A K-12 and Beyond Model
From the moment you enroll at any one of our 18 schools, we have a plan to support your child through graduation and beyond. That’s because KIPP NYC was designed as a K-12 model, with a comprehensive 20-year support system that begins as early as kindergarten and continues for our alumni through college and career. The great part is, each one of our schools feeds into the next level, so you can count on us being committed to seeing your child all the way through. At KIPP NYC, you can rest at ease knowing we will be there every step of the way.
The KIPP NYC Approach
Whole Student Approach
Along with engaging and challenging academics, we offer world-class co-curriculars and arts courses in an emotionally nurturing and physically safe environment where we foster positive relationships within our school communities.
Across our K-12 programs, we offer a breadth of arts classes, including music, visual arts, graphic design, choir, dance, step, theater, spoken word, as well as middle school sports, and 10 high school PSAL teams.
Our schools hold student circles, in which children come together in a group to address issues like bullying, team building and culture, violence, and gender, which lead to deep discussions with teachers on subjects that may otherwise be challenging to address in a classroom.
Students take part in transformative personal and community-wide experiences, such as advisory groups and grade- and school-wide celebrations, which promote self-reflection, understanding and respect of others, and individual development through positive and healthy activities with peers.
College & Career Preparation
Starting in kindergarten, we make a 20-year commitment to support our students in choosing and preparing for the educational and career paths that fit their goals and sense of purpose.
Our programming ensures that our high school students receive the proper knowledge, exposure, and support to successfully enroll in a best-match college or career program upon graduation.
Near-peer advisors provide coaching, mentorship, and direct support to our alumni through their first two critical years of college to improve college persistence and on-time graduation rates.
We help alumni obtain strong first jobs directly after high school or college by providing career diagnostics, skill-building workshops, resume coaching, interview preparation, networking opportunities, and job and internship listings.
STEM Investment
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) readies KIPP NYC students for the future of higher education and successful careers in in-demand fields, as well as equipping them to be informed, responsible stewards of our world.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion is the thread that ties together the vision and mission of the STEM work at KIPP NYC. We approach this with four themes: (1) self-awareness and affirmation of identity/culture; (2) literacy in science is liberation; (3) science is for all students; and (4) family & community engagement.
From elementary school onward, students have the opportunity to participate in robotics teams where they design, build, and program their robots to understand the basics of STEM while developing confidence and teamwork skills along the way. Students compete in New York City competitions with students from other schools with the opportunity to attend a national competition.
Students apply the concepts of design and engineering in project-based learning where they solve problems through creativity, exploration, and collaboration. Students engage with the engineering design cycle and learn how to develop solutions to complicated real-world problems.
All students develop algorithmic thinking, pattern recognition, abstraction, and decomposition skills as they operate robots, write code, and engage in problem-solving. Students learn about collecting, organizing, and drawing conclusions from data when answering real-world questions. We provide a foundation for students to take computer science courses in grades 6-12.
Health & Wellness
In addition to healthy minds, we also provide our students with nutritious meals and mental health services, and we follow protocols that have been effective at ensuring a safe in-person school experience.
The KIPP NYC Culinary Program provides healthy, delicious, and scratch-made breakfast, lunch, and snacks to 2,500 students daily with the aim to grow to serve all KIPP NYC students within five years. The Program employs alumni, parents, community members, and students, equipping them with the skills for future job opportunities and the knowledge to lead healthier lives.
Students and families have access to KIPP NYC’s Social Work and Counseling team to address any social-emotional needs, as well as professional partnerships with Headway and Ayana Therapy, which offer accessible, diverse, and culturally competent therapy services.
We offer monthly workshops to families and caregivers on topics that have included fostering healthy child identity, helping students adjust to change, and bullying prevention. We also partner with a Regional Family Advisory Council, a committee of families that meets regularly with our Superintendent, which serves as a sounding board for decisions and initiatives, including health and wellness support for students.
Leading With Equity
We examine our identities as members of the KIPP NYC community, understanding the students we educate, partnering with families to provide them a voice in our schools, scrutinizing our policies and procedures, and holding meaningful conversations about race, power, and privilege.
Our schools believe and strive toward education that honors the varied experiences, histories, and perspectives of our students and provides opportunities to connect across differences, empowering students to dismantle and reverse generations of inequity that exist in our societies.
We hold ongoing professional development for all staff around race, equity, and anti-blackness. We ensure that our leadership pipeline practices support and develop leaders of color. We share disaggregated data that demonstrate our progress on items such as staff promotions and student discipline practices. We have increased the amount of support we provide, and opportunities for, students to demonstrate their social-emotional strengths.
We commit to using community vendors, Black-and Brown-owned businesses, and drawing from the community for employment when building and maintaining schools in our community. We also commit to using our voice to ensure that the metrics that colleges, funders, and government entities use to measure student success are examined and expanded to support a more holistic approach.
Developing Educators
Excellent teachers and leaders are central to KIPP NYC’s success, as dedicated educators support students’ excellent academic outcomes and help build a joyful culture within our school communities.
KIPP NYC is expanding teacher recruitment and preparation through its Teacher in Residence program to ensure our schools are fully staffed by committed and highly skilled educators who reflect the diversity of our communities and world.
Through KIPP NYC’s Leadership Development programs, we prepare aspiring deans and principals with the adaptive, technical, and managerial skills to lead a KIPP NYC school, and offer them in-depth coaching and feedback before they move into school leadership.
All teachers, whether in their first or 21st year, have weekly one-on-one sessions with an instructional coach during which they discuss lesson plans, student data, classroom culture, and areas of professional curiosity. As part of a national network of KIPP schools, we leverage the experience of thousands of colleagues across the country and benefit from the research and support of the KIPP Foundation.
Our Approach
KIPP Forward
KIPP NYC at a Glance
18
Free Public Charter Schools
8,300
K-12 Students
Enrollment as of 10/31/24
2,780*
Alumni Supported
99%
Students of Color
99%
Graduation Rate from our High School
*represents our support of KIPP NYC Middle School Alumni that attend high schools other than KIPP NYC College Prep and KIPP NYC 8th grade completers that have graduated KIPP NYC College Prep or other high schools within the past six years.
Our Leadership
Alicia T. Johnson
Chief Executive Officer
Alicia Johnson is a veteran KIPP NYC leader, who began her tenure in 2007 helping lead the nationally recognized alumni program, “KIPP To College”, now known as “KIPP Forward”. She went on to serve as Managing Director of College Services and Managing Director for Data and Operations before becoming the Chief Operating Officer and then President. During her most recent role, Ms. Johnson has led KIPP NYC through the region’s most significant growth and improvement in excellence on behalf of the KIPPsters, including building three new campuses in the Bronx which will significantly increase KIPP NYC’s educational footprint. Ms. Johnson received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, her Master’s in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management, and is a Broad Fellow selected to be a part of the 2020 inaugural cohort of the Fellowship for Public Education Leadership at Yale.
Blog
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