Case Study: Culture at KIPP King Collegiate (transcript)

Jason Singer: Culture at this school is not something that adults steward for kids. Culture at King is something kids do for all of us. Kate Belden is our assistant principal of student support. She facilitates culture in this building. And Kate’s in charge of everything that leverages the critical thinking that our kids have developed, and focuses them on our virtues as kind of a filter.

Kate Belden: So the four virtues that we focus on here at our school are wisdom, justice, courage and humanity. In leadership we talk a lot about just how we can build and foster those virtues within the school. They watched a film last week, the movie ‘Pay It Forward.’ And so they’re gonna be kinda using that film as a jumping off ground to discuss those concepts.

Gabriela: My name is Gabriela Ballesteros. I’m in eleventh grade. I’m a junior and I go to Kipp King Collegiate High School.

Kate Belden: So Gabi came to us from a traditional middle school, so a non Kipp middle school.

Gabriela: It was horrible. It was a lotta gangs and a lot of bad things and drugs and all that stuff. Like everywhere, you would just see it everywhere.

Kate Belden: In the ninth grade year, really struggled academically. She’s also an English language learner.

Gabriela: When I first came here, it was totally different. I didn’t expect it to be this way. It was like really strict.

Kate Belden: And this year has been, you know, really– doing really well. She’s stepping up in her leadership all the time.

Gabriela: — the idea of ‘Pay It Forward’ is more powerful than him, because even when he chose to take on his–

Kate Belden: The last two years, she’s really just started to own who she is as a person, who she can be as a leader, and I think that’s been pretty transformative for her too.

Gabriela: I’m mostly proud of everything I’ve accomplished here. Like just all the hard work.

I have accomplished so much. I used to like just not care, but they say it’ll be worth it, and now I realize that it is worth it.

Jason Singer: I think what makes these transformation predictable, I think what is kind of the foundation of what happens at King, is that every day that our kids walk through those double doors and come into the school, they know every adult they see throughout the day is someone who knows that they’re capable of succeeding at the level of expectation that’s held for them.

Kate Belden: I think that when every teacher believes truly that all the students in the building can and will learn, and they’re devoted to doing that, day in and day out, not only is it more fun and more joyful to be in the building and to learn and to teach, but it works.

Gabriela: Well, going to college for me, it means a lot, ’cause I’ll be the first one in my family to go. It’ll mean a lot to my mom. She struggled so much with me, and just even for me, ’cause I know what I wanna do in life. But I just– I don’t know how to get there yet.

Kate Belden: I mean, I definitely see Gabi going to college. I think she would be– I think Gabi would be a great teacher.

Gabriela: I wanna be a teacher.

It lightens up my heart how much they do for us, that I wanna do the same. Help people that are like me.

Schools That Work

KIPP King Collegiate High School