C-100 Part 4: Case StudiesIn late 2011, Sehba Ali was announced as the sole
finalist for the role of KIPP Houston superintendent,
and in July of 2012 she took over the superintendency.^8
Like Feinberg, Levin, and many other KIPP leaders,
Ali started her education career with Teach for America.
After her two-year commitment as an English teacher in
a low-income Houston middle school, Ali taught for one
year at another Houston charter outfit called YES Prep.
She then attended Stanford, earning a master’s degree in
education in 2003. The KIPP Foundation awarded Ali
the Fisher Fellowship, and in 2004 she founded KIPP
Heartwood Academy, located in a low-income neigh-
borhood near San Jose. The school went on to score
among the highest 8 percent of schools in California on
standardized achievement tests.^9 When hired, Ali was
serving as the chief academic officer of the KIPP Bay
Area region.
The “Target Market”
From its founding, KIPP has sought to serve students in
high-minority, low-income communities. School leaders
actively recruit students from Houston’s low-rent apart-
ment complexes and neighborhoods. Of KIPP Houston’s
roughly 8,500 students, 85 percent are low income (as
measured by receiving federal free or reduced-price
lunch assistance), 36 percent are African-American, and
62 percent are Latino. Thirty percent are classified as
having limited English proficiency.^10
The Gulfton neighborhood of Houston was among
the first areas from which KIPP recruited students and
is typical of the areas KIPP schools target. Many of its
residents are immigrants, with 58 percent of residents
born outside the United States. The median family
income is $28,703, with more than half of children under
18 years old living below the poverty level. Of Gulfton
residents aged 25 and older, 18 percent have attained a
bachelor’s degree or higher. Nearly half (47.1 percent)
have not graduated from high school. By compari-
son, in the directly adjacent, affluent neighborhood of
Bellaire, 77 percent of residents have attained a bache-
lor’s degree or higher and less than three percent have
not graduated high school. The median family income
is $184,600; 4 percent of children under 18 live under
the poverty level.^11
Although a bachelor’s degree is increasingly necessary
to secure a middle-class income in the United States, the
socioeconomic realities of KIPP’s target neighborhoods
can make the attainment of higher education a daunting
challenge for students. Many parents have limited educa-
tion and cannot help their children with homework, letalone navigate the process of preparing for and applying
for college admittance. Parents often work in jobs that
require long hours or irregular schedules, making it dif-
ficult to help their children or hold them accountable for
completing school assignments.
Crime is significantly higher in the denser low-
income neighborhoods, and some children have to cope
with exposure to violence and gang activity. Houston
has become an active hub for gangs, with a reported
29 percent increase in the gang presence from 2010 to2012.^12 Gangs actively recruit young people in neighbor-
hoods of high poverty, primarily in middle school but
as early as elementary school, offering camaraderie and
protection.^13
Studies have also found that students from low-
income families generally come to school less well-
prepared to succeed academically. Due in part to
differences in parenting patterns between high-income
and low-income parents, poor children have significantly
lower vocabularies than the children of the professional
classes. Two researchers who observed and quantified
the verbal interactions between high-socioeconomic
and low-socioeconomic parents found that professional
parents directed 2,153 words per hour at their children
compared to parents on welfare assistance, who used 616.
This substantial gap in exposure to language resulted in
a comparable gap in vocabulary when children entered
school. Tests of language skill at the ages of 9 and 10
showed the discrepancy persisted, affecting students’
readiness for higher-level academic work.^14
Despite the challenges facing families in poverty,
many parents in the target neighborhoods are eager to
seize the opportunity KIPP offers to give their children
a good education. In a typical recruitment visit, a KIPP
teacher will sit in the home of a prospective student
and explain exactly what the school requires of parents,
students, and teachers. After answering questions, the
teacher will ask the parents and student if they are will-
ing to make these promises. If they answer in the affir-
mative, the student, parents, and teacher will sign the
“Commitment to Excellence.” The teacher usually takes a
photo of the new KIPPster holding a KIPP sign to cele-
brate his or her decision.
The number of students desiring to “Commit to
Excellence” at a KIPP school exceeds the network’s cur-
rent capacity. From those who sign up, KIPP Houston
decides which students to enroll through a lottery. The
only students not subject to this random selection are
those who have siblings who attended or currently attend
a KIPP Houston school. Students who are not selected in
the lottery are placed on a waiting list. According to KIPP