It is always interesting to learn about alternative approaches to raising standards and in turn life chances. For a few years I had noticed that one approach which was being referred to in lots of literature was the KIPP schools movement in the US. I thought it might be a good idea to finally track down the story and read it directly.
There is a very readable account, by journalist Jay Matthews, in “Work Hard, Be Nice” his 2009 book about the founding of the KIPP schools by Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg. The style is more of a story, that an academic account, however it is probably all the better for that. The story is after all a remarkable one in terms of inspiration and lessons that an education system could learn.
As young teachers on the “Teach for America” programme, Feinberg and Levin were placed in some very poor, largely Hispanic elementary schools in Houston, Texas. They found it tough, and after a short while latched onto one experienced teacher, Harriet Ball, who seemed to have the ability to push the children’s standards, and to do it with an energetic and playful approach that amazed them.
They learned as much as they could from this amazing lady, as well as entering into a regular correspondence with award winning teacher, Rafe Esquith, to learn as much as they could about effective teaching for children in “underserved areas” as they describe the deprived communities that they were teaching in. They refined this learning into an approach that worked for them, and then gradually got better at their craft. The book describes their growing frustration with a system that had low aspirations and expectations. They made progress with their young learners, but were unhappy that these learners had nowhere to go as the local state high schools had the same cycle of low achievement and low expectations.
The story takes an astonishing turn because they seemed unwilling to accept this, and set up a project within the school, called the Knowledge Is Power Programme, KIPP! This was astonishing in many ways which will surprise Scottish educators, (maybe even shock!). They visited prospective students at home to help the families feel involved in what Levin and Feinberg were trying to achieve and why. They asked families to sign a contract agreeing to the “tougher” regime of the KIPP programme; longer school day, every second Saturday, summer school (to break the unproductive long summer recess) etc. They gave learners copious homework, and their phone numbers, so that they could be contacted at night to help youngsters with that homework! They took the youngsters on a fund-raised trip in summer to broaden horizons and deepen aspirations. (White House and Washington for example). Many children couldn’t cope and dropped back to the main stream classes, however most thrived and began to go after scholarships to “better schools”. Feinberg and Levin created a virtuous cycle with parents beginning to trust these mad young men, and the successes beginning to get noticed.
The critical thing was that the two men, realised that they weren’t getting the support they wanted in terms of suitable buildings and other support from the main state system, and so they set up a Charter School movement. During this set up phase, Levin moved to New York and set up a KIPP school in the South Bronx, and experienced all the obstacles and lack of system level support that they had begun to overcome in Houston. The story describes very well how the movement caught-fire, and has now become a school system, targeting underserved communities, with 162 schools in 20 states, all underpinned by the same energetic and aspirational approach that Feinberg and Levin established in 1994 in Houston. This is a really amazing story.
The lessons that I take from it are simply the ones about energy, vision and learning. The founders started off admitting that they didn’t know how to get through to their new charges, and that they needed more skills and insight. They set about learning with a rare passion and the results were powerful. I was also inspired by the fact that they didn’t accept the status-quo but instead tried to create something that would be better for their children. Perhaps the fact that they had a tilt and some windmills and had a crack at some sacred-cows appealed to me as well.
Many of the things they did are not going to travel well to our current system, but that’s not the point; their story can inspire us to look afresh at what we do, and do so with a real sense that amazing things can happen when amazing people come together.
I heartily recommend this as an interesting and useful piece of professional learning as well as a very enjoyable read!
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2009/03/the_educational_experiment_we_really_need.html