KIPP Middle Schools Found to Spur Learning Gains

Students’ gains in mathematics after three years in a charter school run by the Knowledge Is Power Program , or KIPP, are large enough in about half of schools to significantly narrow race- and income-based achievement gaps among students, according to a study of 22 KIPP middle schools nationwide.

The report , released today, is the first of a series focusing on the nationally known charter school network. Conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., of Princeton, N.J., the study was planned and commissioned by KIPP with grants from several private foundations. Plans are in the works for future reports to expand the sample to more KIPP charter schools, use randomized experimental research in a subset of schools, and look at measures other than state test scores.

“The consistency of the effects across most of the 22 schools and the magnitude of the effects are pretty striking and impressive,” said Brian P. Gill, a senior social scientist for Mathematica and an author of the study. “We do a lot of education studies, and often the effects are...