Dr. Mike Feinberg, Co-Founder of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and Superintendent of KIPP Houston

Dr. Mike Feinberg is Co-Founder of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Foundation and the Superintendent of KIPP Houston, which includes 20 public charter schools:  ten middle schools, seven primary schools, and three high schools.  To date, 90% of the KIPPsters who have left the KIPP Houston middle schools have gone on to college. 

Mike received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and a Masters of Education from National-Louis University in 2005.  In 2010, Yale University awarded Mike an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters.  After graduating from Penn, Dr. Feinberg joined Teach For America and taught fifth grade in Houston, Texas. In 1994, he co-founded KIPP with Dave Levin and established KIPP Academy Houston a year later.  In 2000, he co-founded the KIPP Foundation to help take KIPP to scale.  Today, KIPP is a network of 109 high-performing public schools around the nation serving 33,000 children. 

In 2004, Dr. Feinberg was named an Ashoka Fellow, awarded to leading social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions and the potential to change patterns across society.  In 2005, he led the effort to start a public K-8 school in Houston for Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans.  The school, NOW College Prep (New Orleans West), opened in 10 days.  In 2006, Drs. Feinberg and Levin were awarded The Thomas B. Fordham Prize for Excellence in Education, and the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen.  In 2008, Mike and Dave were named to the list of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report and received the Presidential Citizens Medal in the Oval Office of the White House.  In 2009, they were the recipients of the Charles Bronfman Prize as well as the Manhattan Institute’s William E. Simon prize for Lifetime Achievement in Social Entrepreneurship. 

PowerPoint Presentation given November 15, 2011.