Wendy Kopp

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1991

Wendy Kopp

Teach For America

http://www.teachforamerica.org

New York, New York, United States

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

Right now, children growing up in low-income communities do not have the same educational prospects as children in more privileged communities. Socio-economic challenges in low-income communities put added pressure on schools as children come to school with a wide range of needs and disadvantages; yet, our schools and districts do not have the systems, resources and capacity to compensate for these additional challenges. As a result, the educational achievement gap in this country is striking.

Teach For America's mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequality by recruiting our nation's most promising future leaders -- outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors -- to commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and to become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity.

Teach For America serves the students and schools most negatively impacted by this gap in educational outcomes. Teach for America places corps members in 20 urban and rural communities where they exceed traditional expectations to ensure their students progress academically. At the same time, corps members gain the insight and commitment that lead them to be effective lifelong advocates for change from both inside and outside the field of education. Thus, Teach for America is building a powerful movement to eliminate educational inequality, a movement that fuels itself through expanding the opportunities available to children growing up today, and that ultimately aims to effect fundamental, lasting change by addressing the root causes of the problem and implementing systemic solutions.

Now in its second decade, there are 3,100 corps members nationwide who are working to close the achievement gap for more than 250,000 students everywhere from the Bronx and Harlem in New York City, to remote rural areas in the Mississippi Delta, to South Central Los Angeles. In addition, there are more than 7,500 Teach For America alumni who understand the challenges facing students in low-income communities and how the system is currently set up to respond to those challenges.

(Note: Echoing Green supported Wendy Kopp and Teach For America in its early development, but through another grant program.)

Biography:

In her senior thesis as an undergraduate student at Princeton University, Wendy Kopp outlined a plan to recruit outstanding recent college graduates to teach for two years in America's neediest urban and rural schools. Upon graduation, she founded Teach for America, a national corps that would have an important impact on the nation's education system, putting a dent in the lingering problem of educational inequality. She has spent the past 18 years developing the corps into a prestigious, highly regarded program that attracts some of the nation's brightest young men and women. Today, 5,000 corps members reach approximately 440,000 disadvantaged students across the country. They join more than 12,000 Teach for America alumni who are assuming significant leadership roles in education and social reform. These alumni are running some of the most acclaimed schools in low-income areas, advising governors and senators on education policy, and marshalling the resources of companies and law firms toward education reform.

Wendy holds honorary doctorate degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Rhodes College, Pace University, Mercy College, Smith College, Princeton University, Connecticut College, and Drew University. She is the author of One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach for America and What I Learned Along the Way, and is the youngest person and the first woman to receive Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor the school confers on its undergraduate alumni.

Wendy has won several awards, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service (1991), The Kilby Young Innovator Award (1991), Aetna's Voice Conscience Award (1994), and The Citizen Activist Award from the Gleitsman Foundation (1994).  In 1990, Glamour Magazine named Wendy one of their Women of the Year. In 1994, Time Magazine named Wendy among the 40 Most Promising Leaders Under 40. Wendy was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report in 2006.

One Day, All Children...: The Unlikely Triumph Of Teach For America And What I Learned Along The Way by Wendy Kopp "A diary for a social entrepreneur, an inspiring how-to guide for young people with big dreams, a thoughtful tale of the ups and downs of a decade at the stunningly successful non-profit organization"--New York Times