KIPP: Reaching underserved middle schoolers

Kappa Delta Pi Record, Winter 2003 by Choi, W Christine

Yet test scores alone do not measure a student's growth. For KIPP Gaston College Preparatory School Leader Caleb Dolan, results are demonstrated by the attitudinal changes of his students: "Now they understand owning their words and owning their actions. They know they are in control of their destiny and their education."

Addressing the Critics

Critics suspect that students chant all day long, get drilled on facts and numbers as if they are automatons, and will probably fail in environments with less stringent rules and guidance. However, a look into KIPP classrooms reveals student learning and diverse student-focused instructional methodology.

Half the students in a South Bronx classroom read aloud a passage on mammals, while the other half check off words their partners mispronounce. In KIPP Academy Houston's fifth-grade reading and writing workshop, students read more than 40 books annually. When test scores are announced in class, the group applauds after every student's name. There is a palpable sense of competition and teamwork.

KIPP Academy New York seventh-grade students work in small groups over their lunch hour. "Tutors" help teammates figure out why they got the wrong answers in pre-algebra. These students choose to focus on math instead of socializing during lunch, even during the last week of school.

A common misconception is that low-performing students are not admitted. KIPP schools are open-enrollment public schools that do not pre-screen students based on test scores, behavior records, or socioeconomic status. Teachers and school leaders do everything possible to keep students in school and to improve their attitude about school and their futures. That support extends beyond middle school; both Houston's and New York's schools guide families and students through the unfamiliar road to college, assisting with financial aid, test-prep courses, and summer opportunities.

KIPP's Five Pillars are more than an idealistic plan on paper. Using them, KIPP schools have raised student achievement. As ten new schools chart their own paths to academic success, the five existing schools are proof that the KIPP model can work anywhere. In urban and rural regions, with experienced and young teachers, KIPP is reaching underserved students-- and always with the highest expectations.

by W. Christine Choi

W. Christine Choi is a staff member of the KIPP Foundation Office in the Bronx, N.Y.