Mike Feinberg

Mike Feinberg is the Co-Founder of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Foundation and the Superintendent of KIPP Houston, which includes 125 public charter schools in twenty states: seventy middle schools, thirty seven primary schools, and eighteen high schools. More than 87% of the KIPP students come from low income families. To date, more than 90% of the KIPPsters graduated highschool and more than 80% have gone to college. Feinberg graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and later joined Teach For America, where he taught fifth grade for three years.

In 1994, he co-founded KIPP with Dave Levin and established KIPP Academy Houston 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 125 high-performing public schools around the nation serving more than 41,000 students.

Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin earned many awards, such as the 2006 S. Roger Horchow Award (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.

Feinberg and Levin’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.