Posted on 10/15/2007 4:04:27 PM PDT by RDTF
It may be as quaint as the eat-right-and-exercise model of weight loss, but those are the very real pillars beneath the Knowledge Is Power Program, known as KIPP. It was developed in 1995 by two young, idealistic fourth-grade teachers in Houston. As members of the Teach for America corps, Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg landed in a barrio school and quickly had their grand aspirations beaten to a pulp by reality.
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Their ideal school day would run from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with classes held every other Saturday and for three weeks during the summer. A "KIPPster" spends 60 percent more time in class than a peer in a typical public school. And KIPPsters leave their nine-hour school day with another two hours of homework. "There's no such thing as a middle-school kid who gets off at 3 and says, 'Boy, I'm beat. I need a nap.'" Feinberg said. "They're going to be somewhere, doing something. So the question is, can we give them something productive, constructive and fun to do, versus just hanging out on the streets."
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(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
What the Hell is wrong with that? Parents have a responsibility to their children not to a school. The gall.
The reality is charter must accept all takers, even resorting to a lottery system for admissions. They mostly serve minority and Title I kids who are refugees from low performing public schools.
I wish the video link was the same report that they showed on the ABC news. These kids were not only well behaved and hard working, but they respect their teachers.
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