In case you were swept up in last week's anti-charter uproar, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post help provide some balance to the debate by highlighting the achievements of two charter school success stories - Edison Schools and the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). According to the Journal, since the state takeover of the Philadelphia School District two years ago, the district has posted "double-digit gains in reading and math proficiency, [and] a tripling of the number of schools meeting federal No Child Left Behind standards." And, within those results, the gains "posted by the newer models of schools - for-profits, nonprofits, university-run, and so on - are particularly impressive." Leading the pack of institutions running six or more schools, Edison schools boasted "the biggest increase in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above and the biggest decrease in the percentage scoring 'below basic.'" In the Post, education columnist Jay Mathews highlights the success that KIPP has had in boosting academic achievement for students in some of the nation's most beleaguered districts. According to Mathews' report, KIPP founders Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg have created charter schools that are a model "that all other attempts to close the achievement gap between rich and poor students must measure themselves against."
"School of hard choices," by Jay Mathews, Washington Post, August 24, 2004
"Edison discovery," Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2004