David Levin, (Photo by Jim Lo Scazlo for USN & WR)Here’s the first installment of a new feature we’re trying out. It’s a simple idea: we wrote up a Freakonomics questionnaire and will now force it on a variety of people.
The first victim is Dave Levin, co-founder of the national charter-school program, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP).
Thanks to everyone who helped think up questions, including Steve Levitt, Justin Wolfers, John List, Linda Jines, Annika Mengisen, and Ryan Hagen. If you have ideas for other questions or for interviewees — we’ll try to run these FAQ’s once a week or so — just send a note here.
An FAQ with David Levin:
Q: On my deathbed, I will wish that I had spent more time _________.
A: Outside.
Q: On my deathbed, I will wish I had spent more money on __________.
A: Traveling with my wife.
Q: What do you consider your greatest accomplishment so far? What was your best accomplishment by the time you turned 16?
A: My greatest accomplishment so far is having the joy of teaching so many amazing kids at KIPP. Not sure it qualifies as best, but my most unique accomplishment by 16 was digging a 10-foot-deep hole in the sand with my bare hands.
Q: What’s one goal you’d still like to accomplish?
A: See one of our KIPP alums as the principal of a KIPP school.
Q: What is the best investment you made in getting to where you are today?
A: Buying Harriett Ball lunch. She was my mentor teacher and taught me most of what I know about teaching. We would meet at lunchtime and after school, and the food was on me while the wisdom was all hers.
Q: What’s the best financial investment you’ve ever made?
A: My first car was the best $500 I ever spent.
Q: The worst?
A: All the money I then wasted to keep that car running.
Q: What talent have you always wished you had more of?
A: Dancing.
Q: What’s the last book you read cover to cover, and what percentage of the books that you buy do you read cover to cover?
A: The last book I read cover to cover was Made to Stick by Dan and Chip Heath. My favorite book is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, and I read about 75 percent of the books I buy cover to cover.
Q: What do you most often lie about?
A: Really — who me, lie?
Q: Fill in the blanks: I ___________ too much or too often; to avoid this, I tend to ___________.
A: I get distracted by my cell phone and email too much or too often. Wish I knew how to fill in the second blank.
Q: What is your biggest regret in life?
A: That I didn’t take Spanish class more seriously.
Q: If you could have any job in the world for one day, what would it be?
A: I’d run a team of sled dogs in the 1,000-mile Iditarod Dog Race across Alaska (although I guess this would be a 10-day job).
Q: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
A: Being able to jump from place to place across the world like in the movie Jumpers.
Q: What’s the most expensive piece of clothing you’ve ever bought, and why did you buy it?
A: An $850 jacket for my wedding; way too expensive, but it is a really cool jacket and I’m betting on the fact that I’m only getting married once. Plus, I get to wear it all the time, so the cost per wearing is constantly dropping.
Q: Would you rather win a Nobel Prize, an Olympic gold medal, or the Megabucks Lottery?
A: Megabucks Lottery (with that I’d be able to buy the others on eBay).
Q: How much is too much to spend on a cup of coffee?
A: Any amount — since I don’t drink coffee.
Q: What do you collect, and why?
A: Funny, until this question I didn’t realize that I don’t really collect anything. I don’t throw away books that I’ve read or photos I’ve been given by people, but I don’t know that I collect them either.
Q: What is one item you own that you should probably throw out but never will?
A: Any of my nearly 40 KIPP T-shirts, especially the ones that are more than a decade old.
Q: New York or California?
A: New York — in a New York minute.
Q: What will eventually lead to humankind’s demise, and when will it happen?
A: Mankind. Hopefully not for a while.
Q: What’s the best possible future discovery or invention?
A: How all people could work, live, and play together happily. Cheesy, maybe, but … how cool if it actually happens.
Q: Happiness is ____________.
A: Seeing the joy in the faces of the KIPP students at their college graduations. It is truly a remarkable thing.
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I was trying to answer them myself but couldn’t think of nearly such great answers, especially the depth of your short answers I thought was remarkable.
I would really like to see the word “mankind” replaced with “humankind”.
I agree – it was a nice interview. But how do you think the KIPP school students will affect the US and in what ways? (social, economic and other)
@Chrissi – And I would really like for humankind to stop worrying about being politically correct. Just because a vocal minority is offended by something doesn’t mean that the majority needs to change.
Rather, I propose that the minority accepts that no offense is intended, and that they modify their behavior/attitudes rather than asking everyone else to change.
BSK, can you please expand on your comment? I have only heard great things about KIPP so I am curious about the information that has shaped your opinion.
BSK, I also would love to hear what results you are referring to. As a KIPP teacher in New Orleans I’m obviously biased and disagree with much of what you said. I’ve taught in New Orleans public schools and brought several students with me to my current school; their progress has been nothing short of remarkable.
The two existing KIPP schools had the two highest School Performance Scores (this metric has been lauded as a good measure of performance) of all open enrollment public schools in New Orleans. We are expanding to open more schools here.
Additionally, KIPP shares resources and ideas willingly with anyone who will listen; I personally have provided Teach for America teachers across New Orleans that I am mentoring with resources that have helped them considerably and many others have done the same. That sounds like a positive ripple effect to me.
Mary and Tony-
My criticism of KIPP is twofold: first, the students they serve are generally of a self-selecting population who would likely have more success in ANY school system than their peers; and, secondly, as a result of this, an unfair standard is set that is used to the detriment of other, similarly educationally-disadvantaged students.
While KIPP does not make acceptances predicated upon academic record, because of the work necessary to apply and the commitments required of both students and parents, the students who end up in the program are inherently more motivated and better supported than the average student of ANY demographic. These students would likely be more successful in any educational environment. Do they achieve more success in KIPP than they would elsewhere? Perhaps. Certain results based primarily on standardized tests seem to say so. But these kids are essentially the “cream of the crop”, skimmed off and then held up for their success, which only a small part of which can be attributed directly to the KIPP approach.
As for the larger context, even if these students do make incredible strides they wouldn’t make elsewhere, the message is sent that for the students targeted by KIPP (primarily people of color, primarily working class), all they need to do is work harder and be pushed more and they will succeed. This approach works for the kids in the KIPP program, but these students and families deliberately chose KIPP because they believed it would benefit them. But the model is not one that would best serve all students (no model is right for everyone) and unfortunately perpetuates the stereotype that poor, urban children of color fail in schools because they don’t work hard enough and because they don’t have enough support at home. Are these potential factors? Of course. But KIPP’s success with the students they work with casts an “if it works for these kids, why can’t it work for the rest of them?” mentality.
I am not saying that there is not merit in the KIPP approach. Rather, I think it’s success must be put in context relative to the population they serve and the impact of their work on the greater population of which that group is a subset. Philosophically, I think there is much to be critical of with the approach, but there is much room for debate and different views in education and I respect the need for a variety of schools and educational styles for a variety of learners.
Let me start by saying this. I am a KIPP alum. After I attended KIPP, I went to one of the best boarding schools in the country and then to a very prestigious private University in NY.
BSK, you seem to believe that we, the students, are the reason for all of the success since we are inherently predisposed to do well as this quote suggests: “These students would likely be more successful in any educational environment.” Let me ask you this: Why then aren’t there more successful urban children of color? Why does everyone believe that education reform is in urgent need in this country? What you fail to see is how the curriculum, structure and faculty of the school affect us.
“…the message is sent that for the students targeted by KIPP (primarily people of color, primarily working class), all they need to do is work harder and be pushed more and they will succeed,” is an inaccurate interpretation of the message KIPP sends. Your comment would suggest that had we worked harder and been pushed more in public education, we would have succeeded either way. You make the assumption that all schools and teachers everywhere are good and we know that’s not accurate. KIPP has shown that students, parents AND teachers need to posses “ganas,” the “desire” to do better. Just as not all students are the same, not all teachers/schools are the same either.
And they make much of the difference in a student’s success. I can unequivocally say that had I not gone to KIPP, I would not have been very successful in high school or much less college. I probably wouldn’t have even made it to college. I attended school 60% more than the average public school student. That combined with better teachers, I believe, has more to do with our success than whether or not we are the “cream of the crop.”