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KIPP Detroit Imani Academy is an open-enrollment, public, tuition-free charter school that is part of the nationally renowned Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). Founded and led by a Detroit native, our school is committed to academic excellence, racial equity, and community.
Together with our families and communities, we create joyful and identity-affirming schools where students achieve excellent and equitable academic outcomes. We believe doing this ensures that our students are prepared to pursue any path they choose — college, career, and beyond — so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.
Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities.
Creating joyful, academically excellent schools.
We are a network of 270 schools with nearly 10,000 educators and more than 160,000 students and alumni. Together, we continually raise the bar for teaching and learning, then ensure success in one classroom travels across our network to hundreds more. And while each of our schools reflects the community to which it belongs, we are united around a shared commitment: a future without limits.
270 KIPP schools
20 states and the
District of Columbia
120,000 students
in grades K-12
45,000+ KIPP
alumni
We prepare every student for college and celebrate all paths to a fulfilling life.
KIPP students graduate from high school
KIPP high school alumni are over four times as likely to graduate from college as their peers.
We have 45,000+ alumni nationwide. By 2025, that network will grow to 80,000.
Superintendent, Candace Rogers, was born and raised in Detroit by a single mother on public assistance who held unwaveringly high expectations.
Those high expectations paved the way for Candace to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Trained formally as an educator, Candace’s dedication and commitment to urban education were recognized early, as she was the proud recipient of the prominent Rockefeller Brothers Fellowship for Minorities Entering the Teaching Profession. This fellowship took her to The University of Virginia in Charlottesville to obtain a master’s degree in educational policy.
Candace taught in both the Detroit Public School Community District and Detroit charter schools, eventually transitioning to school administrator. After turning around a charter school on the East Side of Detroit, Candace joined the KIPP Foundation as Director of Successor Leader Programs. In this role, Candace had the privilege of ushering nine cohorts of national educators into the critical role of KIPP school leader.
While traveling the country to train dynamic leaders was an honor, Candace could never reconcile the deep educational needs of her hometown, Detroit, with using her skills and talent in education in service of other cities. After 10 incredible years at the KIPP Foundation, Candace followed her heart and returned home to found KIPP Detroit Public Schools. This move allowed her to combine all the things she loves: children, Detroit, and KIPP. Candace is now embracing the opportunity to use her experience, knowledge of best practices, and lessons learned from leaders she’s observed over the years, to transform education on behalf of Detroit kiddos.
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that work in collaboration with school districts. Enrollment is open to all students. Charter schools are independently operated and managed with more flexibility than traditional public schools in exchange for increased accountability.
The “charter” that establishes each school is a contract detailing the school’s mission, program, performance goals, and methods of assessment. The charter contract is an operating agreement between the charter school and an “authorizer”, which is responsible for holding charter schools accountable for compliance with their charter contract. An authorizer is an entity which , subject to state law, may be a district school board, university, Mayor’s office, or non-profit organization. KIPP Detroit’s authorizer is Central Michigan University.
Like all public schools, charter schools are:
All KIPP schools are public charter schools. And yet, not all public charter schools are like KIPP. KIPP is a non-profit network of 270 college-preparatory, public charter schools educating early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students.