KIPP Success Cited, With Caveats

This from Ed Week:

"What Do We Know About the Outcomes of KIPP Schools?"

A review of research on the high-profile KIPP network finds promising academic results compared with traditional public schools, though it argues that “popular accounts” have at times overhyped the schools’ apparent success.

Students who enter and stay in the Knowledge Is Power Program schools tend to perform better than similar students in regular public schools, says the report by Jeffrey R. Henig, an education professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. And, he writes, the difference “does not appear to be attributable to a selective admissions process.”

But Mr. Henig cautions that student attrition, where it has been monitored, is “high and seemingly selective,” with those who leave the schools tending to be lower performers than those who stay. Still, Mr. Henig, says “the evidence does not ... suggest that attrition fully accounts for the observed KIPP advantage.” ...