Dave Levin

Dave Levin is the Co-Founder of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Foundation. More than 87% of the KIPP students come from low income families. To date, more than 90% of the KIPPsters graduated high school and more than 80% have gone to college.

After graduating from Yale University, Levin joined Teach For America, where he taught fifth grade in Houston, Texas for three years. In 1994, he co-founded KIPP with Mike Feinberg and established KIPP Academy New York in the South Bronx a year later. In 2000, Mike Feinberg, Dave Levin, and Doris and Don Fisher co-founded the KIPP Foundation to help train school leaders to expand KIPP by opening more KIPP schools. Today, KIPP is a network of 183 high-performing public schools around the nation serving more than 70,000 students.

Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg earned many awards, such as the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an Honorary Degree from Yale University, the Thomas Fordham Foundation Price for Valor, the Charles Bronfman Prize, and the Presidential Citizen’s medal.

Levin and Feinberg’s efforts became the story told by Jay Mathews, in his best-selling book, Work Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created America’s Most Promising Schools. KIPP has also inspired Paul Tough to write How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.

Levin lives in New York City with his wife, Nikki Chase-Levin, and their two sons.

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Wikipedia