At the end of April, Secretary Duncan gave a compelling speech at KIPP's annual meeting.
His central message was that we need to raise our expectations and demand that all high-poverty schools achieve at the same levels as standouts like KIPP, YES, and other high-performing charter management organizations. He also denounced the poverty-is-destiny mentality, praised charter replications, and spoke about the importance of quality teacher preparation programs.?The first 80 percent of the speech deserves praise. Give it a look.
Unfortunately, Duncan ended with a plea that KIPP and other CMOs join the turnaround craze. He acknowledged that the KIPP model of new starts is ?extraordinary,? but nevertheless encouraged them to change that model.
So KIPP, please: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
In pushing turnarounds, the secretary played on KIPP's (and other reformers') larger goal of changing the ?entire education system.? In my opinion, that reflects the essential flaw in Duncan's reasoning.
Starting small new schools that can build a culture of excellence and then grow to serve more and more students in a sustainable way?is the way?to change the entire system. No one ever said that the broken schools of yesterday need to be the schools of tomorrow. They can and should be replaced.
The turnaround mindset is a vestige of the failed urban school district of the past, one that mistakenly taught us that kids must be zoned into a school based on their home address, that failing schools should exist in perpetuity, and that a central entity must own and operate all of an area's public schools.
Our single goal should be getting as many kids in great schools as possible. The way to maximize this number today and into the future is to put our best adults in the best opportunities not the toughest circumstances.?That means new schools, not turnarounds.
So KIPP, please: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Keep starting new schools and preparing unprecedented numbers of disadvantaged kids of college.
?Andy Smarick