KIPP Looks to Recreate School Success Stories

By Caroline Hendrie

Washington

After getting his start by selling bluejeans from a single store in San Francisco, Donald G. Fisher went on to build a clothing empire with 4,200 stores around the world. Now, the founder of the Gap Inc. is helping a handful of enterprising young educators pursue a similarly ambitious dream.

Two years after putting up $15 million to establish the KIPP Foundation, Mr. Fisher announced last week that he and his wife, Doris, were donating another $8 million to help the national nonprofit organization open about 20 new schools a year across the country. Showcased in such venues as the 2000 Republican National Convention and on the CBS program "60 Minutes" in 1999, the two original KIPP schools have garnered attention by coaxing consistently high test scores from disadvantaged middle-schoolers in high-poverty communities.

"I see [KIPP] as a national brand," Mr. Fisher said in announcing the gift during an Oct. 21 visit to a KIPP school here in Washington. "We want to run this like a business so we can replicate this...