It’s a familiar story: a gifted public school teacher comes up with a new way to motivate or teach students, only to be quashed by administrators who say the idea can’t be expanded. Did you know that’s what happened to the first Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) class? I’m not making this up:
The first year went well. They doubled the number of students passing the state tests. But they were denied permission to expand the program at Garcia.
KIPP is now one of the most successful charters out there, and it’s coming to St. Louis this year.
If this doesn’t make people reconsider teachers’ good ideas that don’t have research (yet) behind them, I don’t know what will.
