CASE STUDY 1

Setbacks. Published in a prominent WENDY KOPP

Extracted from U.S. News & World

Thoughts on failure?

conducted and condensed by Adam

Bryant on 04/07/09 educational journal, then Columbia Here is a story, narrated through several excerpts, of Wendy Kopp, an extraordinary leader. Please read it carefully and then do the tasks at the end of the story. Report., 30/11/06) A. I think that the near-death

University Prof. Linda Darling-Hammond 2.

experiences of our first decade were

Tasks

Wendy Kopp is not one to be deterred by a little word like "No." Not even by the reaction she got from one of her Princeton University professors in 1989 when she proposed starting a sort of Peace Corps for teachers-a program that would recruit fellow Ivy Leaguers to teach for two years in the nation's toughest schools. "My dear Ms. Kopp," responded Marvin Bressler, by his own account, "you are quite evidently deranged."

declared TFA to be "bad for the children ...

completely formative. Every single day, I 1. Apply the various orthodox theories of It's hard to know exactly what Wendy feel like I think differently and probably

[and] bad for teaching"; she cited a lack of leadership that we have studied and

Kopp was expecting back in 1989 when she we operate differently as an organization training and support. The article didn't take Maybe so. But Teach for America, as Kopp's figure out which of the things suggested

came up with a big idea for her senior year

because of that. by the various theories apply to Wendy

long to reach benefactors' desks. Soon, Kopp program came to be known, is now one of

thesis at Princeton University. It's safe to Q. How? Kopps leadership and which seem to

was facing a $1.2 million deficit and a dire the most respected initiatives in American

assume, however, that she didn't expect her stand disproved. choice: cut back or cut out. education. This June, 10 percent of the A. Id say a few things. There are certain

professor to call her "quite evidently

Characteristically, she chose the first. "She graduating class of Yale University applied

lessons you could read them in any

2. Is there anything not touched upon by

deranged," which he did. Kopp, to her

doesn't let obstacles that would deter a lot of to the program, which accepts only about 1

textbook. But because we learned them

any of the orthodox theories that stands

credit, chose not to listen. That turned out to the hard way, theyre just so deeply out from this example?

people get in her way," says Jerry Hauser, a of every 8 applicants. According to a 2005

be a very good thing for millions of kids. ingrained. One of them is the former TFA staffer. "She just keeps survey by an independent research firm, 75 The wild idea Kopp, now 40, had was to launch a U.S. national teaching corps, similar to President John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps, that would recruit young teachers straight out of college and sign them up for a two-year hitch working in some of the country's more disadvantaged schools.

importance of focus, the importance of

fighting."Kopp answered worried percent of principals who were surveyed

saying no. benefactors' phone calls by pointing out the consider TFA members more effective than Since income too often determines where you live, and where you live too often determines whether you'll go to a failing school or a good school, Kopp saw more than a simple problem of educational inequity at work. She saw what she considered the most important civil rights issue of her generation.

article's inaccuracies and countering with a other beginning teachers, and a 2004 study

There was so much good momentum

study of her own. She laid off 60 employees of test scores found that TFA teachers'

and cut the budget by a quarter. "It was students showed higher math score gains

In 1990, Kopp, then 23, raised $2.5 million to get her teaching corps started. From that beginning came Teach for America, a nationwide organization that today boasts more than 5,000 member teachers, who work in communities all over the country and reach 440,000 kids. Some 12,000 veterans of Teach for America have continued their teaching careers, often providing leadership for troubled schools in their own communities.

and we were asking all sorts of good

questions and launching new, good

ideas. But ultimately, they took away incredibly, incredibly stressful," she says. than their peers. A 2005 study showed that 75% of school principals consider Teach for America teachers more effective than other teachers, and a 2004 study showed Teach for America students do better than other kids in math. Deranged or not, Kopp's idea is working and as a result, more kids are learning

resources and energy from the

Stressful, but instructive: No longer would Those are impressive numbers considering Extracted from TIME .3/4/2009 fundamental core of what we do, which

dreams run ahead of money. Now, the staff that just 10 years ago, it was far from

we came back to believing was the most

3 designs a careful long-term plan every five certain that Teach for America would last powerful thing. The obsession with truly

years. United Negro College Fund CEO another day. Believing that only dramatic

staying focused on our core mission, I Wendy Kopp interviewed

Q. So how do you hire people now for staff positions? think, came from that. Michael Lomax, a TFA board member, says efforts could produce acceptable results, A. I start with someones experience, just to try to understand how theyve operated in past environments and challenges, to see if they have demonstrated what we would think of as the core values for Teach for America. And also, Im obsessed with the idea that Are these people who operate with a relentless pursuit of results, and with a sense of possibility and disciplined thought and respect and humility and integrity? Ill just dive into peoples pasts and try to look for evidence of that. And then if it seems like someone would be a fit here, based on that, then well actually try to simulate the job.

Teach for America is one of the best-run Kopp had moved forward with her plans

nonprofits he's seen. "We're learning so before she found the money to finance them.

what goes up comes down, and the need

much from Wendy," he says. At first, the strategy worked: Union Carbide,

Mobil, and other corporations stepped in Kopp has never been a schoolteacher, but

I used to hire people and then realize within two days whether someone was going to thrive or not. So I said, Lets actually find out what were going to know two days in, before someone starts. We just send them a bunch of stuff that they would get otherwise on their first day and say, Here are the challenges of the day. And we ask them to write up their answers, and then actually engage with them deeply so that we understand whether they have the skills that a particular role is going to require.

to be very, very careful. And not to get

too caught up in all of the good stuff and

with funding. But as TFA's novelty wore off she does have much to teach. "She's not

For most of the leadership roles around here, we desperately need people who are going to be visionary thinkers, set big goals and own the responsibility for meeting them.

just to constantly be thinking about

Q. Talk about the art of goal setting. whether we are getting out in front of A. Its all about setting a goal thats at the right intersection of ambitious and feasible. We do see the incredible power of setting stretch goals. But if you set a goal thats really not within reach, people will just give up on it and you really dont have a goal. Weve seen this over and over. I think theres as much talking down of goals around here as there is of actually saying, Youre not thinking big enough.

and start-up grants expired, the money flow charismatic necessarily," says Hauser. "But

ourselves.

slowed. And then, with killer timing, came she leads by getting things done.

Extracted from a transcript of the Article.

interview with Wendy Kopp,