

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Paul Tough, KIPP, and the "Science" of Cultural Sterilization







  1. Thanks for sharing this, Jim. This brings to mind the "Educare" program begun by Warren Buffet's daughter. This program primarily raises the children of impoverished families, training them from birth the "right way" to be a laborer and not steal from social programs.

  2. Russ Ramsey5:05 PM

    C'mon guys. By claiming propaganda and a spin of the truth without looking at the actual text, you are making the same mistake both the Commercial Appeal author and the book review "excerpt" make. Tough never makes a claim about CPA and college rates. On Page 101 and 102, Tough talks about this increase in graduation rate from 2003 to 2005, don't say anything about it's source, and actually mentions it is projected to decline in 2007. At best, he infers that any changes are a result of the College Advisory Playbook, mentioned lower on page 102, but he did not make any claim about the effectiveness of character report cards, as your post suggests. Yes, the commercial appeal article and the "new books in brief" summary way overreached, but it is not because of Tough's writing.

    1. If the reader of Tough’s KIPP promotional book pays really close attention, he will see back on p. 95 that the information on the following pages (up through p. 104) is related to Tough’s visits to a KIPP school in 2011. Otherwise, there are no dates in the section, “Report Cards” (pp. 98-101), or the one that follows called “Climbing the Mountain” (pp. 101-104)to frame the character report card discussion. The proof is clear that readers of Tough’s book came to believe that there was a connection between character report cards and the increase in college graduation rates, which is an absurdity crafted as a talking point. I cannot say if readers were misled intentionally, but whether intentional or not, the effects were same: readers were misled. Even though Mr. Tough was in Memphis to promote his book/KIPP a couple of days later, I did not see anything in the Commercial Appeal from Mr. Tough or the “reporter,” Jane Roberts, to correct the error.

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