Is Choice a Panacea? - An Analysis of Black Secondary Student Attrition from KIPP, Other Privately Operated Charters, and Urban Districts

Oct 15, 2026

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Public concern about pervasive inequalities in traditional public schools, together with growing political, parental, and corporate support, has fostered the belief that charter schools solve educational inequities for minorities, especially Black youth. This paper examines educational attainment gaps with a focus on attrition in privately operated charters. Using comparative data, it finds that peer urban districts in Texas show lower Black student dropout and leaver rates than charters, including KIPP, despite KIPP’s higher per-pupil spending.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Research focus

Key findings

Background on educational inequality

UC Berkeley Berkeley Review of Education Title Is Choice a Panacea? An Analysis of Black Secondary Student Attrition from KIPP, Other Private Charters, and Urban Districts Permalink [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vs9d4fr](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vs9d4fr) Journal Berkeley Review of Education, 2(2) ISSN 1947-5578 Authors Vasquez Heilig, Julian Williams, Amy McNeil, Linda McSpaddenet al. Publication Date 2011-10-26 Peer reviewed [eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Available online at [http://escholarship.org/uc/ucbgse_bre](http://escholarship.org/uc/ucbgse_bre) Is Choice a Panacea? An Analysis of Black Secondary Student Attrition from KIPP, Other Privately Operated Charters, and Urban Districts Julian Vasquez Heilig,a1 Amy Williams,a Linda McSpadden McNeil,b and Christopher Leea a University of Texas at Austin b Rice University Abstract Public concern about pervasive inequalities in traditional public schools, combined with growing political, parental, and corporate support, has created the expectation that charter schools are the solution for educating minorities, particularly Black youth. There is a paucity of research on the educational attainment of Black youth in privately operated charters, particularly on the issue of attrition. This paper finds that on average peer urban districts in Texas show lower incidence of Black student dropouts and leavers relative to charters. The data also show that despite the claims that 88-90% of the children attending KIPP charters go on to college, their attrition rate for Black secondary students surpasses that of their peer urban districts. And this isin spite of KIPP spending 30–60% more per pupil than comparable urban districts. The analyses also show that the vast majority of privately operated charter districts in Texas serve very few Black students. Keywords: KIPP, Charters, Urban Education, African Americans, Secondary Student Attrition Blacks have endured arduous experiences within the U.S. educational system. A history of de jure and de facto segregation has created separate and unequal schools for successive generations of Black students (Vasquez Heilig, Reddick, Hamilton, & Dietz, 2011) . Despite the active struggle of Black individuals for civil rights via litigation, state and federal legislation, and local activism throughout the 20th century, a legacy of severely under-resourced schools remains (Walker, 1996) . Although conditions have improved, continued isolation in inner cities and rural localities has resulted in unrelenting segregation and inequitable provision of vital educational resources (Noguera, 2008) . In the modern era, Black children in the U.S. continue to be undereducated, as educational attainment tracks closely with residential segregation, family wealth or poverty, and the historical unequal funding of schools by race and ethnicity (Orfield & Ashkinaze, 1991) . Therefore, the opportunities for Black parents to 1 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Julian Vasquez Heilig, Ph.D. Department of Educational Administration, The University of Texas at Austin, George I. Sanchez Building (SZB) 374D, 1 University Station D5400, Austin, TX 78712-0374, Tel: (512) 897-6768, [http://julianvasquezheilig.info](http://julianvasquezheilig.info) Berkeley Review of Education Vol. 2 No . 2, pp. 153-178 154 Vasquez Heilig et al. obtain a high-quality education for their children in a structurally discriminatory system have been uneven at best (Anderson, 1988) . The confluence of these disheartening realities has resulted in unfortunate educational and life outcomes for many Black students. The impact of lower quality educational experiences is dire as Black students obtain lower levels of educational attainment nationwide. A recent National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) study reported alarming tren

FAQs

What problem does the paper focus on regarding Black secondary students?

It focuses on educational attrition, specifically dropout and leaver patterns among Black secondary students in privately operated charter settings.

How does the paper compare KIPP charter outcomes with peer urban districts?

It reports that peer urban districts in Texas have lower incidence of Black student dropouts and leavers than charters, and that KIPP’s Black secondary attrition surpasses that of its peer urban districts.

What does the paper say about the spending-performance relationship for KIPP?

It notes that KIPP spends 30–60% more per pupil than comparable urban districts, yet its Black secondary attrition rate remains worse than peers.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Ben