Houston Charter School Expansion

Chron.com | 5 new charter school are opening in Houston

Unlike HISD's "compassion fatigue," Houston-area charter schools are expanding, even if gradually. The most promising of the latest news is that KIPP Academy will be tripling it's capacity.

KIPP leaders said they will duplicate the formula used at their 45 other schools nationally to try to prepare every child for college. Students are required to attend school nearly 10 hours each weekday and half-days on Saturday. They are asked to complete hours of homework each night and attend at least three weeks of summer school.

All five of KIPP's Texas campuses that qualify for ratings by the Texas Education Agency were rated "acceptable" in 2005.

The two new middle school campuses, which will be in Sunnyside and the Third Ward, will open in the summer with 90 fifth-graders. Another school will be added for prekindergartners through eighth-graders on the KIPP 3D Academy campus in southwest Houston.

The schools will triple KIPP's Houston enrollment from 1,050 students this year to 3,200 students in five years, Feinberg said.