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Applications flooded the PEOPLE offices when we asked you to nominate candidates for our first Teacher of the Year competition....Arwen Imai Matthews teaches introductory physics and chemistry to 8th graders at KIPP 3D Academy Middle School in Houston.

Here's how it all started. A decade ago, in my final year of graduate school, I met two educators, Dave Levin, of the KIPP charter school network, and Dominic Randolph, of Riverdale Country School. Though they served students at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, both understood the importance of character development. They came to me because they wanted to provide feedback to kids on character strengths. Feedback is fundamental, they reasoned, because it's hard to improve what you can't measure.

One of the nation's largest charter school organizations has announced an ambitious expansion plan to more than double its enrollment in the Los Angeles area over the next six years. KIPP LA now operates 11 schools that serve about 4,000 students; by 2020, the organization wants to grow to 9,000 students in 20 schools.

At KIPP Academy Charter School in the Bronx, where 100 percent of students are from minority backgrounds, the KIPP ethos of college prep, including qualities like grit and persistence, helps students transcend challenging environmental factors that may hold back their peers in less rigorous schools.

At KIPP 3-D Academy, desire, discipline and dedication form more than the school's motto. It reflects feelings shared around campus every December. Santa surprised Fernando, Gerardo and Krista Acosta with gifts in the library Monday afternoon. They got Legos, clothes, books, gift cards and other things from their wish lists. All are things their mom can't buy.

The national KIPP Foundation, which operates nine schools in the L.A. area, has been awarded the prestigious Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools and a check for $250,000.

"You can't lose them in middle school," said Tracy McDaniel, founder and principal of the KIPP Reach College Preparatory in Oklahoma City. His middle school is a 2012 Blue Ribbon winner, often cited as one of the country's best schools. And that is best among all schools, not just best-performing for a low-income, high-minority school.

KIPP, or the Knowledge Is Power Program, is known for its size-162 schools and 59,000 students nationally and growing-as well as its track record of getting solid test scores out of underprivileged urban and rural schoolchildren.

In New York State, the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx ranked first and Kipp Academy Charter School, also in the Bronx, ranked second.

It's not uncommon to hear high school teachers compare the college admissions process to a race: There are hurdles, baton passes, the final stretch. But being accepted does not mean a student has crossed the finish line.