Charter Schools Make Gains On Tests

Charter schools must accept any student who applies, using a lottery if they have more applicants than spaces. That prevents the schools from cherry-picking applicants. But each school is free to set its own rules on expelling students.

Susan Schaeffler, who heads the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) charter schools in the District, said expulsions have not been a major factor. Almost all of the students at KIPP's three D.C. middle schools come from poor backgrounds, but the schools are among the highest-performing in the city. Within a decade, KIPP, a national charter network, plans to have 10 schools in the District, with a total of 3,400 students.

"Our success is not from moving kids out," she said, but is attributable to a highly unified school culture that teachers and students embrace.

Four days into the start of school this July, a teacher gave a hand signal to 80 fifth-graders waiting for lunch in the white cinder block cafeteria at KIPP KEY Academy in Southeast Washington. The students were already well drilled in the mind-set of their school, and the room immediately fell silent. The teacher began the call-and-response: "What room is this?"

Shouting at the top of their lungs, students and teachers belted out one of KIPP's signature rhythmic chants:

This is the room

That has the kids

Who want to learn

To read more books

To build a better tomorrow,

To build a better tomorrow.

The teacher responded quietly: "What year do you go to college?"