KIPP Austin will empower underserved students to strengthen the academic skills, intellectual habits, and character traits necessary to thrive in, and graduate from, four-year colleges and universities, giving them the freedom to shape their futures and positively affect their communities.
About Us
Founded in July 2002, KIPP Austin was established to meet the needs and desires of the East Austin community where a lack of opportunity has traditionally impeded the path to college for the area's young people. KIPP Austin College Prep is an academically rigorous, college preparatory middle school where students begin climbing the mountain to college in the fifth grade.
What is KIPP?
KIPP stands for "Knowledge is Power Program," and KIPP Austin College Prep is modeled after two successful schools, both named KIPP Academy: one located in Houston and the other in the South Bronx. The program was started in 1994 by Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg, two veterans of the Teach For America program, who envisioned education for the underserved in a new way. KIPP Austin's founder and CEO, Jill Kolasinski, was a pioneer teacher who worked with Feinberg in Houston.
There are currently 66 KIPP schools across the nation, all based on a similar model of education.
KIPP's Five Pillars
