What helps urban students
The woman who transformed her senior college thesis into a national teaching movement addressed some of her toughest critics during a discussion Thursday at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). Since its inception in 1990, Teach For America (TFA) has recruited close to 33,000 college graduates to teach in underserved communities for two years. But some observers argue that the nonprofit, recently named one of the nation’s 100 top places to work by Fortune magazine, has little lasting impact in the classroom. Founder Wendy Kopp defended her initiative as a major catalyst for change. Critics like education historian and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch — who argue that placing a teacher with little to no previous experience in a school for such a limited time can’t help solve the nation’s public education problems — are simply wrong, said Kopp. “This is not about two years,” she said. Teach For America, Kopp...