The KIPP School Leadership Program is made up of the Fisher Fellowship and the Miles Family Fellowship.

• The Fisher Fellowship is our one-year school leadership training program. Our Fisher Fellows experience an intensive summer program of coursework, residencies at high-performing schools, and training conferences to prepare for school start-up work in their communities.

  The coursework in the summer covers instructional, organizational, and operational leadership. Leadership coaching is individualized for each Fellow and built around an individualized development plan with identified goals and milestones.

  Residencies give Fisher Fellows the opportunity to observe and learn from high-performing school leaderships and acquire leadership experiences in some cases. Training conferences allow Fisher Fellows to come together as a cohort in order to develop and finalize their school design plans.

  After completing the year-long program, Fisher Fellows will found a new KIPP school.

  
  
• The Miles Family Fellowship provides selected participants with a two-year pathway to becoming a KIPP school leader. Miles Family Fellows receive a year of support and leadership experience while teaching in a KIPP school. Miles Family Fellows will perform administrative duties that are tailored according to the individual Fellow’s leadership development needs. Onsite coaching and evaluation by the host school leader will be supplemented by the KIPP Foundation’s formalized leadership development program. After successfully completing the Miles Family Fellowship program, candidates may apply to be considered for the year-long Fisher Fellowship in order to prepare them to open a new KIPP school.

Click here for more information about the fellowships.

We are seeking passionate, committed educators to step up to the challenge of closing the achievement gap by tapping their entrepreneurial spirit to open and run great public schools in educationally underserved communities.

An excellent candidate typically possesses the unyielding belief in the potential of every child to succeed in top quality high schools, colleges, and the competitive world beyond. Additionally, all candidates should have instructional expertise in a K-12 classroom; a record of success in leading adults; and the capacity to define a vision, build teams, and achieve results despite tremendous obstacles. Successful candidates will meet our selection criteria.

While all candidates must meet our rigorous selection criteria, there are minimum application requirements. The typical Fisher Fellow has completed at least five years of full-time classroom instructional expertise in a K-12 setting in the United States. The typical Miles Family Fellow is expected to have completed at least three years of teaching. We will make exceptions for extremely strong candidates.

Additionally, all applicants should have 3 – 5 years of teaching and leadership in a low-income school with demonstrated exemplary student results. For purposes of the selection process, KIPP defines “low-income school” as a school in which over 50 percent of the student population qualify for the federal free and reduced meals program.

It is important that you have experience with students with similar demographics to those that KIPP serves if you intend to open a KIPP school. KIPP’s mission is to serve students in low-income and underserved communities and help them get on a path to college.

Strong applicants have taught a core content-area subject, such as math or ELA. We require our applicants to report student achievement results with their students. Some applicants who have only taught specialized subjects, such as science, social studies, or music, may be at a disadvantage because they lack a breadth of instructional knowledge and may not be able to report student achievement data as easily.

If you feel as though your background is broad enough to allow you to serve as an instructional leader to teachers of all subjects, we encourage you to apply.

All candidates that are invited to the Selection Event are evaluated by the same set of criteria. Candidates are offered the Fisher Fellowship if they demonstrate strong skills and readiness to open a KIPP school according to our selection criteria. Candidates are offered the Miles Family Fellowship if the selection committee believes that they are high-quality candidates with the potential to develop into strong Fisher Fellows in one year. The typical Fisher Fellow will have at least five years of teaching experience.

Once a Miles Family Fellow successfully completes the Miles Family Fellowship, he or she can apply for the Fisher Fellowship.

As of November 2008, nearly 50 percent of school leaders are African-American, Latino, or Asian.

Please check back in late August of 2009 for the upcoming application and selection dates.

Given that KIPP has a limited number of opportunities in certain target cities, we encourage candidates to apply to the priority deadline to ensure they are being considered for their top geographical priorities.

Another benefit to applying to the priority deadline is earlier notification. All accepted Fisher Fellows and Miles Family Fellows are notified two weeks after the selection event, but candidates for the priority deadline will have more time to prepare for either Fellowship.

No, the application is live. Please save your login and password to access your application. If you are not finished, click “Save”, and you may return to finish the application before the deadline.

By pressing “Submit” you will no longer be able to access your application, and it will be reviewed by the application review committee.

The Student Data Report has two parts:

Part 1: When describing your student achievement data, please include the context in which the data was scored and reported (standards based/norm-referenced test, state exam, District tests, etc). Please make sure that your description articulates the type of growth your students achieved. If you do not use standardized tests, please submit the data from your own assessments. In this event, you must also submit the data for your district.

Part 2: In addition to describing the results you’ve achieved with students, please also include a brief description of the school in which those results were achieved. Please include the overall demographic makeup of the school, including total student enrollment and the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch. Please also include standardized test results from your school, district, and state, and your school's AYP status.

Applications may only be submitted online at www.kipp.org/apply. If you have technical problems with the online application, please e-mail apply@kipp.org.

We will only consider applications from candidates once during each recruitment season. We encourage candidates to re-apply in future years should they feel they are better prepared as a candidate based on the experience they have gained since initially applying to the KIPP School Leadership Program.

In the next four years, KIPP hopes to increase the size of the network from 66 to 100 schools and triple the number of students served by KIPP schools. To achieve this goal, KIPP plans to grow by regions of schools in locations where KIPP schools already exist, and in areas that are fertile ground for expansion.

For a list of available cities, please click here. KIPP is particularly interested in opening new elementary schools. There is no guarantee that we will open a school in these communities in 2010 or 2011, though these are projected growth needs.

We ask that candidates let us know about all their preferences for cities during the application process to the KIPP School Leadership Program. We will consider requests to change a city of preference after the initial application process. Such requests must be submitted in writing to the National Director of Recruitment & Selection along with an explanation of why you are requesting this change.

Each year, KIPP uses an application process in order to select new communities for future KIPP school expansion. We select new sites nearly two years in advance, as all KIPP schools are led by outstanding educators who apply to and are selected for our year-long training program.

For more information on our process, please visit www.kipp.org/bring.

We will contact references if a candidate has had a successful phone interview and teaching observation.

Due to the large number of applicants and the high volume of requests, we are unable to provide feedback to individual candidates who are not invited to Selection.

If you are extended a Fisher Fellowship offer, you can apply to the National Director of Recruitment & Selection for a one year deferral. During this time, we ask accepted Fellows to work in a role that will continue to prepare them for being school leaders at KIPP. The National Director of Recruitment & Selection will decide what will qualify as preparation for school leadership at KIPP.

• Miles Family Fellowship

  The Miles Family Fellowship is designed to be a two-year pathway to becoming a KIPP school leader. Miles Family Fellows will be employed by KIPP schools to teach and to perform administrative duties that are tailored to the individual Fellow’s leadership development needs. Each Miles Family Fellow will have an individual leadership development plan in concert with his or her supervising school leader and the KIPP Foundation’s Director of Leadership Pathways Programs. On-site coaching and evaluation by the host school leader will be supplemented by the KIPP Foundation’s formalized leadership development program.

  Miles Family Fellows will meet as a cohort three times each year for leadership development and meet remotely as a cohort at least six times per year for content-driven discussions. In addition to coaching by the host school leader, Miles Family Fellows will also be coached periodically by a KIPP Foundation coach. Matriculation from the Miles Family Fellowship into the Fisher Fellowship requires strong recommendations from the hosting school leader and the Director of Leadership Pathways Programs as well as approval from the KIPP Fisher Fellowship selection committee.

• Fisher Fellowship

  During the Fisher Fellowship year, Fisher Fellows experience an intensive summer program of coursework, residencies at high-performing schools, individualized leadership coaching, and training conferences to prepare for school start-up work in their communities. The coursework in the summer covers instructional, organizational, and operational leadership, and the classes are taught by esteemed leadership and education professors, KIPP school leaders, and members of the KIPP Foundation. The residencies place Fisher Fellows in high-performing KIPP schools to observe and participate in their leadership and operation. Training conferences and meetings throughout the year help Fisher Fellows develop and finalize their school design plans so that they are ready to open a KIPP school in their communities.

Attendance is a mandatory and crucial part of the Fisher Fellowship, and all Fisher Fellows are required to attend the full session. The KIPP School Leadership Program is designed to provide a significant amount of coursework and training in a short period of time, and therefore all components of the program are required.

A typical day at our summer institute starts with class at 8:00am. During the day, you might have a lecture from a top business school professional, attend a workshop by a KIPP school leader, or observe a community round table where participants are bringing best practices from their schools and sharing them. You could also attend a session by one of KIPP’s two co-founders or participate in a series of case discussions and role-plays to build your skills in leadership. In the evenings, you will meet with the collaborative learning teams and/or prepare for the next day at Institute.

During Institute, Fellows live and work together in dormitory-style housing. Housing and meals are paid for by the KIPP Foundation. Because of the demanding schedule of Institute and the need to collaborate with other participants in the KIPP School Leadership Program and the institute faculty, all Fellows are required to live in Institute housing for the full five/six weeks.

The KIPP Foundation may be able to arrange family housing for Fellows who choose to bring family members to the Institute. However, Fellows are responsible for any costs incurred for the lodging of family members.

You will enter the residency with an individualized plan that is focused on areas for you to grow as a school leader. You will have identifiable areas for improvement and will work closely with your assigned school leader to create meaningful learning experiences. For example, a Fellow might have the responsibility of providing feedback to teachers who are struggling or doing well. A Fellow may also be given assignments in operational leadership, be assigned to help negotiate a vendor contract, or be asked to lead the morning community meeting if he or she is working on inspirational leadership.

The KIPP Foundation provides a variety of support to school leaders once they have opened their school. School leaders can reach out to KIPP Foundation staff for support in operations (legal, financial, facility, accounting, public relations, and marketing); instructional leadership; specific professional development retreats for teachers and office staff; or direct professional development support.

In addition, our regional structure provides schools with oversight from regional Executive Directors. Each region also shares a school support center, which provides joint administrative, operational, and academic resources across the region. Most importantly, the region shares a strategic plan—a roadmap for consistent execution in identifying and cultivating school leaders, maintaining high levels of quality and performance, promoting the sustainability of individual schools, and assessing future growth possibilities.

KIPP regions that are growing must go through a process to ensure the region is prepared to open a new school. Decisions will be made based on the region’s ability to find a facility, and secure a charter and the necessary funding to open your school. Given this, there is no guarantee for Fisher Fellows that they will open schools once they have completed their Fellowship training year.

You can opt into a program through National-Louis University (NLU) to get a Master's degree in Educational Leadership and apply for an administrative certificate upon completion of the degree. The optional program allows participants to receive course credit for the training provided during the fellowship year. Participants in the NLU program will receive nine semester units at the end of the Institute and then will participate in ongoing coursework through NLU. The Master’s program runs from July through April. Tuition payments are the responsibility of the individual participants.

Travel, housing, and coursework costs are paid for by the KIPP Foundation.

Beginning in the summer of 2009, Fisher Fellows will receive a minimum of $60,000 and a maximum of $80,000 for their salary at the time of contract signing. Fisher Fellows will receive the same benefits package as an employee of the KIPP Foundation. Miles Fellows are paid a teaching salary that is equal to what KIPP teachers, with the same years of experience, receive. Miles Fellows receive the same benefits as a teacher at a KIPP school.