Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach for America, spoke of the potential of TFA, expounding on the lessons learned from her many encounters with TFA recruits, last Monday during the kickoff event of Citizenship Week.Kopp said that during her time at Princeton, she came up with the idea that students should be aggressively recruited to teach in low-performing communities and "channel [the TFA volunteers'] talent and energy" into classrooms for two-year periods.

She said that the "dramatic gains" in students' proficiency levels made by particularly successful teachers drive everything the TFA staff does to improve their program and give it a sense of urgency.

She spoke of the success of a fourth-grade teacher in the South Bronx and a tenth-grade teacher in Brooklyn who both pushed their students to perform at the proper grade level after finding that they were far behind in terms of grade-level proficiency.

"We can turn the achievement gap on its head," Kopp said.

Kopp said achievement can happen regardless of students' income levels. Teachers can do a lot in terms of educational achievement before running into boundaries that may impede the students' success, such as poor health care.

She told the story of Chris Barbick, who started new middle and high schools in Houston where 77 percent of students receive free and reduced lunch: there is a 92 percent likelihood that those students will graduate from college.

Kopp spoke about three fundamental lessons she learned from recruits like these and others who have been equally successful.

The first, she said, is that education inequity "is a solvable problem." She said there is evidence of how bad the problem is, but there is also evidence from the successful teachers that the problem does not need to exist. There is so much reason for outrage but also a sense of possibility, she said.

Another lesson, Kopp said, is the "difference it can make for people with real leadership ability to channel their energy . in [the] direction [of teaching]."

She explained that "we need to change the structure of the schools," including, for example, better pay for teachers and more teacher development, but also stressed the significance of good leadership.

There is no substitute for a local committed leadership that is focused on getting students to grade level, especially in reading, rather than simply teaching to a test, she said.

The most successful leaders in this context, she said, develop "extraordinary patterns" for teaching, including, she explained later, the ability to motivate students and put them on a goal-oriented trajectory. Teachers on a mission can motivate others, including students and parents, and keep them deeply invested in their education and in the school.

In response to a question from Paul Balik '10 about grassroots school-reforming efforts, Kopp said that it's important to "make sure parents know what's going on" within the school and to create movements among parent groups to ensure the success of their children.

She also said, "We can't do this on the backs of the superheroes," explaining that fundamental changes have to be made in society, which could include the overhaul of a school system like the one in Washington, D.C., which closed low-performing schools and hired many new principals.

Changes like these take the pressure off schools and make them easier places for talented teachers to meet the needs of the students.

Long-term, sustainable commitment from teachers is necessary, Kopp said, but added that TFA alumni need to go into other sectors, including policy, journalism and medicine, in order to effect change on all sectors of society.

Great leaders can "change the consciousness" of the country, Kopp said.

Gen Ed Now, the Hiatt Career Center, Teach For America and the Department of Community Service co-sponsored the event.