Maverick Teachers' Key D.C. Moment

Jay Mathews with a spot-on article about the amazing, growing power of the TFA alumni network.  Mark my words: when the history of three decades of education reform is written 20 years from now (I think we're approximately a decade into at least a three decade struggle), these alums will have played a central role in shaking up and improving the completely unacceptable status quo.  Other than my three girls, the thing I am proudest of was the tiny part I played in helping get TFA off the ground.  It's amazing to see the dreams we had being fulfilled...

To many D.C. parents and educators accustomed to failed promises, the  incoming schools chancellor is just another, albeit the youngest, in a long  line of leaders for the troubled school system.
 

But to thousands of teachers and school leaders in their 20s and 30s on a  mission to remake U.S. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html/United+States?tid=informline>  public schools, 37-year-old Michelle Rhee <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html/Michelle+Rhee?tid=informline>  has become an instant celebrity. She is the first  of their generation of educational innovators named to head a major school  system and a symbol of their efforts to help inner-city children and challenge  the power of education schools, teachers unions and the many layers of central  offices that often smother creativity.
 

It might be called the Teach for America insurgency. The program, begun in  1990, recruits graduates from top colleges to teach in some of the nation's  lowest-performing schools. Rhee, whom Mayor Adrian M. Fenty <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html/Adrian+Fenty?tid=informline>  (D) named as chancellor last week and who  awaits confirmation by the D.C. Council <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/related-topics.html/Council+of+the+District+of+Columbia?tid=informline> , and some other veterans of Teach for America are  pushing into education leadership and policymaking roles.
 

"Sometimes I kid them about their apparent plans for world domination,"  said Kevin Carey, 36, research and policy manager with the Washington think  tank Education Sector. He has many friends who, like Rhee, were in the  program.
 

It's clear, Carey said, that Teach for America is "directing the energies  of a generation of future leaders toward achieving social justice through  improved public education."

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Maverick Teachers' Key D.C. Moment
Program Behind Fenty's School Pick Finds Fame, Clout

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 18, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061701345_pf.html

To many D.C. parents and educators accustomed to failed promises, the incoming schools chancellor is just another, albeit the youngest, in a long line of leaders for the troubled school system.