Kipp to open charter school in Columbus
From John Curry, March 1, 2008
Subject: They just keep Kipping away, don't they? Can't say we didn't see this one coming!
Subject: They just keep Kipping away, don't they? Can't say we didn't see this one coming!
Today the Dispatch discusses the Columbus Board of Education considering whether to lease several of their buildings to "outside programs!" Translated, that means "charter schools" two of which the "specifics aren't available yet." A spokesperson for some of these proposed privatized schools apparently feels that this is a "win-win situation," but is it?
Will the teachers in these charters be able to present teaching certificates that verify they are fully certified by the State of Ohio to teach in all of Ohio's public schools as charters can circumvent this requirement? Will the teachers' salaries and benefits be comparable to those who teach nearby in the other Columbus City Schools? Will the total amount of deductions for their retirement system (STRS) be equal to the total deductions of same number of educators in nearby Columbus City Schools? After all, these newly hired educators will be paid on a different salary schedule as that of the Columbus City Schools' educators and if you think it will be equal to or surpass the Columbus City Schools salary schedule I have a bridge I'd like to sell you! Of course, since they are private schools...they don't have to release their salary schedules to anyone, do they? Nor do they have to release to the public the dollar amount of the profits that the companies who run them will enjoy.....profits that should be applied to the education of the students in these very same schools.
Once again, privatization of public schools is on the march in Central City. Below is today's Dispatch article re. these newly proposed charters and following it is a Cleveland Plain Dealer article which appeared back on Dec. 31, 2007 concerning this adventure. After all, "corporate leaders- the CEO's of the city's 30 largest employers" seem to think this is the best idea to come along since the invention of sliced bread. I wonder what these leaders would say if educators should decide to step in and design changes to their operations? Can't say we didn't see this one coming, can we?
John
P.S. The Fordham Foundation just happens to be mentioned in the last article below....you remember them, don't you? They were the ones who issued the report critical of the benefit structure of the STRS. If you don't, I will gladly forward that information to you.... WITHOUT PROFIT and as a public service!
Click image to enlarge
The Columbus school board is to consider leasing four buildings to outside programs, including two charter schools, at its meeting on Tuesday. Columbus schools have an incentive to do so besides finding uses for surplus buildings. Ohio lawmakers passed a bill last year that allows school districts that lease property to charter schools to claim the school's test scores as their own. "It's a win-win situation," said Carina Robinson, KIPP Journey Academy's school leader, because the charter school gets a building fit for students and the district benefits from the test scores of a high-achieving middle school. However, districts must decide at the beginning of the school year whether to accept a charter school's scores, before knowing whether they will be good or not. The four building leases to be considered: • Brentnell Elementary, 1270 Brentnell Ave., might be leased for $62,594 per year to the Charles School, a charter being created by Ohio Dominican University and the Graham School. • Kent Elementary, 1414 Gault St., might be leased to Lifetown, a program for special-needs students. Specifics aren't available yet. • Linden Park Elementary, 1400 Myrtle Ave., might be leased to the Knowledge is Power Program charter school, KIPP Journey Academy, for $55,345.50 a year. • Second Avenue Elementary, 68 E. 2nd Ave., might be leased to Junior Achievement. Specifics aren't available yet. Columbus already leases a building to a charter school, but it's one that the district oversees. The Academic Acceleration Academy, a school for students in grades eight through 12 who have fallen behind, rents a small building on the grounds of Linmoor Middle School for $1 a year.
-- Jennifer Smith Richards jsmithrichards@dispatch.com
KIPP to open charter school in Columbus
By Scott Stephens December 31, 2007
It's often called the nation's best charter-school chain, the Tiffany network of urban education.
Next year, it will hang a shingle in Ohio.
The Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, a network of 57 schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia, will open a middle school in Columbus in August.
A second middle school is in the works for the state's capital in 2009, and some education reformers are quietly exploring bringing KIPP to Cleveland.
But it will take the kind of broad-based community interest that Columbus demonstrated to make that happen. In Columbus, a coalition of business, philanthropic and social-service interests, as well as the city schools, served as a welcome mat for the charter chain.
Columbus corporate leaders - the CEOs of the city's 30 largest employers - actually visited KIPP schools in Houston and New York before committing to the project. Satisfied with what they saw, they committed $550,000 to KIPP's Columbus start-up plan.
"It was more than just a case of this sounding good on paper," said Mark Real, executive director of KidsOhio.org, one of the groups that lobbied hard to bring KIPP to Ohio. "They actually went out and kicked the tires, so to speak."
Even supporters of charter schools - schools that are independently operated but publicly funded - have acknowledged that too many of Ohio's charters have been junkers, all too often posting dismal test scores and having little accountability for taxpayer dollars. Last year, three national organizations identified as strong charter-school advocates called for the state to close low-performing charters and to insist on more oversight from charter-school sponsors.
Enter KIPP, which chose Columbus ahead of six other cities on its list of potential expansion sites. The Columbus city schools initially wanted to sponsor the new KIPP schools, but KIPP opted instead to work with the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that already oversees nine charter schools in southwest Ohio.
As a result, the Columbus Teachers Union, which first supported KIPP's move to Columbus, cooled to the idea.
Teachers in the new KIPP school will be hired directly by the school and will not be part of the district's contract with the union. However, because the district is leasing KIPP a building, the district will be able to count KIPP's test scores among its own data.
KIPP has tentative plans to augment its two Columbus middle schools with two elementary schools and a high school. The goal: provide a set of innovative alternative schools that will help raise achievement at all schools by sharing ideas that work.
"We selected Columbus because the community seriously embraces educational reform," said KIPP Chief Executive Richard Barth.
Adds Real: "There will be an open-door policy both ways. KIPP could learn some things from the Columbus schools, too."
But why has the chain, started in 1994 by two Houston teachers, developed such a sparkling reputation? For starters, the not-for-profit network educates children often written off as being "at risk." The youngsters are overwhelmingly black or Latino, and most are from low-income families. Students are accepted without regard to their academic record.
More significant, KIPP gets tangible results, replicating the successes of individual high-performing charter schools on a larger scale.
Students who have completed three years of KIPP have improved from the 34th percentile at the beginning of fifth grade to the 58th percentile at the end of seventh grade in reading scores and from the 44th percentile to the 88th percentile in math scores. The secret? First, KIPP trains its school leaders and board members, putting seasoned educators in place before the first child walks through the door. Carina Robinson, already an accomplished math teacher in the Euclid schools, has been training for the past year at Stanford University to prepare for her job as principal of the new KIPP school in Columbus.
In addition to offering a rigorous, college-preparatory curriculum, KIPP schools pack in more instructional time, with a longer day and some extra weekend and summer classes. Teachers are required to be available by cell phone in the evenings to answer questions about homework, which is both daily and required.
Some people cite that rigor for the high attrition rate at a few KIPP schools - one of the rare criticisms of the chain. KIPP's own study this year found alarmingly high rates of children leaving its schools in the San Francisco Bay area. At one school in Oakland, for instance, only a quarter of the students from the fifth-grade class were still around by eighth grade.
Some observers have suggested the attrition rates boost average test scores artificially by driving out the lowest-performing students. A few experts, including Arizona State University's Alex Molnar, have openly questioned whether KIPP is really the savior it claims to be.
But KIPP supporters scoff at such criticism.
"There's attrition in Marine boot camp, too," said Fordham Foundation President Chester Finn Jr. "Any high-standards regimen has more attrition - it comes with the territory. But critics of KIPP are desperately eager to tarnish its reputation. The truth is, KIPP benefits a whole lot of kids."
posted by Kathie Bracy at 10:39 PM
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