limited to no concern for and educating all children. In other words, because of money invested in education, charter schools have become the political power associated with charter movement. Because of this movement we find ourselves worrying about future of democracy, equity, and accountability and erosion of public in education (Fabricant & Fine, p. 1).Are these schools playing on a level economic and political playing field with schools? (p. …

A Matter of Friendship: Educational Interventions into Culture and Poverty

AbstractContemporary educational reformers have claimed that research on social class differences in child raising justifies programs that aim to lift children out of poverty by means of cultural interventions. Focusing on the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), Ruby Payne's “aha! Process,” and the Harlem Children's Zone as examples, Amy Shuffelton argues that such programs, besides overstepping the social science research, are ethically illegitimate insofar as they undermine the equitable development of civic agency. Shuffelton invokes Aristotelian civic friendship, particularly as interpreted by Danielle Allen and Sibyl Schwarzenbach, as key to a politics that avoids relations of domination and subordination. She concludes that social justice requires that educators involved with culturally interventionist programs recognize the workings of power within schooling and society, that they accept the limits of their own perspectives, and that they remain open to what is of value in child‐raising practices other than those associated with the contemporary middle class.

A Re-Analysis of the Effects of KIPP and the Harlem Promise Academies

Background/Context Existing evaluations of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) charter school programs suggest that these programs may potentially be very effective in closing the academic achievement gap. Purpose/Objective The purpose of the current study is to investigate the possibility of an internal contradiction in the assumptions underlying the KIPP and HCZ models that would prevent the models from being scaled up with the same positive results. Research Design The method involves: (1) review of the results of the key impact studies; (2) review of empirical evidence of high teacher attrition; (3) review of statements by the founders of the HCZ and KIPP models articulating the core assumption; (4) a narrative explanation of the internal contradiction in these models; and (5) a formal analysis demonstrating the consequences of this contradiction. Findings/Results The analysis suggests that gains from the KIPP and HCZ models would fall to zero once these programs are implemented in every school across the nation. The analysis suggests why existing impact results are likely due to artifacts stemming from high teacher attrition and hoarding of a disproportionate share of the nation's limited pool of highly dedicated teachers, rather than gains that could be sustained when the programs are scaled up and implemented nationwide. Conclusions/Recommendations The article recommends that national implementation of the KIPP and HCZ models should be delayed until research has been performed that would substantiate the assumption that there is a sufficient supply of highly dedicated teachers to fill the large number of vacant teaching positions that arise as a consequence of these models.

Show Them the Mission: A Comparison of Teacher Recruitment Incentives in High Need Communities

ObjectiveMost public organizations use both materialistic and idealistic appeals to attract valued employees, with the latter being particularly important for difficult jobs. Teaching in high poverty communities is one such job, though none have studied whether successful high poverty schools such as the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) schools make relatively greater use of public service appeals in teacher recruitment. In education, we identify these materialistic and idealistic appeals as teacher‐centered and student‐centered incentives. Teacher‐centered incentives are those that appeal to a teacher's desire for higher compensation or advancement opportunities, whereas student‐centered appeals attempt to attract teachers with a public service mission.MethodWe compare the use of teacher‐centered and student‐centered appeals in teacher recruitment by the universe of KIPP networks (n = 33) and neighboring traditional public school districts (n = 34), each serving disadvantaged populations. Coders record personnel website use of four teacher‐centered appeals (including salary and benefits) and four student‐centered appeals.ResultsChi‐square tests show that KIPP schools make less use of teacher‐centered appeals, especially monetary compensation, and more use of student‐centered appeals in teacher recruitment.ConclusionSupplemented by fieldwork, findings suggest that appeals to mission may work better than merit pay in recruiting effective teachers for high poverty schools.

It's in the Name: A Synthetic Inquiry of the Knowledge Is Power Program [KIPP

The task of this article is to interrogate the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) model to develop a more robust understanding of a prominent trend in the charter school movement and education policy more generally. To accomplish this task, this article details the findings of a synthetic analysis that examines the KIPP model as a Hegelian whole concept operative in a specific mode of social reality. The guidance for this analysis is grounded in a rather straightforward research question. Given the prominence that the KIPP model has achieved in the charter school movement in the United States, what can a synthetic analysis tell us about not only KIPP, but also the larger charter school movement?

Who Benefits from KIPP?

AbstractThe nation's largest charter management organization is the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). KIPP schools are emblematic of the No Excuses approach to public education, a highly standardized and widely replicated charter model that features a long school day, an extended school year, selective teacher hiring, strict behavior norms, and emphasizes traditional reading and math skills. No Excuses charter schools are sometimes said to target relatively motivated high achievers at the expense of students who are more difficult to teach, including limited English proficiency (LEP) and special education (SPED) students, as well as students with low baseline achievement levels. We use applicant lotteries to evaluate the impact of KIPP Academy Lynn, a KIPP school in Lynn, Massachusetts that typifies the KIPP approach. Our analysis focuses on special needs students that may be underserved. The results show average achievement gains of 0.36 standard deviations in math and 0.12 standard deviations in reading for each year spent at KIPP Lynn, with the largest gains coming from the LEP, SPED, and low‐achievement groups. Average reading gains are driven almost entirely by SPED and LEP students, whose reading scores rise by roughly 0.35 standard deviations for each year spent at KIPP Lynn.

The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP): An Analysis of One Model's Efforts to Promote Achievement in Underserved Communities

Many claim that the Knowledge is Power Program has experienced success in closing the achievement gap in urban and rural communities across America. Studies suggest that KIPP charter schools enroll an overwhelming proportion of poor and minority students and often outperform their district peers. However, the purpose of this study is not to evaluate whether KIPP schools are closing the achievement gap, but instead to assess the strategies KIPP charter schools use to promote student achievement. Describing and evaluating these approaches may offer new insights into the ways we can improve instruction and possibly increase student achievement levels for students in underserved communities.

College Counseling in Charter High Schools: Examining the Opportunities and Challenges

Through analyses of counselor interview data, the authors highlight the challenges to and opportunities of college counseling in a recently chartered college preparatory high school. The findings suggest that the charter school framework provides counselors with innovative organizational structures to foster college counseling and student social supports, but the organizational challenges of sustaining a new school distracts counselors from reflecting on and implementing a comprehensive college counseling model.