KIPP, KIPP hooray! Congratulations and many moooore...

Editorials

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

THIS WAS last fall at Helena’s almost-famous KIPP charter school, officially styled Delta College Preparatory. The occasion? A school-wide assembly to celebrate yet another honor and award. Scott Shirey, founding principal and guiding light at Delta College Prep, was getting a big check. Literally. It was one of those oversized babies you see on game shows, and it came in recognition of his being named, well, memory fails . . . . But it was something important from the Milken Foundation, and it meant some valuable dollars for Delta’s shoestring budget and bright future. 

Principal Shirey was as shy as he probably isn’t most days around the kids, who performed, sat, listened, and participated with military-like precision. We happened to be there, guests of some Helena folks who are understandably proud of their KIPP school. And we remember taking especial note of the teachers manning the walls of the cafeteria like sentries. 

We expected to see lots of young gogetters. Like the founder, who may be 30 by now but doesn’t look a half-hour past 19. (He must get carded more than Doogie Howser.) And, yes, there were plenty of fresh-faced college grads. But we also noticed—beg pardon, ma’am and sir—a surprising number of gray hairs in the bunch. This school’s faculty wasn’t some experimental playground for the young, earnest and temporarily idealistic who might be tempted to treat their tenure like a Peace Corps tour of deepest, darkest Arkansas. 

No, there was experience here, stability here. We mentioned our surprise to one of our Helena tour guides, and he explained: Some veteran teachers from the area had returned to the classroom when they heard about what KIPP would be. Maybe more important, what it wouldn’t be. That is, a long, hard slog through the kind of bureaucratic rules, regs and red tape that would depress even the most enthusiastic teacher. And squelch innovation. 

Unleashed from every article, clause and sub-clause of the overly regulated school, and surrounded by the energy of curious young minds, these teachers must have felt as if they were suddenly aging backwards. 

So it didn’t surprise in the least when word arrived that yet another teacher at Delta College Prep had won yet another award. And it really didn’t surprise when the teacher turned out to be a woman named Wyvonne Sisk, who’s been teaching for 38 years. Thirty-eight years. 

Ms. Sisk teaches Reading and Language Arts—we used to call it writing, spelling and phonics—to eighth-graders at Delta. That’s not quite right. Better to say she immerses her students in language. Just check out her results: some 95 percent of her 41 eighth-graders scored at Proficient or Advanced levels on the most recent statewide benchmark exam. Ninety-five percent. 

All of which earned Ms. Sisk a $10,000 Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award. We don’t know exactly what that is, but if it’s got a ten-thousand-dollar cash prize attached, it’s got to be serious. 

What got our attention about Wyvonne Sisk was this paragraph from the news story: 

“Sisk said she wanted to be a teacher ever since she entered first grade. Prior to working at KIPP, she taught elementary school and was a school librarian and science lab teacher in the Lee County schools in Marianna. She had retired from teaching but was attracted back to work shortly after the charter school opened in 2002.” 

To repeat: She had retired from teaching but was attracted back to work shortly after the charter school opened in 2002. 

Again, no surprise. The best teachers call to mind the best coaches. They’re not in it for the money. They’re in it because that’s what they are. Wyvonne Sisk may have retired from going to the classroom every day, but she never retired from being a teacher. 

And when the chance came to be part of something special at Delta College Prep, well, how could a great teacher resist? She couldn’t. Thank goodness. 

WE BET there are dozens of Wyvonne Sisks out there. Veteran teachers just waiting for their own special Delta College Prep. Which makes us wonder: Where th’ heck are all the other Delta College Preps in Arkansas? The charter school in Helena remains the only KIPP school in the whole state. 

Why? It’s not because of Arkansas’ watered-down charter law. KIPP schools have an exemption from the state cap on charter schools. We could have a dozen, two dozen, a hundred Delta College Preps in Arkansas if we could find a hundred Scott Shireys and Wyvonne Sisks. 

So where are those schools? And why isn’t the state out looking for them? (To get Mr. Shirey to the Delta, he had to be courted. He was considering opening a school down in Louisiana.) 

Our answer to those obvious questions: We dunno. But we’re tired of wondering. We want to celebrate lots of KIPP schools, not just one. 

Here’s what we do know: We know that Delta College Prep works. We know that just about the only thing the two major candidates for governor seem to agree on is that the KIPP school in Helena works. And we know that what works in education should be encouraged. 

We know we’ll keep writing about that KIPP school in Helena—the little school that can, and does. And we’ll keep asking why Arkansas can’t have another one.