In the first lines I wrote:

“Before they (KIPP) opened, I was recruited by their principal-elect…”

It should say:

Their principal-elect tried to recruit me…” I did NOT want to work for them. I reported their agressive headhunting tactics to our district administrators.

Also, I said that 3 KIPP dropouts were later added to my roster. I might be wrong on this now that I think about it; it may have only been 2 students. I can’t remember if the third student came from KIPP or another private school. I think he came from KIPP, but now I can’t remember… At any rate it was definitely 2.

During the summer I would often take my laptop to the coffee shop to work on the next year’s curriculum. One morning he was meeting with a handfull of parents who had expressed interest in enrolling their kids in KIPP. He and I had never met or seen each other, and he had no idea I was sitting at the table next to him. I could easily overhear his smooth salesmanship with these parents and how he was denegrating publics schools (and by inference denegrating my own school). It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut and not defend myself. He was quick to play on these parents’ fears about middle school, which was coming up for their kids after the next school year. After I left I kicked myself in the butt for having remained silent the way I did.

But the story continues: that September KIPP opened their first school in our district. Lo and behold I later had 3 KIPP dropouts added to my class roster midyear only months before state testing! These kids did not perform well on the state test, and I’m sure that I got credit for their poor performance! I was soooo totally p!ssed!

I don’t know if other teachers at nearby schools had the same thing happen to them… it would seem likely there must have been other dropouts besides those who came to me… but I don’t know.

So, did KIPP turn up the heat and purge these non-conforming, low-performing students the months before testing in order to boost their own scores? (And believe me, they were indeed non-conforming and low performing!)

I would love to see how well KIPP would perform if kids couldn’t whine and complain their way back into public school, which MUST by law put up with (and educate!) them.

I’ve been wondering about that for some time and haven’t been able to find it on KIPP’s website.

As far as “teachers who will do whatever it takes to see their students graduate from college,” you write that as if the teachers potentially losing their jobs are not currently doing so. That’s a faulty generalization. KIPP just takes a different approach that works for the narrow band of students they serve.

Glad to hear it was approved. Unanimously, though? That’s shocking. I’m curious who this is. Since you know where I am, can you email me? I won’t announce who you are, I’d just like to know.