Table of Contents
Praise for Wendy KoppsA Chance to Make History
Over the last two decades, Teach For America has become an engine for bringing talent to struggling public schools, and in the process, generated a force for reform. Wendy Kopps recent book, A Chance to Make History, makes that case powerfully.
Huffington Post
An optimistic narrative about school reform from an author with an unusual perspective.... Kopps insistence on aiming high should make it required reading for all professional educators.
Kirkus Reviews
Kopps new book written with Steven Farr, A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesnt in Providing an Excellent Education for All, offers an intriguing summary and analysis of all she has wrought.... Kopps book makes many valid if counter-intuitive points about why Teach For America makes sense.
Washington Post
Kopp offers a perspective on lessons learned as she spotlights particularly effective teachers and techniques that have helped poor children from under-performing schools to exceed standards and get into college. Following profiles of teachers and schools, she offers lessons that are widely applicable.
More magazine
How can we scale up the success of great teachers who have demonstrated again and again that poor children can learn and succeed in school? This is the essential question Wendy Kopp addresses in A Chance to Make History. Acknowledging that there are no easy answers or silver bullets, Kopp calls on us to move beyond ideological differences and territorial disputes and come together to transform American education.
Marian Wright Edelman, president, Childrens Defense Fund
Sure to inspire both current and future teachers.
Library Journal
The strength of A Chance to Make History is in documenting that genuine reform can and is taking place throughout the country.
Education Next
Americas history is a story of struggling to fulfill fundamental ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity. Today the frontier of that struggle is in our schools, and amid all the debate about education reform, this book is exactly what we need. Wendy Kopp draws on the collective wisdom of the thousands of brilliant teachers who have gone through the program she founded. They have become deeply informed agents for transformational change. By reading this book, you can become one as well.
Walter Isaacson, author, historian, and president and CEO of The Aspen Institute
When I picked up A Chance to Make History, I expected to read a glowing history of Teach For America. While Kopp is justly proud of the organization she founded two decades ago, her book goes beyond TFA to explore realistic solutions to the chronic problem of underperforming schools that turn out underperforming students. This exploration makes it a valuable addition to the vast amount of literature on educational reform.
Huntington News
High school freshmen and veteran policy wonks alike will find A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesnt in Providing an Excellent Education for All to be accessible and engaging.
MotherJones.com(picked up byWSJ.com)
[F]illed with inspirational stories of success achieved by individual teachers and students based on passionate beliefs about what is possible... A Chance to Make History has a feel-good message that questions the status quo without tearing it down. Some specific educational techniques described are worthy of replication, although the practical value is more one of marketing strategy. Education idealists will gravitate toward this philosophy of transformation if they desire to make history.
The School Administrator
Great cities need great schools, and A Chance to Make History shows us what it will take to ensure the viability of our cities educational systems. This is a book thats intense in its critique, fascinating in its unexpected lessons, and ultimately hopeful in its prescription for how to realize the promise and potential of quality education for all children.
Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey
We need to find a way to ensure that a childs zip code does not determine the quality of his or her education. Wendy Kopp shows us that this is entirely possibleits happening already in a growing number of classrooms, schools, and districts. And this book shows us how we can replicate these successes on a larger scale.
John Legend, Grammy Awardwinning recording artist and philanthropist
AUTHORS NOTE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION
Since A Chance to Make Historys hardcover publication in January 2011, public discussion around the core ideas it explores has become all the more vibrant. Evidence of the transformational potential of education for children in low-income communities is growing, as school systems like New Orleans continue to raise student performance levels. In districts and states across the country, new leaders are on a mission to dramatically improve outcomes across entire school systems. Among these leaders are several Teach For America alumniincluding Cami Anderson as superintendent in Newark, Kaya Henderson as chancellor in D.C., John White as superintendent in New Orleans, Kevin Huffman as Tennessees state commissioner of education, Chris Barbic as superintendent of Tennessees most struggling schools, and Vanessa Rodriguez as superintendent of the New York City district that serves students in alternative education programs (including youth in the criminal justice system).
Political leaders and advocates, including students families and active teachers, have worked together to effect state-level policy changes grounded in the insights drawn from schools and school systems that are effecting meaningful student progress. While there are many factors fueling these changes, chief among them is a growing critical mass of teachers who are proving the transformational power of education at the classroom level each and every day.
In February 2011, nearly 11,000 Teach For America alumni, corps members, and supporters convened in Washington, D.C., to consider both the extraordinary progress made over the past two decades and just how far we still need to go to realize our vision. The energy in the conference hall was palpable. As Geoffrey Canada, the visionary and determined founder and leader of the Harlem Childrens Zone, reflected, I never thought I would see this moment. I thought we would go down fighting for the cause.... But now Im thinking we could really win!
As the thousands and thousands of teachers, school leaders, elected officials, community organizers, advocates, and leaders left that summit, one question rang in our ears: What role will I play?
My hope is that this book will raise that question anew, and that each of us will decide to step up and lead our movement forward on behalf of millions of children who have the potential to make history.
WENDY KOPP
November 2011
INTRODUCTION
WHEN I FIRST DREAMED up the idea of Teach For America, I envisioned our generation rallying to address the unjust reality that even in our nationa nation that aspires so admirably to be a place of equal opportunitythe neighborhood into which children are born still largely predicts their educational outcomes and, in turn, opportunities in life.
