page_title: KIPP
section_title: General information
hierarchical_section_title: KIPP / General information
caption_attribution_description: English: KIPP Gulfton - Formerly Twelve Oaks Hospital
context_page_description: The Knowledge is Power Program, commonly known as KIPP, is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory schools in low income communities throughout the United States. KIPP is America's largest network of public charter schools. The head offices are in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C..
  KIPP was founded in 1994 by Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, two Teach For America corps members, influenced by Harriett Ball. In 1995, they opened two KIPP middle schools, one in Houston and one in New York City. Both schools were among the highest-performing schools in their communities by 1999. KIPP was one of the charter school organizations to help produce the Relay Graduate School of Education for teacher training.
  KIPP began in 1994 after co-founders Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg completed their two-year commitment to Teach For America. A year later, they launched a program for fifth graders in a public school in inner-city Houston, Texas. Feinberg developed KIPP Academy Houston into a charter school, while Levin went on to establish KIPP Academy New York in the South Bronx. The original KIPP Academies have a sustained record of high student achievement.
context_section_description: KIPP students are admitted through a lottery system. After a student is selected from the lottery and the student decides that he or she would like to attend a KIPP school, a home visit is set up with a teacher or the principal of the school, who meets with the family and student(s) to discuss expectations of all students, teachers and the parents in KIPP. Students, parents, and teachers are then all required to sign a KIPP commitment of excellence, agreeing to fulfill specific responsibilities, promising that they will do everything in their power to help the student succeed and go to college.
  As of the 2017–2018 school year, KIPP's national college completion rate for its alumni is 35 percent. This is comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times the national average for students from low-income families (about 11 percent). Another 5 percent earned an associate degree.
  For students who graduated from KIPP high schools, 45 percent earned a bachelor's degree and another 6 percent earned an associate degree.
  KIPP has extended school days, requires attendance on Saturdays, offers extra-curricular activities, and adds three extra weeks of school in July. Most KIPP schools run from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on select Saturdays (usually twice a month). Students spend that time in the classroom—up to 50 percent more time than in traditional public schools, depending on the region—and doing activities like sports, performing arts, and visual arts. Many of the activities KIPP offers might otherwise be inaccessible to students because of cost or scheduling issues. Because of this, the extended day offers students and families opportunities they might not get elsewhere.
  During the school year, KIPP students can earn trips such as visits to colleges and ice-skating. At the end of the school year, the students can attend an end of the school year field trip. These trips expose low-income students to new opportunities. For example, KIPP Academy Middle School in Houston, Texas, sends sixth graders to Utah and eighth graders to Washington, D.C., while fifth and seventh graders take a small trip within Texas for budget reasons.
  One thing that is unique at KIPP is that college counselors support students through college. The KIPP Through College Program counselors work with all their students as they apply to college, secure financial aid and make a college decision, and continue to work with them after high school to help them navigate the social, academic, and financial challenges they may encounter while in college. KIPP counselors also work with KIPP alumni to facilitate access to internships and career placement opportunities that will set them up for long-term success. KIPP college counselors stay in touch even after college graduation by providing resources and support to help them be successful in their early careers.  
  In partnership with the Ludwig Family Foundation, KIPP launched in 2018 the KIPP National Ludwig College Persistence Fund in four communities. The program aims to help KIPP alumni persist through college by providing KIPP alumni with small, one-time, emergency grants, or “microgrants,” when financial challenges arise that may cause them to drop out or take time off. Each region launching the fund—KIPP Bay Area Public Schools, KIPP Memphis Collegiate Schools, KIPP NYC Public Schools, and KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools, have received between $37,000 and $40,000 in seed funding to start a local College Persistence Fund.  
  The program is built off the success of a similar initiative launched in 2014 by KIPP DC and the Ludwig Family Foundation. The graduation rate for KIPP DC students who have received college persistence grants and are old enough to have completed college is 91 percent.
  In addition, KIPP forges partnerships with colleges to support first-generation college students alongside one another. KIPP now has more than 90 college and university partners across the country. KIPP's college partners are committed to ensuring first
caption: KIPP Gulfton in Greater Sharpstown, Houston, Texas, serving Gulfton
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