As District families gear up for the release of MySchool DC Lottery results, recently installed KIPP CEO Shannon Hodge is celebrating what she calls great enthusiasm for the local education agency (LEA) that controls nearly two dozen schools and programs across the city.
Hodge, a longtime fixture in the local public charter ecosystem, said she’s seen strong community interest in KIPP DC, and other public charter schools for that matter, during EdFest school fairs at Kraken Kourts & Skates and Eastern Senior High School last year.
“There are still a number of families that are interested in learning about exercising choice across the city, whether it’s just charters, whether it’s choice within D.C. Public Schools [DCPS],” Hodge told The Informer. “D.C. has a choice-filled educational landscape, and that’s not changing. I think part of that is a recognition and a commitment from city leaders to allow that kind of family choice.”
In February, Hodge succeeded KIPP DC founder Susan Schaeffler as CEO. Before entering that role, Hodge served as president of KIPP DC for nearly four years. Other roles in the public charter sector include co-founder of Kingsman Academy Public Charter School in Northeast and founding executive director of the DC Charter School Alliance.
As it relates to school choice, Hodge said she saw firsthand, as a member of the Common Lottery Board, D.C. parents’ demands for public charter education. In her role, Hodge often received reports about school choice in the District, all while collaborating with DCPS officials, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the D.C. Public Charter School Board.
Amid criticism about what some advocates call KIPP and Friendship Public Charter School’s overwhelming presence east of the Anacostia River, Hodge said that she and her colleagues are fulfilling a need.
“No one is forced to come to a KIPP school. No one is forced to go to a Friendship school. They are making the choice and they have to actually take steps to choose to go into them,” Hodge said. “Any place where you see a charter school and that charter school is full, that means that there is a demand in the community. It might not be a demand that education advocates on this side or that side or this group or that group may understand, but those families are making an active choice to go there.”
Hodge to Engage Parents in Matters of Public Safety and Academic Programming
There are eight KIPP DC campuses across the District, under which 22 schools exist. In recent years, under the advice of its Parent Advisory Board, KIPP DC has addressed matters of public safety, food quality, extracurricular activities and provision of KIPP paraphernalia.
KIPP DC’s relationship with parents will continue with Hodge at the helm during meetings that run monthly or biweekly. For some Parent Advisory Board members, like Graciela Celada, it helps that KIPP DC hired from within its organization.
“The most exciting part of working with Ms. Hodge is knowing that she already has a sense of the community that we as KIPP are,” said Celada, a Ward 8 parent whose children attend KIPP DC – Pride Academy Public Charter School and KIPP DC – Inspire Academy Public Charter School. “Just seeing her continue to merge her vision along with the KIPP vision, so that we can strengthen these relationships and continue to give our D.C. babies the best education that they can have.”
Celada, in her fifth year as a Parent Advisory Board member, joined the KIPP DC community as the aunt of a student who’s since graduated and matriculated to a college out of D.C. metropolitan area. When time came for her to enroll her children in school, Celada said she chose KIPP DC out of knowledge of what it offers Ward 8 residents.
“We are one of a kind. Our culture, our community looks very different from some of our counterparts — and I say that in the most positive way,” Celada said. “We are serving some of the most underserved kids here in D.C., and to have somebody who already kind of has an understanding of what that looks like makes it really easy.”
Since Celada joined the Parent Advisory Board, KIPP DC, then 19 schools deep, has expanded its footprint to include KIPP DC – Pride Academy Public Charter School and KIPP DC Legacy College Preparatory. Last fall, a teenager was found shot near the latter. In the years following the pandemic, KIPP DC community members also mourned the deaths of KIPP DC College Preparatory Academy students Larelle Washington and Kemon Payne, the latter of whom lost his life near campus.
As KIPP DC continues to celebrate students like basketball phenom Marlon Calhoun, Celada and other parents are working with Hodge to ensure that community members feel safe. That means stopping early dismissals, sustaining a healthy adult presence outside of school buildings, and strengthening KIPP DC’s regional safety team’s collaboration with the D.C. government.
“There are things that happen around the schools that are not necessarily connected to the school [and] safety and security is one thing that Ms. Hodge has assured us that won’t be changing,” Celada said. “There’ll be no less security than we already have, and our babies’ safety and security will always be the number one priority.”
Hodge said parent engagement counts among her top priorities.
“It’s an existential issue for charter schools,” Hodge told The Informer. “If you are not listening to your families, if you are not engaging them, if you’re not being responsive to their needs or providing something that they want, they will just choose to go someplace else because every year they’re making the choice to either come to you or come back to you.”
The newly minted CEO explained that, at the moment, there are no plans to expand KIPP DC’s footprint. Her focus instead lies in further preparing young people for a college-and-career environment that’s constantly evolving.
“Part of our obligation is trying to see what’s in the future,” Hodge told The Informer. “It’s not just what they can see today and say, but it’s also thinking about where the world is going. Where is the workforce going? Where are the colleges going? What will we understand that they will need to build choice-filled lives? It’s also about helping them see that.”
KIPP DC’s Class of 2025 accumulated $10 million in scholarships to U.S.-based colleges and universities. Graduates made that happen with the help of a counseling team that, across each KIPP DC high school, works with more than 600 youth.
They also crossed the scholarship threshold using skills developed in KIPP DC’s NAF academies for business, information technology, and information systems.
“Broadly speaking, we are trying to support students on whatever path they choose,” Hodge told The Informer. “We are not saying everyone has to go to a four-year school. However, we are hoping to prepare everyone to go to a four-year school. And we’re proud to say that 100% of our graduates in last year’s class were accepted to colleges. The purpose is that we are providing them with intense preparation for whatever they want to do after.”
From the moment a KIPP DC student graduates, they enter the KIPP Forward program, through which KIPP DC representatives visit them on their college campuses, provide care packages, connect them with scholarship opportunities, and close other funding gaps.
As the Class of 2026 prepare for the next chapter of their lives, Hodge is looking to expand upon that program, and other facets of the KIPP DC experience, in collaboration with parent organizations operating on most campuses.
“The question I asked them was, ‘How can we engage you better? How can we learn more about what it is that you as families want?” Hodge said as she recounted her February meeting with KIPP parents. “They have great ideas and great recommendations that we’ll certainly take in… So if there are particular extracurriculars that they want, if they want to give feedback to their school leader.”
Shannon Hodge: An Attorney and Charter Leader Ready to Take on Current Challenges
As CEO of KIPP DC, Hodge will have a couple of degrees of separation between her and a Trump administration bent on changing K-12 education. She will also be in conversation with the KIPP Foundation, an entity that supports KIPP schools nationwide in meeting academic standards.
Shavar Jeffries, CEO of KIPP Foundation, told The Informer that Hodge has the skills necessary to navigate troubled waters.
“The diversity of experiences that Shannon has is really essential because in that seat, you face a wide range of challenges,” Jeffries said. “All of the things in terms of ensuring we have the right people leading our schools, they have the right infrastructure to support them, educators have the right data, teachers have the right coaching and training so that they can deliver for kids each and every day.”
Hodge, he said, also shows students and community members how life looks for those who pursue their goals.
“To have an amazing Black women leader like Shannon running our region here is tremendous,” Jeffries said. “That sends a great signal to every student, regardless of background, in KIPP DC that anything is possible for them. We want everybody, regardless of religion, regardless of ethnicity, you name it, who loves our kids, believes in them, and has the expertise to cultivate their genius.”
Hodge’s taking of the helm is happening more than a year after fiscal mismanagement caused Eagle Academy Public Charter School to close its doors. Amid a shake-up in public charter board leadership and a declining birth rate, the D.C. Council is also exploring questions of how to control public charter sector growth.
While Hodge expressed an appreciation for such concerns, she highlighted what she called the District’s deviation from a mission established at the inception of the local public charter sector.
“There is a bargain that charters make that traditional public schools don’t have to make, and that bargain is in exchange for being held accountable, we get certain freedoms. That accountability looks like if we don’t deliver, we have to close,” Hodge told The Informer. “I worry that we’re getting a little bit out of balance on that bargain. The accountability is ramping up in terms of what it looks like for charters to stay open, whether that’s accountability to the public charter school board, whether that’s the council weighing in on things, et cetera. In many ways, you see more bureaucracy, more policies that we’re responsive to, more requirements that don’t necessarily make sense.”
The CEO noted that she stands ready to effect change in that arena.
“I have a lot of work to do here at KIPP DC, so that’s my immediate focus,” Hodge said. “But I do recognize that a thriving KIPP DC and a thriving charter sector is dependent on a policy environment that allows us to thrive. So I might get tapped or pushed to speak up a little bit more.”