KIPP: Knowlegde is Power Program, page 1

www.kipp.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

Quote from source:
Most KIPP schools run from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday and 8:30 am to 1:30 on select Saturdays (usually twice a month), and Middle school students also participate in a two-to-three-week mandatory summer school, which includes extracurricular activities after school and on Saturdays. As a result, KIPP students spend approximately 60% more time in class than their peers.[2]

Each middle school student receives a paycheck at the end of the week of KIPP dollars they have earned based on academic merit, conduct, and overall behavior. KIPP dollars may be spent on whatever the student chooses, from books to laptop computers. End-of-year trips are also earned. They vary from school to school. KIPP Academy Middle School in Houston, TX, for example, sends 5th graders to Washington, DC, 6th graders to Utah, 7th graders to the East coast (NY, CT, NJ, MA) to see a Broadway play, go sightseeing or visit colleges, and 8th graders go to the West coast (CA) to places like Yosemite National Park, Disneyland and other tourist attractions, as well as visiting colleges.

When a student decides that he or she would like to attend a KIPP school, a home visit is set up with a teacher or the principal of the school, who meets with the family and student(s) to discuss what is required of the students, the teachers and the parents in KIPP. They all sign a KIPP contract promising that they will do everything in their power to help the student succeed and go to college. Once the contract is signed, the student is a KIPPster for life. KIPP follows the student's progress during KIPP and even after. The purpose of KIPP is for students to gain a college education; so even after they have finished KIPP, students maintain contact with their college counselor at KIPP. KIPP helps them go to private or boarding schools on full or mostly full scholarship, aids them in finding internships and/or summer programs, and even helps students prepare resumes, seek jobs and choose careers.

KIPP is in the process of developing new high schools throughout the nation. Students from well-established KIPP middle schools will have the opportunity to attend these high schools. While KIPP high schools will maintain KIPP's principles, they are focused on providing a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum that encourages increasing degrees of independent responsibility for learning.

I thought I would bring this to the attention of our ATS members here as this movement seems to be gaining speed.

To me where kids go to school for longer than most people work , and then have hours of homework which keep them up to 11pm doing it sounds more hurtful than anything else.

I know they teach "underprivileged" kids and are trying to make them into good students but I think the last thing they need is their childhood taken away from them.

If you cannot get your curriculum taught in the amount of time at school, the last thing that should happen is an excess of homework, leaving the kids with no time well, to be kids.

To me our schooling system is wrong to begin with, Our children go to school and get treated like prisoners, not even allowed to go to the bathroom when need be, which if were at a job could get the labor board involved. They are told when to socialize, and when to think about certain subjects, to me this is "advancing" nothing, but creating a generation of repeater with no real understanding of what they are saying.

I think it is important for children to be children and not have to get in the mess of earning $ for school. what happened to riding your bikes around and exploring on your own?

Any thoughts?

Pred...