KIPP News

Google’s Chromebooks making big school push

January 25, 2012 The San Francisco Chronicle | James Temple

James Sanders, a teacher at the KIPP charter school in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood, is running a one-to-one Chromebooks pilot program in his seventh-grade history class. He has designed a “blended learning” program that allows students to continually work online. Read more.
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Public charter schools in the Bay Area: are they delivering on their promise?

January 9, 2012 KALW-FM | City Visions

There are more charter schools in California than any other state in the nation. And the Bay Area is home to some of the most well known in the country, such as KIPP, Aspire and Rocketship schools…And by phone we have Sehba Ali. She’s the Chief Academic Officer for Knowledge is Power Program or KIPP Bay Area schools and the founder of the KIPP Heartwood Academy. Listen here.
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Yoga in school showing results, officials say

November 30, 2011 The CBS Early Show | Erica Hill

Erica Hill reports on a school in Calif.[KIPP Summit Academy] that has incorporated yoga into its daily curriculum and since it started, suspensions are down 60 percent and test scores have risen. Watch it here.
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What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?

September 14, 2011 The New York Times | Paul Tough

(David) Levin had also spent many years trying to figure out how to provide lessons in character to his students, who were almost all black or Latino and from low-income families. At the first KIPP school, in Houston, he and his co-founder, Michael Feinberg, filled the walls with slogans like “Work Hard” and “Be Nice” and “There Are No Shortcuts,” and they developed a system of rewards and demerits designed to train their students not only in fractions and algebra but also in perseverance and empathy. Read more.
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Super Teachers Alone Can’t Save Our Schools

August 13, 2011 The Wall Street Journal | Steven Brill

One of the heroes of this familiar tale is Dave Levin, the co-founder of the highly regarded KIPP network of charter schools (KIPP stands for Knowledge Is Power Program). But Mr. Levin would be the first to tell you that heroes aren’t enough to turn around an American public school system whose continued failure has become the country’s most pressing long-term economic and national security threat. Read More.
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The Oprah Winfrey Show “Farewell Spectacular Part 1”

May 23, 2011

… TOM HANKS: At the Believe school in New Orleans, students are eager to learn.  ADAM MEINIG, KIPP BELIEVE SCHOOL LEADER: We try to teach our kids, every day, the joy of reading and how it should drive our life and our education.  And then we walk into a library that has no books.  TOM HANKS: After Hurricane Katrina, the books in this library had to be thrown out by FEMA, to prevent a possible mold outbreak.  Two years later, a tragedy struck again. Watch it here.
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Student Selection, Attrition, and Replacement in KIPP Middle Schools: Working Paper Presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association

April 8, 2011 | Mathematica Policy Research |Ira Nichols-Barrer et. al

This working paper was produced in response to “What Makes KIPP Work?” by Dr. Gary Miron and colleagues at Western Michigan University. For a statement from KIPP regarding the report, click here.
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Oakland middle school named charter school of the year for California
March 11, 2011 Oakland Tribune | Katy Murphy
Jackson said the 8-year-old school ramped up its academic rigor when she arrived in December 2009. In 2010, KIPP Bridge’s state test scores rose 75 points to 864 out of a possible 1,000. The average score for African-American students — who make up 71 percent of the school’s enrollment — was 856. Statewide, the average score for African-American students in grades 7 and 8 was 676. For those in grades 2-6, it was 731. Read more.

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KIPP King Students Interview President Obama on YouTube

January 27, 2011 | CBS San Francisco Evening News

… From Kellan McNulty, AP World and AP US History teacher at KIPP King Collegiate: One of the coolest parts of the whole experience was how the KIPP community – both at our school and across the country – really rallied behind the whole project and helped us get nominated.  Jessica, Olu, and Ilian said they all watched the interview with their families last night. Imagine that thrill!  Fifteen years old, and you can say that you asked the President of the United States a question in front of a million viewers, and got interviewed on the CBS evening news. Watch the coverage on CBS  here.
Watch the original YouTube video made by KIPP King students. | Watch President Obama’s response here (begins at minute 5:55 mark).

Three East Side San Jose school girls to be in prestigious Capitol Page Program

January 22, 2011 San Jose Mercury News | Sue McAllister

On Monday, Daisy Torres, Maria Garcia and Dina Asfaha, three high school juniors from East San Jose, will pull on staid blue-and-gray uniforms and become congressional “pages,” participating in the serious process of federal lawmaking. Read more.

KIPP Charter Renewal Draws Huge Crowd

January 19, 2011 San Lorenzo Patch | Sue McAllister

Melissa is a sixth grader at KIPP Summit Academy, the San Lorenzo Unified School District’s flagship charter. She’d been asked by administrators to speak on behalf of the school, whose charter was up for renewal Tuesday night. Fortunately for Melissa, she was far from alone. More than 150 KIPP supporters crowded into the San Lorenzo Unified School District’s boardroom Tuesday night, overwhelming the normally sedate meeting with a standing-room-only crowd. Read more.

How to close the achievement gap

November 18, 2010 Minnesota Public Radio, Midmorning | Sehba Ali & Tim King

One of the great challenges for educators is the widening achievement gap between students of different races and different economic backgrounds. The directors of two charter schools join Midmorning to discuss their efforts to close that gap, and create a culture of achievement among minority and low-income students. Listen here

Donors Must Include Attention to Accountability with Their Gifts

November 1, 2010 The Chronicle of Philanthropy | Nan Stone & Thomas J. Tierney

The Fishers committed $15-million over three years to start the KIPP Foundation, a sum intended to help KIPP start to achieve its national ambitions…This tremendous philanthropic journey, and the opportunity it has created for tens of thousands of young people, began with the strong beliefs of Don and Doris Fisher and their equally strong self-imposed quest for philanthropic excellence. Read more

Class Action: The idea of extending the school day—and year—is gaining momentum.

October 29, 2010 Newsweek | Sehba Ali

Twelve years ago, as a first-year language-arts teacher at a middle school in Houston, I had 50 minutes a day with each of my classes. That might sound like a decent amount of time, but after taking roll and checking homework, I was lucky to have even 40 minutes left to teach my students, the majority of whom were low income or just learning to speak English. Read more

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Mark Zuckerberg at the Movies

October 8, 2010 The New York Times | Miguel Helft

The screening was in Palo Alto, Calif., a few blocks from Facebook’s headquarters. The co-hosts were John Doerr, the venture capitalist, and his wife, Ann, along with Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, whom I profiled on Sunday, and her husband, Dave Goldberg, the chief executive of Survey Monkey. The event was organized in conjunction with a group of outfits that are pushing school reform like the New Schools Venture Fund, Citizen Schools, Rocketship Education and KIPP Bay Area Schools. Read more

Four Bay Area Schools Get Blue Ribbon Honor

September 9, 2010 NBC Bay Area News

… Among hundreds of schools, Lincoln Elementary in Oakland, Two Rock Elementary in Sonoma County, KIPP Heartwood Academy in San Jose and Nueva School in San Mateo county were all honored by Blue Ribbon Schools. Read more.

Making the grade – Mike Feinberg

August 20, 2010 MSNBC

… HILL HARPER: Mike, I’m so excited to have you here, because, look: KIPP has worked in multiple places. So, people talk about replicating success—you guys have been able to do it. What’s the secret? MIKE FEINBERG: The secret is – there is no secret. And we need to quit looking for the magic lever that is going to—we pull it, and everything gets fixed. As we learned from one of our mentor teachers, Rafe Esquith, there are no shortcuts. Watch here.

Education Department Doles out Big Awards

August 5, 2010 The New York Times | Sam Dillon

The $650 million was given out in awards of three levels. The four largest awards of nearly $50 million each went to groups proposing to greatly expand programs, like Teach for America and the KIPP charters, that the department viewed has having been proved successful. Read more

The time to learn: KIPP schools show what a longer school day offers

July 20, 2010 The Washington Post

One reason KIPP students learn more is that they are in school more. KIPP’s experience, and that of other schools with extended learning, should prompt the nation’s schools to face up to the need to change the school calendar… Read more

Race to the Top, lap two

July 16, 2010 International Business Times | Yuan Li Ren

Later this month, the second round of competition for “Race to the Top” grants will be announced. It’s been about a year since President Obama allocated $4.35 billion from the Recovery Act to initiate the program…Read more

What does “charterness” mean, exactly?

July 14, 2010 The Washington Post | Matthew Di Carlo

Two weeks ago, researchers from Mathematica dropped a bomb on the education policy community… Read more

Who’s in Charge at Charter Schools?

July 12, 2010 Education Week | Greg Richmond

As the deadline for round two of the federal Race to the Top grant competition loomed in May, the New York state legislature passed a contentious bill that symbolizes the nation’s hopes and fears for the charter school movement… Read more

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Starting School an Hour Late

July 7, 2010 The Atlantic | Derek Thompson

… Nor is it news to education mavens that ending a few hours late, as KIPP schools have done for years, has correlated with higher achievement scores, especially in low-income areas… Read more

Revolution Needed for Teaching Literacy in a Digital Age

July 5, 2010 The Huffington Post | Esther Wojcicki

… Highly successful, innovative small charter schools such as High Tech High, Green Dot and KIPP Academies have proven that kids can learn essential literacy skills starting in early childhood with a personalized curriculum, integrated technology, and skillful teachers…. Read more

Bill to save teachers’ jobs would slash reform programs

July 1, 2010 The Washington Post

… If his measure is approved, fewer states will get funds to reward high-performing teachers who work with at-risk students, there will be less money to help effective charter networks like KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) and there will be no incentive for states to enact reforms. … Read more

Charter Schools and the Challenge of Scalability

June 25, 2010 Good Magazine | Amanda M. Fairbanks

It’s been a pretty great week for experimental-school models and now the data is finally in, for KIPP schools, at least… Read more

National Charter Schools Conference

Remarks by Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee | June 29, 2010

Sitting in the KIPP classroom and YES classroom showed me that the statistics alone don’t capture the magic of what’s going on… Read more