NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Metro School Board first questioned
whether KIPP Academy Nashville could improve student performance; now
district leaders say they can learn a lot from the charter organization.
"We have this spirit of constantly improving ourselves and
taking on challenges," KIPP Nashville Executive Director Randy Dowell
said. "We make a promise to our students to prepare them for college."
In
a meeting just last month, the School Board voted to deny the school's
application to open a new middle school serving the Whites Creek area.
"There's…a
little bit from year to year uneven performance," school board member
Mark North said. He raised concerns that some of KIPP's test scores in
2010 and 2011 were not on pace with the gains Metro students at
traditional schools were making which led to the denial.
After
appealing that decision, Tuesday night the school board approved KIPP's
plans to expand after receiving new information about students' test
scores.
According to Metro School leaders, preliminary TCAP data
shows students at KIPP Academy Nashville are improving faster than the
average Metro student. KIPP raised its students' science scores by
nearly 40 percent. Math scores jumped 33 percent in one school year.
"It's
important to see the strength of KIPP again this year in 2012,"
Executive Director of Metro's Innovation School Zone explained to the
school board. "(I) believe these results will satisfy concerns expressed
during the last meeting."
Not only are KIPP students outpacing
the average growth of Metro students in traditional schools, its single
year improvement in math may be the largest gains when compared to
schools all across the district.
Board member Mark North was the lone dissenting vote, citing concerns over inconsistencies from year to year.
"Yes
we have something to prove, but it really comes down to that promise to
kids," Dowell explained. "That's what drives us. That's what gets us
out of bed in the morning. That's what keeps us up late at night."
Now,
principals in the lowest achieving schools in Metro could be meeting
with KIPP leaders to learn how to duplicate that growth in their
schools.
