Columbus is the proud home to the Buckeye State’s lone KIPP charter school. Serving mainly poor and minority students from neighborhoods on the city’s east side, KIPP has quickly gained notoriety for making a big difference in their students’ lives. In fact, last school year, KIPP was ranked in the top 10 percent of schools in the entire state, with respect to its impact on student academic growth (a.k.a. “value added”). KIPP is helping kids who need help the most to achieve educational success.
Under the guiding leadership of its superb board and executive team, KIPP Columbus has ambitious plans to grow, so that it will educate 2,000 students by 2020. (It presently educates roughly 300 students.) It is building a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility that is set to open in August 2014. The facility is located on the site of a former Columbus State Community College golf course and makes every natural amenity—trees, hills, creeks—an integral part of the learning community. This is a part of Columbus many students rarely see, let alone interact with as part of their science and arts education.
KIPP Columbus is part of the national network of KIPP charter schools, which have 141 schools in twenty states. Rigorous evaluations conducted by Mathematica Policy Research have demonstrated the significant, positive impacts that the KIPP charter model has on their students’ achievement.
During National Charter Schools Week, we salute KIPP Columbus, one of Ohio’s finest charter schools.
