Social worker Juliana Stevenson, Kipp Infinity Elementary School Co-Principal Stephanie Adams, Kelly Meyer, Co-Principal Lindsay Fry, teacher Perri Lawrie attend the American Heart Association Teaching Gardens Planting in Harlem on May 12, 2012, in New York City.
Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for AHA
I was really glad to see this Diane Ravitch post denouncing Teach for America as an institution that "began with a worthy goal" of getting "bright, idealistic college graduates to serve in poor children in urban and rural districts" but has now become "the Trojan horse of the privatization of public education" because lots of TFA alumni go on to do policy advocacy that disagrees with teachers' union positions.
I'm glad she wrote it, not because I agree but because it highlights the important point that in a lot of ways education reform (or "reform" if you prefer) is made of educators.
I thought of this over the weekend at my college reunion, where I met up with an old friend of mine who right after graduation was a science teacher in a public school in New Orleans. Later, she taught at a KIPP-affiliated school turnaround venture in New Orleans and then became founding assistant principal of a KIPP-affiliated school there. Then she moved back to the Boston area and became principal of a charter school called Excel Academy. Now she's a fellow at an nonprofit called Unlocking Potential, but soon she's