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Haley Wilson, a rising senior at KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy, is spending days this summer in the law department at GlaxoSmithKline, learning about patents, trademarks, and what it takes to bring a new medicine to market.

Today, the national network of KIPP charters will announce Rutgers-Camden as the 12th partner on a growing list of universities committed to increasing college graduation rates among low-income students.

One day in mid-October, the strains of Engelbert Humperdinck rang out at KIPP Renaissance High School. The 1960s crooner's recorded voice was competing, however, with the live orders of school administrator and homecoming coordinator Tania Roubion.

Now that the election is over, it's time to look forward to January 2013. That's when the Tennessee General Assembly will convene to start putting into effect the ideas and solutions that were brought up before Election Day.

Dillard University plans Friday to announce it will guarantee full financial support for 10 students from KIPP charter schools each year, as part of KIPP's effort to ensure its alumni finish college. The initiative will quadruple the number of KIPP alumni at Dillard in four years.

As Gov. Pat McCrory begins his first term, I hope he will fulfill his election night promise to "bring this state together." One critical way he can do this - and at the same time improve the long-term health of our state - is by focusing on public education.

A chant resembling a rally at a college stadium rang from a first-grade classroom at the Baltimore charter school KIPP Harmony Academy. "M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D," the children sang, pumping their fists. "Maryland will win!"

KIPP Nashville executive director Randy Dowell said he's willing to open the schools under the state's supervision, though he'd prefer to work with the local district. "The schools we operate are Metro Schools, and we've always been very proud to be part of the MNPS family," Dowell said. "We'd be excited these new schools could be opened with MNPS, but either way we're excited."

The expiring lease comes at just the right time for the national network that runs the nearby Kipp Tech Valley Charter School, which opened 11 years ago and currently enrolls 299 students in grades 5-8. This summer, Kipp will move its middle school across the street and into the space Green Tech currently occupies and then open an elementary school in its old space. The elementary school will start with 100 kindergartners in the fall, and add one grade each year until it's serving about 500 students across grades K-4 by the 2020-21 school year. The principal, Maya Tucci, attended Guilderland public schools. She has worked for the Kipp school network in Albany and New York City for nine years.

Students in the country's largest network of charter schools are learning significantly more than they otherwise would, according to a new report.