Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss? | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:


Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss?

A few days ago The Pope of the Catholic church and The Pope of Teach For America, Wendy Kopp, both stepped down.
I was not always thrilled with the direction that Wendy Kopp was steering the organization in, and I publicly aired my grievances in my open letter to her.  I was pleased with her lengthy response.  Though she evaded my most important questions, she did admit that TFA needs to do a better job with highlighting alumni who have different views than the typical “shut ‘em down, fire ‘em, charter ‘em” approach of the most high profile alumni.
Taking over for Wendy are two co-CEOs, Matt Kramer and Elisa Villanueva-Beard.  I haven’t met either of them before.  From what I’ve read, Matt’s expertise is in management, though he has not been a teacher, while Villanueva-Beard was a 1998 corps member.
When I heard about this transition, I was hoping that maybe this was part of Teach For America changing direction and freeing themselves from the entrenchment they have with the corporate reform movement.  Wendy