Politics and KIPP

This is a VERY important article, which underscores the bureaucratic and political nightmare that so many charter schools have to endure. 

McDaniel, a veteran of many bureaucratic wars, had some strategic tools of his own. When the district refused to increase his budget in order to force him to keep the 126 students he had but add no more, he recruited an incoming fifth grade anyway and said the budget limit would force his graduating sixth graders to go elsewhere because he would not have enough money to create a seventh grade for them. This riled their parents. Before a key school board vote, McDaniel visited local churches and inspired more than 500 people to attend the meeting.

They won those battles, but seemed likely to lose the war...

With McDaniel spending so much time fighting for his school's survival, no wonder scores dipped!  (See chart from KIPP's 2005 Report Card, below.)  It's good to see them bouncing back:

the school's scores rebounded. They all scored proficient or advanced on the state mathematics test, and all but one reached that level in reading, compared to the district averages of 63 percent in math and 59 percent in English. The Deerfield Academy, an exclusive New England boarding school, gave scholarships to three of the KIPP Reach students, which admissions director Jeff Arms said was the most scholarships ever awarded in a single year to graduates of one school.

This type of crap, plus the funding shortfall, lack of facilities, etc., is why I think the most difficult entrepreneurial challenge in the world is starting an inner-city charter school.  It's also why I think Democrats for Education Reform is so important: unless we change the SYSTEM, which is, of course, primarily controlled and influenced by politics, charter schools (and ALL reform efforts) will be stifled (which is, of course, the goal of the forces of the status quo).

 

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Politics and KIPP

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; 10:42 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101700507.html

Tracy McDaniel is a very talented educator who grew up in northeast Oklahoma City and knows that survival sometimes means a fight. He started a new middle school in his old neighborhood. His mostly low-income African American students were doing better than anyone expected. But city school administrators told him that despite his rising test scores, school budget cuts meant he could not recruit more students. His dream of helping more kids like himself was dead.