10 new charter schools planned for 2019

A celebrated education organization that won approval just last week to open its second Philadelphia charter school is focusing on a bigger goal: growing into a 10-school mini-district over the next 10 years.

Officials from KIPP Philadelphia Schools confirmed that they plan to seek approval and funding from the Philadelphia School District to gradually open eight more charter schools.

When the rollout is completed, the Knowledge is Power Program would operate a cluster of five schools in West Philly, and another five-school cluster in North Philly.

Each cluster would have two elementary schools and two middle schools that would feed into one high school. When fully operational in 2019, the 10 schools would enroll an estimated 4,400 pupils, according to KIPP's plans.

"It's about impact," said Shawna Wells, KIPP Philadelphia's managing director of development. "We want to work with the district, but we want to also be an example to the district."

"There's enough students to go around, and they all deserve the education that we can provide. We have a model that works and a community that needs us, so we're ready, and we want to help make sure that more kids go to college."

KIPP is a national network of 66 tuition-free, college-preparatory public schools. Nationally, 80 percent of the 16,000 students are from low-income homes, and 90 percent are African-American or Latino.

More than 90 percent of KIPP middle-school students move on to college-prep high schools, while more than 80 percent of KIPP alumni go to college, according to KIPP's Web site.

In 2003, the district approved the opening of the KIPP Philadelphia Charter School in North Philadelphia.

The school's 330 pupils in fifth through eighth grade far outperformed district pupils on the most recent state reading and math exam - with the exception of reading results for fifth-graders.

Students at the school, near North Broad Street and Lehigh Avenue, attend classes from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as every other Saturday and one month during the summer.

This amounts to 65 percent more time on task than their district peers, according to the school's literature.

The school will serve as the model for the new KIPP middle school scheduled to open in West Philadelphia this fall.

In announcing her five-year reform plan last week, district Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said failing schools would be closed and reopened under the management of successful school operators.

"The district is looking forward to new partnerships with high-quality education providers as part of the district's new five-year strategic plan. KIPP Philadelphia Schools is among the providers that we look forward to speaking with," said Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman.

But Wells said KIPP's proven model calls for opening new schools one grade at a time, not taking over existing schools.

"That would be out of our comfort zone. We know how to start schools, how to work with communities, how to work with families," she said. "We don't want to change something that's working for us."

Now that approval has been won to open the West Philadelphia school, Wells said, KIPP will concentrate on talking with the district about its expansion plans.

The district has not been formally presented with KIPP's plans, Gallard said.

If approved, those plans call for all 10 schools to be opened by 2016, and expanded to their full grade complements by 2019.

KIPP estimates that the two clusters of schools could boost by 36 percent the number of Philadelphia minority students who go on to attend college. Currently, the district, where 85 percent of the students are minorities, has a dropout rate approaching 50 percent.

To purchase computers, desks and other necessities for the planned schools, KIPP has launched a fundraising drive to collect $11.7 million by 2016, Wells said.

KIPP supporters were alerted to the expansion plans via an e-mail sent last week by Amy Beauregard, KIPP Philadelphia's development manager.