"No excuses" charters that relaxed discipline rules and expectations in the name of "anti-racism" saw achievement fall sharply, reports Vince Bielski on Real Clear Investigations.
KIPP, the biggest charter network in the country with 275 schools, "buckled under the pressure from progressive staffers, alums, and advocates to drop their No Excuses practices," he writes. In 2020, co-founder David Levin issued apologized in a public letter for discipline practices that “perpetuated white supremacy and anti-Blackness.”
KIPP dropped “Work Hard, Be Nice” as its slogan, because critics said it bolstered "a myth that hard work leads to success even in the face of racism."
KIPP DC had been an "academic powerhouse," outperforming district-run schools in math and English, writes Bielski. Last year, KIPP DC trailed far behind the district, with only 13% proficiency in math and 18% in English.
Anaka Osborne, who is black and Filipino, quit as a teacher when standards were lowered. “Students were making minimal effort and were passed along,” she said.
“When schools lower the bar for black and Latino students, that in itself is racist.”
Achievement First, a network of 41 schools in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, "outperformed the public schools in their three states by double-digit margins" in 2019, writes Bielski.
But the network adopted an anti-racist agenda, and decided test scores would be a lower priority than social and emotional learning. Scores plunged.
Network leaders replaced the discipline system with "restorative justice" practices, a former senior leader said. “Students can basically do whatever they want, and nothing really happens to them,” said the source, who resigned because he opposed the changes. “The less experienced teachers have seen their classrooms descend into chaos.”
“Well-intended educators embraced a lot of antiracist practices that don’t work,” says Sue Walsh, a former school leader turned consultant. “And a goodly number of them are rethinking those moves and coming back to No Excuses.”
Some charter networks have stuck with No Excuses, but "evolved," writes Bielski.
Ascend Learning took to heart criticisms that no-excuses students aren't prepared to be independent learners in college, its former CEO Steven Wilson said. The network made changes to give students more “agency and voice,” relaxing supervision starting in middle school but keeping high expectations.
In Columbus, Ohio, three United charters outperformed the public schools in their neighborhood on state tests by at least 20 percentage points, an enormous gap," in 2019, writes Bielski. Despite "tough pandemic times, two of the United schools widened their lead" by 2023.
“We outscored them because we work hard and stuck with our mission of high expectations even though it is not super popular,” says Diana Wakim, chief advancement officer at United.
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