Middle School at KIPP Texas

Core Academic Approach: Focus on active, blended learning, where students engage with high-interest, complex texts and real-world topics through digital tools, hands-on activities, and collaborative discussions to develop deep understanding and critical thinking skills.

Key Features:

• Each grade level is organized into six core instructional units with a clear, consistent progression of skills and increasing complexity of texts.
• Each grade level includes at least one dedicated novel study, along with options for grammar, poetry, and creative writing.
• The curriculum utilizes a wide range of texts and topics carefully selected to be relevant and engaging for middle schoolers.

Core Academic Approach: An engaging lesson structure helps teachers lead students through fast-paced practices, encourage perseverance, and foster thoughtful development of understanding through math tasks and discourse. The program is thoughtfully organized, with an intense focus on key concepts that layer over time.

Key Features:

• For grades 6 and 7, the focus is on a Story of Ratios. Students build a strong conceptual understanding of ratios that sets them up for success in Algebra I and beyond.
• In Algebra I, the focus is on a Story of Functions. Students build a strong conceptual understanding of linear, quadratic, and exponential functions that sets them up for success in Algebra II and beyond.

Core Academic Approach: Real-world based curriculum with a focus on science and engineering practices.

Key Features:

• Hands on learning through real-world application
• STEMscopes teaching approach is rooted in the 5E instructional model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate), Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and the flipped classroom where students learn by doing and experiencing rather than passively observing.

Core Academic Approach: Inquiry-based, activity-based, and student-centered curriculum that provides engaging learning experiences for students.

Key Features:

• 6th Grade: Texas World Cultures and Geography
• 7th Grade: Texas History
• 8th Grade: U.S. History to 1877
• Students have access to the digital platform, LearnSmart, which uses personalized, interactive content and questions to help students master a subject by focusing on their knowledge gaps.