A politician told one of the TN Parent writers how they toured a KIPP charter school in TN and were so impressed... how the students were well-behaved little angels, the teachers were young and energetic (and wore tight skirts), how the school was just perfect and he wanted those schools in his own district.
Well, now we know the secret...
The charter schools and ASD leaders certainly don't want you to know about this, and they spend a lot of energy and PR dollars trying to cover it up, but truth has a way of finding the light...
On the Schools Matter blog, Jim Horn of Cambridge College interviewed a former KIPP teacher. He writes:
You have heard about KIPP's padded cells for kindergartners and KIPP school leaders putting garbage cans on children's heads and making them bark like dogs, and you've heard about children forced to sit on the floor for days until they have earned desks, but now comes, yet, another KIPP abuse strategy.
On VIB (Visitor in Building) days, at least one KIPP school puts up to 30 problem students in the empty basement for hours until the visiting investors, dignitaries, or politicians have left the building. Also during this time, no class changes occur, even though visits might last three hours. Children are, in essence, in lockdown mode in their classrooms so that no infraction or non-compliant behavior during class change may be seen by outsiders. [emphasis added]
The teacher tells in detail about when visitors were in the school building:
We used to have a special schedule when we had visitors in the building. For instance, sometimes we’d have, you know, investors or big-wigs walking through the building. And so we would have a separate schedule where we would pick out all the behavior issue kids and take them down into the basement for the duration of the visitors’ visit, to kind of keep them out of the way. So you know, that’s one very, like, clear example of sweeping something under the rug.
So in the morning, we would receive an email or a special schedule that said VIB schedule, Visitor in Building schedule. And it would basically list all of the students that needed to be in the basement area, and it would tell us the specific times that they were supposed to be there. And we would also, for instance, we would not transition from class to class if there was a visitor, because the transitions from class to class would sometimes be, you know, kids are kids, and so they would sometimes not listen, or they would run, or whatever the case is. And our administration didn’t want the visitors to see anything less than perfection. And so we would hold students in the classroom when normally they’d be transitioning from class to class. So the visitors didn't get the impression that the school was anything less than very well managed.
So, legislators and important people, hidden beneath your very feet and in classrooms out of your sight were the "problem students."
Horn's interview of this former KIPP teacher is quite enlightening. The teacher admits there was "a lot swept under the rug as far as things that also aren't so great." The teacher tells of "cultural things like, I can only speak to what I experienced in my day-to-day, and so that was a lot of yelling, a lot of berating students, a lot of, you know, physically confronting students."
Also interesting is a comment below the article:
I am a former KIPP teacher. (I worked there before the internet was a big deal) I am glad that the public is now able to see the treatment that KIPP students and staff face at these schools. I can personally attest to the fact at the KIPP school where I worked that students did in fact "loose" their desks due to misbehavior and had to sit on the floor. Kids who misbehaved had to go "on bench" which means they had to turn their uniform shirt inside out for the day and no other students were allowed to speak to these kids. If regular public schools tried to pull this crap it would be all over the news.
Click HERE to read the rest of this insightful interview. You can also read much more of Jim Horn's detailed research on KIPP schools, including how their grade retention rates are higher than public schools and how KIPP kicks out low-performing students to boost their stats, by clicking HERE.
Well, now we know the secret...
The charter schools and ASD leaders certainly don't want you to know about this, and they spend a lot of energy and PR dollars trying to cover it up, but truth has a way of finding the light...
On the Schools Matter blog, Jim Horn of Cambridge College interviewed a former KIPP teacher. He writes:
You have heard about KIPP's padded cells for kindergartners and KIPP school leaders putting garbage cans on children's heads and making them bark like dogs, and you've heard about children forced to sit on the floor for days until they have earned desks, but now comes, yet, another KIPP abuse strategy.
On VIB (Visitor in Building) days, at least one KIPP school puts up to 30 problem students in the empty basement for hours until the visiting investors, dignitaries, or politicians have left the building. Also during this time, no class changes occur, even though visits might last three hours. Children are, in essence, in lockdown mode in their classrooms so that no infraction or non-compliant behavior during class change may be seen by outsiders. [emphasis added]
The teacher tells in detail about when visitors were in the school building:
We used to have a special schedule when we had visitors in the building. For instance, sometimes we’d have, you know, investors or big-wigs walking through the building. And so we would have a separate schedule where we would pick out all the behavior issue kids and take them down into the basement for the duration of the visitors’ visit, to kind of keep them out of the way. So you know, that’s one very, like, clear example of sweeping something under the rug.
So in the morning, we would receive an email or a special schedule that said VIB schedule, Visitor in Building schedule. And it would basically list all of the students that needed to be in the basement area, and it would tell us the specific times that they were supposed to be there. And we would also, for instance, we would not transition from class to class if there was a visitor, because the transitions from class to class would sometimes be, you know, kids are kids, and so they would sometimes not listen, or they would run, or whatever the case is. And our administration didn’t want the visitors to see anything less than perfection. And so we would hold students in the classroom when normally they’d be transitioning from class to class. So the visitors didn't get the impression that the school was anything less than very well managed.
So, legislators and important people, hidden beneath your very feet and in classrooms out of your sight were the "problem students."
Horn's interview of this former KIPP teacher is quite enlightening. The teacher admits there was "a lot swept under the rug as far as things that also aren't so great." The teacher tells of "cultural things like, I can only speak to what I experienced in my day-to-day, and so that was a lot of yelling, a lot of berating students, a lot of, you know, physically confronting students."
Also interesting is a comment below the article:
I am a former KIPP teacher. (I worked there before the internet was a big deal) I am glad that the public is now able to see the treatment that KIPP students and staff face at these schools. I can personally attest to the fact at the KIPP school where I worked that students did in fact "loose" their desks due to misbehavior and had to sit on the floor. Kids who misbehaved had to go "on bench" which means they had to turn their uniform shirt inside out for the day and no other students were allowed to speak to these kids. If regular public schools tried to pull this crap it would be all over the news.
Click HERE to read the rest of this insightful interview. You can also read much more of Jim Horn's detailed research on KIPP schools, including how their grade retention rates are higher than public schools and how KIPP kicks out low-performing students to boost their stats, by clicking HERE.
The bottom line is that the "miracle" of the KIPP charter school model is riddled with deception and questionable practices. Smart leaders should question the well-oiled PR from KIPP.
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