A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All

A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All


Contributor(s): Kopp, Wendy (Author), Farr, Steven (With)


A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All
Contributor(s): Kopp, Wendy (Author)


ISBN: 1610391047 EAN: 9781610391047


Binding: Paperback


Pub Date: February 28, 2012

On the 20th anniversary of Teach For America, its founder offers an inspiring summation of the lessons learned: The achievement gap can be closed, and there's nothing elusive about what it will take.


- Education | Educational Policy & Reform | General
- Education | History
LC Subjects:
-Effective teaching -United States
-Academic achievement -Teach for America (Project)
-History

229 pages

.

Kirkus Reviews (11/15/2010):

An optimistic narrative about school reform from an author with an unusual perspective.

Kopp (One Day, All Children...: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way, 2001) founded Teach for America 20 years ago, and currently serves as its chief executive. Because of her vision, tens of thousands of young men and women decided to instruct the neediest children in schools across the United States, both in decaying urban cores and isolated rural areas. Despite—or possibly because of—their lack of teacher training within colleges, those trained by Kopp tend to improve classroom learning. The author mostly remains in the background as she distills lessons learned from Teach for America enrollees. Although numerous attitudes and skills constitute superb teaching, perhaps the foremost attribute is the belief that disadvantaged children can learn well enough to attend college. Then it becomes a matter of persuading those children about what they can achieve. As Kopp seems to be veering into the never-never land of outsized optimism, she reins herself in by showing how far most schools need to travel to deliver on the promise of a first-class education for every student. A large percentage of the author's examples derive from New Orleans, where school administrators started fresh after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina; Washington, D.C., during the controversial tenure of superintendent Michelle Rhea; and New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chief Joel Klein refused to believe that good was good enough. Kopp labels the desirable educators "transformational teachers." She has observed many such educators, especially those she knows from Teach for America, and interviewed many of them while composing this book. Transformational teachers tend to raise the overall learning abilities and standardized test scores of every student in the classroom, despite the seeming improbability of such an outcome. However, Kopp emphasizes that there are no shortcuts. Even the most successful teachers need time, counted in years, to hone their leadership skills and sell their ways of functioning to suspicious, by-the-book administrators.

No matter the real-world glitches in her proposals, Kopp's insistence on aiming high should make it required reading for all professional educators.
(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Booklist (01/01/2011):
Now in its twentieth year, with more than 8,000 members teaching across the nation and an alumni influencing educational policy and challenging public schools, Teach for America has earned a respected place in the debate on educational reform. Founder Kopp offers a perspective on lessons learned as she spotlights particularly effective teachers and techniques that have helped poor children from underperforming schools to exceed standards and get into college. Following profiles of teachers and schools, she offers lessons that are widely applicable, including the imperative to set high expectations for children from low-income families and a commitment to organizational change. Kopp defends TFA and programs developed by its alumni from charges of cherry-picking students and against the members short-term commitment (two years, though 60 percent exceed that minimum) and argues passionately for transformational change that includes children across the nation, regardless of race or class. She cautions against looking for silver bullets (charter schools) or silver scapegoats (unmotivated students), arguing that there are no simple solutions but a collection of many multilayered answers, some combination of which will work in every school.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)


On Teach For America's twentieth anniversary, its founder offers an inspiring summation of the lessons learned: The achievement gap can be closed, and there's nothing elusive about what it will take

Review Quotes:

"Kirkus Reviews," November 15, 2010
"An optimistic narrative about school reform from an author with an unusual perspective... Kopp's insistence on aiming high should make it required reading for all professional educators."

"More Magazine," January 2011
"Kopp offers a perspective on lessons learned as she spotlights particularly effective teachers and techniques that have helped poor children from underperforming schools to exceed standards and get into college. Following profiles of teachers and schools, she offers lessons that are widely applicable."

"Time.com," January 6, 2011
"The group's 20th birthday coupled with its growing network of alumni means that TFA and Kopp, who is about to publish a new book and is becoming more vocal on school reform issues, will be in the news a lot this year.""Washington"" Post," February 4, 2011"Kopp's new book written with Steven Farr, 'A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Education for All, ' of


Since 1990, Teach For America has been building a movement to end educational inequity in America. Now its founder, Wendy Kopp, shares the lessons learned from the experiences of more than 25,000 teachers and alumni who have taught and led schools in low-income communities during those years. "A Chance to Make History" cuts through the noise of today's debates to describe precisely what it will take to provide transformational education--education that changes the academic and life trajectories predicted by children's socioeconomic backgrounds. Sharing her experiences in some of the country's most underserved communities, Kopp introduces leaders at the classroom, school, and system levels who, driven by passionate belief in their students' potential, have set out to accomplish what most think impossible. Their inspiring stories show how we can provide children facing all the challenges of poverty with an excellent education, and that doing so involves the same ingredients that account for success in any endeavor: visionary leadership that sets ambitious goals and puts forth the energy and discipline to reach them. Kopp's experiences and insights also shine light on why we have not made more progress against educational inequity--how and why the intense but misguided quest for easy answers actually distracts from the hard work of expanding on the growing pockets of success in low-income communities--and on what we need to do now to increase the pace of change. America's failure to educate millions of children to fulfill their potential is a crisis that strikes at our fundamental ideals and health as a nation. "A Chance to Make History" offers tangible evidence that we can change direction and provide all children the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

Review Citations:

Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2010 (EAN 9781586487409, Hardcover)
Booklist 01/01/2011 pg. 22 (EAN 9781586487409, Hardcover)
Library Journal 04/15/2011 pg. 61 (EAN 9781611743920, Compact Disc)
Audio File 06/01/2011 pg. 37 (EAN 9781611743920, Compact Disc)

Contributor Bio: Kopp, Wendy
WENDY KOPP is the founder and president of Teach For America. She lives in New York City.

---