Charlie Rose Presses Wendy Kopp for Simple Solutions

“Before we talk about all that you have done, and Teach For America, and what its importance is, look at education, Kindergarten through twelve, and tell me, why isn’t it better?” Charlie Rose posed this and many similarly challenging questions to 1991 Echoing Green Fellow and Teach For America (TFA) founder Wendy Kopp in an interview that aired Wednesday night on his show. When probed for step-by-step explanations for her organization’s success, Wendy’s answer, which seemed incomprehensible to her host in its unconventionality, was that there is no simple plan for solving our nation’s problems of educational inequality. Unlike most policymakers, TFA corps members graduate from her program rejecting “silver bullet answers,” she said.

She later compared general public and TFA alumni responses to a Gallup poll on probable causes of America’s achievement gap. Unlike the alumni, who cited teacher and principal quality and academic expectations for students, the general public blamed factors external to the school system, like parent involvement, student motivation, and home-life issues, for low test scores. But TFA has demonstrated over two decades that it is possible for low-income students to achieve high success when paired with the right talent and leadership in their schools.

Rather than continue our line of strategy-focused questioning, we might take Wendy’s approach and ask ourselves, “What do we need to do [at the national level] to inspire more local leadership and initiative and commitment.”

Watch the show here.