KIPP Inquire Elementary School

A message from the KIPP Inquire Faculty and Staff:

KIPP Inquire is a charter elementary school located in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx. It is located in a newly built facility that it shares with three other KIPP schools. John Carter is the Founding Principal of KIPP Inquire Elementary School. Mr. Carter has been an elementary school educator for 10 years. Prior to founding KIPP Inquire, John was a founding teacher and leader for six years at KIPP STAR Harlem Elementary School.

KIPP Inquire students bring their unique cultures, beliefs, and experiences to the school community. Their identities are assets that inform how we engage and connect with what we learn together. We believe that students learn best when engaging in a productive struggle that helps uncover their limitless potential. KIPP Inquire students will be life-long learners who embrace challenges, reflect on mistakes, and try again.

At KIPP Inquire, we believe that academic achievement and skill attainment are not the only goals of an education. With every investigation, students develop their humanity, empathy, and sense of justice. In each classroom, students engage with a “Wonder Wall” where they share and post their own wonderings throughout the day.

Students work on projects that integrate two or more content areas. For example, a unit about The Five Senses can be paired with Science (investigating the world through your senses) and Math (principles of counting). Project-based learning compels students to use a variety of skills and connect them to other disciplines.

Small group instruction is KIPP Inquire’s guiding principle. We firmly believe that students learn best when they are in a small group setting. Students are in small groups that allow for multiple opportunities to practice new material and a space to make meaningful connections to new content.

KIPP Inquire students are on their own authentic journey and it is our role as educators, in partnership with their families, to affirm student identity, ignite curiosity, and nurture critical thinking.

Students explore their unique identities through self-discovery and our social emotional learning curriculum. Throughout their time at Inquire, students explore the power of their similarities and differences with their peers, and the world.

Students pursue topics and interests that provoke in them joy and wonder. Students create interdisciplinary projects that cause them to think critically, problem solve, and imagine new possibilities. 

Students investigate, evaluate, and question the world around them. From ELA and Math to Science and Social Studies, students dig into content to uncover the truth and generate their own perspectives.