As the principal of Kipp DC, a charter high school in Southeast, Borden is at the center of the media firestorm surrounding charter schools’ role in education reform. Borden’s phone has been ringing even more intensely since the release of the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which featured Kipp as a better alternative to failing traditional public schools. What sparked your interest in working for Kipp?
I taught in Baltimore City for six years, and I remember thinking that I knew so many excellent teachers, but it felt like we were working in a fishbowl and caught up in so many things that don’t work in a traditional system. When I found out about Kipp, I was excited to see a model that said, we’re going to take all these hardworking people and put them in one building and get the families involved.
