KIPP Principal Talks About Hard Work, Success, and Challenges

A nice article about Dave Levin and KIPP:

David Levin, principal of the New York City Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Academy Charter School is typically frenetic on the day Education World editors visit the school. There are 16 phone messages lined up on his desk. Stacks of just-delivered practice math test packets cover the space-starved school's conference table, and students and teachers frequently stop him to ask questions.

KIPP students know that hard work is their ticket to academic success. Students are in school for nearly ten hours a day and also attend Saturday and summer sessions. The work ethos of the school has been heralded because the children deemed the least likely to succeed in our nation's schools generally score significantly higher on standardized tests compared with their at-risk peers.

The article is very dated, but it could have been written yesterday, as KIPP's secrets of success haven't changed.  Of course, KIPP's "secrets" aren't secret at all, which makes the widespread failure to study them, much less learn from (and, heaven forbid, adopt!) them all the more galling.  This reminds me of one of my favorite (albeit horrifying) stories: the original KIPP in NYC, the highest performing middle school in the Bronx (and one of the highest in the entire city) for 7 or 8 (or 9?) consecutive years shares not merely the same building, but the same HALLWAY as the lowest performing middle school in the Bronx.  (As a small example of the contrast, something like 85% of KIPP 8th graders are reading at grade level.  Care to guess what the figure is at the school down the hall?  No, lower.  No, even lower!  Try 1.25%!  Now THAT is horrifying!) 

 

So, given the astonishing success that the school down the hallway is having, you might think that the principal, asst. principal or a teacher or two from the failing school might, just once, walk down the hall and say, "Hey, can tell me a little about what you're doing here?  Maybe there are some things we could try too."  You know where this story's going, don't you?  (And not just because I told it in an earlier email!)  In KIPP's TWELVE YEARS, NOT ONCE -- NOT ONCE! -- has someone from the school down the hall come to visit!!!  (They would of course be welcomed -- KIPP hosts visitors from all over the country -- and the world -- all the time.)

 

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 KIPP Principal Talks About Hard Work, Success, and Challenges

David Levin, the KIPP Academy Charter School principal, talks to Education World about how the KIPP philosophy of hard work helps students achieve. In this interview, part of the Lessons from Our Nation's Schools series, Levin explains that there can be no excuses, from either the students or the adults in charge of their learning. Included: Levin talks about the teacher shortage, building relationships with parents, and the staff dedication needed to achieve success.

http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/schools/schools003.shtml

 David Levin, principal of the New York City Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Academy Charter School is typically frenetic on the day Education World editors visit the school. There are 16 phone messages lined up on his desk. Stacks of just-delivered practice math test packets cover the space-starved school's conference table, and students and teachers frequently stop him to ask questions.

KIPP students know that hard work is their ticket to academic success. Students are in school for nearly ten hours a day and also attend Saturday and summer sessions. The work ethos of the school has been heralded because the children deemed the least likely to succeed in our nation's schools generally score significantly higher on standardized tests compared with their at-risk peers.

Levin and Michael Feinberg conceived the KIPP philosophy in 1992 as they traveled together to their Teach for America assignments in Houston, Texas. They co-founded the Houston and New York KIPP academies in 1995.

The whirlwind around Levin slows momentarily while he grabs a few minutes over lunch to chat about KIPP, the reasons he believes it is successful, and what other educators might be able to learn from the school's successes.