September is National Literacy Month, which puts renewed attention on how children learn to read.

KIPP Atlanta Schools’ new CEO, Michael Cormack Jr., is bringing more than two decades of education experience, including work connected to Mississippi’s rise in national reading performance, to Atlanta as he leads the charter school network toward ambitious literacy and college-completion goals by 2030.

Cormack was appointed CEO in December and began the role in March 2026 after serving as deputy superintendent of Jackson Public Schools in Mississippi. He is the first Black male CEO in KIPP Atlanta’s history.

For Cormack, however, the significance of the position is less about being the first and more about what his leadership can create for students.

“My most important job is to help to create for our Kipsters the opportunity to pursue their own choice-filled lives,” Cormack said.

His approach to leadership traces back to the classroom.

Cormack grew up in a family of educators and joined Teach For America after graduating from Boston College, initially planning to attend law school. The program instead placed him in a fourth-grade classroom in Indianola, Miss.

“It gave me a real insight into the power of classroom teaching and education, and it changed the trajectory of my life,” Cormack said.

That experience continues to shape how he approaches his role at KIPP Atlanta. Cormack said he frequently visits classrooms to see how curriculum and new initiatives are working and to hear directly from teachers.

“We’re not accustomed to seeing the CEO quite this often,” Cormack recalled hearing since taking the job.

His classroom experience is particularly relevant during National Literacy Month as KIPP Atlanta focuses on improving reading outcomes.

When Cormack arrived in Mississippi, the state ranked near the bottom nationally in fourth-grade reading. From 2013 to 2024, Mississippi climbed from 49th to ninth nationally in fourth-grade reading. In 2024, Mississippi’s Black fourth graders also ranked third nationally among their peers for reading scores, according to the Mississippi Department of Education. Cormack attributes that progress to an aligned strategy centered on the science of reading, teacher and principal training and literacy coaching.

Cormack played several roles in that work, from teaching in the Mississippi Delta to serving as CEO of the Barksdale Reading Institute. The institute helped advance literacy coaching that became part of Mississippi’s 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act.

“We insisted that every elementary teacher, every principal, understood the foundational skills that are necessary to support students to read,” Cormack said.

Those skills included phonics and phonological awareness, along with literacy coaches who worked directly with teachers. Cormack said one lesson from Mississippi was that schools must maintain a high standard when selecting those coaches, prioritizing educators who understand reading science and have demonstrated results with students.

Now, he sees an opportunity to apply those lessons in Atlanta.

KIPP Atlanta’s new four-year strategic plan, “Excellent Schools, Expansive Futures,” sets two major goals for the network to reach by 2030. KIPP Atlanta aims to double the percentage of students scoring proficient or distinguished in English language arts from 25 to 50 percent. By 2030, the network also wants to double the percentage of its high school graduates who earn a four-year college degree within six years, from 32 to 64 percent.

Cormack said literacy instruction at KIPP will emphasize foundational reading skills while also finding ways to make reading meaningful beyond test scores.

The network is also experimenting with CourseMojo, an artificial intelligence-powered teaching assistant in middle school classrooms. Cormack said the technology provides students with feedback on written responses without simply supplying answers.

“We need to, as educators, understand these emerging technologies and leverage them so that our scholars are supported in using them in a way that really deepens their own thinking,” Cormack said.

For Cormack, Mississippi’s progress offers Atlanta more than a success story. It provides a blueprint built around sustained attention to teachers, families and individual students.

As National Literacy Month highlights the importance of reading, Cormack is beginning his first school year leading KIPP Atlanta with a clear benchmark for where he wants the network to be by 2030.

“When we do our jobs well,” Cormack said, students find ways to “engage reading with purpose.”

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