Leadership Programs

Meet Our School Leaders

Leadership Competencies

Application Process

School Leader FAQ

Are you interested in founding a high-performing KIPP School? The Fisher Fellowship is a one-year program that prepares Fellows to found and lead a new KIPP school in an underserved community.

The Fellowship includes intensive summer coursework in an academic setting, residencies at high-performing schools, and individualized coaching. Programming is designed to provide in-depth support and insight into processes and best practices involved in school leadership—ranging from establishing an instructional vision to developing efficient operating systems; from recruiting students to hiring teachers; and from curriculum development to community outreach. The Fellowship culminates in the following summer as fellows open their schools to their first classes of students.

• Watch Mike Kerr, founding school leader of KIPP Empower Academy in LA, describe his path to leadership through the Fisher Fellowship. Click here to watch >
• View the profiles of our 2011-12 Fisher Fellows >
• Download the complete Fisher Fellowship Job Description >
• Apply now >

OVERVIEW

The Fisher Fellowship includes:

• Orientation: A three-day orientation in May that provides opportunities to learn more about the programming year ahead, build relationships with new colleagues, and begin problem-solving through a leader’s perspective in a dynamic case study
• Summer Institute: Intensive five weeks of coursework, taught by dynamic faculty and educational leaders, New York at New York University. New concepts uncovered in classroom discussions link to practical application through collaborative peer groups known as Learning Teams and through individualized coaching with a Leadership Guide.
• Residencies: Ten weeks of residencies at KIPP and other high-performing schools to fully immerse fellows in school culture and decision-making processes through interactions with students, parents, and teachers
• Intersessions: Four professional development retreats (Intersessions) for continued coursework
• School Design Plan: Development of a comprehensive business plan that guides all planning, design, and implementation of the fellow’s new school
• Leadership Coaching: Bi-weekly individualized leadership coaching
• Graduate Coursework: Opportunity to pursue a MA in Educational Leadership and an administrative credential through National-Louis University

GOALS

The Fisher Fellowship year is designed to ensure that Fellows gain the many skills and specialized knowledge, as defined by the KIPP Leadership Competency Model, to be successful as a founding school leader at KIPP. The overarching programmatic goals of the Fisher Fellowship year are to empower participants to:

• Shift their perspective from teacher to leader
• Reflect intentionally about who they are as leaders and how others view them as leaders
• Gain tools and expertise to navigate leadership as a set of decision-making processes with inherent trade-offs
• Evaluate what makes high-performing organizations successful and apply those elements to the design and implementation of their own schools
• Utilize instructional leadership skills to observe and develop teachers and design the academic program for their own schools
• Connect with the members of their cohort as learning partners and a support community

DETAILS

Fisher Fellows receive an annual salary based on previous experience (ranging from $60K to $80K), along with a complete benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, and a 401(k) retirement plan. Additionally, all travel, lodging (during KIPP-sponsored events), and coursework is paid for by the KIPP Foundation.

• KSLP Orientation: May (three days)
• Summer Institute: June-July (five weeks)
• Intersession 1: September (one week)
• Intersession 2: November (one week)
• Intersession 3: January (one week)

View Fisher Fellowship frequently asked questions >

Learn more about the application process >
For more information, email apply@kipp.org.