KIPP NYC is part of a nationwide network of non-profit public charter schools. Having started as a singe fifth grade classroom program in Houston, Texas, we’ve grown to 109 schools in 20 states and Washington D.C., serving 32,000 students.
In 1994, two teachers, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, launched a fifth grade public school program in Houston, Texas after completing their work with Teach For America. Their goal: do “whatever it takes” to help students develop their character and academic skills for college and life. They believed that high expectations coupled with creativity, rigor and sustained student, parent and teacher commitment could generate transformational results for kids in schools in underserved communities. Mike and Dave named their program KIPP – the Knowledge is Power Program.
In 1995, they decided to expand. Mike remained in Houston to lead KIPP Academy Middle School; Dave and his colleague Frank Corcoran established KIPP Academy in the South Bronx. Sixteen years later, KIPP has grown into a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. For more information, visit www.kipp.org.
The Story:
Work Hard. Be Nice. : How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America
By Jay Matthews
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“When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that—and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP)…” |
