A failing KIPP charter in FL may keep 2 other KIPP schools from being approved.

[madfloridian]

I would say it is about time that local districts started taking the grades of charter schools seriously. Duval County will vote on the measure on November 1.

KIPP officials have said if they are denied they will take it up with the state. Since the state is heavily charter friendly, I guess they will get their two new schools. It will done with the state going over the head of the local district.

Rick Scott is very friendly to the new charter schools, and he even signed the bill at that failing KIPP charter....the bill that was so detested by public schools and their teachers.

Rick Scott’s KIPP Schools Embarrassment Continues

Rick Scott sure made a big deal out of signing SB 736 at the Jacksonville KIPP school of one of his cronies. Too bad it turned out to be one of Florida’s 15 failing charter schools last year. Scott’s embarrassing moment is back in the news. It seems that Duval’s school board is strongly considering not approving their application to open more schools in their district. From Jeffrey Solocheck of Gradebook:

All over the country, the KIPP charter schools win accolades for their accomplishments as they take low income students and try to put them on a path toward success.

In Duval County, not so much.

Unimpressed with KIPP’s performance in Jacksonville — an F grade and declining student improvement, the Duval School Board is seriously considering not approving the charter group’s application to open more schools in the county, the Florida Times-Union reports.

State law is very clear on public schools that have failing grades, but there is nothing said about charter schools. Districts and the state are not required to take the grades of charter schools into account.

From the Florida Times Union:

Board, KIPP to talk performance in Jacksonville school

School Board members want KIPP Jacksonville officials to explain how they will improve their middle school's F grade and reassure the board that two new schools they wish to open won't perform as poorly.

The charter school organization received a recommendation from school district administration for the board to approve the creation of two elementary charter schools, but board members postponed a vote on the applications last week because KIPP's lone local school received an F from the state.

The state's model for approving charter schools does not take into account the performance of schools in the state or school district being run by a charter organization. In fact, the state's law on charter school approval is silent on whether districts can consider the current performance of a school being run by a charter organization.

State officials refused to answer whether Duval could take into account the KIPP school's performance because of the potential for an appeal.

That's pretty rotten. There is no requirement that charter schools be held accountable, but failing public schools can be turned around into charters. It's like a bad dream for public schools.

Here's the most infuriating part. KIPP schools got more federal money than public schools. And they do not even have to keep the students who don't perform well.

KIPP Charters got more federal money than public schools. Also high attrition rate helps scores?

One of America's most successful charter-school networks receives more government money than it has previously admitted — and it's also not as successful as it has stated, according to a new study.

Researchers say that schools in the Knowledge Is Power Program have a much higher attrition rate than in the school systems from which they draw their students — especially among African-American children.

There is more:

By analyzing Department of Education databases for the 2007-8 school year, the researchers calculated that the KIPP network received $12,731 in taxpayer money per student, compared with $11,960 at the average traditional public school and $9,579, on average, at charter schools nationwide.

In addition, KIPP generated $5,760 per student from private donors, the study said, based on a review of KIPP’s nonprofit filings with the Internal Revenue Service.

The study does not offer an explanation for why KIPP schools would get more government financing than regular public schools.

That lack of explanation is because there is no good one at all.

There is no reason at all that our federal government would give charter schools like KIPP more money than others. That simply reeks of undue influence.

[madfloridian]

1. 11 million in Sept given to 2 NY charter schools.

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/education/148047/two-local-charter-school-networks-get--11m-in-federal-grants

"The federal government is giving some charter schools in the city a financial boost.

Success Charter Network and KIPP Charter Network have been awarded more than $11 million in grants.

The money is part of the Education Department's $250 million investment in public charter schools this year."


We are in the process of saying good by to public schools. It has been speeded up under the Democrats.

[chervilant]

2. Meanwhile,

an entire generation of our children will be left behind...

Marginal math skills, barely adequate language skills, no music, no art, no critical thinking skills...

Sad, really, that a "Democratic" administration is complicit in the destruction of public education.

[madfloridian]

5. I agree. And more than complicit, really. Actively pushing it.

It's a shame. I read two puff pieces on Arne yesterday reassuring us he has Obama's trust...one was from Politico. Will have to look them up.

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[Starry Messenger]

4. recommend

[madfloridian]

7. Few people realize that OWS must include education. It's going fast.

The reformers are moving forward with full speed, and there is not a single person in power stopping them.

[Starry Messenger]

9. +1

[madfloridian]

6. Make the lie big, and people will believe it.

The claims about KIPP that have never been publicly acknowledged and clarified.

http://www.examiner.com/education-in-san-francisco/debunking-yet-another-false-claim-about-kipp-alumni-and-college

"A letter in today's San Francisco Chronicle claims that "thousands" of alumni of the KIPP charter school chain have become the first in their families to graduate from college.

This is a brand-new false claim for KIPP. The usual false claim for KIPP is that thousands of its students have started college, which isn't true either.

Actually, KIPP runs almost all middle schools and has only been running a few long enough to have their graduates finish high school and go to college. I pinned them down on the number after Newsweek wrote in July 2008 that 12,800 KIPP graduates had gone on to college.

The actual number of KIPP alumni who had started college, KIPP spokesman Steve Mancini said at that time, was 447. Again, that's the number of KIPP graduates who had started college by 2008. (KIPP claims to track them carefully even though of course they're long gone from KIPP by that time.)

447 vs 12,800

And Bill Gates last year said they sent 95% of their students to college. Make the lie big.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/04/dear-harvard-gazette-please-fact-check.html

" In education, online learning will help improve the situation, with links to videos on key concepts, along with ways to develop online advising, forums, and testing. “That’s a very doable thing,” said Gates. “Technology is going to have a role there.” And innovative education does not have to cost a lot, he said, referring to his sometimes controversial support of charter and nontraditional solutions.

“Every time I get discouraged,” he told one questioner later, “I go to a KIPP school and say: This can be done.” KIPP stands for the Knowledge is Power Program, a network of college-preparatory U.S. public schools that Gates said now number 82 — and that send 95 percent of their graduates to four-year colleges.

So Gates has upped the ante on the lie that Jonathan Alter wrote in Newsweek in 2008 about 80 percent of 16,000 KIPP students going to college. What Caroline Grannan found out from KIPP, Inc.'s home office at that time is that only 447 KIPPsters had entered college when Alter wrote that lie. And now Gates's figure of 95% going to college. Pure fabrication. Does the Harvard Gazette bother to fact check public education's greatest philanthropic enemy? With such a wad of money stolen from the American treasury ready to shape the world in a perfectly white dweeby image, who can doubt him?"

[KamaAina]

8. But, but, but KIPP makes everyone feel all warm and fuzzy!

All those sweet inner-city kids in their nice, starched uniforms! They look like they must be learning! KIPP can't be failing!! :cry:

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Angry Dragon]

10. Arnie Duncan is a ignorant idiot

and should be fired ......... but Obama backs him ......... so who is really to blame