LYNN — A nationwide study shows that the ideals behind The Knowledge is Power Program, the city’s only charter school, are having an impact on the way middle schoolers learn.
“I think it’s incredible,” said KIPP Academy Lynn’s Executive Director Caleb Dolan. “It validates what we see everyday.”
This is the second national study done on the school but researchers noted that this particular study cast a wider net. The study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, looked at 43 KIPP academies in 13 states and the District of Columbia. As of the 2012”“2013 school year, KIPP has 125 schools operating in 20 states and D.C. It included 30,000 students at least half from KIPP and half non-KIPP students.
According to researcher Brian Gill, students who attend KIPP’s middle school program saw their state standardized test scores, which in Lynn are MCAS, improve significantly during each of their four years.
Read a 2012 analysis of Lynn’s KIPP school
The test results show that three years after enrollment, the estimated impact of KIPP’s way of life on math achievement represents “11 months of additional learning over and above what the student would have learned in three years without KIPP.”
View photos of Lynn’s new KIPP Academy
There were similar results for reading, science and social studies that showed a representation of an additional eight months, 14 months and 11 months respectively, of growth over and above non-KIPP students.
Researcher Philip Gleason said there were two methodologies used to create the results. One used students who applied to KIPP at the same time as the KIPP testers but did not get in. The second group used students who matched students who did attend KIPP in age, demographics and other characteristics though they never applied to KIPP.
The second methodology allowed researchers to expand the study to include 43 schools, he explained.
Gill noted that the one area that showed no significant difference between KIPPsters and non-KIPPsters was attitude. Along with studying academics, surveys were also administered to students and parents by lottery, to try and access how KIPP affects behavior and attitudes toward school. While it showed that KIPP kids do more homework and have a longer school day than the average non-KIPP student, it also found that KIPPsters have no better attitude than their counterparts and in fact had an increased incidence of self-reported bad behavior such as losing their temper, arguing with or lying to parents and giving their teachers a hard time.
“To be honest, we’re not entirely sure what to make of that,” said Gill.
KIPP funded the study, which started in 2007, but Gill said when Mathematica agreed to the study it warned KIPP leaders that the company has a reputation for objectivity and rigor, and it would publish its results despite the outcome.
“A version of this report will be in an academic journal so there was also an external review process as well,” he said.
Dolan said there was nothing in the study that shocked him, rather it proves that what they are doing makes a difference in children’s lives. KIPP’s mission is to better educate low-income children and the study shows that they are.
Dolan also pointed out that Mathematica instituted its own random testing, Terra Nova, to all the school included in the study and students as well. It wasn’t a test kids could study for yet they excelled at that test as well.
“I think there is a misconception, people thought we were doing some type of drill and kill to get the outcome we do but that’s not happening,” he said. “To see this kind of academic progress is validating.”
Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].
