The Washington Post – Jay Mathews
“When Kristy Ochs became principal of the KIPP DC AIM Academy six years ago, she started at 7 a.m. and didn’t leave the Southeast Washington school until 8 p.m. Having taught at the public charter school since it began, she felt, as other staffers did, that her mostly low-income students’ impressive achievement levels — 30 percentage points above the city average in math and nearly 20 points above the average in reading — were worth the personal sacrifices. When such KIPP results nationwide began to draw attention, critics predicted the network’s principals and teachers would burn out from pressure and fatigue. KIPP leaders had the same concern. Four years ago, a working group led by KIPP network co-founder Dave Levin, in partnership with organizational psychologist David Maxfield, began to overhaul how KIPP principals operated. This led school leaders such as Ochs to shorten their hours, take less work home and delegate some duties to new staff members.”(more)