The Equity Project (Tep) Charter School

Featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and on 60 minutes for its radical investment in teachers and outstanding results, The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School opened in September 2009 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. Originally a 5th through 8th grade middle school, TEP now also serves students in Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade and will soon be adding Pre-K, eventually becoming a Pre-K through 8th grade school serving 1200 students. TEP’s mission is to achieve educational equity for students from traditionally underserved communities by utilizing master teachers to provide rigorous Academics, Arts, and Athletics instruction (the 3 A’s). TEP reallocates the public funding it receives as a charter school to pay its teachers an annual salary of $140,000, with the opportunity for a significant performance bonus based on whole-school performance. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, a rigorous long-term study found that TEP produced major achievement impacts, including test score gains equal to an additional 1.6 years of school in Math, with significant gains in Science and English.