This week's activity helped introduce the 5- and 6-year-olds to a new school year at KIPP, where conversations about "climbing the mountain to college" begin in kindergarten and classrooms take on the identity of colleges and universities that children can aspire to attend.
For the dozens of students in the designated University of Maryland classroom, where red and black don the walls and pencil holders are labeled "Comcast Center" and "Tydings Hall," the exercise could become a glimpse of the future under a unique partnership announced Thursday.
The University of Maryland, College Park is the latest to enter a formal agreement with the national Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter-school network, committing to actively recruit qualified alumni from KIPP's Baltimore and Washington programs and provide them with academic, financial and social support.
Maryland is the 39th higher education institution — and the first in the state — to join a growing list of college and universities, including Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, in partnering with the high-profile charter-school organization. For 18 years, KIPP has worked to carve paths to college for poor and minority students across the country.
