KIPP Schools Do Poor Job of Educating Black Boys; Children Not Reading At Grade Level in 3rd Grade Four Times less Likely to Graduate High School; A Student Drops Out Every 26 Seconds; See Chicago Cubs with Million Fathers Club; Free Saturday Un

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Date: Apr 13, 2011 9:17 AM
Subject: KIPP Schools Do Poor Job of Educating Black Boys; Children Not Reading At Grade Level in 3rd Grade Four Times less Likely to Graduate High School; A Student Drops Out Every 26 Seconds; See Chicago Cubs with Million Fathers Club; Free Saturday University Small-Group Learning Classes
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At KIPP Schools, 40% of Black males enrolled leave between grades 6 through 8 Study Finds High Dropout Rates for Black Males in KIPP Schools Researcher Gary J. Miron of Western Michigan University says attrition rates for black males in the KIPP charter middle schools he studied were "shockingly high." But other researchers say it's unclear whether the high numbers of those students disappearing from KIPP's grade rolls are dropping out or repeating a grade.  -Charles Borst/Education Week       By Mary Ann Zehr March 31, 2011    KIPP charter middle schools enroll a significantly higher proportion of African-American students than the local school districts they draw from, but 40 percent of the black males they enroll leave between grades 6 and 8, says a new nationwide study by researchers at Western Michigan University.    "The dropout rate for African-American males is really shocking," said Gary J. Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement, and research at Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, and the lead researcher for the study. "KIPP is doing a great job of educating students who persist, but not all who come."    With 99 charter schools across the country, most of which serve grades 5 to 8, the Knowledge Is Power Program network has built a national reputation for success in enabling low-income minority students to do well academically. And some studies show that KIPP charter schools have succeeded in significantly narrowing race-based and income-based achievement gaps between students over time. While not disputing that track record, the new study attempts to probe some of the more unexplored factors that might play into KIPP's success.    It concludes, for instance, that KIPP schools are considerably better funded on a per-pupil basis than their surrounding school districts. The KIPP schools received, on average, $18,500 per pupil in 2007-08, about $6,500 more per student than the average for other schools in the same districts, according to the researchers' analysis of federal 990 tax forms filed by schools reporting both public and private sources of funding. The study reports that nearly $5,800 of that per-pupil amount is private donations and grants.    Mr. Miron said the "$6,500 cost advantage" raises questions about the sustainability of the KIPP model.    The study also faults KIPP for not serving more students who are still learning English or who have disabilities.    "The limited range of students that KIPP serves, its inability to serve all students who enter, and its dependence on local traditional public schools to receive and serve the droves of students who leave, all speak loudly to the limitations of this model," the report says.    Luis A. Huerta, an associate professor of public policy and education at Teachers College, praised the study for exploring indicators of KIPP's operations other than student achievement, which, while important, doesn't tell the whole story, he said.    "If we can start speaking about these more nuanced layers, and move beyond this discussion of student achievement, we tend to get a real picture," he said. "Here we have schools receiving upwards to $6,000 or more than traditional schools, and that's not even accounting for the fact they have fewer services than traditional schools, yet the gains they've shown in student achievement are quite modest." Mr. Huerta is a faculty associate of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, which had a hand in distributing the study but did not take part in the research.    The study came in for criticism from KIPP officials, as well as from two other researchers not involved in it. They questioned its methodology and said that while Mr. Miron is asking the right questions about KIPP schools, he hasn't provided adequate evidence to answer them.    "We see this report as having significant shortcomings in the methodologies and reject the core conclusions the report is making," said Steve Mancini, the public-affairs director for the San Francisco-based KIPP network, which was started in 1994.    Methods Differ    The study by the Western Michigan researchers used the federal Common Core of Data as its primary source. The researchers were able to obtain data from 2005-06 to 2008-09 for 60 KIPP schools across the country. The KIPP schools were compared with averages for other, more-traditional schools in the same districts. Besides the 990 forms, the researchers drew financial data on KIPP schools from the same federal database, which had financial data for 25 of those schools.    Robin Lake, the associate director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, at the University of Washington in Seattle, was one of the scholars who questioned the study led by Mr. Miron. "It seems he's trying to explain away the KIPP effect rather than explain it," she said. "More work needs to be done to get real answers."    "The main point to make is the kind of data they are looking at is quite different from the kind of data we've been looking at," said Brian P. Gill, a senior fellow for the Princeton, N.J.-based Mathematica Policy Research and a co-author of a comprehensive study of 22 KIPP middle schools released last June. ("KIPP Middle Schools Boost Learning Gains, Study Says," July 14, 2010.) That study was commissioned by KIPP.    Mr. Gill said that Mathematica based its conclusions, including a finding that attrition of students from KIPP schools is about the same as from neighboring regular public schools, on data from individual students, not on aggregate data sets, as Mr. Miron's study has done.    The study led by Mr. Miron found that approximately 15 percent of students disappear each year from the KIPP grade cohorts, compared with 3 percent per year in each grade in the local traditional school districts. Mr. Miron said that finding doesn't contradict the finding by Mathematica that attrition rates are comparable between KIPP schools and local district schools on average, because his research team compared only KIPP "districts"-the cluster of KIPP schools in a particular district-and their surrounding local traditional school districts as a whole, not individual schools with schools.    Mr. Mancini, Ms. Lake, and Mr. Gill share the view that the comparison groups used in the Western Michigan study don't provide reliable information about student attrition. It's not appropriate, they contend, to make conclusions about attrition by comparing the proportion of students who leave a KIPP district with the proportion of students who leave the entire surrounding school district, which might have hundreds of schools.    "You want apples-to-apples comparisons. This is like apples to watermelons," said Ms. Lake. Mr. Miron said that the Mathematica approach to determining student attrition is "superior" to his. But his study explores an issue that he said Mathematica hadn't addressed: How does the fact that KIPP schools tend not to replace students that leave, particularly in the upper grades, affect attrition?    "The low-performing students are leaving KIPP schools, but they are still in the public school sector," Mr. Miron said.    Mr. Gill said Mr. Miron's study doesn't account for how grade retention, a hallmark of the KIPP model, may account for some of the shrinkage in cohorts of students moving from 6th to 8th grade.    He said Mr. Miron is on target, though, to ask questions about how KIPP replaces students in its schools. Mathematica has gathered data on that point that it will present this month in New Orleans at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Mr. Gill said.    Praise for KIPP    The Western Michigan study doesn't challenge KIPP's positive student outcomes. It says that the nonprofit network's claims that its schools improve students' test scores at a faster rate than regular public schools are backed by "rigorous and well-documented studies," such as Mathematica's.    Mr. Miron praises KIPP charter schools for how they have prepared and mentored principals and started new conversations in education circles about the benefits of extended instruction for students from low-income families. The KIPP school day is typically nine hours long, as much as a third longer than for the school day in surrounding school districts.    The new study contains at least one finding that echoes what the Mathematica study concluded: KIPP schools are less likely than local regular public schools to enroll English-language learners or students with disabilities-even though Mr. Miron's data suggest the KIPP schools may have more financial resources to do the job.    But Mike Wright, who oversees KIPP's network growth and sustainability, characterized the report's findings on the financing of KIPP's schools as misleading.    He focused on the finding that KIPP schools receive nearly $5,800 more per pupil from private donations than do their surrounding school districts. One problem, Mr. Wright said, is that the finding is based on a sample of 11 KIPP districts that isn't representative of all KIPP schools. (Mr. Miron said he used those 11 KIPP districts because they were the only ones that reported public revenues in the federal data set researched for the study.)    Also, Mr. Wright said of the study's authors, "they are including everything under the kitchen sink, whether starting a school from scratch or investing in facilities" in the figure for private per-pupil funding. He contends it's a "misrepresentation" to imply that KIPP schools are overflowing with resources, when, unlike regular public schools, they are often left on their own to pay for buildings.    Lastly, Mr. Wright said, one KIPP school district skewed the finding for private revenues for the sample by mistakenly reporting that the bulk of its $8.1 million in revenue for 2007-08 was mostly from private sources, when it was actually from public sources.    Mr. Wright contends that the average funding advantage from private sources for KIPP schools in comparison with their local school districts is closer to $2,500 per pupil.    Ms. Lake said she has found in her own research on charter school financing that it's hard to make meaningful conclusions based on the 990 tax forms because of ambiguities over what's behind the numbers in the categories reported.    Mr. Huerta, however, said Mr. Miron's methodology is strong, even though there are "complications in trying to dig out some of this information." He added Mr. Miron is very clear in reporting his study's limitations. A student who can't read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time.    Study: Third Grade Reading Predicts Later High School Graduation   By Sarah D. Sparks April 8, 2011    The disquieting side effect of our increasingly detailed longitudinal studies of students is we keep finding warning signs of a future graduation derailment earlier and earlier in a child's school years. Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found those warning signs as early as 6th grade- chronic absences, poor behavior, failing math or language arts, which when put together lead to a 90 percent risk that a student won't graduate on time.    A study to be released this morning at the American Educational Research Association convention here in New Orleans presents an even earlier warning sign: A student who can't read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer.    "Third grade is a kind of pivot point," said Donald J. Hernandez, the study's author and a sociology professor at Hunter College, at the City University of New York. "We teach reading for the first three grades and then after that children are not so much learning to read but using their reading skills to learn other topics. In that sense if you haven't succeeded by 3rd grade it's more difficult to [remediate] than it would have been if you started before then."    Mr. Hernandez analyzed the reading scores and later graduation rates of 3,975 students born between 1979 and 1989 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979. He found 16 percent overall did not have a diploma by age 19, but students who struggled with reading in early elementary school grew up to comprise 88 percent of those who did not receive a diploma. That made low reading skills an even stronger predictor than spending at least a year in poverty, which affected 70 percent of the students who didn't graduate. In fact, 89 percent of students in poverty who did read on level by 3rd grade graduated on time, statistically no different from the students who never experienced poverty but did struggle with reading early on.    By contrast, more than one in four poor, struggling readers did not graduate, compared with only 2 percent of good readers from wealthier backgrounds. Mr. Hernandez found that gaps in graduation rates among white, black and Hispanic students closed once poverty and reading proficiency were taken into account. "If they are proficient in reading, they basically have the same rate of graduation" above 90 percent, Mr. Hernandez said. "If they did not reach proficiency, that's when you see these big gaps emerge."    For some children in the sample, Mr. Hernandez was able to track reading scores as early as 2nd grade, but not enough to do a separate analysis. It's interesting to me that since we don't do much testing before grade three, the first accountability point under NCLB, it's difficult to say exactly when these reading gaps emerge.    Mr. Hernandez is working on further studies on the nuances of these findings, including the effects of concentrated poverty-often associated with low-performing schools-and factors that make some students more resilient to poverty and early academic difficulty.    The study, "Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation," will be posted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation here.  One dropout every 26 seconds is ticking time bomb for blacks A whopping 40 percent of African-American students don't graduate from high school. These dismal statistics are creating an underclass of African-Americans who have become unemployable, while also affecting the very fibers of the black family structure. Opinion    One dropout every 26 seconds is ticking time bomb for blacks       By Lawrence C. Ross 04/06/2011 Between the trials and tribulations of the controversial No Child Left Behind law, the growing issue of bullying in schools, and the feeling that parents, teachers and administrators are all searching for a magic solution to the problem that is the American educational system, here comes more bad news.    Recently, President Barack Obama's education secretary Arne Duncan stated that every 26 seconds, a student drops out of high school. But things are even worse for black students; a whopping 40 percent of African-American students don't graduate from high school. These dismal statistics are creating an underclass of African-Americans who have become unemployable, while also affecting the very fibers of the black family structure.    Marc Williams, a high school music theory teacher at Cesar Chavez Charter School in Washington DC, also works with the school's retention program. He sees a number of different causes for black students not finishing high school.    "Our (African-American) students are dropping out of school for a number of reasons. Aside from the cookie-cutter answers that most folks give that speak to the lack of support from within the household, the fact that many of our students don't have a 'set' of parents, and the obvious idea that many urban schools lack the fiscal resources that other schools have, there are some other things to consider here," Williams said.    "We, as educators, are failing our students," he added. "Independent and charter schools (in particular), in order to meet budgets, are spending less money for newer, inexperienced teachers that come fresh off the stage of graduation and into a situation that is a culture shock for them... It's a set up for failure."    When you dig deeper, you find that black boys in particular are in a crisis mode. According to the Massachusetts-based Schott Foundation on Public Education, more than half -- 53 percent -- of black male students drop out of high school without a diploma, compared to 22 percent of white males.    And the problem even extends to elementary school, in one of the best charter school programs in the country. A new study by researchers at Western Michigan reports that 40 percent of 6th to 8th grade black boys in the Knowledge Is Power Program charter schools (KIPP) drop out before completing the program.    It is already tough for high school graduates to compete economically with college graduates, with college graduates earning around $297,893 dollars more than a high school graduate during a lifetime. But without a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED), a student basically condemns themselves to underclass status. Individuals without a GED or high school diploma loses about $7,000 dollars per year in comparison to someone with a GED.    And in a modern military, where the ability to understand high tech systems is a premium, dropping out of high school and getting into the military is proving to be an obstacle. Even those with high school degrees are finding it difficult. Thirty nine percent of black applicants with a high school degree are rejected by the military. And those who do make it in are coming into the military with lower scores than white applicants, therefore putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to future advancement.    The real societal cost of a high drop out rate at the high school level is that it attacks the structure of the black family. Black high school drop outs feed a growing black underclass of economically disadvantaged families, making it more difficult to break the cycle of poverty. The state of New York is finding that having a GED helps prevent homelessness, and has created Back to School program in order to get individuals to complete their GED.    But the effects are also found in the college ranks. With black boys struggling to finish high school and go to college, some college systems are finding that when they exclude for college athletes, black male students are a scare commodity. In South Carolina, for example, only 3 percent of the student body at the University of South Carolina, Clemson and the College of Charleston, are black male students. This means that there's a infinitesimal pool of eligible college educated black women looking for a relationships with men with similar educational backgrounds.    The high school drop out epidemic among African-Americans is not a ticking time bomb, it's a tsunami that's swamping the future of black America. State Farm Insurance is working with America's Promise, the educational organization founded by former Secretary of State General Colin Powell, to fight high school drop outs through a new program called 26 seconds. But unless there are major changes to the current educational trends, look for the nation's prisons to continue to be repositories for the black students left behind, as they grow more desperate to survive without educational skills. Is it worth one day of your time to learn how to successfully teach Black boys to become strong, positive, educated Black men from four of the best educators in the United States? Four of the top educators and speakers in the United States who successfully teach parents and educators to help young Black men excel academically will be in Chicago on Saturday, May 14, 2011. Will you?      These teachers of teachers of strong, positive, educated Black boys and young men will convene in Chicago for a once in a lifetime conference on Educating Black Boys for Academic Success! Your schools and school districts probably have money that you can use to attend this conference (travel included).  Call us at 773.285.9600 so that we might help you and your school identify funding sources for this conference.  Our Dynamic Speakers Are:      Paul J. Adams III  President and founder of Providence St. Mel (PSM) and Providence Englewood School.  PSM is a high school of national distinction that has sent 100% of its graduating Black boys to college for 29 straight years!   He will teach parents, community members and educators to create high schools that successfully educate young Black men.     Umar Abdullah Johnson CEO of African American Psychological & Educational Services For Children Author: The Psycho-Academic War Against Black Boys and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Black Boys      He will teach parents, community members and educators to keep Black boys out of special education and away from the psycho-chemical drugs designs to trap Black boys in a chemically induced slavery.      Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu Author: The Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys; Understanding Black Male Learning Styles; Raising Black Boys and Keeping Black Boys Out of Special Education Founder: African American Images     He will teach parents, community members and educators to create elementary schools that successfully educate Black boys.       Dr. Alfred Tatum Author: Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap and"A Roadmap for Reading Specialists Entering Schools Without Exemplary Reading Programs: Seven Quick Lessons," The Reading Teacher. Professor of Education: Univ. of Illinois Chicago    He will teach parents, community members and educators to teach Black boys and young Black men to become outstanding readers. __________________________________________________________________________   The cost of the conference is $225.00 until April 29, 2011 and $275.00 after April 29, 2011. Space is limited.  A full breakfast and a full lunch will be served.  The conference will be at the Ramada Inn Hyde Park on 50th and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday, May 14, 2011. Please call 773.285.9600 for more information or to register for one of the best conferences in decades on educating Black boys and young men. You will leave this conference with skills and the knowledge to immediately improve the way you educate Black boys.  This conference is sponsored by The Black Star Project. Bring your child to a free, small-group learning center, a Saturday University!!! We can help guarantee that your child will read at grade level by the third grade. Saturday University - Greater Bethesda Campus Saturday University - Black Star Campus Saturday University - HumanThread Campus Saturday University - Chicago Hope Campus Saturday University - Parkway Activity Campus Saturday University - South Side Help Campus Saturday University - DeVry University Campus We educate children of color and all children We need tutors, administrators, mentors, chaperones and new, additional sites for the Saturday University.  Please call 773.285.9600 to become the solution to the problem of educating our youth. You must register for these classes before your child attends class. Join The Black Star Project's Million Fathers Club for a Night of Baseball - Members Only     Calling All Fathers, Stepfathers, Foster Fathers, Grandfathers, Godfathers, Uncles, Brothers and Substantial Male Caregivers!   You are invited to see The Chicago Cubs   vs. The San Diego Padres     Monday, April 18, 2011 at Wrigley Field 1060 W. Addison Chicago, Illinois   The game starts at 7:00 pm, but you must pick up your tickets by Friday, April 15, 2011, at the Black Star Office.   This is a fantastic opportunity to bond with your children and to see two of the top baseball teams in America.  Fathers and women of all races, ethnicities and faith backgrounds may and should attend this event with their children.   This event is for Members Only.  You must be a member of The Black Star Project to attend this game.  We have a limited number of tickets available, so call now!   If you would like to RSVP to attend this game, become a member of The Black Star Project or for more information, please call Bruce at 773.285.9600.  City Colleges of Chicago Reinvents Itself to Better Serve It's Students and Chicago   Looking to advance in your career? Eager to sharpen your skills?  The City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) could be the place for you!     The City Colleges of Chicago is a system of seven community colleges and seven satellite sites across Chicago.  You may have heard of Harold Washington College, Olive-Harvey College, Wright College, Truman College, Kennedy-King College, Daley College, Malcolm X College, Washburne Culinary Institute, the French Pastry School.  All are part of CCC!    More than 120,000 students are currently furthering their education at the City Colleges of Chicago.  We offer four main program tracks (Associate Degree, Certificate, Adult Education/GED/ESL, and Continuing Education/Special Interest).    Early enrollment for summer and fall semesters has already begun, learn how to apply now  at www.ccc.edu!    The City Colleges of Chicago is undertaking a transformative process called "Reinvention". Launched in March 2010, Reinvention is a collaborative effort to review and revise CCC programs and practices to ensure students leave CCC college-ready, career-ready and prepared to pursue their life's goals. More information on Reinvention can be found here.    Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with news on programs, scholarships and accomplishments of students, faculty and staff at CCC.    Join us in building the foundation for success!   All Parents Willing to Fight for the Education and Well-Being of Their Children Should Join       Black Star Community PTA on  Saturday, April 16, 2011 9:30am - 11:00am

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