Our First Year at KIPP North Philadelphia

Last week we wrapped up our first year at KIPP North Philadelphia Academy. It was a great year and I'm so proud of our everyone who worked together to make this year so successful. Starting a new school from scratch takes a tremendous amount of work, trust, and teamwork from everyone involved, which makes the feeling of pride at the end all the richer.

The central idea why we founded KIPP North Philadelphia is that the kids and families of North Philadelphia have incredible potential and great schools can be a part of unlocking that. However, decades of economic disinvestment, racism, and government mismanagement, among other factors, have left a community that has some of the highest levels of violence and poverty in the city and some of the lowest educational outcomes.

We know that schools are negatively impacted by these forces too and that great schools aren't by themselves enough to change all the factors; it's also true that great schools and great teachers can have a profound impact on students and a community. And we know that families hunger to know that their children are in schools that are safe, joyful, and full of learning; and that they will do just about anything to provide a great education for their children.

That demand for great school is out there and at KIPP Philadelphia our job is to create those schools that any parent would love to have their child attend. How we go about that is nothing special actually; we don't think that there is any special sauce or magic pixie dust that leads to great schools. We have no magical curriculum or super cool personalized technology that guarantees every kid is on grade level. Our approach isn't much different than what many other schools have done for a long time. I firmly believe that if you bring together talented teachers/staff united around a common vision, work hard to establish deep partnerships with families, and then create classrooms that are both fun and focused, you'll get great results. 

KIPP North Philadelphia is located at 16th and Cumberland. A public school has stood at this address since 1891 (that's the original building in the photo) and except for a few years after the School District of Philadelphia closed down Stanton Elementary in 2013, generations of students from this part of North Philadelphia have attended school here. As we wrote the charter application for this school, we knew it was essential that if we could create a great school that it be with, and for, the families of this part of North Philadelphia. We wrote language into our charter application reserving at least 50% of our enrollment for students from the surrounding neighborhood. Both in our founding classes of kindergarten and 1st grade students this year, and our incoming students for the 2019-20 school year we are basically at 100% of students from this part of North Philadelphia. Having a school in this location mattered to so any members of the community - so many family members of our students told us stories about attending school in this building years ago, a relative who used to work in the building, or fond memories of attending a performance in the school auditorium.

Last spring, we recruited for students at community centers, libraries, pre-k centers, as well as going door to door. We hosted Open Houses and gave families tours of our original elementary school so they could see what kind of school we were aiming to create. Next, our teachers did 45-60 min long home visits for all 200 of our founding students in August so they could get to know our students and families before school even started, laying the foundation for strong partnerships that would continue throughout the year in regular communication - a quick conversation at drop off, a text about a great day, a phone call about some struggles, and more. And when we had report card conferences three times throughout the year, we had about 90% of families attend on that day and nearly 100% within a week after. All this happened because our families at KIPP North are like wonderful parents anywhere - they want what is best for their child and when a school shows them trust and builds real relationships - they will be there as partners.

Our teachers and staff are wonderful. I was lucky enough to bring together a team with a wide-range of skills and backgrounds, many of whom had deep experience living or working in North Philadelphia especially and similar settings in general. As a founding team, they did crazy stuff like unload an 18-wheeler full of classroom furniture and work together to haul it upstairs to the 3rd floor.

They spent hours traveling around North Philadelphia doing those aforementioned home visits as they also planned their first week's lessons and set up their classrooms. And that was just the first two weeks! Then they did the hard work each day of creating classroom communities, teaching purposeful lessons, and adjusting course when a plan wasn't working. They worked together to create classrooms and a school that was centered on knowing kids as individuals and doing whatever was needed to support and/or challenge each of them to the fullest.







With all that being said, what did we accomplish together this year? How do we know this was a successful year?

• We had a 97% student retention rate, with most of the students who left this year doing so due to family and logistical reasons (i.e. family wanting to have all their kids at one school and a spot opened up for their son who was at KIPP North).
• Over 90% of teachers/staff members coming back next year, including 100% of our core staff.
• Kids created amazing pieces of art, put on plays, performed musical pieces in front of a packed auditorium, and many other creative moments. 
  

• They learned a ton! We measure this in a variety of ways at KIPP North, but one way is through the NWEA MAP assessment which is a standardized assessment that is used by thousands of district, private, and charter schools all over the country. 
• It gives us information about student growth by comparing an initial assessment a the start of the year to the an end of year test. Each student has a variable goal based on their starting point and our aim is to have as many students hit their growth goal as possible.
• The MAP assessment also compares student achievement level to students all across the country. This allows us to see things like how many students are at the 50th percentile, which is a good measure for saying they are "on grade level"

The graph below shows that for all tested subjects/grades, students at KIPP North hit their growth goals at way above the 50% mark that is typical across the county. In total, 82% of students hit their growth goal for the year!

As a results of all the growth that students made, the percent of students at or above grade level increased dramatically. At the start of the year, only about 20% students at KIPP North were working on grade level, i.e. at a start of kindergarten math level or start of 1st grade reading level. By the end of the year, that number had more than doubled, with gains in math being particularly impressive. The average student at KIPP North is now going on to the next grade on or above grade level.

We had a great first year and I can't wait to see what next year brings!