I’m obviously a huge fan of KIPP, but my love isn’t limited to KIPP by any stretch of the imagination – I love ALL high-performing schools and think it’s incredibly important that there are many other networks of similar “No Excuses” schools springing up and growing rapidly, many of which have close relationships with KIPP: Uncommon Schools, Achievement First, Harlem Success and Village Academies in NY, YES Prep in Houston, Uplift Education in Dallas, Aspire and Green Dot in LA, the Noble Network in Chicago, etc. In addition to visiting KIPPs as I travel the country, I try my best to visit other high-performing schools as well, and was fortunate enough to visit two schools in recent weeks:
1) In Dallas a few weeks ago, I had the genuine pleasure of meeting Rosemary Perlmeter, the founder of Uplift Education (www.uplifteducation.org), and a number of people on her team. Uplift is a VERY impressive network of five K-12 (or on their way to K-12) charter schools in Dallas. I visited Peak Prep (www.peakpreparatory.org) and posted my pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/WTilson/Uplift. I watched two 3rd grade classrooms taught by two new TFA corps members and posted three videos at:
- 3rd grade students reciting the Daily Student Pledge: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyaNH-liSS8
- Students doing the LSU fight song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRQtJ4HqKSY
- Students doing the Florida Gators fight song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3w4iK8T98M
2) Last Friday, I gave my school reform presentation at the annual Achievement First professional development day (similar to the KIPP Summit, where all the teachers and principals get together for learning and a celebration). AF (www.achievementfirst.org) now has 17 schools, split roughly equally between CT and Central Brooklyn, and they’re doing AMAZING work. I posted pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/WTilson/AchievementFirst and posted five videos at (the first four are performances by teachers at four AF schools, and the fifth is Dacia Toll and Doug McCurry addressing the teachers):
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzJe5O6YU2A
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=low_BUaUqM8
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=RucYT-NgEVI
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=68dGVMBGVao
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzxx6WDgTnU