Many of the students who attend KIPP Cole College Prep, once considered among the state’s lowest-performing public school students, experienced an impressive turnaround last year despite some unsteady leadership to start the year.
Even though they still have a steep hill to climb, it appears a few more of them will finally have a steady foundation.
The school, formerly known as Cole Middle School, is something of a test case for other low-performing schools across Colorado. It was the first school shuttered by the state because of years of dismaltest scores and ordered to become a charter. The old Cole closed its doors in spring 2005, and within months KIPP Cole College Prep was up and running.
The quick turnaround caused some administrative problems – with two principals walking away within the first weeks – that rattled students, teachers and parents. But overall, the experiment has yielded some positive results.
In 2005, only 10 percent of Cole’s seventh-graders were proficient in reading. By 2006, 24 percent of Cole College Prep’s seventh-graders were proficient. In 2005, only 4 percent of Cole’s eighth-graders were proficient in math, compared to 18 percent this year. In 2005, only 3 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in writing. This year, 24 percent are proficient.
Those higher numbers were achieved despite the principal turnover, a higher student-to-teacher ratio and larger class sizes than Cole, and budget constraints, according to a new report from the Piton Foundation.
KIPP, which stands for Knowledge is Power Program, is a national organization founded by two Houston teachers in 1994. It has since expanded with mostly charter schools scattered across the country. (Some are magnet programs inside public schools.) KIPP typically operates by starting with a fifth grade and adding a grade each year through eighth grade. With Cole, KIPP agreed that it would serve students from the previous Cole Middle School. So last year CCP had 130 seventh- and eighth-graders, about 80 of whom were Cole students. This year, CCP has only eighth-graders and next year will start over with fifth grade.
KIPP operates differently than traditional public schools because the school days are longer and sometimes spill over into Saturdays and the summer. Teachers must make themselves available to answer questions after school and they all carry cellphones so students can call them at night to ask questions about homework.
Students and their parents must sign a commitment agreeing to the extra work, and commitments are posted in classrooms.
The Piton study found that most students didn’t like the longer school days, but they did feel more comfortable at the new school. They also liked their teachers, who work at CCP because they want to be there.
The eighth-grade-only operation at Cole will change next year to one that will take students from fifth grade all the way through middle school. That will provide the best test of Cole’s KIPP program. Early results are encouraging.
