Mike makes good points about Thompson's article. But modesty about the lengths to which the KIPP/Amistad/SEED models can be stretched is warranted. District public schools should copy many of the "no excuses" methods at work in high-achieving charter schools, but KIPP and its ilk have luxuries that district schools do not; for example, they can easily expel students who don't subscribe to their academically demanding, disciplined philosophies.
And let us not get carried away with the paternalism idea. Mike writes:
The KIPPs and the Amistads and the Cristo Reys take in loco parentis to an extreme, intervening in all corners of their students' lives if that's what it takes. We need inner-city schools to be more paternalistic, not less.
This type of??talk should, and will, make lots of people uncomfortable.
Tags:
KIPP