Insight
Wendy Kopp: Educational inequity cannot be solved by classroom teaching alone
“We have here a deeply entrenched and systemic issue that cannot be solved from within classrooms alone, right? This is, no amount of teaching is going to solve this. We need incredible teachers, but we also need some of those people who understand what you und…”
Assertion Partly supported
Wendy Kopp: D.C. schools went from lowest-performing to fastest-improving urban district
“When we started placing teachers in Washington, D.C., it was the lowest performing of all the major urban districts. Its kids were two years behind the kids in Harlem. And, you know, now it's the fastest improving urban school system in the country.”
Insight
Kopp: Social entrepreneurs must invent their own funding sources to survive
“I think it's kind of the definition of social entrepreneurship, like, you know, there aren't natural funding sources, so you almost have to create them, and ultimately, by your existence, help shape them, and until that's happened, it's just excruciating to ma…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Kopp: When TFA entered DC, its students lagged two years behind Harlem
“When we started placing teachers in Washington, D.C., it was the lowest performing of all the major urban districts. Its kids were two years behind the kids in Harlem.”
Opinion
Wendy Kopp: The United States is not a place of equal opportunity
“Our country that claims to be and really aspires to be a place of equal opportunity really isn't one.”
Insight
Wendy Kopp: National service programs need 500 members for national significance
“I had looked at the origin of the Peace Corps, and there's this incredible paper, and the paper was this beautiful analysis that concluded that it had to start with 500 Core members. That That was the smallest possible number that would seem nationally importa…”
What-if
Wendy Kopp believes someone else would have founded Teach For America
“Like, I mean, it's one of those ideas that if I hadn't pursued it, someone would have figured it out in the couple years after. I'm really convinced of that.”
Insight
Wendy Kopp: Social entrepreneurs must invent their own funding sources to survive
“There aren't natural funding sources, so you almost have to create them, and ultimately, by your existence, help shape them, and until that's happened, it's just excruciating to make it.”
Assertion Supported
Kopp's Princeton thesis for Teach For America budgeted $2.5M for 500 teachers
“So the whole plan was to inspire thousands of people to apply in the first year and select and train in place. No fewer than 500 of them in, you know, five or six communities across the country. And I had a budget saying this was going to cost two and a half m…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kopp secured seven corporate meetings by cold-writing to CEOs
“So I wrote letters to everyone quoted in the article and a few others, by the way, I would pick out like, you know, Delta Airlines and write to the CEO. I mean, this is, you know, the advantage of inexperience. But believe it or not, I got seven meetings off t…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mobil seeded Teach For America with $26K routed through Princeton University
“And I met another executive at Mobile, who was just, I loved the idea, and said, you know, what do you need to try to make it work? And I said I needed 26,000 dollars. I had developed a budget saying that's what I needed to do to, you know, needed to spend thr…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
TFA's first Yale recruitment flyer generated 170 voicemails in a single weekend
“One of the first people we found was a guy at Yale, actually, who Drafted this flyer, and he was really the first one. He put it under doors, and within one weekend, he had 170 voicemail messages on his answering machine.”
Assertion Supported
Kopp: Teach For America received 2,500 applications for its inaugural cohort
“We had 2500 people apply.”
Assertion Supported
Ross Perot offered a $500,000 matching grant to launch Teach For America
“He said, I'll tell you what, I will give you 500,000 dollars if you can raise the other 1.5 million.”
What-if
During early struggles, Kopp would have surrendered Teach For America to anyone
“I mean, honestly, if someone had appeared who I felt like could get us out of this and get us to a point of stability or something, I would have just turned the whole thing over to them at this point. There's no doubt about that.”
Assertion Supported
Kopp: Teach For America has 7,000–8,000 active teachers and 50,000 alumni
“There are about, you know, seven to 8000 teachers at any given time, and 50,000 alumni.”
Disclosure
Wendy Kopp: Teach For America's first-year plan budgeted $2.5M for 500 teachers
“So the whole plan was to inspire thousands of people to apply in the first year and select and train in place. No fewer than 500 of them in, you know, five or six communities across the country. And I had a budget saying this was going to cost two and a half m…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wendy Kopp secured seven executive meetings by cold-writing to CEOs
“So I wrote letters to everyone quoted in the article. And a few others, by the way, I would pick out like, you know, Delta Airlines and write to the CEO. I mean, this is, you know, the advantage of inexperience. But believe it or not, I got seven meetings off …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Princeton approved acting as TFA's fiscal conduit in two hours
“In two hours, he got the president to sign off on being the conduit of funds.”
Assertion Supported
The first Teach For America flyer at Yale generated 170 weekend responses
“One of the first people we found was a guy at Yale, actually, who drafted this flyer, and he was really the first one. He put it under doors, and within one weekend, he had 170 voicemail messages on his answering machine.”
Assertion Supported
Ross Perot offered Wendy Kopp $500,000 conditionally for Teach For America
“And he said, I'll tell you what, I will give you 500,000 dollars if you can raise the other 1.5 million.”
Assertion Supported
Teach For America nearly canceled 500 incoming teachers over an AmeriCorps grant
“The folks who were operating AmeriCorps wouldn't approve a grant to Teach for America, and this is about June, and we have 500 teachers who think that they're gonna go into training, but we didn't have the money to even fly them there, and so I felt like this …”
What-if
Wendy Kopp would have handed Teach For America over to capable leadership
“I mean, honestly, if someone had appeared who I felt like could get us out of this and get us to a point of stability or something, I would have just turned the whole thing over to them at this point. There's no doubt about that.”
Assertion Supported
Kopp: Teach For America's annual budget is about $300 million
“It's about three hundred million.”
Wendy Kopp