THE JOURNEY TO 100

THE JOURNEY TO

Race, Equity, Inclusion, and Our Heartbeat

Since we opened the doors of our first middle school, KIPP TEAM Academy, in Newark’s South Ward twenty years ago in 2002, KIPP New Jersey’s mission has been to support every student’s journey to college and a choice-filled life.

Our core values—as defined by our Heartbeat Statement—guide that mission. Four overarching premises are foundational to this Heartbeat: Our community shares a deep belief that students should run to school and be prepared to change the world. Promises we make to children are sacred. Together we know that outstanding teammates (staff!) are crucial in delivering on those promises.

We literally strive to build the most kid-focused schools on earth, driven by an unrelenting focus on equity. We lead with a commitment to create schools where kids explore their identities, develop an ability to excel in college, and cultivate their desire to become socially conscious change agents. Leadership at every level of our organization is in service of our students’ individual and collective futures as leaders in their chosen fields.

We spoke with leaders and teachers (some of them alumni of our schools) throughout our organization to learn more about how they’re engaging in reflection and action as they seek to create more equitable schools that support the success of every child.

Our goal is that 100% of our Heartbeat needs to live 100% of the time for 100% of our students.

Shawadeim Reagans

CHIEF EQUITY STRATEGIST KIPP NEW JERSEY Every five years, KIPP New Jersey develops a strategic plan that establishes goals that will guide our priorities and support our students in the coming years. As we’ve refined our 2025 Strategic Plan outlining those goals, we’ve done that in recognition of the fact that equity is not one component of the work—it is the work. We’ve renamed it our Equity Strategy to reflect this shift. All strategic initiatives, priorities, and goals will be in service of more equitable outcomes for all TEAMmates, students, families, and the communities with which we partner.

When we look across our whole organization to define equity, we believe it looks like offering a consistent experience for all students and their families, at all grade levels, all schools, and in all cities. In practice, this looks like

I’ve worked for KIPP New Jersey for the past eleven years. While creating equitable outcomes for kids has always been a part of our work, in 2018, we realized that we needed to bake equity into the fabric at KIPP Rise Academy to make sure all students were receiving the same quality of education and had the same access to opportunities.

The biggest change we made that year was creating touchpoints for conversations about equitable practices and self-reflection. That meant that just like we made time for setting academic achievement goals for our classrooms and professional development, we needed to prioritize making space to discuss inequities within our region and more specifically on our school campus as well. We hosted about eight gatherings that first year for teachers that were clearly centered on equity and identity work. In the past year, that work has continued and we’ve done deeper dives for staff to help us all understand the different identities and assumptions we bring with us to the classroom. These areas impact our students in many ways, and as educators, we need to bring them to the surface.

gathering data across all of our schools so we can evaluate the experiences of students, staff, and families and identify gaps and areas for improvement. We’re developing a schoolhealth dashboard to capture not just student academic data, but also all of the other ways to measure important components of a school’s culture that supports community, personal growth, and achievement across all student demographic groups.

It’s important that we revisit this plan frequently, because we recognize that just like our practices in 2005 couldn’t accurately reflect our equity work in 2021, what’s equitable in 2025 might not be equitable in 2035. Since equity is our work, we have to have the awareness and consciousness to be responsive to the experience of our students and TEAMmates. What inspires me as we engage in this work is both the growing number of alumni who have joined our staff as well as our many talented teachers and leaders who continue to raise the bar and improve outcomes for children.

Kyle Newsome

SCHOOL LEADER IN RESIDENCE KIPP RISE ACADEMY

Rebecca Fletcher

DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL OPERATIONS, KIPP SEEK ACADEMY My responsibility as a director of school operations is to make sure kids have what they need to learn and teachers have what they need to teach. Showing up for that work with an equity mindset and attitude that is open to growth is critical; I believe that it’s my job to create an equitable environment where staff can bring their full selves to our school. Last year, I engaged in an authentic leadership training session that gave me specific tools I could apply to my role. It brought up the importance of things like being mindful of hearing every single person’s voice, staying curious as I seek to understand staff’s perspective on their work, and creating spaces where people feel comfortable pushing back and feeling heard.

I also apply this lens as our school community builds cohesion and communicates with families. One of the silver linings of the pandemic was creating more opportunities to create a two-way dialogue between our school staff and families. I’m hosting weekly Zoom office hours with families and these sessions have been an excellent way to connect with our community and incorporate their feedback into our practices. It requires vulnerability from me as a leader, and that can be hard, but we’re always trying to improve our work and I’m committed to listening to our community as we do just that.

Anthony Perdue

HISTORY TEACHER KIPP NEWARK COLLEGIATE ACADEMY I graduated from KIPP TEAM Academy in 2010, so I’ve been able to see our organization evolve over time and head in a more inclusive direction. I remember that during my middle school experience, race and racism were discussed transparently and openly in the classroom, but unfortunately, at the time, people using homophobic or sexist language wasn’t uncommon.

Even though we’re still improving in so many ways, it’s inspiring to see where we are over a decade later. In professional development, our team had always discussed race and equity as being central to our work, but starting last year, those conversations shifted to become more inclusive of how other identities like ability or disability, age, and sexuality can intersect with race to create unique challenges and experiences for students and teachers.

Together, we read books like Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele and How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi that prompted conversations about how racial and gender stereotypes impact student learning and growth.

My goal is to see my students for their whole humanity. I do that by listening to them, always.

Tiandra Kimbrough

ASSISTANT SCHOOL LEADER KIPP NEWARK COMMUNITY PREP As a KIPP New Jersey alumnus and current assistant school leader, it’s important to me that the next generation of KIPP students have an equitable experience in our classrooms. When I was part of the founding class at KIPP TEAM Academy in 2002, I had the great Ryan Hill and Shawadeim Reagans as math teachers. Today, as a leader, I want students at KIPP Newark Community Prep to have the same positive and affirming experience. My goal is to remain kid-focused and be mindful of how my practice impacts students.

I’m always asking myself, “If I was a student here, would I be engaged in this classroom?” When I look at texts our students might read, I’m looking at them with a lens of whether or not students can really relate to those texts and their characters. Our school also realized that when we offer tutoring sessions for students, something as seemingly small as how we name that session might impact whether students take advantage of additional support. For example, we re-named our tutoring sessions ‘LitLounge,’ ‘Math Lab,’ and ‘Math After Dark’ and found attendance increased. In middle school, students being able to advocate for the help they need is so important to achieving their goals, and we don’t want to unintentionally discourage that. The lens we’re taking is that equity is not an additional thing we do, it’s central to everything we do every day as we seek to build a high-quality learning experience for kids.