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A Chance To Make History: What Works And What Doesn't In Providing An Excellent Education For All (2011)

by Wendy Kopp(Favorite Author)

3.27 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

158648740X (ISBN13: 9781586487409)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

PublicAffairs

review 1: All in all, I appreciated the overwhelming affirmation that you can achieve stellar results for the most under-served children if you "believe in them" (i.e. set goals, communicate the goals clearly, get everyone on board (kids, parents, community), work overtime (be a "transformational" teacher), etc.). It is not a function of throwing money or equipment into a school system. Also good to learn that you can achieve incredible results if you treat the school system exactly like any other organization - measurable, results-driven system with accountability and strong leadership at all levels. It's a compendium of lessons that I might have guessed (or believed to be true via movies like "Stand and Deliver") but they mean so much more that they actually happened and these sch... moreool systems are still in place and these leaders are still active.It was a great introduction to the world shakers in the education community. I wish I had a digital version so I could "ctrl + F" to find the parts about particular school systems, leaders.
review 2: TFA's practice of identifying bright, active young people, training them for a very short period of time, and then sending them into the country's worst (i.e. struggling) schools is either a brilliant bit of public policy, or disasters waiting to happen. Fact of the matter is that kids learn better when they have a teacher who wants to be there and TFA only places people (usually post-college kids, but occasionally mid-career/ or retirees) in school districts where no one else wants to teach. A good way to burn out potentially good teachers, but if the point is to impact as many kids as quickly and as meaningfully as possible, then it is at least someone trying to do something. The location of a child's school should not determine their future course in life - schools everywhere should be able to graduate everyone with the ability to read and do simple math, and understand concepts of the world at large. Idealistic, yes? Achievable, TBD? But someone has to do something. less

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