Jay Mathews has written an easily readable account of how two young men, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, turned their own idealism and willingness to bend the rules into a nationwide network of successful charter schools under the umbrella name of KIPP — Knowledge is Power Program.
The books is not weighed down with lots of numbers and charts and citations of longitudinal studies.
Instead, it is as sprightly and bright-eyed as the two untested and unready new teachers that it follows from a California teacher’s boot camp to public schools in Houston, and beyond.
To gain the full impact of my enthusiasm for the book and the educational reforms it describes, you must realize that I have reluctantly decided that public education is a huge mistake, and federal meddling in public education is a mistake of galactic import. If I were “national education czar,” I would dissolve the public education system, return all the money to taxpayers, fire myself and turn the lights off on my way out the door.
Not likely to happen.
Author Mathews describes the background that made the work of Feinberg and Levin possible:
Over the next fifteen years, these two strands of reform [accountability and vouchers with charter schools] — sometimes in opposition, sometimes in an uneasy alliance — would come to dominate educational policy and provide the conditions that allowed Feinberg’s and Levin’s schools to flourish. Each side of the debate would produce one far-reaching change in the way public schools operated. The Goals 2000 program evolved into a bipartisan federal law, the No Child Left Behind Act. It required schools to raise the achievement of black, Hispanic, and low-income children or risk being taken over by outsiders who would pursue those goals. At the same time, the movement to challenge the power of public school bureaucrats would lead to an upsurge of public charter schools, particularly in large cities. This would provide a haven for Levin-Feinberg methods such as longer school days and school years, principals’ power to fire poorly performing teachers, and regular visits to students’ homes.
That passage is perhaps the dullest in the entire book — crucial for understanding the conditions but not lively, and therefore not typical.
You’ll meet mentor teachers who helped Feinberg and Levin move from awkward and inept classroom managers to finger-rolling class choreographers.
You’ll meet a Houston entrepreneur known for infomercials in which he threw wads of money at the camera — and who helped underwrite the first KIPP class.
You’ll meet many students. Some thrived under KIPP. Some withered later when returned to regular classes.
All the students learned, proving that all students can learn.
That I agree with.
The rest? Well, we’re not likely to start over from scratch with private schools under local control. The “the power of public school bureaucrats” is wielded side-by-side with the power of public school teacher’s unions. School curricula are all too often the plaything of politicians more interested in social engineering than a solid base in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Given our current public education system, KIPP is a fine place to start.
And Work Hard. Be Nice.
