In the Boston Globe this week, columnist Scot Lehigh with a great piece on “Schools that could blossom in Boston.”
The secrets of [these schools] success?
They set high expectations. They feature longer school days - typically 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a half day every other Saturday - and a longer school year, with three extra weeks in the summer. That means 50 percent more instruction time.
Although they make school fun, they also have strict discipline. And they teach character as well as academics.
Their hardworking teachers earn 15 to 20 percent above area pedagogical salaries. Individual schools, meanwhile, have the autonomy educators long for.
Given their impressive record with urban kids, many cities are hungry for the schools. New York City, now with four, aspires to have nine by 2012. Washington, also at four, wants 10 by then. New Orleans, with five, is pursuing five more by 2012.
But there are none in Boston. Nor are there plans for any.
Why? Simple. I’m talking here about KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) charter schools - and Boston is bumping up against the state’s charter cap.
“With your charter cap, we can’t expand in cities like Boston,” said KIPP CEO Richard Barth.
There is a growing hope that President Obama and Secretary Duncan will take steps at the federal level to end caps on charters, like those that exist in Massachusetts and in Rhode Island (where our cap is set at just 20 schools). In the meantime, until Massachusetts’ political leaders show the courage demonstrated in Rhode Island leaders to expand the charter school sector, kids in Boston will suffer. By the way, the nearest KIPP school is in Lynn, MA, where more kids are on grade level in reading and math than schools in Marblehead (could you imagine a school in Central Falls where the students outperform the kids in East Greenwich?!?).
Contrary to the commenting blogger’s assertion that this data came from a Boston Globe article, KIPP Lynn is happy to post their stellar results online at: http://kipplynn.org/about-numbers.php. Check it out! Too bad we don’t *yet* have any middle schools in Rhode Island’s urban communities that are achieving results on par with these.
Regardless of what they claim on their website without reference, according to the state numbersthey no longer beat Marblehead in 6th grade math. Their claim is out of date. They do, however, beat them in seventh grade math.
Your claim that “more kids are on grade level” is not backed up by the data.