Coby's post is thought-provoking. At what point does despair negate the effect of incentives?
A small problem with Coby's analysis, though, is that schools cannot, on their own, buff out the dents. KIPP and its ilk work for lots of reasons, but it's safe to say that they wouldn't be nearly so successful without committed parents and students and staffs--advantages that most urban schools don't have.
What's more, when schools try to buff out the dents--try to do more than they're capable of doing, more than they're designed to do--they risk ignoring their most basic function, which is to teach kids.