Year 3!

Our kids are about to go into the third week of our third year at KPEA. A couple of cute pictures and facts about our third year:

• Our founding class of students is now in 2nd grade and while 2023 (the year they go to college) still seems miles away, middle school feels just around the bend.

2nd graders working hard and looking so mature!

• We're now up to a full-time staff of 25, including our first ever reading specialist and full-time speech therapist.
• After 16 months, construction on our building is just about done and our 2nd graders have moved upstairs into the newly renovated section of the building. 

The Class of 2023 during their lesson on using the stairs. Because we have stairs now!

• Thanks to KaBoom! our kids will be getting an awesome playground in early October as the final part of the conversion of an old warehouse into a sparking school for kids.

• There are now over 300 students on our kindergarten waitlist, which while flattering, means that there are hundreds of families trying unsuccessfully to get their children into a better school. This will hopefully be the year we start another KIPP elementary school in Philadelphia and double the number of kids we can serve.  

• Even with all the changes, the core part of the job stays the same. Over half of our new kindergarten students have such low literacy knowledge that they aren't even at a pre-reading level. A bunch of our students know less than 5 letters and can hardly hold a pencil to write their name. But if we can duplicate the success of our first two years, over 93% of our students will be reading on grade level by the end of kindergarten.

•  Our kids are pretty adorable :)

1st graders at recess putting on a puppet show