My Favorite Days of the Year

I like pretty much every day of my job and I love many days. But my favorite days of the year are without a doubt our two days of the year when we have conferences to go over our report cards. Seeing roughly 140 families come through our doors to meet with teachers and see them leave feeling satisfied is really rewarding. To make sure we have time for real conversations (30 minutes) with families and to ensure that we meet the varied schedules of our families, we don’t have students these days and schedule conferences from 7am-6pm. We give families lots of notice, let parents preference the time they want to meet, and  send home frequent reminders. We call parents who are more likely to forget about their meeting and provide snacks and coffee. If they want to bring their KIPPster with them, they can. And if families want to bring other siblings (and many do), that’s no problem at all since we have toys and activities out for little children. The end result is that we get about 95% of our families to attend a conference on the official conference day, with the vast majority of the other 5% giving us advance notice that they couldn’t make that day and we schedule it another day before or after school.

The above paragraph is not to brag that we’ve got this figured out. And it’s definitely not to make the point that families who enroll their children in charter schools are more engaged or more on the ball than other families. It’s to make the point that just as students will meet the expectations that teachers put in front of them, families in Philadelphia and all around the country yearn to send their children to a good school. And given a school that treats them with respect, values their presence, and communicates openly with them, almost all parents will help their children with their homework, sign behavior reports, and yes, come to conferences. It’s absurd to have to write this, but contrary to what many people think, parents in North and West Philadelphia love their children just as much as parents in Center City or the suburbs do. And knowing our families as well as I do and knowing the sacrifices they make for their children, I would actually argue the opposite. And anyone who doubts that should come see our families and teachers talking together at conferences.

I love these days because it reminds me that the hard work we do each day is not just about students moving reading levels or learning how to use finger spaces between word when they write; it’s also about giving families hope that their child is in a school that will protect, teach, and inspire them. And on conference days our teachers and I get the chance to talk deeply with families about how their child is doing and how important education is to their family. Here is just a sampling of what I heard (imagine a parent saying these with a big smile):

• My daughter loves school so much that she gets sad when there is a day off
• I have two children here and I can’t wait for my son to go to KPEA next year
• Coming today reminds me why getting up so early every morning is worth it. I love this school!
• I love how the teachers here talk to students. They’re always so positive and I’ve never heard anyone yell at a student.
• If you ever need someone to talk about KIPP, sign me up!
• Can I give you a hug?
• I almost moved this summer to a nicer neighborhood, but I didn’t because I wouldn’t have been able to send my daughter to KIPP anymore
• I knew this school would be what my son needed and I was right.

Our mission at KIPP is to help get our kids to and through college so they can have happy and successful lives. Just like every single student in America deserves a great education, every parent deserves the chance to send their son or daughter to a school they’re proud of. And that’s part of our job at KIPP too. Our kids are too young for us to know much about how we’re doing on the college part (though 2023 will be here sooner than we think), but it’s nice to know that we’re doing well on that second goal. And by working side-by-side with our students' amazing families means we're going to reach our goal of giving our students the education they need to choose their own futures in life.