Dear Friend of KIPP Baltimore,
 
Walking into Mr. Garritt's classroom at 11:30 am on a Wednesday you notice one thing immediately: the room is silent, except for the click-clack of students typing on Chromebooks.  This group of 38 sixth graders are participating in KIPP Ujima Village Academy's first cohort of an Accelerated Math Program, called AMP, which works at 1.5 times the pace of traditional sixth grade math classes.  AMP, which is designed to prepare students to take Algebra I in eighth grade, combines daily instruction from Mr. Garritt with Khan Academy, an online, adaptive platform in which students practice and master sixth and seventh grade content.


Our quarterly school tours, called Conversations with KIPPsters, are a great way to hear from students in the AMP program.  Our next two tours are taking place on Wednesday, February 21 and Wednesday, April 18 from 8:00-9:00 am.  We hope you'll join us!
Mr. Garritt offers his students friendly competitions and incentives as motivation, including the ultimate prize: students who reach 100% completion of sixth and seventh grade skills receive a free laptop from Mr. Garritt.  One student, Roxanne Smith, has already achieved 98% completion, and is making history. "She has mastered the most material on my Khan Academy tracker in my nine years of teaching," says Mr. Garritt.  
 


"With AMP, I get to work at my own pace. I have two difficult math skills to master in Khan Academy to reach 100% and receive a free laptop. That has been driving and pushing me to work harder," says Roxanne, who has attended KIPP since the first grade and aspires to become the President of the United States.  The grit and self-control that Roxanne exhibits in Mr. Garritt's class translates to her life outside of math class, too.  This spring, Roxanne will be the first female player on KIPP Ujima Village Academy's varsity baseball team.

 
We would love to introduce you to Roxanne and the 1,500 other KIPPsters we serve each day.  If you're interested in attending Conversations with KIPPsters on either February 21 or April 18, please email Kathryn Mastandrea, Director of Development, at  Kmastandrea@kippbaltimore.org. Of course, if either of these dates do not work, we are more than happy to arrange an individual tour to meet our students and staff. We look forward to hosting you at KIPP soon!

   
With gratitude,

Marsha Reeves
Executive Director
KIPP Baltimore