A letter in today's San Francisco Chronicle claims that "thousands" of alumni of the KIPP charter school chain have become the first in their families to graduate from college.
This is a brand-new false claim for KIPP. The usual false claim for KIPP is that thousands of its students have started college, which isn't true either.
Actually, KIPP runs almost all middle schools and has only been running a few long enough to have their graduates finish high school and go to college. I pinned them down on the number after Newsweek wrote in July 2008 that 12,800 KIPP graduates had gone on to college.
The actual number of KIPP alumni who had started college, KIPP spokesman Steve Mancini said at that time, was 447. Again, that's the number of KIPP graduates who had started college by 2008. (KIPP claims to track them carefully even though of course they're long gone from KIPP by that time.)
Needless to say, it's wildly untrue that thousands have graduated from college. It may become true in the future, and for those students' sake I hope it does -- but of course if possible future news could be printed as fact, the morning paper would get really interesting.
After ranting at my husband for a while over the breakfast table about how the charter folks just make up any old **** and the press prints it unquestioned (he says isn't it nice that all the neighbors now know exactly how I feel about KIPP), I decided to just calmly correct the misinformation.
Of course, the reason KIPP and their supporters put out this stuff is so people like Don Fisher, may he rest in peace, will donate even more millions to them. It would be nice if our actual public schools had a little of that money to buy, say, enough desks for Berkeley High (today's Chronicle also reports on that crisis; read down to the second item in the column).
Comments
Caroline, I would be willing to bet that Berkeley public schools get more $/pupil than KIPP schools (even when including fundraised money). KIPP just spends the money more efficiently with a focus on what is best for the KIDS in the system rather than the adults.
AP, you're demonstrating one of my biggest issues with KIPP -- its partisans' constant attacks on public schools and constant claims of KIPP's superiority. When paired with the fact, as I emphasized in my original post, that charter/KIPP partisans just make whatever **** they want up and the press eagerly parrots it unquestioned, it gets pretty outrageous.
Even if your attack were valid, which is kind of ridiculous given the previous post about the millions Don Fisher (and many others, such as Eli Broad and Bill Gates have poured into KIPP), if Berkeley High could simply get rid of its most challenging students and keep only the successful ones, as it's well documented that the nearby KIPP schools do, it would certainly have an easier time coping with its challenges.
Also, note that KIPP shut down its Fresno school after defaulting on its mortgage for the property, so claims that it manages its (vast) wealth so fabulously don't totally hold up either.
Kipp schools are individually owned and operated so I don't understand why you would talk about its vast wealth.
AP--I have visited over ten KIPP schools. Is hanging a sign on a child's neck ("I didn't do my homework") or making him wear a different colored shirt to humiliate him in front of peers "best" for a kid? If you think that, fine, but please note that many concerned people find KIPP teachers inexperienced and cruel.
KIPP teachers are not cruel;they simply expect children to live up to their potential. There is nothing wrong with that. KIPP schools do not intentionally weed out challenging students. If students and their parents CHOOSE not to get their act together after several interventions, then I assume they may be asked to leave. Does this not occur in the real world?
I work in a public school and I WISH that my students wanted to excel. I WISH that my students had parents who cared. But they don't. As a result, they sit in my class with guns and pot. Their parents complain when I assign homework. Administration says that I expect too much. I have students in my classes who are reading 3-4 grades below level,and there isn't a Reading Specialist, or other resource outside of myself to help get the kids up to speed...
Please do not knock KIPP. Overall, they are doing a GREAT job with our kids. Public schools should look at what KIPP schools are doing right and follow suit.
WHy is this so difficult to understand. When you remove the most needy children, the ones with guns and pot, the ones who's homes do not have a single book, you can educate the remaining ones for a lot less money.
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