Understanding the Effect of KIPP as It Scales: Volume II, Leadership Practices at KIPP. Final Report of KIPP&apos;s Investing in Innovation Grant Evaluation
Author: Knechtel, Virginia
Date: 2015-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Charter Schools,Scaling,Leadership,Program Evaluation,Grants,Access to Education,Educational Finance,Educational Development,Elementary Secondary Education,Principals,Leadership Training,Administrator Surveys,Leadership Responsibility,Performance Factors,Personnel Selection,Administrators,Assistant Principals,Deans,Case Studies,Middle Schools,Semi Structured Interviews,Multivariate Analysis

The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools' consistently positive impacts on student achievement (detailed in Volume I of this report) have prompted efforts to scale up the KIPP model to serve more students. According to the KIPP model, highly qualified and autonomous principals, supported by national and regional staff, drive the success of individual KIPP schools. In 2010, KIPP identified a shortage of leaders ready to become principals as the single greatest constraint to its capacity to expand its network of schools while maintaining existing quality levels. In the same year, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the KIPP Foundation a five-year $50 million Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up grant. The KIPP network planned to use the grant to fund 10 activities, each designed to expand and improve the pipeline of KIPP-trained leaders in order to expedite the opening of new KIPP elementary, middle, and high schools. Using funds from the grant, the KIPP network grew from 97 schools in the 2010-2011 school year to 162 schools in the 2014-2015 school year, necessitating the appointment of new principals to lead the new schools. At the same time, principal transitions at existing schools created additional demand for highly qualified principals. Given that principals at new and existing KIPP schools typically advance from the ranks of more junior leaders--those in leadership roles other than the principal position--the demand for new principals created a parallel demand for staff with the training and experience required to take on more junior leadership roles. To document how leadership practices at KIPP changed over the grant period and to facilitate replication of promising leadership practices, Mathematica conducted an independent evaluation of leadership practices at KIPP as the network grew to scale. This volume describes the leadership practices in place at KIPP schools, in regions, and across the KIPP network by drawing on: (1) surveys of all KIPP principals and regional leaders; (2) the KIPP Foundation's administrative records; and (3) interviews with KIPP Foundation staff responsible for training. Next, to facilitate the replication of successful leadership practices both within KIPP and in other school systems. Detailed are promising leadership practices identified during site visits to five regions that contain high-performing KIPP schools. The relationship between practices implemented at individual KIPP schools and regions and their impacts, highlighting promising practices are explored for future study. This report also summarizes the major findings from the analyses. [For &quot;Understanding the Effect of KIPP as It Scales: Volume I, Impacts on Achievement and Other Outcomes. Final Report of KIPP's Investing in Innovation Grant Evaluation. Executive Summary,&quot; see ED560080.]