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CLASS OF ’91

KIPP-KIPP Hurray

When George W. Bush was looking for a success story from his state’s charter-school system to showcase at the Republican National Convention that nominated him as the GOP candidate for president, he naturally turned to the KIPP Academy. In July, Michael Feinberg C’91 [“Hello, Mr. KIPP,” December 1996], co-founder of the Houston school, found himself on the stage of the convention, talking about the Knowledge Is Power Program before introducing Laura Bush to the crowd.

    In the coming year, the KIPP model will get more national exposure as it begins to be replicated around the country with the help of a $15 million foundation which Feinberg now runs. Its goal, he says, is no less than “to help create a systemic change in public education.”
    The first group of educators began training this summer and will open KIPP-based schools in 2001 in Washington, D.C.; Gaston, North Carolina; Atlanta and Houston. The academies will be part of their local public-school districts, but will operate as independent charters, permitting greater flexibility.
    Feinberg founded the KIPP program with Yale graduate David Levin six years ago. As young recruits for the Teach for America program, they shared their dreams for education while driving together from California to Houston for their first teaching assignments in two of the city’s poorer schools. Dismayed by the lack of learning in their classrooms, they submitted a proposal to the district to team-teach a group of fifth-graders, setting high expectations and using unconventional instruction methods. Eventually they were given the chance to set up their own charter school, enrolling mostly low-income minority students. Levin later left for New York to set up another KIPP Academy in the South Bronx.
   Since Feinberg was profiled in the Gazette four years ago, Kipp Academy-Houston has added three more grades (now extending from fifth to ninth), for a total of 300 students. Its first two “graduating” classes have earned more than $4 million in scholarships to attend college preparatory high schools. Students at both the Houston and South Bronx schools have the highest test scores in their respective communities. The KIPP program also has been featured on 60 Minutes.
    Feinberg remains superintendent of the Houston school, but gave up his day-to-day involvement as director and teacher to make time for the foundation.
    Now he’s busy making sure the principles of the KIPP program get passed on to others. They include an extended school day and school year; contracts lining up expectations between parents, students and teachers; effective school leaders with control over staffing and budgets; and incentives and disincentives for children and teachers.
    According to Feinberg, the KIPP founders had considered adding more grades to the existing schools to make them K-12 academies. “But all we would be doing is taking our oasis in the desert and making a more beautiful oasis,” he says. “Instead we chose to focus on creating more oases. First we need to get out there and reach and help more kids.”

Copyright 2000 The Pennsylvania Gazette Last modified 11/1/00