KIPP Middle Schools Found to Spur Learning Gains

Here's the EdWeek article about the Mathematica study:

 

"The consistency of the effects across most of the 22 schools and the magnitude of the effects are pretty striking and impressive," said Brian P. Gill, a senior social scientist for Mathematica and an author of the study. "We do a lot of education studies, and often the effects are nonexistent or quite small."

 

At about half the KIPP schools, the study found that the gains in math for students after three years in the schools were equivalent of 1.2 years of extra instruction, and .9 years of additional instruction in reading, Mr. Gill said.

 

No Evidence of Skimming

 

Critics of charter schools often contend the schools "cream" higher-achieving students from regular public schools, but the study didn't find any evidence that KIPP is systematically enrolling more high-performers from their school districts. On average, the report says, KIPP middle schools have students who are more likely to be living in poverty and are more likely to be black or Hispanic than are students from the schools around them. Back when they were in 4th grade, the study also found, a majority of the KIPP middle school students had lower test scores on average than did students in their local school districts.

 

The study also looked at student attrition rates, which at least one previous study has found to be relatively high in KIPP schools. The Mathematica researchers found, however, that while attrition rates vary widely among the schools, KIPP middle schools don't have systematically higher or lower numbers of students leaving before completion than other schools within their districts.

 

"This report provides irrefutable evidence that KIPP is not getting [positive] results because of getting more able students in the door or losing students at higher rates than their counterparts," said Steve Mancini, the director of public affairs for KIPP, which operates a total of 82 schools serving 21,000 students across the country.

 

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KIPP Middle Schools Found to Spur Learning Gains

 

EdWeek, 6/22/10

www.kipp.org/index.cfm?objectid=0F5B5E15-7F0E-11DF-98C1005056883C4D