Wednesday, December 13, 2006

 
Tough Gets Russo'ed

Paul Tough, the guy who wrote the recent NY Times Magazine piece that people are still talking about, is on the HotSeat today over at Alexander Russo's This Week In Education. Some great stuff in there, including a glimpse into how he got involved in writing his next book about Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone Charter School.

In this clip, the character Russo (who will be played today by Danny DeVito) questions Tough on the alleged 16-hour work day at KIPP (in fact, it turns out the figure came from Dave Levin himself...)

RUSSO: Sixteen hours a day or no, not everyone's willing to go what I'm going to call the "KIPP route." Where did you come out from your reporting on the topic of broader, non-instructional approaches- health insurance, living wages, affordable housing, financial incentives to attend and complete school, and - most timely - integration efforts?

TOUGH: When you say "not everyone," do you mean not every parent, not every child, not every teacher or not every administrator? I think the one thing we know is that there are many more parents and children willing to go the KIPP route than are now going the KIPP route. So I think that's the first problem to solve. That seems like a good first principle, in fact: if there are poor children and poor parents willing to put in the kind of effort and hard work that KIPP students exert, we shouldn't be denying them that opportunity.

So, who is denying them that opportunity in New York? Click here.
posted by Joe W. at PermaLink 8:34 AM
 

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