KIPP Parkside Charter School

By Ken Derstine

KIPP Parkside Summary Questions

All page numbers refer to the KIPP Parkside Charter School Application. Click on KIPP Parkside in the 2016-2017 Cycle New Charter Applications to see the application.

1. Catchment area and public schools affected.

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Target Community

“KIPP’s commitment is to go where it is needed most. The four schools in the existing KIPP Philadelphia Schools network are intentionally located in high need neighborhoods based on income demographics, school performance data, and graduation rates of the adult population.

The proposed school will be located at 5070 Parkside Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19131 in West Philadelphia and will serve as the foundation for a K-12 feeder pattern for children residing in the neighborhood, as it is our intention that students who promote from KIPP Parkside are able to matriculate to KIPP DuBois Charter School. Students residing in the 19139 and 19131 zip codes will benefit from focused recruitment efforts by the proposed school.”

KIPP Parkside intends to target students from the same population as the following District schools: Dimner Beeber Middle School. Rudolph Blankenburg Elementary, Samuel Gompers Elementary, Edward Heston Elementary, Andrew Hamilton Elementary,  Henry C. Lea Elementary, Alain Locke Elementary, James Rhodes Elementary and Middle Years Alternative.

KIPP enrollment projection

Concerns: KIPP schools in Philadelphia are not doing well academically. Their Achievement totals on the 2014-15 School Progress Reports (SPR) are in the Intervention Level, the bottom tier of four levels. According to the District website, “The Achievement domain measures performance on standardized assessment, including PSSA, Keystone Exams, ACCESS for ELLs, and reading assessments.”

The latest School Performance Ratings for KIPP charters in Philadelphia.

KIPP Philadelphia  Overall                   INTERVENE 22%

Achievement          INTERVENE 10%

Progress                    INTERVENE 0%

Climate                   REINFORCE 59%

 

KIPP West Prep    Overall                    WATCH 47%

Achievement                        INTERVENE 15%

Progress                                  REINFORCE 54%

Climate                                   REINFORCE 70%

 

KIPP DuBois HS:    Overall                    WATCH 27%

Achievement          INTERVENE 7%

Progress                   INTERVENE 21%

Climate                   REINFORCE 59%

2. Philosophy and curriculum

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“The proposed school’s mission is to develop the character, knowledge, and skills of our students so they will succeed in college, giving them the freedom to shape their futures and positively affect their communities.”

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Academic Plan

“At every grade level, the proposed school prioritizes a two-pronged approach to educating children: (1) Academics and (2) Character. Our goal at KIPP is for all students to go to and through college and at KIPP in Philadelphia and nationwide across KIPP’s network of over 200 schools, the results are clear that this approach is working. Every decision we make about what we teach our students and how we teach that content reflects the goal that they will graduate from college. From Kindergarten through 12th grade, our college-preparatory focus drives decisions about course offerings, staff hiring, family communications, and community partnerships – anything that affects KIPPsters’ preparedness for college success.”

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“Our vision is to create a network of schools providing high-quality primary and secondary education in Philadelphia to over 4,400 students.”

Concerns: The application states that “the results are clear that this approach is working.” Where is the documentation to verify this allegation? Their 2014-15 SPR shows no such evidence and they provide none in this application. When examining KIPP’S Climate scores, consider that they are a “No Excuses” School that places heavy emphasis on compliance to authority.

 

 What does KIPP mean by Character Education? KIPP appears to assume that their students are deficient in character.  KIPP is a “No Excuses” charter school  that expects the same from every student – high academic achievement and compliant behavior.

KIPP’s primary focus is on preparing students for college; however, KIPP failed to supply information on the percentage of KIPP students from their existing Philadelphia schools who have graduated from college. 

What about students who do not want to attend college? Is there a vocational program to support skills necessary for jobs in plumbing, auto repair, or carpentry? What other options are available for those  students?

3. Founding Members, their backgrounds and/or connections

Applicant Capacity

“The founding coalition is made up of the Board of Trustees of the proposed school, the regional leadership of KASC (KIPP Administrative Services Corporation), as well as a core group of parents/guardians of current students enrolled in various grades and various schools within the KIPP Philadelphia schools network. This group came together at various points over the past twelve years, bringing together their technical and creative expertise in their professional backgrounds, as well as a wide network of resources to draw from while the proposed school was in its planning phase. The parents in our schools, in particular those serving on the founding coalition, have been actively involved in their children’s KIPP school, and have been integral to the development of the design of the proposed school.”

Members of Founding Coalition  ***[ARE THEY THE SAME AS THE BOARD?]

Board of Trustees for Proposed School: Steve Casper, Nancy Scharff, David Reuter (additional board members to be recruited after charter has been awarded.)

KASC – Leadership Team: Marc Mannella (CEO of KIPP Philadelphia’s schools), Natalie Wiltshire, Lydia Glassie

Parents, Community Members, and Others: Natasha Boston*, Gwen Coleman*, Wydia Simmons*, Toya Algarin*, Salma Khan, Nicole Livingston, Desiree Perry, Lango Ricks, Shamon Rollins, Latisha Arch, Heather Brown, Jaime Coates, and Rhona Austin.

See Attachment for resumes of each member of the founding coalition.”

[NB: APPS has submitted a Right to Know Request  to the School District for the Attachments.]

4. Board Members, their backgrounds and/or connections

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Board Creation/Transition

“The incorporator of the charter corporation is KIPP Administrative Services Corp (KASC). At the behest of the School District of Philadelphia, KIPP Philadelphia Schools created the KASC entity to house the back-office support function of Charter Management services.  The KASC Board is separate and independent from our school boards. Should this charter application be approved and a charter agreement executed, the applicant will transition leadership to the School Board.”

Overview

“The proposed school will be governed by a Board of Trustees. Board officers will include a President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Committees will be formed as described below. The Board will support the Chief Executive Officer in carrying out the mission and vision of the charter by setting guiding principles and policies, delegating responsibility for enacting the principles and policies to staff, monitoring compliance, and holding staff accountable. The board and each committee will set annual goals that are aligned with the school’s mission.

The board’s governance structure is aligned with the school’s mission and goals, because the board’s main goal is to ensure that the school achieves its stated mission. The Board of Trustees will include at least one current parent of the charter school to ensure that the parent perspective is considered in all board deliberations and actions. The Board will include individuals with education experience to help ensure that the board has the context to make education policy decisions on behalf of the school. The Board will also include members with legal and financial skill sets to ensure compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

The proposed charter will have identical membership with the existing charters in the KIPP Philadelphia network, which is separate and distinct from the KASC Board.  The School Board will alternate meetings at school sites, with meetings being held separately and in sequence. Please note: the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws may be amended with the consent of the Sole Member and by the majority vote of the Board of Trustees. Thus, the KIPP Foundation cannot act unilaterally or without regard for the governing body of the Charter School.”

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Potential Board Members

“The individuals currently serving on the board of directors are Steven Casper, Nancy Scharff, and David Reuter. The following individuals are additional proposed members of the board of trustees: Tonya Algarin, Rick Knowles, Mike Wang, Gwen Coleman, Natasha Boston, Gina Moore, Al Jordan, Samantha Wilson, Alisa Field, and Wydia Simmons.

These individuals possess skills in education (K-12, special education, and higher education), law, finance, and real estate. In addition, they collectively have relevant experience governing high achieving charter schools that are in a growth phase. The board will always include at least one KIPP parent as a voting board member. See Attachment 21 for resumes.) Please note additional board members are being recruited.”

Concerns:  The potential board members already serve on the KIPP Comprehensive Board of Trustees.  It appears that the Comprehensive Board of Trustees functions as the Board for all KIPP schools.  

5. Means of outreach

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Outreach Strategy

“Once the school is approved, we will recruit for students the same way we do at our existing schools, with one additional inclusion – the use of mass media. We will canvas the neighborhood surrounding our schools with flyers and invitations to information sessions; teachers, parents and students will walk around the neighborhood with enrollment forms that are easy to complete right on the spot; and we will stand outside popular neighborhood venues like supermarkets and churches all to ensure we are so omnipresent that every parent in the neighborhood knows about our school, knows it is open-enrollment, and knows how easy it is to enter the lottery. Finally, this year KIPP Philadelphia is working with iHeart Media and WDAS FM to promote our enrollment period and lottery for interested families in Philadelphia…We have also been fortunate to partner with our elected officials who always help disseminate our enrollment forms through their constituent services offices. We also intend to continue partnering with Educational Opportunities for Families to recruit new students.”

Concerns:  In the application (p.51) KIPP claims that there are few high-performing schools in the Parkside neighborhood.  KIPP also claims to have a waiting list of  3,700 students.  If the waiting list is so large, and KIPP is an open enrollment school, why are they putting so much money and effort into recruitment?  Surely students from the Parkside neighborhood would be on the waiting list if there are, as KIPP suggests, so few high-performing schools in their neighborhood.  Why is KIPP spending time and money that  could be spent in the classroom on recruitment when they already have such a large waiting list?

6. Means of teacher and leadership recruitment

Page 36, 37 (Boldface added)

Recruitment of Teaching Staff

Terms of Employment

“The terms of employment for all employees is “at-will” meaning that either the employee or the school may end the employment relationship at any time, with or without notice, with or without cause. No one at the school, other than with the express written consent of the school leader/principal or, in the case of KASC, the Chief Executive Officer, may enter into any agreement for employment for a specific period of time.”

Hiring Process

“The selection/hiring process includes an online application, a phone and/or video interview, a video demonstration lesson, an in person demonstration lesson, and a final interview. The recruitment team manages the selection process for applicants and conduct the initial application screen, the phone/video interview, as well as the video demonstration lesson screen. From there, the recruitment team will make the recommendation to the School Leader to move the applicant to the final stage of the selection process. Based on the applicant’s overall performance on each of the selection stages, the school leader decides whether to extend an offer to an applicant.

For all other non-teaching positions at both the school and CMO levels, a similar selection process is followed that includes an application, a phone and/or video interview, a performance based task, and a final interview.

All teaching applicants are evaluated on the following competencies during the selection/hiring process: love, cultural responsiveness, grit, team-oriented, results-oriented, mission alignment, professionalism, instructional excellence, organization, and classroom management.”

Concerns:  KIPP claims to evaluate teachers on love and grit, but does not say how they are measurable attributes. What tools are used to do this? What are the rates of teacher retention when they are “at-will” employees and can be terminated “with or without cause”?  There seems to be a rigorous amount of evaluation that goes into hiring teachers. Is there a similar effort around termination? How does this create a stable workforce if there is no defined procedure for resolution of disputes included within this description of teacher recruitment?

7. Red flags/concerns

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“The second prong of our approach is our focus on character development. From the very beginning, KIPP schools are grounded in the belief that strength of character is as important as academic achievement. Our schools are guided by the idea that explicitly teaching character education and integrating it into lessons will help students develop the character strengths they will need on their journey to and through college. Rooted in the research of Dr. Martin Seligman (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Chris Peterson (University of Michigan), and building off the pioneering work of Dr. Angela Duckworth (University of Pennsylvania) and the KIPP schools in New York, KIPP Philadelphia uses common language and specific lessons to help our students develop strengths like social intelligence, grit, and curiosity that have been shown to lead to success in life.”

Concerns:  KIPP assumes that children need “character development”. They have built this element based on the works of Dr. Angela Duckworth  who has recently backed away from her emphasis on “grit” and Dr. Martin Seligman who has been criticized for “shaping CIA interrogation techniques during the years of Bush II”.

8. Management

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Section 7: Board of Trustees

Board Creation/Transition

“The incorporator of the charter corporation is KIPP Administrative Services Corp (KASC). At the behest of the School District of Philadelphia, KIPP Philadelphia Schools created the KASC entity to house the back-office support function of Charter Management services.  The KASC Board is separate and independent from our school boards. Should this charter application be approved and a charter agreement executed, the applicant will transition leadership to the School Board.

The proposed charter will have identical membership with the existing charters in the KIPP Philadelphia network, which is separate and distinct from the KASC Board.  The School Board will alternate meetings at school sites, with meetings being held separately and in sequence. Please note: the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws may be amended with the consent of the Sole Member and by the majority vote of the Board of Trustees. Thus, the KIPP Foundation cannot act unilaterally or without regard for the governing body of the Charter School.”

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Board’s Relationship with the Proposed School
“The CEO of the proposed school will report to the board. The CEO works with the Executive Committee and the Board President and/or Vice President to prepare the agenda for each board meeting. The CEO also works hand-in-hand with the Chair of each Board Committee as they prepare annual committee goals and with the Board Chair as the overall annual board, goals are being prepared. Key members of the school’s administration may participate in board committee calls/meetings, and also may be asked to present information to the full board to inform high level conversation and the decisions at quarterly board meetings.

Because KIPP’s board is what is known as a “policy” board, they will make an effort not to micromanage. Thus, a board member will not give direction to teaching staff, students, or parents. That is the role of School Leaders and staff. However, board members often choose to be involved with students as volunteers, for example mentoring a student, reading to a Kindergartener, participating in mock interviews or reviewing college essays. Board members may choose to interact with staff, students, and parents by participating in events such as school concerts, art shows, science fairs, promotion or commencement exercises, or our annual Pennant Ceremony. Board members with a background in education may share resources directly with teachers or school leaders. Board members are encouraged to serve as ambassadors by reaching out to the community and sharing KIPP’s story and inviting individuals and institutions to come see KIPP in action and learn more.”

Concerns:  KIPP has created its own school district parallel to the School District of Philadelphia. While they have four schools now, KIPP intends to have ten schools by 2019.  

The KIPP COM (KIPP Administrative Services Corp.)  will receive 12% of revenues for managing the school (pg 60). According to this application, “The proposed charter will have identical membership with the existing charters in the KIPP Philadelphia network, which is separate and distinct from the KASC Board.” How will parents at this school have a voice if KIPP Parkside does not have its own separate board that includes parents with students enrolled in this location?