As Superintendent of KIPP Houston, Mike is directly responsible for 18 public charter schools: nine middle schools, seven primary schools, and two high schools. To date, 89 per cent of the KIPPsters who have left the KIPP Houston middle schools have gone on to college. After graduating, Mike joined Teach For America and taught fifth grade in Houston, Texas. In 1994, he co-founded KIPP with Dave Levin and established KIPP Academy Houston a year later. In 2000, he co-founded the KIPP Foundation to help take KIPP to scale

Today, KIPP is a network of 97 high-performing public schools around the nation serving 24,000 children. In 2005, Mike led the effort to start a public K-8 school in Houston for Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans. The school, NOW College Prep (New Orleans West), opened in 10 days. In 2006, Mike and Dave were awarded The Thomas B. Fordham Prize for Excellence in Education, and the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen. In 2008, Mike and Dave were named to the list of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report and received the Presidential Citizens Medal in the Oval Office of the White House.