What’s in a slogan: A suggestion for KIPP charter schools
If 'Work Hard. Be Nice' isn't enough, here's a path forward
In the wake of famed charter school network KIPP’s decision to retire its “Work hard. Be nice.” slogan, some have pilloried the decision as evidence that the network is moving away from its origin as schools that will do all they can to ensure their students succeed and instead accepting a narrative that students from minority backgrounds can’t succeed given the barriers they face.
But as KIPP cofounder Dave Levin argued in the Wall Street Journal in response to the newspaper’s editorial criticizing the decision, quite the contrary. KIPP, he said, is simply acknowledging that if its students work hard and be nice, that may not be enough to succeed, and so they are seeking to revise the motto.
On balance, I think Levin’s point in the letter is right—although it’s notably different from the reasons KIPP cited when it retired the slogan.
In my latest piece for Forbes, I tackle the question of why KIPP retired the slogan with a nod to where I think the organization missed and where I think the organization should move from here. The underlying question I ask in the piece is when we boil it down, what does it mean to prepare students from disadvantaged backgrounds for life success? Can we capture that in a simple slogan?
Check out the piece to see where I landed—and the new slogan I recommend KIPP should adopt.
Class Disrupted
I suspect many of you were relieved to not read about learning pods or micro-schools in my opening—whereas others of you want an update on our own micro-school/home-schooling experience we started out in our backyard. I’ll have more to say in a future newsletter on the latter (spoiler alert: it’s amazing to watch the children have so much fun with each other and exude so much joy as they learn—and that doesn’t come without stress), but I do have a brief update on the growth of learning pods.
As Diane Tavenner and I bring back a new season of Class Disrupted, we tackled the question of whether pandemic pods will disrupt schools? Our answers and thought process may surprise you—along with our take on whether the charter school networks that have been most responsive to their students’ needs in the wake of Covid-19 offer a replicable template for the nation’s districts. Listen here.
Graduate school admissions
Finally, with many intently focused on the changes in admissions in undergraduate education—enrollment is down 2.5 percent compared to the fall, which isn’t as low as many thought it might be—Jeff Selingo and I turned our attention to graduate school admissions in the wake of Covid-19. There enrollment rose by 3.9 percent.
Selingo and I interviewed David Poole of the University of Miami College of Engineering and Jillian Baer of Liaison International on the latest episode of Future U to get the skinny on graduate admissions in 2020 and beyond.
As always, thanks for reading, listening and writing.