Las Vegas
KIPP Schools is the winner of this year’s third annual Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools, besting two other well-known charter networks, Achievement First and IDEA Public Schools.
The winner was announced here at the 14th Annual National Charter Schools Conference.
The award honors charter systems in urban areas that are improving performance and closing achievement gaps between minority and low-income students and their white or higher-income peers. To the victor, goes $250,000 to spend on college-readiness efforts for its students, such as scholarships and campus visits.
KIPP plans to share the award with the other two finalists to create a scholarship fund announced Eric Schmidt, a school leader in one of KIPP’s Houston campuses, who accepted the Broad Prize on behalf of his organization.
KIPP opened its first two schools in Housten and New York City in 1994, and since then it’s grown into a national network of 141 public charter schools which focuses on college preparation. To determine the winner, the Broad Prize review board looked at data on student outcomes, scalability, size, poverty, and demographics.
“With 50,000 students—larger than 99 percent of school districts in the country—KIPP Schools is providing a quality education to low-income students and students of color on a scale that naysayers of public charter schools thought was impossible,” said Bruce Reed, the president of the Los Angeles-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, in a statement.
The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools is the sister award to the Broad Foundation’s Prize for Urban Education, which recognizes traditional public school districts. KIPP and Achievement First were both nominated last year as well, though neither won. The honor went instead to New York City-based Uncommon Schools.