This week, we are excited to profile Kelly Garrett, Executive Director of KIPP St. Louis, an extraordinary leader who has dedicated his career to transforming education for underserved communities.
Teach For America hooked Kelly Garrett into the world of education. After earning a degree in religious studies with a minor in international studies from Rhodes College, Kelly entered Teach For America as part of its 1992 corps in Houston, Texas.
“I studied philosophy and politics in college, which meant I wasn’t prepared for any job really well,” Kelly joked. “The vision that Wendy Kopp has espoused since the beginning was, we want to create high-quality educational opportunities for children who have been denied that right. The idea that we will live to see the day when every kid has access to a high-quality education was extremely compelling to me.”
The year he joined Teach For America, the program sent about 100 teachers to Houston, including notable educators Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg, who would later go on to co-found KIPP. That TFA corps also included the founder of YES Prep (which just reported record enrollment).
“We all saw huge disparities in education,” said Kelly.
Founding a Charter School
Motivated by a profound desire to address these disparities, Kelly decided to stay in Texas after his time with Teach For America. In 1995, he co-founded Project Chrysalis Charter Middle School, one of the first charter schools in Texas, along with KIPP and YES Prep. Project Chrysalis focused on critical middle school reforms and showcased Kelly’s unwavering commitment to educational equity.
“I from day one fell in love,” said Kelly. “I found two passions: I found a passion for helping kids who hadn’t been given excellent educational access…and then I also loved the entrepreneurial side of education where you could build innovative new programs.”
This enthusiasm for innovation has been a driving force throughout Kelly’s educational journey. The idea that you can invent and innovate in the charter school model—in school design, pedagogy, curriculum, and staffing structure—flows through the success of Kelly’s career.
Project Chrysalis provides a smaller, more personalized learning environment for students in Houston’s East End. Under Kelly’s leadership, Project Chrysalis quickly gained a reputation as a high-performing middle school, now serving approximately 300 low-income students. It’s been named a National Blue Ribbon school twice. In 2018, it was recognized as a National Title I Distinguished School—one of two in Texas and one of only dozens nationwide to receive the honor.
“We weren’t bound by a lot of the traditional district rules, and those innovations allowed us to experiment and ended up driving dramatic results for kids,” said Kelly. “That was super exciting at the time.”
The KIPP Chapter
In 2011, Kelly returned to his home state of Missouri and became the Executive Director of KIPP St. Louis.
“We’re probably getting close to over 10% of the public-school students in the city now going to KIPP,” said Kelly. “That to me is an extraordinary responsibility and an incredible love I feel for the teachers that have helped make this happen, the students who are working their tails off to get super smart and the parents that have trusted us. That feels like such an exciting and powerful responsibility…I hope people see me taking that responsibility very seriously and doing the right things for our community.”
Since Kelly took the helm of KIPP St. Louis, the organization has expanded from one middle school to six schools—which now include three elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. In 2017, the first class of “KIPPsters,” who attended the inaugural middle school in 2009, entered college.
“KIPP, when I joined, was about 150 kids on one campus. And today, it’s 2,500 students across six campuses, and I feel so lucky that every single day I get to try things that will benefit children, and I get to see that,” said Kelly. “Whether it’s our recent high school grads that are going to incredible post-secondary institutions or starting careers.”
Support of Teachers
In 2023, in response to community events and leadership changes, teachers at one of the KIPP St. Louis campuses opted to unionize. After about 18 months of negotiations, the teachers voted to decertify the union. While teachers expressed a desire for changes and protections, they ultimately concluded that what was offered by KIPP leadership was a better alternative than what they might have received through collective bargaining.
“Thankfully though, we were able to say we deeply, deeply care about staff,” said Kelly. “That’s imperative for us as leaders to make sure we’re doing, and to me, that’s the best way to run organizations and support schools.”
Competition vs. Community
The way Kelly sees it, charter schools are accountable for honoring their charter promises. In exchange for their freedom, they must take greater accountability to ensure that their operations are effective. If the school is not honoring that, then the school needs to be dramatically reformed or closed.
“It is imperative that we are all getting better and getting better results for kids…I don’t harbor any ill will toward any other charter, district, or private schools. I really want to see every kid have access to a great school.”
Kelly firmly believes that charters should consider each other as part of one movement and team, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in the charter school sector.
“I don’t win at KIPP if another school that exists is losing or is suffering,” said Kelly. “We win when we are demonstrating that excellence can look a lot of different ways and excellence is the expectation for every kid.”
Kelly believes that part of this movement involves collaboration through advocacy. He’s been a vocal champion for the charter school movement, emphasizing that school leaders cannot afford to remain silent. He believes effective advocacy is crucial for the success and sustainability of charter schools and encourages all charter leaders to actively participate.
“Generally, I say if you don’t want to get involved, that’s fine, but be comfortable with the bad decisions that are made on your behalf,” Kelly warned.
Kelly has seen these challenges firsthand in his own state.
“In Missouri, there are well-oiled, well-financed, highly sophisticated organizations and machines that are already doing advocacy work, and they are not favorable to charter schools,” Kelly said. “If charter schools don’t have the same effectiveness at advocating on behalf of our needs, then we will end at some point. It’s critical that we have an equal voice in terms of advocacy around the work that we’re doing.”
And, he said, not engaging in advocacy work can lead to unfavorable outcomes: “You don’t get gifts that you don’t ask for. We lose pretty badly when we don’t advocate on our behalf.”
The Next Chapter
“I sat in a kinder classroom where I was watching kids learn how to read…I haven’t lost that love for watching kids learn and seeing when you create the right systems, structures, and people in front of kids, they rise to the occasion,” reflected Kelly.
Effective June 30, 2025, Kelly plans to step down from his role.
“In my lifetime, I’m going to continue working until every kid has access to an excellent education. Sadly, there’s still work to do,” said Kelly. “That’s an underpinning of my entire career.”
A national search is currently underway for Kelly’s successor, for what he describes as “the greatest job west of the Mississippi.”
“I don’t think the work will ever be easy, and I don’t think the work will ever be more important,” said Kelly. “The work we have to do to get our educational system updated, modernized is a huge undertaking.”