The Public School "Jewels" The Media Ignores

On Sunday, the Star-Ledger gave a big, fat, wet kiss to TEAM Academy Charter School, the Newark branch of the national KIPP charter chain. Before she even wrote the piece, Bruce Baker and I, in a series of emails, explained repeatedly to Julie O'Connor , the author of this piece, that KIPP/TEAM is a decent school but hardly a "jewel" worthy of the outsized praise she was heaping on them.

It didn't matter: O'Connor had it set in her head that KIPP/TEAM was freaking awesome, and pesky facts and data and logic were not going to keep her from writing her love sonnet.  In our exchange with O'Connor, it became abundantly clear that she was already in the tank, blithely regurgitating the talking points that KIPP/TEAM was feeding to her and ignoring everything we had to say.

But did it ever occur to O'Connor that there may be other schools in New Jersey -- both district schools and charters -- that shine just as brightly as KIPP/TEAM? 

In a sidebar to her piece, O'Connor presents some pre-digested evidence that KIPP/TEAM is so very special:

- Their elementary and high schools equal or outperform the average for the state of New Jersey, even though the students are much poorer. 

- They close the achievement gap and surpass national averages in reading and math by 8th grade.

- 88 percent receive free or reduced meals, a measure of poverty. In Newark district schools, it's 85 percent.

Is it true? Does KIPP/TEAM "outperform" the state average? Well...

Yes, KIPP/TEAM does beat the state average -- but only in two grades. Once we get to Grade 5, the advantage starts to go away, particularly in math. And as for its high school:

For all sorts of reasons, the SAT is a terrible assessment of school quality. But O'Connor keeps going on and on in her piece about KIPP/TEAM's high college attendance rate, so I say it's fair game for our purposes. And, no, KIPP/TEAM does not beat the state's average SAT score*, either combined or in any subcomponent. 

Does that mean KIPP/TEAM is a "bad" school? Far from it: meeting, let alone beating, the state average on any test when you enroll many students in economic disadvantage is a notable accomplishment. Of course, the real question is how KIPP/TEAM gets its scores, and whether high test scores by themselves are a worthy goal...

But let's save that debate for another time and instead ask a different question. Here's O'Connor:

Many people in New Jersey have no clue about this jewel in their midst. After decades of pouring huge sums of money into traditional urban schools, with mixed results, their skepticism is understandable. 

See, we're pouring "huge sums of money" (more on this later) into urban schools. But KIPP/TEAM -- and only KIPP/TEAM -- is getting the results that make it worthy of a big spread in the Sunday S-L.

But is KIPP/TEAM really that special?

By O'Connor's standard, a "jewel" need not get test scores above the state average in all grades and subjects; one or two grades should suffice. For our purposes, we'll say that a school has to beat the state average on at least one test: the NJASK (math or English language arts (ELA), Grades 3 to 8; science, Grade 4 or 8), the HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment), or the SAT.*

KIPP/TEAM's free or reduced-price lunch rate is 86 percent. That can vary a bit from year to year, however, so let's say this: any school where at least 75 percent of the students qualify for FRPL is in KIPP/TEAM's peer group for our comparison.

Here's the question: how many schools in New Jersey have at least three-quarters of their children in economic disadvantage, but still manage to beat the state average on at least one test?

Apparently, more than Julie O'Connor or the Star-Ledger have ever bothered to find:

District	School	FRPL Pct	Tested Over State Average (may be others)
ATLANTIC CITY	Chelsea Heights School	89%	Science_8
ATLANTIC CITY	Richmond Avenue School	92%	Math_6
CLIFFSIDE PARK BORO	School #3	79%	Math_5
CLIFFSIDE PARK BORO	School #5	75%	Math_3
GARFIELD CITY	ROOSEVELT SCHOOL #7	78%	Science_4
LODI BOROUGH	Roosevelt School	76%	Science_4
VINELAND CITY	Dane Barse Elementary School	79%	Science_4
VINELAND CITY	Max Leuchter	80%	Math_4
EAST ORANGE	Benjamin Banneker Academy	83%	Science_4
ESSEX CO VOC-TECH	Bloomfield Tech	83%	Math_HSPA
NEWARK CITY	SCIENCE PARK HIGH SCHOOL	80%	SAT_1550
NEWARK CITY	Technology High School	91%	Math_HSPA
NEWARK CITY	ANN STREET SCHOOL	80%	Science_8
NEWARK CITY	Newark Early College High School	78%	Science_8
NEWARK CITY	FIRST AVENUE SCHOOL	86%	Math_5
NEWARK CITY	LAFAYETTE STREET SCHOOL	86%	Math_8
NEWARK CITY	MT VERNON PLACE SCHOOL	79%	Math_6
NEWARK CITY	OLIVER STREET SCHOOL	87%	Math_3
NEWARK CITY	WILSON AVENUE SCHOOL	86%	Math_8
CITY OF ORANGE TWP	CLEVELAND STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL	86%	Math_3
WEST ORANGE TOWN	WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL	78%	Math_5
HOBOKEN CITY	Thomas G. Connors	88%	Math_3
JERSEY CITY	Infinity Institute	76%	SAT_1550
JERSEY CITY	Joseph H. Brensinger School	77%	Math_5
KEARNY TOWN	Washington Elementary School	81%	Math_3
NORTH BERGEN TWP	John F Kennedy Elementary School	79%	ELA_5
UNION CITY	Jefferson Elementary School	97%	Math_4
UNION CITY	Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School	98%	Math_3
UNION CITY	Veterans' Memorial Elementary School	93%	Math_3
UNION CITY	George Washington Elementary School	98%	Math_6
WEST NEW YORK TOWN	Public School Number One	86%	Math_6
WEST NEW YORK TOWN	Public School Number Two	80%	Math_6
WEST NEW YORK TOWN	Robert Menendez Elementary School	88%	Science_4
WEST NEW YORK TOWN	Albio Sires Elementary School	85%	Math_4
FREEHOLD BORO	Freehold Learning Center	78%	Math_3
DOVER TOWN	East Dover Elementary School	77%	Math_5
PASSAIC CITY	Mario Drago School # 3	84%	Math_3
PASSAIC CITY	Theodore Roosevelt School # 10	97%	Math_4
PASSAIC CITY	Daniel F. Ryan Elementary School # 19	93%	Math_5
PATERSON CITY	Alexander Hamilton Academy	92%	Math_3
PATERSON CITY	SCHOOL 1	82%	Science_4
PATERSON CITY	URBAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY	85%	Math_4
PATERSON CITY	SCHOOL 5	95%	Math_4
PATERSON CITY	CHARLES J RILEY SCHOOL 9	95%	Math_6
PATERSON CITY	SCHOOL 19	93%	Math_3
PATERSON CITY	SCHOOL 28	84%	Science_8
PATERSON CITY	ROBERTO CLEMENTE	97%	Science_4
PATERSON CITY	NORMAN S WEIR	82%	Science_4
ELIZABETH CITY	Elizabeth High School	76%	SAT_1550
ELIZABETH CITY	Terence C. Reilly School # 7	79%	Science_8
ELIZABETH CITY	Abraham Lincoln School No. 14	86%	Math_8
ELIZABETH CITY	Dr. Orlando Edreira Academy School No. 26	76%	Math_8
ELIZABETH CITY	Dr. Albert Einstein Academy School No. 29	84%	Math_6
ELIZABETH CITY	Ronald Reagan Academy School No. 30	87%	Math_7
ELIZABETH CITY	Dr. Antonia Pantoja School No. 27	84%	Math_8
PLAINFIELD CITY	Woodland Elementary School	87%	ELA_4
PHILLIPSBURG TOWN	ANDOVER MORRIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL	78%	Math_4
Foundation Academy CS	Foundation Academy Charter School	85%	Math_8
Camden's Pride Charter Schhol	Camden's Pride Charter School	91%	Math_3
Newark Legacy CS	Newark Legacy Charter School	86%	Science_4
Passaic Arts and Science CS	Passaic Arts and Science Charter School	84%	Math_5
Discovery CS	Discovery Charter School	97%	Science_8
International CS of Trenton	International Charter School of Trenton	92%	Math_4
New Horizons Comm. CS	New Horizons Community Charter School	96%	Math_4
North Star Acad. CS of Newark	North Star Academy Charter Schools of Newark	84%	SAT_1550
TEAM Academy Charter School	TEAM Academy Charter School	86%	Math_4
Queen City Academy CS	The Queen City Academy Charter School	80%	Science_8
Maria L. Varisco-Rogers CS	Maria Varisco Rogers Charter School	83%	Science_8
Village CS	The Village Charter School	81%	Math_6

69 schools in New Jersey tested above the state average on at least one assessment, even though at least 75% of their students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. And yet only KIPP/TEAM Academy was singled out by the Star-Ledger as a "jewel."

Now, I'm puzzled: there are plenty of other schools, both district and charter, that perform at least as well as TEAM/KIPP while serving many children in poverty. Why, then, does TEAM/KIPP get all this attention, while the others labor in obscurity?

KIPP New Jersey
Newark, NJ
Director of Marketing and Communications
Relevant Work Experience: 5+ years
Description: KIPP New Jersey is looking for a marketing and communications expert to help our network achieve its ultimate goals: hire the best teachers, run great schools and serve more students. The director of marketing and communication will develop the organization's marketing and communications strategy, plan and oversee marketing and communications projects and work to change the narrative about charters in our communities. The director of marketing and communication will develop, plan and deliver marketing content to meet the needs of all external facing departments - development, recruitment, enrollment and community relations - to improve and support KIPP NJ's marketing objectives. An ideal candidate will be skilled at understanding and accessing all of KIPP NJ's various audiences including public, parents, teachers, decision makers and other stakeholders.
Click to Apply [emphasis mine]

Thinking...

Julie, you and your boss at the Star-Ledger, Tom Moran, may consider this my gift to you. I have given you nearly 70 leads on schools that "beat the odds," even if they don't have full-time "Directors of Marketing & Communications."

Will you dare to follow up?

If there isn't a PR department, we aren't interested in your school...

* My SAT state averages are different than those reported by the state: the state's are higher, which disadvantages TEAM/KIPP even more. It may be a weighting issue, except the state doesn't weight its NJASK averages, so I don't know why they would weight SAT scores. In any case, by either measure, TEAM/KIPP does not beat the state average on the SAT.