Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America [Paperback]

Jay Mathews's book is a good story and description of the history and accomplishments of the KIPP schools. Among its strengths are the following:

1. It is a well-written and highly engaging book. The personal stories of KIPP's founders are interwoven with their battles with institutions in a manner that attracts and keeps the reader's attention.

2. The book includes some detailed stories of what goes on within KIPP schools. The book does a good job of describing key KIPP program elements that include longer school days and school years, more homework, more teacher home contact, along with an eclectic group of pedagogical techniques.

3. The book highlights the contribution to the KIPP model of teachers Harriett Ball and Rafe Esquith, who greatly influenced KIPP's founders.

4. The book is fair in discussing some criticisms of the KIPP model, including that it may select more motivated students and parents in some cases, and may lead to selective dropouts of students who do not progress as well.

Among its weaknesses are the following:

1. I was surprised that the book did not more extensively discuss WHY KIPP appears to be successful. To what extent can KIPP's effects on academic achievement simply be attributed to its students spending more time in school? It would be interesting to discuss this with KIPP teachers, students, and parents, and with educational researchers who have observed KIPP. There are empirical estimates available of how time in school affects achievement gains, and it might be interesting to see whether KIPP performs better or worse than one would expect given the increased time it implies in school.

2. The report did briefly discuss some of the empirical research on KIPP's outcomes. I thought that this empirical research deserved a lengthier review. I recognize that Mathews may have felt that such a review might not fit into his comparative advantage as a journalist, and might put off some readers. For those interested, Columbia Professor Jeffrey Henig has written a useful recent review entitled "What Do We Know About the Outcomes of KIPP Schools?" You can find this online for free easily by googling.

I read this book on a plane. It's a fascinating story, but could have used some serious editing, particularly with respect to chronology. There was too much jumping ahead and then rewinding, which was confusing, especially because the story moved between New York and Houston after the first several years and it was sometimes hard to keep straight which school we were reading about. I don't like the recreated dialogue convention -- obviously, no one was taking notes during all of these conversations and confrontations over more than a decade. And do all of the physical descriptions of the major players (other than the two teachers) really add to our understanding of this story? Do we really need to know when Feinberg and his wife-to-be began their physical relationship?
With regard to the small section devoted to empirical research, I believe that the author has too easily dismissed the observation that the students attending KIPP schools are not randomly selected. Although their family socioeconomic background may be identical to students who are languishing in nearby non-KIPP public schools, each of the KIPP students who perseveres in this program, and their parents or other relatives, has freely chosen to be there -- to do the extra work, to put in the extra time, and to push themselves. The relatively high dropout rate in some KIPP schools illustrates that this approach is not a panacea for all lower-income students, especially those non-immigrant students whose parents are so mired in their own dysfunction that they would never even consider a program like KIPP. (The differences the teachers noted between the Hispanic immigrant families in Houston and the mostly black families in New York was profound, and perhaps deserved more attention in the book.) And although Feinberg and Levin may not have wanted to make much of their gender, the fact remains that much of what they achieved was made possible, at least in the early years, by their being big guys who could deal with troublesome boys in a way that petite women usually cannot. For most fifth graders, a young and energetic male teacher is a novelty, and these teachers clearly made the most of it.
Having said that, I think that this book should be required reading for all inner-city teachers and, especially, administrators.

You can't be more biased than I am in writing this review: I am a lifelong friend and co-worker of the author's AND a believer in KIPP (I'm a board member of KIPP-DC).

That said: I think this is one of the most important books that will be published in 2009--and for all its importance, a lot of fun as well.

The book describes an amazing, but now widespread group of charter schools that produce what look like impossible results. They take thousands of inner-city public school students and help them turn into top-class academic performers. Here in Washington DC, the number one public middle school on standardized reading and math tests in 2008 wasn't the school in Georgetown or another upper-income neighborhood. It was a KIPP school across the Anacostia River.

Jay Mathews tells the story of KIPP back to its earliest days--back to two lost Teach for America teachers in Houston groping desperately for help in becoming successful teachers--and being wise enough to find it in a classroom across the hall. They learned, and they started a school. Only a few years later there are KIPP schools all across the country producing extraordinary results. The book is detailed, fascinating--and often, very funny.

You'll enjoy this book no matter who or where you are. But if you are at all interested in urban public education, you won't want to miss it.