Teach in a place where you never stop learning.

Your School:

Each KIPP NYC school begins the year with a full Professional Development Week, and continues to commit at least one afternoon each month to timely PD, covering topics such as building parent relationships, differentiating independent practice, and engaging in genuine conversations with colleagues. That’s just the start.

Ultimately, PD needs to be personalized to be most effective. Our teachers have weekly one-on-ones with an instructional coach and receive frequent feedback on lesson plans and classroom observations. You can expect candid and non-judgmental conversations about what’s working and what’s not. This focused, practical, creative back-and-forth is at the heart of our team’s continuous improvement journey. We also invest in on-site coaching by external experts and equip teachers with video cameras to record themselves and reflect on their performance.

Data matters deeply in tracking our students’ growth and guiding our instruction. We recognize that collecting and analyzing data is time consuming, so our schools block out Data Days throughout the year. This time is used exclusively to share and reflect upon student performance data and consider how we should modify what we do to better meet the needs of our students.

The KIPP NYC Community:

Across KIPP NYC schools, our teachers connect and collaborate three times annually at KIPP NYC Professional Development Days. These day-long PD conferences feature a variety of workshops and structured conversations across grade levels (elementary, middle, high) and subjects. KIPP NYC PD Days also have strands focusing on the particular needs of new teachers, guidance staff, veteran educators, and teachers participating in our leadership development programs.  Teachers, Deans and Principals also collaborate in cross-school working groups on an ongoing basis to review curriculum, develop assessments and identify best practices.

KIPP NYC subsidizes the cost of obtaining a Master’s degree from Relay School of Education, a program that combines the best of research with the best of practice through a joint collaboration of KIPP, Uncommon Schools and Achievement First.

Lastly, KIPP NYC has a five-person Teaching and Learning Team that’s dedicated full-time to developing our teachers and school leaders and supporting their instructional effectiveness. Among many other things, the Teaching and Learning team publishes a monthly PD newsletter, created for and by our teachers (click here for a sample).

The National KIPP Network:

KIPP’s 109 schools nationwide are supported in their work by the KIPP Foundation, an umbrella organization that helps us learn and grow as a national network of schools. Every year, the KIPP Foundation hosts a variety of weekend retreats to promote nationwide collaboration across our content communities such as the elementary school, ELA, math, and science retreats. Each summer, KIPP NYC teachers have the opportunity to participate in KIPP School Summit (KSS), a week of learning and community-building for thousands of KIPP teachers across our the country. KSS is probably the biggest (and most fun) PD conference you’ll ever attend.

For teachers interested in pursuing school leadership, the KIPP Foundation runs the nationally-recognized KIPP School Leadership Program over the summer and during the school year to support the development of teacher leaders, deans and individuals selected to lead KIPP schools. These leadership development programs include classroom learning, collaborative projects and residencies in KIPP schools around the country.

Finally, all KIPP teachers have access to KIPP Share, an online platform that enables KIPP teachers across the country to share curriculum, classroom resources and best practices. It’s a growing treasure-trove of material that makes our lives easier and our teaching better. To watch a tour of KIPP Share, click here.