3/18/2013 11:27 AM EDT
How about, instead of giving KIPP this land for a new high school, DCPS gives KIPP one of the existing low-SES, low-test-score DCPS neighborhood high schools? Require that KIPP take over and operate the school enrolling exactly the same student body as currently attends the school -- no skimming-the-cream via enrollment-by-application, no expelling/counselling-out the disrupters or poor performers.
Let KIPP operate the school subject to these requirements for a few years. See what kind of results KIPP's instructional program gets when KIPP has to teach exactly the same students as the neighborhood high school.
Bet that DCPS will never make such an offer and that, if it did, KIPP would never accept. DCPS and KIPP each want to perpetuate the myth that charters provide a better education than the neighborhood schools when, in fact, charters enroll a different student body than the neighborhood schools and any better education is simply the result of the differences in the student bodies. KIPP knows that, if it accepted the proposed offer, the experiment would demonstrate that KIPP's instructional program is no better than that of the DCPS neighborhood schools. To my knowledge, KIPP has only tried an experiment like this once -- in Denver several years ago; it took over an existing high school with the existing student population, ran the school a few years, and then quit when test scores stayed flat.
DCPS should offer KIPP another chance to run the experiment here in DC. If KIPP declines the experiment, then forget about giving KIPP any land for new KIPP high schools.
Let KIPP operate the school subject to these requirements for a few years. See what kind of results KIPP's instructional program gets when KIPP has to teach exactly the same students as the neighborhood high school.
Bet that DCPS will never make such an offer and that, if it did, KIPP would never accept. DCPS and KIPP each want to perpetuate the myth that charters provide a better education than the neighborhood schools when, in fact, charters enroll a different student body than the neighborhood schools and any better education is simply the result of the differences in the student bodies. KIPP knows that, if it accepted the proposed offer, the experiment would demonstrate that KIPP's instructional program is no better than that of the DCPS neighborhood schools. To my knowledge, KIPP has only tried an experiment like this once -- in Denver several years ago; it took over an existing high school with the existing student population, ran the school a few years, and then quit when test scores stayed flat.
DCPS should offer KIPP another chance to run the experiment here in DC. If KIPP declines the experiment, then forget about giving KIPP any land for new KIPP high schools.
What did you think?? I didnt write this but I thought it was a great idea so that we could compare Charter/Kipp apples to our DCPS apples. The mere fact that folks take the initiative to do some research to locate a performing school, fill out an application, get into a lottery, be willing to get their child to a school that might not be close to their home, says that they have some level of or an attempt at proper parenting in that household. That can't be said about everyone else who don't even try!
Rob Ramson
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R. Ramson
3744 12th Street, N.E.,
Washington D.C., 20017
202-438-5988
"We must become the change we want to see" - Mohandas Gandhi-
(Together, for a Brighter Tomorrow)
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