I am pleased to announce the launch of KIPP Philadelphia Schools' new data-sharing initiative called KIPP Open Book. 

Over the past seven years, KIPP Philadelphia Schools has made consistent progress toward eliminating the achievement gap and helping students from Philadelphia's most underserved communities climb the mountain to college. Our students have made large learning gains, as measured by standardized tests such as the PSSAs. They have also developed the life skills, such as grit, integrity, and self-reliance, which are needed to succeed in the region's most demanding high schools.

We are fortunate at KIPP to have been recognized for our results by local and national media, recognition for which we are grateful. The fact remains, however, that this is incredibly hard work, and we still have room for improvement.  There is no magic bullet to cure the ills of the public education system. We, and many of our district, charter, and parochial school colleagues, are doing great things in Philadelphia, but we have a long way to go to give a world-class education to every student that walks through our doors. 

That aspiration, if it is to be fulfilled, must rest on a foundation of transparency and accountability.

Each spring, the non-profit KIPP Foundation releases a Report Card on KIPP schools throughout the country that contains school information and test score data. In addition, KIPP Philadelphia participates in the Foundation's Healthy Schools Initiative, which measures key elements of school health and allows KIPP leaders to assess the performance of their schools and share strategies for improvement with one another.  Finally, the Foundation has contracted with a third party-Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.-to conduct a rigorous longitudinal evaluation of KIPP's impact on middle school students. The first report in this study came out last spring; the next report will be released in late 2012. 

The need for transparency is even greater here in Philadelphia, where the charter movement's promise of more accountability in exchange for more autonomy has not yet been realized. As a result, we have decided to launch KIPP Open Book to demonstrate our commitment to the principles of transparency and accountability.

In order to identify which specific documents/data points to include in KIPP Open Book, we examined the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools' Code of Accountability, the School District of Philadelphia's Report Card, and the Philadelphia Public School Notebook's spring 2010 editorial on charter school accountability. What we ended up with is a list of documents that demonstrate the following:

I. Academic results:

• Our students are succeeding academically, outperforming the district average in math and reading by 8th grade, and building skills and study habits that are keeping them firmly on the path to college.
  

II. Mobility and teacher retention data:

• Student mobility data show that we retain anywhere from 87-90% percent of our KIPPsters every year, which is roughly equivalent to the average mobility rates for neighboring public schools and the national average.
• Teacher rentention data show that we retain 70% of our teachers last year; by contrast, New York City's high-poverty schools retain about 79% of teachers annually (we could not find comparable data for Philadelphia).  We are working hard to improve our teacher retention.
  

III. Financial information:

• Our audit results over the past three years demonstrate our financial integrity and stability.
  

IV. Personnel information:

• Contact information and resumes for every member of KIPP Philadelphia Charter School and KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory's Board of Trustees, who are accountable for KIPP's local operations.
• Job descriptions for every KIPP Philadelphia Schools employee show what we expect our teachers and staff to accomplish.
• Pay scales for our teachers and leaders demonstrate how serious we are about putting everything on the web.
  

We hope this project inspires other charter schools to follow suit and fosters a public dialogue about what an effective accountability system for public schools could look like in Philadelphia and nationwide. 

No matter how much information we post on the internet, the best way to learn about KIPP Philadelphia Schools will always be to visit one of our schools.  Therefore I want to take this opportunity to invite you come see first-hand what makes our schools so special.  If you would like to schedule a visit, please contact Caitlin Wood Sklar, Director of Development, at (215) 704-6402 or via email.

If you have questions, comments, or requests for additional data for us to post, please contact Jonathan Cetel, Director of Strategic Initiatives, at (215) 704-4880 or via email.

Click Here to enter KIPP Open Book

Sincerely,

Marc Mannella
CEO/Founder
KIPP Philadelphia Schools