Students at KIPP Ujima Village Academy, an ultra high-performing charter middle school in West Baltimore, are back in class, three and a half weeks before their peers around the state. The school's 300 fifth- through eighth-graders are required to attend a summer session for six and a half hours a day until the regular academic year begins Aug. 27. After that, KIPP will be in session for nine hours and 15 minutes on weekdays, plus three and a half hours on Saturdays.

The school is part of the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a national network of public schools that overall have been successful in educating poor, minority students.