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Dave Levin has made keeping top principals a priority for his charter network.

As charter schools enter their third decade, the advocates who created them still wonder whether they're living up to their promise. A study released on Wednesday suggests some may be on the right track. The study, conducted by independent research firm Mathematica, is the most rigorous research showing that the Knowledge Is Power Program, an acclaimed national chain of charter schools, provides a significant learning boost to middle school students in multiple subjects.

Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, Can grit be taught? Watch here: CNN.com

Monique Lawrence is a student on a mission. As a rising sophomore at Siena College, she is the first in her family to go to college. She knows she has a lot to prove and is not taking the opportunity lightly. She's pursuing an aggressive course load to become a computer science major with a double minor in entrepreneurship and women studies, plus a certificate in community development.

The Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, is a nationwide charter school network whose "no excuses" model and high academic performance have brought it widespread praise. Critics, however, have questioned whether KIPP schools' academic showing is partly attributable to attrition of low-performing students whose seats often end up going unfilled.

KIPP Academy has found success across the country and now they're taking on a huge challenge in Camden, New Jersey -- a city known by many for its high crime and poverty. Can they succeed here? And will better education help put a dent in crime rates as advocates hope?

[VIDEO] This young teacher is currently responsible for the seventh grade at KIPP Sol middle school in East Los Angeles, where she also puts on robotics classes, in which students learn mathematics while assembling and disassembling robots.

Through my experience leading KIPP, a network of 183 public schools serving largely educationally underserved students, I've come to believe leaders in higher education have never been more interested in charting a new course. And it's clear that when colleges make a priority of sending a message of opportunity, students respond and thrive. Just ask the 41 KIPP alumni who attend the University of Pennsylvania, or the 19 at UNC Chapel Hill, or the 10 at Wesleyan University, or the 34 at Franklin and Marshall, or the 15 at UC Berkeley. If this is possible for students at one network of schools, think what is possible for this nation.

A new study of KIPP, a large charter network serving mainly low-income black and Hispanic students, finds that its schools continue to have a positive impact overall on student achievement...

Kalifey-Aluise and several of her colleagues then began to spell out just what she meant by "tough." Two weeks before the storm, KIPP had opened its first school in New Orleans, KIPP Phillips College Prep-a middle school in Gentilly, with a hundred and twenty students.