Wendy Kopp
Wendy Kopp
Wendy Sue Koppis the CEO and Co-Founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent nonprofit organizations working to expand educational opportunity in their own countries and the Founder of Teach For America, a national teaching corps...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth29 June 1967
CountryUnited States of America
certain great possible
It's possible to train great people, but a person with great training who doesn't have certain characteristics is only going to go so far.
colorful dedicated history learning rich special student
Dartmouth is such a special college with its rich history, dedicated student body, and, as I've been learning more recently, colorful customs.
america suffered
I think Teach for America has suffered from the fact that I did not teach, in a major way. I also think if I had taught, I wouldn't have started Teach for America.
america leadership understand
I think the way to understand Teach for America is as a leadership development program.
people
I think people are attracted to teaching because they want to make a real impact.
kids tests truth ways worse
Tests that sugar-coat the truth only set up our kids to fail in worse ways down the road.
catch hours ideal seven six wake
I'll get up at 5 or 6. I try to catch up on sleep on the weekends, so I'll try to get seven hours of sleep. During the week, my ideal is to go to bed at 9 and wake up six hours later.
additional among bring community deeply engagement grounded insight inspire leaders likely native necessary parents trust
In the long run, we will need many more African-American, Latino, and Native American leaders, and leaders from low-income communities, who can bring additional insight and a deeply grounded sense of urgency, and who are the most likely to inspire the necessary trust and engagement among students' parents and community leaders.
computers lack leadership plays replace reveals role schools student success teachers understanding
The idea that computers can ever replace teachers and schools reveals a deep lack of understanding about the role leadership plays in student success.
case experience taught
In every case where I've seen a transformational school, there's a principal who really has the foundational experience of having taught successfully.
applied head jobs normal rejected teach telling torn voice
I myself was completely torn by the decision to start Teach For America. There was a voice in my head telling me not to do it - to take a more normal path. I did have one thing going for me, which was that I had been rejected from all the other jobs I'd applied to.
behind education focused four grade issue kids levels nine time
I had been very focused on the issue of education disparities in our country, and literally, by the time kids are just nine years old, in low-income communities, they're already three or four grade levels behind nine-year-olds in high-income communities.
inexperience embrace assets
Inexperience is an asset. Embrace it.
school community generations
When school district officials literally laughed at the notion that the Me Generation — this was the label for my generation — would jump at the chance to teach in urban and rural communities, their concerns, too, went unheard. My very greatest asset was that I simply did not understand what was impossible.