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= KIPP Academy Middle School = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Campus
KIPP Academy Middle schools is a tuition-free public charter school, located in the southwestern area of Houston TX, for students attending 5-8 grade. It has over 400 students enrolled in the school as of the 2016-2017 school year. 70% of its students come from low-income families. 94% of students complete high school and 88% advance into college. The KIPP Academy campus is one of 200 KIPP schools in the U.S. along with KIPP Academy (New York), KIPP Academy (Houston) was the first school established under the KIPP system by Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin.

History
KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) began in 1994 when two former Teach For America teachers, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, created a program with 47 fifth-graders within a public elementary school in Houston, TX. The program's foundation was based on the principles called the "Five Pillars" which are: Feinberg and Levin founded two new schools the following year. Feinberg established KIPP Academy Middle School in Houston. Levin traveled to New York City to establish KIPP Academy Middle School in the South Bronx. In 1999, both KIPP schools were acknowledged as one of the highest-performing schools in their community. KIPP was highlighted on popular broadcasting stations and began to gain recognition, nationally. Doris and Don Fisher, founders of Gap, Inc. appointed Scott Hamilton to identify education-based organizations that could potentially be replicated. After meeting with The Fishers and Hamilton in 2000, Feinberg and Levin were granted $15 million to expand the KIPP success.
 * 1) High Expectations
 * 2) Choice & Commitment
 * 3) More Time
 * 4) Power to Lead
 * 5) Focus on Results

The KIPP Foundation, a non-profit organization, worked to recruit dedicated teachers to open and operate new KIPP schools all around the country. As of 2004, KIPP opened neighboring elementary and high school which allowed KIPP Academy to become a full PreK- 12 school system. In 2005, Richard Barth became the CEO of the KIPP Foundation in order to expand the KIPP community.

About
KIPP Academy has over 400 students enrolled. The student body is 74% Hispanic, 23% African-American, and 2% Asian. KIPP Academy offers an advanced curriculum that emphasizes on reading, writing, STEM and Spanish. Their main focus is to provide students with the proper life skills to be successful in college and later on in life. KIPP Academy has teachers who are committed to maintaining a positive environment for all students and empowering the leaders and productive citizens of the next generation. Despite the constraints of standardized testing, teachers are allowed more freedom with their teaching methods. Students are constantly reminded to be appreciative, patient and humble. At KIPP Academy character is just as important as academics. Teachers try to keep students from creating excuses for themselves and become more responsible for their actions.The KIPP Academy foundation not only has advanced academics but also, stresses the importance of moral values such as responsibility, trust, and honesty.

"Everything must be earned"
In the beginning of fifth grade, all students must sit on the floor for a certain number of days (or months) to earn their desks. Students sit together and start off at the same level, whether they choose to excel and work hard to achieve, merely depends on the student. Everyone has to use paper agendas and folders at the beginning of fifth-grade before earning their agenda and binder. The students learn to be responsible and organized with their handouts. Due to the limited number of lockers available, students must earn a certain amount of KIPP Money to receive a locker. Every grade level has a winter gift which could either be a student-designed t-shirt or sweatshirt with each student's name on them. Students must meet the standard teacher approval in order to earn the winter gift.

Students visit educational and enjoyable places such as movie theaters, ice skating rinks, roller skating rinks, baseball games, museums, water parks, local universities and the rodeo. To go to these field trips students must "earn" the approval from their teachers by participating in the classroom, maintaining passing grades, showing good behavior and working hard throughout the semester. By rewarding the students, it pushes them to do well which brings up the satisfactory behavior.

Towards the end of the school year, fifth graders can earn a trip to a water park or baseball game. Sixth graders go to Utah. Seventh graders go to the Kemah Boardwalk. Eighth graders go to Washington DC. Less than 75% of students earn the end of year trip. Earning a trip out of the city or state has allowed students to practice important skills outside of the campus gates.

Sixth graders get to experience the different aspects of nature by camping outside and taking long hikes around different national parks in Utah. Students get to spend 10 days with their peers and get exposure to physically straining hikes such as the Scouts Landing which teaches students to persevere through tough hurdles. The Scouts Landing hike exemplifies the idea of "climbing the mountain to college" which can be a grueling experience, but satisfying result.

Eighth graders travel 1,400 miles to Washington DC and visit some of America's most important historical monuments and artifacts. Students get to travel throughout the city while being aware of the significant leaders who have made America such a powerful country. KIPP Academy eighth graders are exposed to the different cultures while practicing simple manners and observational skills.

Long hours
The average American student goes to school for six and a half hours a day for 180 days a year, which is about 1,200 hours a year. The average KIPP Academy student goes to school from 7:25 AM - 4:15 PM and stays after school for tutorials or extracurricular activities. Most students spend about nine to eleven hours at school. KIPP Academy students also start the school year earlier and end the school year later than the average public school. The idea behind this is to increase student achievement and outperform standard public schools and foster life-long passions through extracurricular activities.

Environment
KIPP Academy strives to create a safe environment for students to be free from distractions. Teachers and students endorse positivity and respect for each other throughout the school. KIPP Academy has created a foundation to allow students to openly express their opinions to their peers and comfortably learn without being ridiculed or physically harmed by other students.

Demerits and Merits
To maintain high performance, KIPP Academy students are given merits and "strikes" or demerits on their "weekly paycheck." If a student doesn't have their homework or the homework is incomplete, they receive "strikes" on their paycheck. When a student misbehaves or is disrespectful, depending on the action, they will be given a number of strikes. If a student reaches a certain amount of strikes on their paycheck, they are put on the porch. The motto is "if you can't run with the Big Dogs, then stay on the porch." Big Dogs (mascot), represent the students who are responsible and well behaved, the ones on the porch have to wear their shirt inside out to distinguish who is on the porch. Students on the porch are unable to communicate with other peers. They are separated from other students in order to complete all their work and get themselves "off the porch." At the end of the week, every student receives a weekly paycheck which reflects the demerits and merits that that student received in the past week. When a student receives a clean week that means the student was well-behaved and was responsible with their homework. From the weekly paycheck, students can earn "KIPP money" which is accumulated throughout the year and can be spent on tangible items (ex. sweatshirts, pencils, headphones etc.). Students on the porch will not earn money on their weekly paycheck until they get off the porch.

Porch system
There are two different levels of the porch. In level one, students were given demerits from homework and are allowed to communicate with other students. In level two, students were given demerits for conduct reasons (ex. cheating, lying, being late to class etc.). As mentioned before, students on level two porch are unable to speak to their peers and all porch students have to sit separately during lunch and assemblies.

Hits
When a student on the porch has an abundance of demerits on their paycheck, they are able to use KIPP money to invest on themselves getting off the porch. Students are also allowed to write "sets" (porch letters) which are apology letters to their teammates about why they are on the porch. One set of porch letters is equivalent to 70 KIPP dollars which can be spent to get off the porch. Depending on the number of demerits a porch student has, they will have to write a certain number of "sets" to get off the porch

Student Jobs
In the beginning of the school year, teachers will offer jobs for students to partake in for a salary in KIPP money. The students must dress professionally for an interview and turn in a written recommendation letter, along with a personal resume. Students are given a wide variety of jobs such as teacher's assistants, banker, office manager, snack manager, attendance manager, copier, homework checker etc. Students are able to help teachers with grading and organizing which allows their job to be easier. Most of the jobs require students to work during lunch and study hall. Teachers want students who are responsible and will stay on top of their work for these jobs.

Athletics
Below are some of the sports that KIPP Academy seventh and eighth graders get to participate in.

Fall sports Winter Sports Spring Sports
 * Volleyball
 * Cross Country
 * Flag football
 * Soccer
 * Basketball
 * Track
 * Softball
 * Baseball

Electives
It is also important to encourage students to discover their creative passions. All seventh and eighth graders are required to take an elective every semester. Below are some of the electives and afterschool programs that KIPP Academy offers.
 * 1) Theater
 * 2) Drama
 * 3) Art - studio and digital
 * 4) Photography
 * 5) Film
 * 6) Dance
 * 7) Band
 * 8) Video game and web design
 * 9) Robotics
 * 10) Poetry

Admission
KIPP Academy partners with KIPP Shine to admit fourth graders into the middle school. Therefore, leaving very little space for new KIPP Academy students. All applicants must enroll in the KIPP Academy lottery to be accepted into the school. If the child has a brother/sister who is attending KIPP Academy, the child will have priority in the lottery and will have a higher chance of getting admitted into the school. Due to the limited space available, applicants will be waitlisted if not admitted into the school.

References[edit]
1. “Work Hard. Be Nice.” KIPP Public Charter Schools, http://www.kipp.org/news/the-economist-work-hard-be-nice/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.

2. Nisen, Max. “America Needs To Suck It Up And Make School Days Longer.” Business Insider, http://widget.perfectmarket.com/wwwbusinessinsider/tbbfAd.html?wid=tbx-text-links-h&wmd=text-links-h&wpl=TBXbackfill640x110&ppn=tbx-network. Accessed 18 Feb. 2017.

3. http://www.kipp.org/news/the-economist-work-hard-be-nice-

4. “Time for a Test.” The Economist, June 2009. The Economist, http://www.economist.com/node/13832483.

5. Levenick, Christopher. Closing the Gap | Excellence in Philanthropy | The Philanthropy Roundtable. http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/topic/excellence_in_philanthropy/closing_the_gap. Accessed 19 Feb. 2017.