School Choice & Charters

KIPP Plans to Double Number of Los Angeles Schools, Students

By Arianna Prothero — October 22, 2014 1 min read
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One of the largest national charter school networks plans to double its presence in Los Angeles by 2020.

KIPP, which stands for Knowledge is Power Program, has announced plans to expand from its 11 campuses in the Los Angeles area to 20 schools in the next six years, while more than doubling its enrollment to 10,000 students.

The charter operator is one of a handful of high-performing, multi-state networks. It operates more than 160 schools across the country which currently serve about 60,000 students.

The Los Angeles-area KIPP schools have been living up to the organization’s reputation for producing strong test scores, according to a story from the Los Angeles Times:

KIPP schools generally perform well when compared by test scores. None more so than the local KIPP Empower. It earned a stratospheric 991 on a scale of 1,000 on California's Academic Performance Index in the spring of 2013, the most recent year the index was calculated. The score is based on state standardized tests. A new test will be used next spring."

The expansion announcement was made Wednesday at a ribbon cutting ceremony for KIPP Empower’s new building.

Los Angeles Unified is the largest school district charter authorizer in the nation. The district currently has about 250 independent and affiliated charter schools serving over 130,000 students, according to the district’s charter schools division.

KIPP’s expansion plans in L.A. come at a time when enrollment in many areas of the district is declining, according to the Times.

RELATED: KIPP Schools Named Winner of 2014 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Charters & Choice blog.