David Levin and Mike Feinberg, co-founders of the KIPP schools, were not the first to conclude that education was key to lifting the next generation out of poverty. But they were among the first to discover and implement an educational formula that seemed to work for at-risk children: long school days, rigorous discipline, carefully selected teachers, and “no excuses.” Since 95 percent of KIPP students are African-American or Hispanic, some admirers even wondered whether the founders were creating a model for radically closing the racial achievement gap.
KIPP’s new report on its college outcomes, released in April, is a long way from dashing these hopes, but it does temper them.
