David Levin is a native of New York City, where in 1995 he co-founded and currently serves as Superintendent of the KIPP Academy in the South Bronx, a public middle school. After graduating from Yale University, David joined Teach For America where he taught fifth grade in Houston, Texas for three years. In 1994, David earned Teacher of the Year honors from his school in Houston and an outstanding teaching award from Teach For America. In 1994, David co-founded the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) with Mike Feinberg and won the Jefferson Award for outstanding community service for the city of Houston.
KIPP has grown from a program serving 45 students in Houston to two schools
that now serve over 700 students in the South Bronx, NY and in Houston. KIPP
has been featured on ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, ABC’s
Good Morning America, BronxNET TV, NBC’s “The Winner Next Door,”
NY-1, The New York Times, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles
Times, The New York Daily News, and twice on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
In 1997 “Do Something” awarded David the Brick Award for Outstanding
Community Leadership and in 1998 asked him to join their Wasatch group of 50
national leaders under the age of 50. In March of 1999, this group spent an
evening discussing domestic policy with President Clinton at the White House,
and in 2000 David and Mike introduced Laura Bush at the Republican National
Convention.
Since 1997, the KIPP Academy Charter School has been the highest performing
public middle school in the entire Bronx as measured by standardized test scores
in reading and math, improvement in test scores, and attendance. In the spring
of 1999, KIPP was named one of the twenty-five most effective schools in the
nation in low-income communities. Of these twenty-five schools, David was selected
as one of the seven most effective principals. In December 1999, David received
the Robin Hood Foundation’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Hero Award in Education.
As a result, in the spring of 2000, David and Mike were approached by Don and
Doris Fisher, founders of the GAP, to replicate KIPP’s success nationwide.
KIPP National recruits and prepares outstanding educators to open and run high
performing public schools. KIPP National staff also provides ongoing support
and training to school leaders and educators at existing KIPP Schools. To date,
thirteen additional KIPP schools have been founded throughout the United States.
This summer, 17 additional KIPP schools will open throughout the country and
10 new principals will begin their training to open KIPP schools in the summer
of 2004. By 2007, over 20,000 students will attend KIPP schools.
David currently serves as the Superintendent of the KIPP: New York, as a Co-Founder
of KIPP: National, and serves on the Board of Directors of KIPP: National.