We've talked a lot about charter schools on this blog. Harry at CT had a charter school post last week.

We have hot new findings about the KIPP program from Mathematica. Their findings include:

• Impacts for large majorities
  of the 22 KIPP middle schools included in the study are positive in
  both reading and math in all four years after students enter KIPP
  schools.

• Impacts
  in many KIPP schools are large. Three years after entering KIPP
  schools, many students are experiencing achievement effects that are
  approximately equivalent to an additional year of instruction, enough
  to substantially reduce race- and income-based achievement gaps.

• Students
  entering these 22 KIPP schools typically had prior achievement levels
  lower than average achievement in the schools of their local districts.

• Compared
  to the public schools from which they draw students, KIPP middle
  schools have student bodies characterized by higher concentrations of
  poverty and racial minorities, but lower concentrations of special
  education and limited English proficiency students.