The Download: KIPP success a matter of degrees
By 
In the world of high-achieving urban charter schools, seeing graduates ultimately go on and finish college has always been the Holy Grail, the goal that school leaders say truly represents the ticket into the middle-class for students who have grown up in poverty. For the vast majority of students in this country who grow up in poverty – some 92 percent of them to be exact – the dream of a four-year degree will never be realized. All of this is what makes a new study of college graduation rates among those who attended KIPP charter schools so important.
KIPP, which runs 99 schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia, is by far the largest operator of charter schools in the country. Its model has in many ways become the template for other charters: rigorous academics, a longer school day, and a school culture that works to give students not only the academic skills needed in higher education but the “social intelligence” – coping strategies, character building, confidence, self-control, and grit – that is also a necessary ingredient in success. It all gets boiled down in KIPP’s motto: “Work hard. Be nice.”
KIPP, which was started in the mid-1990s and mainly operates middle schools, has now been in operation long enough for some assessment of how its earliest graduates have fared on the college-completion benchmark. In the new study, among those students who had completed a KIPP middle school program 10 or more years earlier, 33 percent had graduated from a four-year college.
Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Because KIPP has set a goal of having 75 percent of its student reach the four-year-degree milestone, school leaders say they are focused on what they can do to dramatically ratchet up college completion rates among former KIPP students. But the 33 percent college graduation rate actually puts KIPP graduates slightly ahead of the cohort of all Americans, aged 25 to 29, among whom 30.6 percent have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. What’s more, 95 percent of KIPP students are black or Latino and more than 85 percent are from low-income households, groups that sit at the bottom end of the achievement gap. Among students nationally from this demographic, just 8 percent end up receiving a four-year college degree.
–MICHAEL JONAS
NATIONAL/WORLD AFFAIRS
Here’s the main Globe story on the killing of Osama bin Laden. And the reaction on Boston’s streets. The Outraged Liberal says “savor the moment” because he suspects terrorists are plotting revenge and conservatives will find fault with President Obama by about lunch time. The Washington Post provides comprehensive coverage and explains what the death means for the inside-the-Beltway scene. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Bill Clinton comment. Reaction from several Republican presidential contenders here, courtesy of Political Wire.
The National Review has a paean to the potato in response to a government panel trying to blacklist the spud for food subsidy programs and school lunches.
Rep. Niki Tsongas launches an effort to keep her district intact.
Sen. Mark Warner’s gang of six could unveil its deficit-reduction plan this week. The plan is based on automatic debt-reducing mechanisms — an idea there’s widespread support for in Washington, so long as it comes in the absence of any specifics.
Former Bush official Jed Babbin writes in the American Spectator that Obama’s plan to force government vendors to disclose political contributions as a counter to the Supreme Court ruling will do more to corrupt the system than anonymous donations.
BEACON HILL
Rep. Brian Dempsey, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, inserted $2.4 million in special aid for Haverhill into the House’s spending proposal, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
The MetroWest Daily News suggests that there is more to a state proposal to regulate auto repair operations than meets the eye.
Several senators tell the Lowell Sun that they want to preserve collective bargaining rights of public sector unions on health care issues.
The Governor’s Council embarrasses itself as two members press Appeals Court Judge Barbara Lenk, the Supreme Judicial Court nominee, on “gay issues,” according to The Berkshire Eagle.
The Globe editorial page weighs in against gag orders connected to severance packages for state employees: “It’s time to let the public know what’s behind these deals, and how its money is being spent.”
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The MWRA says it will sue several companies that the authority says bear responsibility for last year’s massive water main break, the Globe reports.
The Fall River Redevelopment Authority has had to borrow $500,000 to cover costs, including $100,000 for legal fees to defend against suits in its short-lived efforts to build a casino at an industrial park that’s now pegged for biotech.
Antonio Arevalo claims he was assaulted because of his criticism of Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Arlington gets set to debate a $6.5 million override proposal; the vote is June 7.
A selectman’s race in West Newbury gets heated, with Rep. Harriett Stanley and Inspector General Gregory Sullivan in the thick of it.
ELECTION 2012
Republican officials and activists are trying to widen the pool of presidential contenders, including an effort to draft Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow and Tom Keane go toe-to-toe in dueling columns in Sunday’s Globe on whether Cambridge’s Kendall Square or Boston’s Kenmore Square is the better model for urban development.
Rental bookings on Cape Cod and the Islands are up over last year by many indicators, a sign that either the economy is on the rebound or people just want to get away and fuggeddaboutit.
EDUCATION
The Lowell Sun, in an editorial, says many other tools beyond MCAS scores should be used to measure teacher effectiveness.
Nearly one-quarter of Massachusetts school buildings are larger than needed for current and projected enrollments, according to a new report from the state agency that helps districts with school construction.
Former state rep John Quinn, who left the Legislature for an unsuccessful run for Bristol County sheriff, lands a job at UMass Dartmouth.
TRANSPORTATION
Connecticut Democrats agree to strip a 3-cent increase in the state’s gasoline tax out of their budget proposal and instead push for $2 billion in labor savings, according to an AP story on NECN. The move comes as the Patrick administration in Massachusetts looks for ways to raise revenues for transportation projects.
The MBTA takes aim at … baby strollers.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The Cape Cod Times calls for compromise on fishing regulations and supports federal FRAC Act legislation, which would regulate how oil and natural gas is extracted.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
An unprecedented experiment by WBUR in live streaming court proceedings funded by a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation starts today in Quincy District Court. Anyone with an Internet connection can watch the proceedings live on the OpenCourt site.
A Shirley prison escapee was caught in Springfield shootout, the Lowell Sun reports.
MEDIA
Former Boston Globe Publisher William O. Taylor, who sold the newspaper to the New York Times in 1993, died of a brain tumor last night.
MISCELLANEOUS
A national drug take-back program that allows people to dispose unused prescriptions medications resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars of drugs being collected in nine Norfolk County communities, according to District Attorney Michael Morrissey.