The Globe has a story today about the KIPP middle school closest to Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, not a single district-operated open-enrollment urban middle school has even 50% of its students proficient in math or reading. Yet in Lynn, Massachusetts, KIPP Academy, now in its fourth year as one of over 65 […]
Archive for the 'Middle Schools' Category
KIPP Academy in Lynn, MA Outperforms Marblehead
Published by August 21st, 2008 in Charter Schools, KIPP, Middle Schools, No Excuses and Urban Schools. 2 CommentsKIPP Report Card: Off the Charts
Published by April 21st, 2008 in Charter Schools, Great Leadership, KIPP, Middle Schools, No Excuses and Urban Schools. 0 CommentsI don’t get to post to this blog nearly as often as I used to before joining the Board of Regents. Much of the time I would otherwise spend blogging is instead directed to working with fellow Regents and other Rhode Island education reformers to make change happen.
Today I had the opportunity of […]
Cranston Moving to K-6 Grade Configuration
Published by January 18th, 2008 in Cranston and Middle Schools. 0 CommentsThe ProJo has an article today on Cranston schools moving to a K-6 grade configuration, allowing the district to operate more efficiently with less staff. The question on whether K-6/7-9 is better than K-5/6-9 or K-8 is an open one. Some studies suggest K-8 has advantages. Nearby, Boston has moved to K-8 […]
RI Secondary Charter Schools Outperform District Peers
Published by January 15th, 2008 in Central Falls, Charter Schools, High Schools, Legislature, Middle Schools, NCLB, Pawtucket, Providence, Urban Schools and Woonsocket. 0 CommentsWe recently put together a quick summary of where secondary (i.e. grades 6-12) charter schools in Rhode Island stand and thought we would share it here. Among Rhode Island’s eleven charter schools, eight serve kids in these grades. All demonstrate strong evidence of Rhode Island’s success in chartering high quality secondary […]
The Search for “Best Practices”
Published by April 18th, 2007 in Central Falls, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Middle Schools, New York, No Excuses, Providence, Urban Schools and Woonsocket. 1 CommentCommissioner of Education Peter McWalters was interviewed last week by Providence Business News. He is quoted as saying, “We’re clearly still searching for best practices.” But some of the best practices in public education are quite clear — we’re just not replicating them in Rhode Island. In fact, we have laws that […]
No Slowing Down KIPP… Except in RI
Published by March 22nd, 2007 in Central Falls, Charter Schools, Failed Leadership, KIPP, Legislature, Middle Schools, No Excuses, Providence, Urban Schools and Woonsocket. 1 CommentGreat news this week from Houston, where the nonprofit Knowledge is Power Program (”KIPP”)–operator of KIPP public charter schools–announced it had raised $65 million toward a $100 million goal to greatly expand its presence in the Houston area. KIPP will use the money to expand the Houston chain of public charter schools from eight […]
Democracy Prep: Success in Harlem
Published by February 19th, 2007 in Middle Schools, New York, No Excuses and Urban Schools. 4 CommentsA couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of spending a day at Democracy Prep, a new public charter school in Harlem, grades 6-12. Democracy Prep is modeled on “No Excuses” charter networks such as KIPP, Achievement First, and others. What makes Democracy Prep especially interesting to me is that its founder, […]

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