Educators Blaze Trail For Improved Academic Performances
By: Tommy Elder, Jr.
On the battle field to conquer the educational problems in the United States of America- Teach for America receives many accolades as a success story. Sam Dillon of the New York Times reports that a not for profit organization founded by Ms. Wendy Kopp acts as an engine that drives up the educational performances of low-income students.
As her goal in life Ms. Kopp along with her husband Richard Barth intend to modify the teaching environment through the establishment of ``new schools, training better principals and getting more smart young teachers into needy classrooms.``
Established in 1989 and boasting of 14,000 alumni: some of this institution`s graduates created charter schools and blaze trails in the country`s school systems. Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the Washington, D. C. school system stands as an alumnae of Teach for America who achieved her goal. Dave Levin and Michael Feinberg, the creators of KIPP (a charter school venture) in Houston and the Bronx, institutions that operate longer days for school- use the slogan ``no shortcuts` also serve as an example of a different approach in teaching students.
Through her efforts at an educational reform program Wendy Kopp created a $ 120 million budget, and a staff of 835 employees spread out nationally with cooperative ventures aligned with corporations such as Goldman Sachs and Google.
Guided by Richard Barth- a collection of sixty-five charter schools will blossom into an expanding system capable of teaching more public school pupils in Houston, New Orleans, Washington and other places.
Starting in the mid-1990s, renowned educators contend that Teach for America`s two-year assignment guarantees that enrollees quit the program at the time they master the art of teaching. As Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University stated it- ``You lose them just when they are becoming effective.`