KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School teacher Josie Santiago helps 8th graders Julian Starcha (left) and Myles Harley (right) with their homework. KIPP students spend nine hours in school each day. (Photo: Harvey Finkle)

It’s 3 p.m. on a Monday, and all around the city – or the country for that matter – kids are filing out of school, headed for waiting parents or the bus.

Not, however, at the KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School. Here, teacher Josie Santiago walks about a room with a dozen 7th and 8th graders, helping them with homework in Spanish, history, math, or other subjects, or with life in general.

“Make eye contact with me,” she tells one student as part of a mini-lecture on slacking off.

A room away, teacher Amoreena Olaya talks with advanced students about Macbeth: “We’re really challenging them,” she says.

Read the full story on The Notebook.