Surely, KIPP children ( who are chosen by lottery) do **far** better when compared to children who were randomly not chosen in the lottery. Evidently, it is the methods being used by KIPP that are making the difference. It is certainly not the IQ of the children when both groups ( accepted or rejected) are chosen by lottery.
We need to begin the process of privatizing universal K-12 education so that the free market can begin to develop the educational practices that will yield the best achievement for **all** racial groups.
Have the study habits of the highest achieving children ( both institutionalized and homeschooled ) ever been thoroughly and carefully studied? Just exactly how much learning is really happening in the schools and how much is **really** being done due entirely to the child and parents’ efforts? Are these academically successful children really succeeding because they and their parents are actually homeschooling ( “afterschooling”)?
We need to know the answer to the above question because:
* If academically successful children are in essence being homeschooled by their parents and themselves then the existing system of government K-12 schools will **never** help children ( of any race and regardless of IQ) from disadvantaged families.
* If the greatest academic success achievable for a child's IQ is due to parental and the child's own teaching efforts in the home then institutional schools for children in disadvantaged families will need to somehow duplicate or substitute for what the children are not getting at home. KIPP by the way seems to be one answer. I believe that with a free market possibly other solutions would emerge.
I do believe that it is **insanity** to continue to apply the same government K-12 model of education to disadvantaged children that we are using today.
We do not honestly know if the existing system of government K-12 schools is even the most effective model for white middle class children in functional homes! It could be that white children in functional homes are succeeding **in spite** of their government k-12 imprisonment, not because of it. It could be that academically successful children are successful ( homeschooled and institutionalized) entirely due to their own and their parents “at home” efforts.
In a private market of education the best educational practices for chidlren of all ranges of IQ would emerge. In a private and free market system of education the best educational practices for helping children from dysadvantaged homes would emerge.
That said, when conservatives point to low achievement in schools in D.C. or Chicago and conclude that "public schools stink", I think they are being a bit disingenuous. They need to compare public schools with other schools with same demographic profile, as you have done. I don't think suburban schools are getting better results because they have better teaching methods but because they have better "raw material" to work with.