Baltimore Charter Scores Big

Ujima KIPP Academy in Baltimroeachieved some spectacular scores in the most recent round of testing.

A small charter school serving poor children in Northwest Baltimore has transformed their academic careers, turning low performers into some of the city's highest scorers on reading and math tests while their peers in neighboring schools have continued to lag behind, according to a new study.

Of students who started at KIPP Ujima Village Academy in fifth grade in 2002 and stayed for four years, 100 percent passed the state's eighth-grade math test, compared with 19 percent in the control group, a Johns Hopkins University education researcher found.

But translating the methods and successes of KIPP to other middle schools in the city probably would be challenging and costly, lead author Martha Mac Iver concluded.

Mac Iver is correct, some of KIPP's methodology may not translate well to a larger school district without some massive changes in traditional public education. So what is the secret--highly qualified teachers, more time on task and a much more disciplined school environment. While a traditional public school system may be able to achieve one or two of these factors, achieving all three has been elusive because doing so means changing teacher contracts or altering discipline standards.

I believe that over time, the teachers' unions are going to come around to changes in their work rules, out of public pressure if nothing else. But right now, too many kids and their parents believe they are entitled to act up and act out in class because it is their personal rights. However, until the courts begin enforcing the rights of the rest of the class above the rights of an indvidual student, you will continue to see teachers and administrators with their hands tied when dealing with kids who lack discipline.

At KIPP, while they are forced to admit anyone who applies, by lottery if necessary, they are not required to keep discipline cases. By enforcing a disciplined environment, the learning of the class takes precedence over the whims of the individual student--that is what leads to success.