News

[VIDEO] Tristan Fields helps Emilia and Min get ready at KIPP College Prep High in the Bronx...Students have been practicing for months, with sample tests meant to mirror the new SAT beginning in March.

KIPP Truth Elementary, part of a national network of charter schools and one of four KIPP schools in Dallas-Fort Worth, moved into a new campus on the corner last month. Surrounded by a vacant car wash, old auto shops and shaky single-family homes, the sprawling 77,000-square-foot building looks out of place. But the location of the new building was no mistake. Michael Horne, head of schools for KIPP DFW, said the mission of KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) is to come into communities where children are generally underserved educationally and to provide them with options.

Staffers recommended the board vote yes on the revisions to the charter petition for KIPP Bridge Charter School, located in West Oakland. Many parents and students spoke in favor of the school and the school's leader, principal Lolita Jackson, asking the board to vote yes on an expansion. The school currently serves grades 5 through 8, but the charter revisions will allow the school to expand its services to include transitional kindergarten to fourth grade. "With this elementary school, we will be laying the foundation. We will be training our children in the community of West Oakland on how to study, how to learn, but most importantly, how cool it is to be smart," said Michael Walker, parent of a fifth grade student at KIPP Bridge. "He's actually doing well. He came in reading a little below his level, but they brought him up," said Walker of his son.

It's the afternoon lull at Bongo Java East. Five students from KIPP Academy are tripping over each other behind the counter, trying to show off what they've learned. Grinding espresso beans. Packing the grounds. Steaming milk. "Let's see how this goes," 10th grader Ayanna Holder warns as she knocks a steel pot of scalding milk on the counter. It keeps foam from forming.