KIPP Albany Community Charter Elementary School

Mission

The mission of KIPP Albany Community Charter Elementary School is to provide a high-quality educational experience for children in the Albany area by building a shared responsibility and commitment to student success. We believe all children can excel in a nurturing and supportive environment of high expectations, love, and respect, giving them the ability to determine their future success in school and life. Through a relentless focus on academic achievement and character development, we seek to develop in our students the academic and social skills necessary to enable them to discover their unique gifts and talents in order to become responsible public citizens, dedicated to the advancement of one’s self, one’s family and one’s community.

Description

KIPP Albany Community Charter Elementary School is a kindergarten through grade five elementary charter school located in the south end of Albany. In 2020-21, our fifteenth year of operation the school will serve 468 students in grades (K-5). KIPP Albany Community Charter Elementary School is an urban school with a student population in which 93% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch, and 98% of the students are Black or Latino. KIPP Albany Community Charter Elementary offers an extended school day, a longer school year, two instructors per class and school uniforms and a variety of afterschool programs ( including basketball, track, Drama, chess, Step, Close order Drill, Delicate Diamonds, and Band). Our school places a high value on collaboration, community and culture. We have made a commitment to developing an environment that affirms and celebrates the racial and cultural identities of our students and recognizes the critical importance of having teachers and leaders that reflect the communities we serve. As our mission statement states “we seek to develop in our students the academic and social skills necessary to enable them to discover their unique gifts and talents in order to become responsible public citizens dedicated to the advancement of one’s self, one’s family and one’s community”.

Founded in 2005 as Albany Community Charter School, the Elementary School has consistently been one of the top performing Elementary Schools in the City of Albany as well as New York State. ACCS has routinely achieved results which equaled or surpassed the local suburban schools in more affluent school districts. We have been able to actualize our mission statement and belief that “all children can excel if provided a nurturing and supportive environment of high expectations, love and respect”. In 2012 ACCS was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, one of the first charter schools in the State of New York and the first in the City of Albany to receive that distinction. KIPP Albany Community Charter Elementary is excited to join the KIPP network and become a KIPP school to access more of the curriculum, professional development, and other resources available within the network to provide more opportunities to the community we serve.