Houston Trip

I had a GREAT visit to Houston on Monday.  In the afternoon, I visited the main KIPP Houston campus, which has the very first KIPP school (a middle school) and now KIPP SHINE Prep, the first KIPP elementary school (the oldest students are now in 4^th grade; there are more than 800 students at the school!), and the KIPP Houston High School – about 1,700 students in total!  Below are a few pics from my visit and I've posted the rest at: http://picasaweb.google.com/WTilson/KIPPHouston

 

I also enjoyed seeing Aaron Brenner, the founder of KIPP SHINE Prep and now the Head of Primary Schools for KIPP Houston, give an inspirational speech to the 3^rd and 4^th grade students, who had gathered in the auditorium for team-building in preparation for the state TAKS test that they were to take the following day.  Of course I video-taped it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8qjsxAy4c (6 min) (note that Aaron speaks in Spanish as well – KIPP SHINE is a bilingual school and ALL the students must learn Spanish).  I have no doubt that, as they did last year, the KIPPsters will CRUSH the exam, ranking among the very top public school schools in Texas (alongside only the wealthiest, whitest schools with no English Language Learners).

 

Then I went to Rice University which, along with KIPP and TFA, hosted an evening in which I presented my school reform presentation (updated again today; posted as always at: www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/TheCriticalNeedforGenuineSchoolReform.pdf), followed by an AMAZING panel that included Terry Bruner (ED of TFA in Houston), Rob Eissler (R)(Chair of TX House public ed committee), Scott Hochberg (D) (Vice chair of House ed committee), Prof. Steve Kleinberg (Rice University sociologist and Houston's leading demographer), and Terry Grier, the aggressively reform-minded superintendent of Houston Independent School District.