C-110 Part 4: Case Studies- Ali, Sehba. Personal interview. March 29, 2013.
- “Five Pillars.” KIPP Public Charter Schools. KIPP
Foundation, n.d. Accessed April 21, 2013.
http://www.kipp.org/our-approach/five-pillars. - “KIPP Houston Public Schools.” KIPP Houston
Public Schools, n.d. Accessed May 1, 2013.
http://kipphouston.org. - This and the remainder this section and
the next is drawn from Mathews, Jay. Work
Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers
Created the Most Promising Schools in
America. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin of
Chapel Hill, 2009. - Mathews, Jay. “Growing Up Fast.”
Philanthropy 2008. Philanthropy
roundtable.org. Accessed April 17, 2013.
http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/
topic/k_12_education/growing_up_fast. - Fernandez, Manny. “At Texas Schools,
Making Do on a Shoestring.” New York
Times. April 9, 2012. Accessed April 17,
2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/us/
for-texas-schools-a-year-of-doing-without.
html?pagewanted=all.
7. Fimble, Chuck. Personal interview. March
29, 2013.
8. KIPP Houston Public Schools.
New Superintendent: Sehba Ali.
KIPP Houston Public Schools. July 2012.
Accessed April 17, 2013. http://kipphouston.
org/node/227.
9. KIPPBayArea.org. KIPP Bay Area Schools, n.d.
Accessed April 17, 2013. http://www.kippbayarea.
org/schools/heartwood.
10. KIPP Houston data reported to the Texas
Public Education Information Management
System (PEIMS). January 15, 2013.
11. Based on 2010 United States Census. ZIP
Codes 77081 and 77401. Incomes are in
2011 inflation-adjusted dollars. American
FactFinder. United States Census Bureau,
n.d. Accessed 19 Apr. 2013. http://
factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/
index.xhtml.
12. Pinkerton, James. “Gangs on Rise, but Idea
to Fight Them Raises Eyebrows.” Chron.
com. Houston Chronicle, November 1, 2012.
Accessed April 19, 2013. http://www.chron.com/
news/houston-texas/houston/article/
Solutions-differ-in-fight-to-curb-increasing-
gang-4001924.php>.- “Information for Parents, Educators and
Community Residents.” Stop Houston
Gangs – Report Gang Crime Tips & Violence –
Texas Gangs. Stop Houston Gangs
Task Force, n.d. Accessed April 19, 2013.
http://www.stophoustongangs.org/default.
aspx?act=frontpage.aspx. - Hart, Betty, and Risley, Todd R. “The
Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million
Word Gap by Age 3.” General Services
Administration, n.d. Accessed April
20, 2013. http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/pbs/
The_Early_Catastrophe_30_MillionWord
Gap_by_Age_3.pdf. - “Past. Present. Future.” KIPP Houston
Public Schools. Accessed April 20, 2013.
http://kipphouston.org/past-present-
future. - “Charter Schools.” Texas Education Agency,
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NOTES
who are better suited for YES, but we have a lot to learn
from each other.”^70
A newer and rapidly growing entrant into Houston’s
education space is Harmony Public Schools. Founded in
2001, Harmony already has 38 schools in Texas, includ-
ing 12 in the Houston metro area, and over 24,000 stu-
dents.^71 In 2010, 23 of its 25 campuses received Exemplary
or Recognized ratings from the Texas Education Agency
and the other two were rated Acceptable.^72 H a r m o n y ’s
schools were designed to make rapid replication possible,
with highly defined management systems, a predefined
curriculum from kindergarten to grade 12, and an online
curriculum management system called CSCOPE.^73 It has
been able to expand throughout the economic recession
by employing a lean operational model that includes
lower teacher salaries (almost $10,000 less than KIPP
per average teacher), in part due to the practice of hiring
Turkish teachers on H-1B visas.74, 75The Next Chapter
The stakes for KIPP Houston are as high as ever. A 2011
study undertaken by the KIPP Foundation sought to
determine the degree to which KIPP schools actually
help their low-income students attend and complete
college. Tracking students who had completed a KIPP
middle school 10 or more years prior, they found that
33 percent had graduated from a four-year college. Thismeans that KIPP’s alumni are graduating from college at
higher rates than the national average for all Americans
(30.4 percent), and at close to four times the rate of stu-
dents from the nation’s lowest-income families. KIPP’s
goal is to increase the college completion rates of its
alumni to match those of the nation’s highest-income
students—about 75 percent.^76
The students in the study had attended Feinberg and
Levin’s original schools in Houston and the Bronx, which
are well known for their excellence. The open question is
whether or not an entire district can replicate that suc-
cess, and KIPP Houston is at the forefront of answering
that question.
Can the district find a sustainable model of public
financing, or will philanthropy need to be a perma-
nent part of the revenue mix? Will they find a way to
recruit, develop, and retain enough teachers to sustain
excellence and execute their planned growth? Can the
district make good on its desire to blaze the trail in
leadership development? Does KIPP Houston need to
modify its organizational structure in order to provide
consistent excellence for its KIPPsters? Finally, what
role, if any, will technology play in addressing these
strategic challenges?
Whatever choices Ali makes, she knows it will con-
tinue to require a lot of smart people working hard and
being nice. And she knows it will involve no miracle
or magic.