About KIPP LA

Mission.

The mission of KIPP LA is to teach the academic skills, foster the intellectual habits, and cultivate the character traits needed for our students to thrive in high school, college, and life. Through the success of our students, the KIPP LA team and family will serve as a model of excellence and collaborate with others to raise the quality of education in Los Angeles.

History & Overview.

KIPP LA’s two middle schools, KIPP Academy of Opportunity in South LA and KIPP LA Prep in East LA, opened in summer 2003. KIPP LA’s first elementary school, KIPP Raíces Academy, opened its doors in summer 2008. The two middle schools collectively serve 700 students in grades five through eight. The elementary school serves 100 kindergartners. It will add one grade each year and will eventually serve 500 students in grades K through four. Currently, 57 percent of our students are Hispanic/Latino, 40 percent are African American, and three percent Asian/Pacific Islander. Eighty-three percent of our students are low-income.

The majority of KIPP LA middle school students enroll in our schools performing two years below grade level in the core subjects. But after four years at KIPP LA, they make impressive gains across all subjects: From fifth to eighth grade, the percentage of KIPP LA students scoring at or above the national average has risen from 16 to 61 in reading and from 23 to 83 in math, as measured by the SAT-10, a nationally-administered test.

Expansion Plan.

The opening of KIPP Raíces marks the beginning of KIPP LA’s expansion plan, which calls for a total of fourteen sites – seven elementary schools serving grades K through four, and seven middle schools serving grades five through eight – to be opened by 2016. By 2020, our schools will enroll approximately 6,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.