KIPP & Laura Reyes win the Robin Hood Heroes Award

KIPP became the only two-time winner of the Robin Hood Heroes Award on Tuesday, where Dave Levin and original KIPPster Laura Reyes were honored (she is now teacher at the very same school, the original KIPP Academy in the South Bronx, at which she was once a student; incidentally, 30% (!) of KIPP college grads work at KIPP today). The 10-min video of Laura’s wonderful speech is posted at: https://www.robinhoodfoundation.org/heroes/laura-reyes.aspx. Here’s her story:

Laura Reyes remembers what it was like to be a kid growing up in the South Bronx. Her life changed one day when David Levin showed up at her home to recruit her to the new public school he was starting in her neighborhood, KIPP Academy. The first lesson her teachers taught her was “Everything Is Possible.” Laura took that lesson and ran with it. In 2006, she became the first in her family to graduate from college. In 2007, she began her teaching career with Teach for America at P.S. 211 in the Bronx. This year, she returned to KIPP Academy to teach seventh and eighth grade math.

Her students are on the same class schedule she had — 7:15 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. — and have an extended school year. But it’s not just the time on task that makes the difference; it’s the teachers’ approach to their work. “People here really, really care. There’s not a teacher here who will say, ‘There’s a kid struggling in my class, and there’s nothing I can do.’ We’ll find a way.”

Today, the South Bronx is home to the poorest Congressional district in the country. But Laura sees a bright future for her students. “We want them to succeed. We want them to be model citizens and change the world, and we’ll do whatever it takes. Don’t you mess with my kids’ education.”

In 1995, KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) opened KIPP Academy in the South Bronx (its second school nationwide). It immediately became the highest performing public middle school in the borough. There are now over 80 KIPP charter schools across the country serving over 20,000 students, with six in New York City educating 1,300 students. On the 2009 New York State tests, KIPP middle schools outperformed their respective districts by 20 percentage points.

Robin Hood was KIPP NYC’s first funder. Since our original investment, we have been helping to bring the program to scale for greater impact on public education in New York City. Recently, we provided programmatic funding for a new KIPP NYC high school and elementary school that opened this fall, with more schools to follow.