State warns KIPP school to shape up or be closed

Speaking of upstate NY charter schools and real accountability with teeth...  While the great majority of KIPP schools are successful, a handful aren't.  If turnaround efforts prove to be unsuccessful, KIPP will shut down the school (or at least sever ties with it), which is exactly as it should be.

Buffalo’s KIPP Sankofa Charter School, considered a promising alternative for inner-city middle school students when it opened in 1993, is plagued by failure and is fighting for its life.

The school, located in the Central Park Plaza, was recently cited by the state’s Charter Schools Institute for low test scores, high teacher turnover, severe disciplinary problems, poor teacher training and failure to use test score data to guide instruction.

The KIPP Foundation, a school management group based in San Francisco, has severed its ties with the school, and Uchenna Smith, KIPP Sankofa’s founder and director, has resigned.

Unless the school shows dramatic improvement by next fall, the state institute said, it will be closed when its charter expires after the 2007-08 school year or, at best, be given a short term renewal rather than a second five-year license.

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State warns KIPP school to shape up or be closed

By Peter Simon NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 05/26/07 6:46 AM

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/schools/story/84589.html?imw=Y

Buffalo’s KIPP Sankofa Charter School, considered a promising alternative for inner-city middle school students when it opened in 1993, is plagued by failure and is fighting for its life.