Student Selection, Attrition, and Replacement in KIPP Middle Schools

Abstract

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is a network of charter schools designed to improve the educational opportunities available to lowincome families. KIPP schools seek to boost their students' academic achievement and, ultimately, prepare them to enroll and succeed in college. To achieve these objectives, KIPP schools operate under a set of standards that emphasize strong student behavior policies with rewards and sanctions; contracts between students, parents, and teachers; longer school days and school on Saturdays; substantial autonomy for KIPP principals; and close monitoring of school performance in terms of student achievement and college readiness. KIPP has grown from two middle schools established in the mid-1990s to a nationwide network of more than 140 elementary, middle, and high schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia as of the 2013-2014 school year.Several recent quasi-experimental and experimental studies have found that many KIPP middle schools (which constitute the majority of KIPP schools) have large, positive impacts on academic achievement. Using propensity-score matching, Woodworth, David, Guha, Wang, and Lopez-Torkos (2008) found that San Francisco KIPP schools had effect sizes ranging from .19 to .88 standard deviations in math and .16 to .68 standard deviations in reading. In 2010, Angrist, Dynarski, Kane, Pathak, and Walters used an experimental study design based on admission lotteries at one KIPP school and found statistically significant effect sizes of .35 standard deviations in math and .12 standard deviations in reading for each year spent at the school. Gleason, Tuttle, Gill, and Nichols-Barrer (2014) used a matched comparison group design to estimate impacts at 41 KIPP middle schools. The study found large cumulative impacts 3 years after 564215E PAXXX10.

Does Attending a Charter School Reduce the Likelihood of Being Placed Into Special Education? Evidence From Denver, Colorado

“…In fact, research on charter schools in New York City (New York City Independent Budget Office, 2015;Winters, 2013) and Denver (Winters, 2015b) found that students with disabilities are significantly less likely to exit their school if it is a charter than if it is a district school. NicholsBarrer, Gleason, Gill, and Tuttle (2016) found similar results in a national evaluation of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools.…”

Exploring school choice and the consequences for student racial segregation within Pennsylvania’s charter school transfers

“…Administrators used strategies such as creamskimming and targeted marketing as recruitment strategies (Jabbar, 2015a). Other work suggests a level of back-filling seats with high performers in the KIPP charter chain (Nichols-Barrer, Gleason, Gill, & Tuttle, 2016). Overall, strategies such as these have the potential to affect charter school racial composition if school leaders selectively recruit and enroll students who belong to particular racial or ethnic groups.…”

“No Excuses” charter schools for increasing math and literacy achievement in primary and secondary education: a systematic review

“…Third, students with exceptional needs such as English language learners, students with disabilities, or students with behaviour problems are often a smaller proportion of students attending all types of charter schools than traditional public schools (Lacireno‐Paquet et al, 2002; Miron et al, 2011; Nichols‐Barrer et al, 2016). Charter schools have been shown to initially enroll a lower percentage of students with disabilities than traditional public schools (Scott, 2012).…”

“…Finally, the available research on the rates of attrition of No Excuses charter schools indicates higher rates than traditional public school counterparts (e.g., Casey, 2016; Miron et al, 2011; Nichols‐Barrer et al, 2016). Although the studies in this review include RCTs, it is important to consider that lottery winners and losers who appear similar at the time the lotteries were held, subsequent attrition may lead to important differences in the follow‐up sample if the attrition process is nonrandom.…”