Wendy Kopp

In Defense of Facing Reality

Diane Ravitch | Posted 05.18.2012

Read More: Public Schools, Michelle Rhee, Child Poverty, Teach for America, Education Reform, Wendy Kopp, Achievement Gap, Education News
Diane Ravitch

We will have to learn to hold two ideas at the same time: We must both reduce poverty and improve our schools. We cannot fix our schools without strengthening the teaching profession and addressing the social conditions that shape their outcomes.

Read Post

In Defense of Optimism in Education

Wendy Kopp | Posted 05.13.2012

Read More: Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Diane Ravitch, Finland Education, Education News
Wendy Kopp

Now that there's more concrete evidence than ever before that it is possible to give our nation's most disadvantaged children an excellent education, we have a moral imperative to step up.

Read Post

Matt Damon And Mom Reject Award Nomination

Posted 01.05.2012

Read More: Nea Friend of Education Award, Matt Damon Teachers, Arne Duncan, Nea Award, Teacher Training, National Education Association, Matt Damon, Teach for America, Nea, Education Award, Tfa, US Department of Education, Video, Education, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Friend of Education Award, Matt Damon Education Rally, Wendy Kopp, Teachers, Matt Damon Education, Dennis Van Roekel, Education News

Matt Damon and his mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, have declined a nomination for the Friend of Education award from the National Education Association'...

Read Whole Story

Hope for the Holidays

Bill George | Posted 02.26.2012

Read More: Leadership, Holidays, Baby Boomers, Christmas, Leadership Development, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Thought Leaders, Business News
Bill George

No doubt the road ahead will be filled with challenges and pitfalls, but, with help, we believe these emerging leaders will replace cynicism with hope, callousness with compassion, and destructive self-interest with creation of societal gains.

Read Post

Teach For America Faces Slew Of Questions, Criticism, Amid Big Expansion

AP | By CHRISTINE ARMARIO | Posted 01.27.2012

Read More: Tfa, English Learners, Florida Schools, Video, Holmes Elementary, The Education Trust, English as Second Language, Tfa Corps Members, Teachers, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Education News

MIAMI -- In a distressed neighborhood north of Miami's gleaming downtown, a group of enthusiastic but inexperienced instructors from Teach for America...

Read Whole Story

Joy Resmovits

Teach For America Gives Detroit A Second Try

HuffingtonPost.com | Joy Resmovits | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Teacher Quality, Education News, Teach for America Detroit, Excellent Schools Detroit, Education, Randi Weingarten, Charter Schools, Detroit Public Schools, Detroit Federation of Teachers, Teachers Unions, Roy Roberts, Wendy Kopp, Teach for America, Education Reform, Michigan Education, Detroit Education, Detroit News

When Brenda Belcher, principal of the new Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine, interviewed Mo Torres this past summer for a position t...

Read Whole Story

Who Is America's Most Influential Educator?

John Merrow | Posted 08.28.2011

Read More: Howard Gardner, Learning Matters, Big Bird, Arne Duncan, Influencers, Education, Diane Ravitch, Pbs Newshour, Joel Klein, E.D. Hirsch, John Merrow, Wendy Kopp, Education Leaders, Education Reform, Most Influential Educator, Education News
John Merrow

A month or so ago, I speculated about the most influential person in American education, then put forth four nominees -- Wendy Kopp, Big Bird, Arne Duncan and Joel Klein.

Read Post

Is Teach for America Becoming 'Too Big to Fail?'

Sam Chaltain | Posted 07.31.2011

Read More: Education, Hbo, Community, Treme, Community Organizing, Wendy Kopp, Teach for America, Education Reform, Teachers, Teaching, Education News
Sam Chaltain

Some hail it as the solution to our need for highly qualified teachers in every classroom. Others define it as a stopgap measure based on a model so transitory to make it dangerous at best, and racist at worst.

Read Post

Seattle's Education Reform Hypocrisy

Sue Peters | Posted 07.26.2011

Read More: University of Washington, Seattle Public Schools, Tom Stritikus, Tfa, Bill Gates, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Gates Foundation, U-Act, Save Seattle Schools Community Blog, Melissa Westbrook, Education News
Sue Peters

On May 11, the University of Washington's College of Education announced it would sponsor Teach for America at its teaching college, providing the missing component to the deal that TFA, Inc.

Read Post

Rahm as "Da Bachelor" and Other Reality TV Ideas for Chicago's Schools

Julie Woestehoff | Posted 05.30.2011

Read More: Paul Vallas, Wendy Kopp, Chicago Schools Superintendent Search, Rahm Emanuel, Waiting for Superman, Cathie Black, Reality TV, SAT Reality Tv, Chicago News
Julie Woestehoff

Education is getting to be more and more like reality TV all the time. A few years ago, no one talked about public schools. Now there are two-day Oprah shows about them.

Read Post

Letters to Wendy: Pre-Service Teachers React to Teach for America

Shaun Johnson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Schools of Education, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Elementary Education, Higher Education, Education Reform, Teacher Preparation, Education News
Shaun Johnson

The thought that people with "higher" degrees can aimlessly teach the most at risk children without proper preparation and training is false and cruel.

Read Post

20 Years On, The Influence Of Teach For America Is A Mixed Bag

John Merrow | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Education, The Influence of Teachers, John Merrow, New Books, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Education Reform, Teaching, Education News
John Merrow

There's no question that Wendy Kopp and Teach for America have changed the landscape and made a significant contribution. But let's not pretend that it's all good or all bad.

Read Post

Rebutting 7 Myths About Teach for America

Whitney Tilson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Andy Rotherham, KIPP Charter Schools, Wendy Kopp, Education Reform, Diane Ravitch, Education News
Whitney Tilson

There are no silver bullets or 100 percent solutions. In reality, we need 100 1 percent solutions -- and TFA is clearly one.

Read Post

When Schools Get in the Way of Education

Susan Sawyers | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Malcolm Gladwell, Tfa, New Orleans Schools, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, School of the Future, Charter Schools, Education News
Susan Sawyers

Wendy Kopp sat down Tuesday night with writer Malcolm Gladwell at the New York Public Library, to talk about education as a way to overcome poverty.

Read Post

Education Policy: Letting Teachers in on the Conversation

Elizabeth Hampton | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Teacher Tenure, Unions, Education Policy, Teacher Research, Standardized Testing, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Education Reform, Education News
Elizabeth Hampton

Individuals who yield greatest influence on what happens in our schools are not actually in our schools. This schism causes a separation between what should happen and what does happen.

Read Post

The Doublespeak of Ed Reform

Sue Peters | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Michelle Rhee, Class Size, Seattle Public Schools, Arne Duncan, Education Nation, Charter Schools, Broad Foundation, Green Dot, Education Reform, Harlem Children's Zone, Wendy Kopp, Teach for America, Race to the Top, Gates Foundation, Waiting for Superman, Education News
Sue Peters

I can't help but wonder if it isn't an intentional Catch 22 that some people are trying to trap our public schools in: setting them up to fail, making it impossible for them to be creative or independent.

Read Post

The No Brainer That We Risk Missing

Peter Sims | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Simon & Schuster, Lobbyists, Gerald Chertavian, Harvard Business School, Vanessa Kirsch, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Year Up, Education Reform, Wall Street Journal, Paul Volcker, Newprofit, America Forward, Politics News
Peter Sims

One thing consistently puzzles me: there's a significant disconnect between policy makers and people who are working on actual problems in the grassroots. Wendy Kopp and Gerald Chertavian should not have to hire a lobbying firm.

Read Post

How You Earn Your Living Can Become The Way You Give Back

Julia Moulden | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Organic Farming, Kye Marshall, Design, New Radicals, Innovation, Teach for America, North South Project, Greenpeace, Rocco Rossi, Kiva.org, Ecosphere Technologies, Doctors Without Borders, Patty Johnson, Solar Energy, Matt and Jessica Flannery, Jamie Kennedy, Stanley Bostitch, Julia Moulden, Ed Sutt, Careers, Wendy Kopp, All for Good, The Giving Life, Giving, Healthy Living News
Julia Moulden

New Radicals are appearing in each field, every sector, and around the world.

Read Post

Jonathan Alter Joins the Teacher-Scapegoating Chorus: I'm Calling BS

Dan Brown | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Michelle Rhee, Class Size, Time, President Obama, Time Magazine, Randi Weingarten, No Child Left Behind, Teach for America, Teacher Unions, Teacher, Barack Obama, Freedom Writers, Newsweek, Jonathan Alter, Dangerous Minds, Education Reform, Wendy Kopp, Washington University, Media News
Dan Brown

Obsessive focus on cleaning house and demanding expecting superhuman performance misses a larger point.

Read Post

What Does the Future Look Like?

Julia Moulden | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Half the Sky, Social Entrepreneurship, Gidon Bromberg, The Giving Life, Nader Khateeb, Munqeth Mehyar, Bart Weetjens, Teach for All, Jenny Bowen, Skoll World Forum, Wendy Kopp, Future, Planning for the Future, The Future, Apopo, Ecopeace, Healthy Living News
Julia Moulden

A group of compassionate human beings met this week to talk not about history, but what's going on right this minute and what the future might just look like.

Read Post

Top 10 Reasons to Become a New Radical

Julia Moulden | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Paul Gillespie, Right to Play, Nicole Pageau, Melissa Dyrdahl, New Radicals, Suzanne Seggerman, Teach for America, Bring Light, Mark Brayne, Ron Dembo, Kids Internet Safety Alliance, Games for Change, Johann Koss, Julia Moulden, Zerofootprint, Wendy Kopp, Tony Leighton, Rwanda, Healthy Living News
Julia Moulden

[This is a refreshed repeat of one of Julia's most popular posts.] When I was writing my book about New Radicals (that is, people like you and me who...

Read Post

Larry Summers -- My Experience

Wendy Kopp | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Harvard, Obama Cabinet, Larry Summers, Obama Administration, Teach for America, Wendy Kopp, Obama's Cabinet, Women's Issues, Treasury Secretary, Politics News
Wendy Kopp

I have seen Summers exert rare commitment both in supporting women and in addressing the issues facing economically disadvantaged communities.

Read Post

Top 10 Reasons to Become A New Radical

Julia Moulden | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Paul Gillespie, Nicole Pageau, Dart Center, Melissa Dyrdahl, New Radicals, Teach for America, Bring Light, Suzanne Seggerman, Mark Brayne, Ron Dembo, Kids Internet Safety Alliance, Games for Change, Nike, Guelph Civic League, Kevin Salwen, Wendy Kopp, Tony Leighton, Rwanda, Zerofootprint, Motto, Happiness, Business News
Julia Moulden

With all the turmoil in the markets, it seems time to write again about people who are doing good works in the financial sector.

Read Post