Eventually, Levin and Feinberg cobble together a college-prep program that boasts longer hours, days, weeks and years — kids stay in school until 5 p.m. most days, attend class every other Saturday and spend weeks in summer school; it demands 24/7 dedication from parents, students and teachers but gets good, replicable results.
Knowledge is Power was mentioned in the Gates yearly letter. Gates did convince me to buy the book. There is a description of KIPP in USA Today (source for quote). Perhaps one of keys may be something we have probably always known but found difficult to implement. Learning simply takes time. Despite all of the discussion regarding tools and tactics, variability in time spent may be the most potent variable. The American Educational Research Association reached a similar conclusion and published a summary of the research in 2007 (from my grad class reading list). I think I read Carroll’s original work (cited in the AERA summary) in the early 1970s. Likelihood of learning is a function of time spent to time required. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
(added later)
Here is the TED talk delivered by Gates (in video and text).