The Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP, is a get-tough approach to education that’s been adopted by charter schools across the country. KIPP schools, which feature long days, limited vacation time and heavy homework loads, are touted as giving disadvantaged children a leg up on education. But figuring out what sort of results KIPP schools get has been less than clear cut, because while KIPP students often perform better than students at nearby schools, they may have an edge to start with.
Now a group of researchers has uncovered evidence that suggests KIPP really works.
A glowing profile of the KIPP program in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers,” offers hints at how hard it is to measure KIPP’s success. Gladwell tells the story of Marita, a student in the Bronx. She balked at how hard KIPP sounded when her mother took her to sign up, she says, “but then my mom was right there, so I signed it.” She talks about counseling a friend who showed an interest in KIPP “but then she would say that KIPP is too hard and she didn’t want to do it.”
Marita has a mother who’s keenly interested in her getting an education. And Marita, unlike her friend, is willing to take on the hard work. That’s a potent combination for getting a good education. Indeed, a 2005 report by the Economic Policy Institute found that KIPP students had more motivated parents and better test scores from the get go. Without a controlled study, it’s impossible to tell what advantage, if any, KIPP gives.
In an attempt to clear the air, economists Joshua Angrist, Parag Pathak and Christopher Walters, working alongside education professors Susan Dynarski and Thomas Kane, examined the KIPP school in Lynn, Mass.
Massachusetts law requires that when enrollment to a charter school is oversubscribed, a lottery be held for admittance. That allows the researchers to run a quasi-randomized trial, comparing students who won the lottery and got into KIPP Lynn with those who didn’t. And they find that attending KIPP leads to significantly better reading and math scores.
Of course, Lynn is just one of 80 KIPP schools now operating or slated to open soon. But because the KIPP program is standardized, say the researchers, “we might therefore expect similar gains and interactions to emerge from a larger sample of KIPP schools.”