Outliers, Success, and Schools That Work

I love reading Malcolm Gladwell's books.  What Gladwell does, I think, is popularize ideas, like memes in The Tipping Point, or emotional bids in Blink, in books that I call, "edutainments'--books that communicate new ideas, but that describe them in a way that is a lot of fun to read.  Even if his books didn't raise interesting questions, they are worth reading just for the stories.  But of course they are more than stories.

In his new book, Outliers, Gladwell, discusses hockey players, Bill Gates, the Beatles, a man with an IQ of 195, the causes of airplane crashes--which I happened to read just as I started off on a flight--and other wonderfully interesting anecdotes designed to tell, as his subtitle says, "the story of success."  I'm going to offer up an overly simple summary of those ideas (you can find better summaries all over the net) and cut to what most educators will find interesting.

First, there's a lot of luck involved in being successful.  Most NHL hockey players, for example, are born prior to March, for reasons he explains--now I know why I never made the NHL!  

Second, success requires hard work, in fact, Gladwell offers a number, 10,000 hours, and offers plenty of examples, including Bill Gates and the Beatles.

Third, culture is an incredibly important part of success.  Here Gladwell suggest that the success of Asian mathematics students, and the failures of Air Korea pilots are both the result of cultural heritage.   

Gladwell's example of an organization that capitalizes on all three of these factors is KIPP charter schools.  You can see a video about KIPP schools at this site .

What Gladwell suggests is that KIPP schools are successful (and they certainly do appear to be very successful) for these reasons.  First, their students spend more time in class.  Their classes start earlier, last longer, and classes also run on some Saturdays.  KIPPS students do better because they work harder.  

Second, KIPP schools are ground in a culture that acts on a shared, authentic belief that all students can learn, and KIPP schools are populated by teachers who are deeply committed to making a difference. For example, all KIPP teachers give their cell phone numbers to students, and students are free to call them any time in the evenings if they are hung up by home work.  KIPP teachers also work on some Saturdays.  I have been told that KIPP found some of its first teachers by going to school parking lots in the evening and putting flyers on the cars of teachers who were still in the schools working.  Teachers who worked into the evening because of their commitment to kids were the kind of teachers wanted in KIPP schools.

Gladwell's third factor, luck, of course, occurs for those students who happen to live in the communities where they are able to go to KIPP schools.

I don't know a lot about KIPP schools, but I do hope to learn much more. Gladwell's book, and the story of KIPP schools, suggest that a culture of success and hard work can make a difference in all schools.  I'm looking forward to learning more about what KIPP does and what all school leaders can learn from them.