The environment at Kappa II on the late September day we visited was one of the most dysfunctional we have seen. Principal Sean Dunning was hired two weeks before the 2008-2009 school year to be the fifth principal in five years, and he was still getting adjusted. He had a vision of what he wanted to do at Kappa II, but as of yet had not had time to put it in place. He spoke of positive incentives, beginning each class with a chant specific to the subject matter being taught, and inviting outside speakers to discuss their experience in middle school.

What we saw, however, were students who didn’t listen to their teachers and roamed the halls. The principal knew very little about the other seven schools in the Kappa network, which he said he planned to visit, or the KIPP network of charter schools, on which Kappa was loosely based. (Kappa stands for Knowledge and Power Preparatory Academy. The schools were originally founded with the goal of preparing students for highly selective public and private schools.)

The city announced it will attempt to close Kappa II in 2010-2011, after being prevented from doing so because of a read more

I am not surprised about the reading of  [the closing of] KAPPA II. I was a teacher at KAPPA IV and the stories about unruly behavior, teachers yelling, inexperienced teachers, and turnover... read more

I heard about the phasing out of this school in the news: I am a past teacher: Kappa didn't used to be like this: a principal "laughing" instead of taking needed action is simply not... read more