KIPP NYC is a non-profit network of free, public charter schools that prepare students for success in college and life. In 1995 we started our first middle school, KIPP Academy, in the Bronx. Our goal was to graduate students with the strength of character and academic abilities needed to succeed in life – and in so doing, to prove what is possible in urban schools. We promised to do whatever was necessary to help our students succeed, and we asked them, and their parents, to make similarly rigorous commitments.