News + Events
KIPP Ascend in the News
Since its founding in 2003, KIPP Ascend has gained significant media attention, including: television segments on Chicago’s ABC7, NBC5, and MBC (Major Broadcasting Cable Network); radio segments on WGN Radio and WNUA 95.5 FM; and recent stories in Austin Weekly News, Chicago Magazine, Notre Dame Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and Catalyst, Chicago’s leading magazine for school reform.
Click here to view video clips.
Highlights of the media coverage of KIPP Ascend can be downloaded below in PDF format (if you're having trouble viewing them, you can download the Adobe Reader for free here).
For earlier press releases, click here.
| KIPP Students Heading to Boarding Schools |
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Some of Austin's students are heading off to boarding school this fall. KIPP Ascend Charter School, 715 S. Kildare, will send some of their graduating eighth graders to out-of-state high schools where they'll attend classes and live in dorms on campus. Read More... |
| Darrionna Barnes' Valedictorian Speech |
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Jun 2008: To be or not to be, that is the question. This is a famous quote written by the eminent author William Shakespeare. In the play Hamlet, from which this quote was taken, Shakespeare questioned the purpose of life and whether we should live through its adversities or die in hopes of landing in a new land of happiness... |
| 2 School Entrepreneurs Lead the Way on Change |
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Jun 2008 New York Times, Sam Dillon: As the founder of Teach for America, a nonprofit program that recruits elite college graduates to teach in low-income schools, Wendy Kopp has presided over many triumphs, and the group’s annual dinner last month... |
| Is there an achievement gap between black and white students in Oak Park? |
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May 2008 Journal of Oak Park River Forest, Jack Crowe: Is there an achievement gap between black and white students in Oak Park? The Illinois School Report Cards say so. I'm not so sure. Could it be the achievement gap is a myth perpetrated by educators and administrators who have no idea how to educate many African-American students? Here's an even more radical concept: If District 97 wants to improve the lot of our African-American students, it needs to look to schools on Chicago's West Side... |
| First Steps: A group of girls from the West Side Step into a brighter future |
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April 2008 Chicago Weekly, Katie Buitrago: Shaquocora Henderson has big plans for her future. “I’m going to be the CEO of my own company,” the eighth grader says. “I’m not going to work for anybody.” |
| Who is one of your most favorite black history figures? |
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February 2008 Austin Weekly, Delores McCain: "One of my favorites is Sojouner Truth. She helped fight slavery and helped slaves become free. She had a real hard life being sold to different slave owners, but she managed to survive." |
| Lessons from KIPP Ascend School |
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January 2008 Daily Herald, Stefania Markovska: I decided to do a little observation at KIPP Ascend Charter School, located on the west side of Chicago. That is a low-income area, but this factor didn't stop the staff and the teachers at KIPP from creating a worthy school program…" |
| A Hidden Treasure Revealed in North Lawndale: KIPP Ascend Charter School |
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Nov 2007 North Lawndale Community News, Julius Goodman: On Friday November 16, over 25 career professionals assembled for Career Day. Destiny White, a seventh grader said, “I am in an 8th grade math class. When I first came to this school, I did not like math and now math is my favorite subject!” |
| KIPP Officials Answer Your Questions |
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Oct 2007 ABC World News Tonight, Steve Mancini: Two days ago we invited you to pose questions in response to Bill Weir's piece on the Knowledge Is Power Program. We sent your questions to the leaders of the program and KIPP public affairs director Steve Mancini's answers are below. |
| New Education Plan: 'Work Hard. Be Nice. No Shortcuts.' |
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Oct 2007 ABC World News Tonight, Bill Weir: All too often in U.S. public education, ZIP code is destiny. Kids from poor neighborhoods are six times less likely to graduate from high school than their middle-class peers, and attempts to close that gap have been the source of exhaustive research and expensive battles. |
| Our Schools Must Do Better |
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Oct 2007 New York Times, Bob Herbert: I asked a high school kid walking along Commonwealth Avenue if he knew who the vice president of the United States was. He thought for a moment and then said, “No.” I told him to take a guess. He thought for another moment, looked at me skeptically, and finally gave up. |
| Fixing "The Gap" is hard but maybe not complex |
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Sep 2007 Journal of Oak Park River Forest, Jack Flynn: Here we go. Two views today. One is from Jack Flynn. He's a retired River Forest manufacturing company owner who has spent hundreds of hours volunteering in Oak Park schools and as an educational advocate on the city's West Side. |
| The Actual Proves the Possible |
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Sep 2007 Journal of Oak Park River Forest, Jim O’Connor: In Oak Park the achievement gap is significant. On the most recent Prairie State Achievement Exam, 81 percent of white students scored at grade level in reading and 86 percent scored at grade level in math. For African-American students, those numbers are 33 percent and 32 percent respectively. |
| Intensity grows as OPRF gap widens |
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Sep 2007 Journal of Oak Park River Forest, Terry Dean: With new test scores reporting the achievement gap has again worsened at Oak Park and River Forest High School and a new superintendent charged with focusing on the issue, added voices are now being heard ... |
| Notre Dame is tops for Teach for America |
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Sep 2007 The Observer, Joseph McMahon: Notre Dame, a university that strives for academic excellence and social service, remains one of the top feeder schools for post-graduate service leader Teach for America. |
| Safer, Smarter Students |
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Sep 2007 Fox News Chicago, Nancy Pender: Mayor Daley has been talking about it for years...longer school days for Chicago public school kids... He believes the extra hours will make students both safer and smarter. It's not a new concept, in fact, it’s an idea already in practice at Kipp Ascend Charter School on the west side. |
| China Hill's Commencement Speech |
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Jun 2007 KIPP Ascend Charter School, China Hill: While you are able to write college entrance essays, understand and analyze works by Shakespeare, and apply the quadratic formula, some of your friends at other schools have only learned how to listen to a teacher in a noisy classroom. |
| KIPP teacher earns honors |
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Mar 2007 Austin Weekly News, Robert Felton: For the students of Timeka Cooley, students of her sixth grade math class at KIPP Ascend Charter School recommended her for acknowledgment at the upcoming North Lawndale Spirit of Youth Awards ceremony. |
| Houston, we'll have a problem -- if Illinois retreats on charter schools |
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Mar 2007 Chicago Sun Times, Collin Hitt: Charter schools in Houston had a very big week. A $65 million week, to be exact. That's how much was donated to the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) to open 42 new charter schools in Houston. |