That’s roughly the headline from this commentary  posted on the Baltimore Sun’s site (thanks to Whitney Tilson for pointing this out). As my previous posting explained, the teachers union in Baltimore forced the successful KIPP school there — a school making a huge difference for hundreds of inner city Baltimore studens, especially boys — to cut back on teaching hours, a key element of the KIPP formula.

In my upcoming book (don’t neglect the pre-purchase link at the top of the page!) I track a boy through a year at a KIPP school in Washington. In calculating KIPP outcome data on boys, however, the Baltimore school was included.

Depressing story out of Baltimore about a successful KIPP charater school having to cut staff because of union complaints about hours. The KIPP schools produce sharp academic gains for inner city students — and boys with literacy skills that match their girl graduates. Too much success, of course, attracted the unions.

On yet another challenge from Eduwonkette, this time on my post about the great job KIPP does with boys. I described how KIPP succeeds the old fashioned way, by ratcheting up the literacy instruction and refusing to let either boys or girls slip behind.

Eduwonkette suggests the data is skewed because more boys than girls drop out of KIPP. She raises a good question, and given the disastrous outcomes black boys are experiencing in inner-city schools (be SURE to watch this HBO documentary tonight on a Baltimore high school) I’d be shocked if there weren’t serious gender imbalances at KIPP schools.

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NYTimes has great article today on TFA founder Wendy Kopp and husband Richard Barth, who runs the KIPP network of schools. The writer never dips into the boys issue, but each is an important player in the boy troubles.

Let’s start with KIPP. During my first visit to the KIPP DC: KEY Academy I paused in the hallway to study a posting of test scores. What I saw amazed me: In literacy skills, the seventh grade boys at KEY Academy scored even with the girls, maybe even a little ahead. When I asked the KIPP leaders in Houston if that happened in other KIPP schools, they took the time to run the numbers. After studying the data from several middle schools, they concluded it was no quirk. Boys arrive at KIPP schools in fifth grade reading roughly two years behind the girls, but by the end of seventh grade the boys, on average, read as well as the girls.

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