They design teacher evaluation systems, teacher training guidelines and the types of standards that need to be taught. Yet, they have never been teachers themselves.
These days, being a teacher is clearly not a prerequisite for becoming a leader in education. In fact, some of the leaders with the most daily influence on classrooms come from entirely unrelated fields.
Below we have compiled a list of some of the most influential leaders in education who have never been teachers.
Arne Duncan
Getty Images While our nation's foremost leader in education policy has extensive experience in education administration, he was never actually a teacher. In the early '90s, Duncan headed the Ariel Education Initiative, a program that helped fund college for inner-city kids in Chicago. He became the
CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system in 2001, before assuming his post as U.S. Secretary of Education.
Education was an important part of Duncan's early life.
His mother runs an after-school tutoring center, while his late father taught at the University of Chicago.
Bill Gates
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David Coleman
Getty Images David Coleman, a figure The Huffington Post has dubbed "
the most influential education figure you've never heard of," is the president of the College Board, a national educational organization that is currently redesigning the SAT. Prior to his post at College Board, he helped design the Common Core Standards.
While nearly every teacher and student in the U.S. will be impacted by Coleman's ideas, the education influential was never a teacher. During his early years, he was exposed to the world of education through his mother, who was a university president.
Michael Bloomberg
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Tom Harkin
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Janet Napolitano
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Kevin Johnson
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Wendy Kopp
Getty Images Wendy Kopp is the founder and chair of the Board of Teach For America, an organization that puts thousands of recent college graduates and professionals in classrooms with disadvantaged youth. Yet,
she was never actually a teacher herself.
Kopp had the idea for Teach For America as an
undergraduate at Princeton University. Its model recently went global with an organization she founded called Teach for All.
Rupert Murdoch
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Cory Booker
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Mark Zuckerberg
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Do you have anyone to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section.