ANALYSIS: EXCLUSIVE Wendy Kopp, Co-Founder and CEO Teach For All A rising tide for education Every child should have the basic human right to an education; however, in many regions this is not always realised. Teach For All works globally with an extensive network of partners and countries to fulfil its mission to train future leaders in the education sector and to ensure children around the world are given the learning opportunities to which they are entitled 6 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION ANALYSIS: EXCLUSIVE Teach For All works to eradicate the systemic, global issue of © NOAH SHELDON educational inequality. Why is this important? Education has the power to transform and improve lives, communities and entire countries – this gives us hope and fuels our work. Yet across the world – in countries at all stages of development – socioeconomic background still largely dictates educational outcomes. This takes a massive toll on families, communities, countries and collective global welfare. It’s no coincidence that repression, unemployment and terrorism thrive where education does not. In today’s interconnected world, where our economic prosperity, public safety and environmental sustainability are linked, low educational levels and big educational disparities affect us all. What inspired you to start Teach For All, and how has your professional background contributed to the organisation’s rapid development? I met many inspiring social entrepreneurs who discovered Teach For Educational inequality: the facts America or Teach First in the UK and were determined to address the gap in educational opportunity in their own countries. They were looking for Kopp explains how educational inequality differs support to recruit and develop their nation’s most promising future leaders, from country to country and so the founder of Teach First and I created Teach For All in 2007. Educational inequality is pervasive all over the world – in rich and As CEO, I oversee the growth and development of our global network, poor countries alike. In China, children born in poor rural regions which works to increase our partners’ impact. That means extensive have a 5 per cent chance of going to college, compared to 80 per travel! I visit our partner organisations worldwide to better understand cent for urban children; this looks similar to the US, where fewer their educational concerns and how they are addressing them. Along with than 10 per cent of low-income children graduate from college our team, I ensure that we’re doing all we can to facilitate learning and compared with 80 per cent of children who are born in the top communication across the network. economic quartile. In India, only 10 per cent of children complete high school. In Peru, children from the lowest income quintile Leading Teach For America for over 20 years instilled in me a deep respect average seven fewer years of schooling than children from the top for the social entrepreneurs pioneering these organisations and has given income quintile. Poor children often have more in common with me some understanding of the challenges they face and the support they peers in other countries than wealthier children in the same town, need. While I’ve brought some experience in how to start and scale an which indicates that we can share solutions across borders. organisation, Teach For All is a completely different enterprise with its own set of challenges. Most people intuitively understand the need to improve education in their own country; it’s much more difficult to convince them to invest in improving education globally. platforms such as online learning modules and open-source textbooks designed for both teachers and students. Are you working to strengthen STEM education? If leadership is the core solution to transforming educational systems, Teach For All programmes aim to recruit and develop maths and science what more can be done to implement this into the relevant sectors? teachers, and foster their ongoing leadership as alumni working for broader How does Teach For All empower potential leaders to improve the curriculum and teacher training that will strengthen STEM education educational system and challenge educational inequity? overall. Teach For Sweden, for example, places teachers exclusively in STEM subject areas, and programme applicants are required to have at least half Educational inequity is a deeply systemic problem in nature. To solve it will of their university credits in math, technology or science. Our partners in require strong leadership at every level of our education system – from New Zealand and Australia also recruit a large percentage of participants classrooms to whole schools and school systems – as well as every level of to teach STEM subjects – the majority of Teach First NZ and 42 per cent of policy and across sectors. Successful teaching in high-need communities Teach For Australia fellows. is the foundational experience for committed and informed educational leadership and advocacy. So for the sake of the students growing up today, Teach For America has worked in partnership with STEM organisations such and for the pursuit of long-term system change, our partners invest a great as The Amgen Foundation and NASA’s Education Program to ensure more deal in potential leaders, providing their participants with two years of than 30 per cent of its members are secondary STEM teachers – compared intensive teacher training and professional development. They also offer to 12 per cent in the teaching field nationwide. Teach First UK partnered ongoing support for programme alumni, who continue working for change with the BP Foundation in 2013 to recruit additional science teachers in both inside and outside the system. London’s most high-need communities and to fund a Leadership Officer to help these teachers to set goals that exceed national expectations. Teach Importantly, between 60 and 70 per cent of the teachers across our For India is pursuing an online training portal that’s accessible to public network commit to long-term careers in education. At the same time, it’s school teachers, enabling professional development in maths and science – also crucial for some of them to take their conviction and insight into fields and other subjects – to impact far beyond programme fellows. like policy, medicine and even business. In addition, Teach For All alumni in the UK, Australia, Spain and Latvia Could you discuss some of Teach For All’s main achievements? are engaged in social enterprises, promoting STEM education on digital Today, thousands of our teachers are inspiring students to take ownership of their education and grow their academic abilities, character strength and self- advocacy skills – opening the door to greater opportunity. Programme alumni often go on to lead the charge for educational equity in their countries, becoming veteran teachers, principals, policy makers and civic leaders. WWW.RESEARCHMEDIA.EU 7 ANALYSIS: EXCLUSIVE Through Teach For All, we are seeing how deeply the model resonates across diverse contexts. Our partners are attracting many of their nation’s most promising graduates. Early independent evaluations show positive impact in classrooms; for example, preliminary results from a Columbia University four-year longitudinal study on Teach For India suggests that Fellows have a more significant impact on their students than current teaching interventions. Additionally an Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)-funded study showed that Enseña Chile teachers have a positive impact on their students’ academic, behavioural and socioemotional outcomes. Not only are most alumni across the network staying within education, we’re also seeing them exert the kind of leadership and entrepreneurship witnessed in the US and UK. What can be learned from educational practices in other countries? So much! Thanks to global surveys like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), we have more information than ever before about what distinguishes the most successful classrooms, schools and school systems globally. Top-performing, fast-improving countries embrace International importance high standards for students by fostering critical thinking, investing in teacher development and committing themselves to equality by providing Teach For All’s global reach is key to their success, disadvantaged students with more support. as Kopp outlines Significantly, Shanghai – which has topped worldwide rankings in recent Our organisations operate in 32 countries on six continents – years – has embraced a global approach to education – a so called ‘open from Austria to Pakistan, Malaysia and New Zealand. We benefit door’ policy. They encourage their educators to travel the world, to see tremendously from the fact that this model magnetises such what was working elsewhere and bring back those practices to Shanghai. incredible hearts, minds and souls in such diverse cultures. As a result, we see real innovation across the network. For example, Teach How significant is collaboration and interdisciplinarity to your work? For India influenced the way Teach For America and Teach First train What can be gained from taking such an approach? their teachers because of the insights generated by Shaheen Mistri, Teach For India’s founder who brought 17 years of experience working Collaboration is indispensable, not just for Teach For All, but for all to with children in Mumbai and Pune slums. Innovations spread from succeed in this new global age of education. As I recently wrote in the Wall organisation to organisation, and now we’re seeing the pioneering Street Journal, we must stop thinking of education as a zero-sum game innovations of programme alumni spread from place to place as well. (ie. if China is up, the US is down) and realise that we all have a stake in whether children across the globe receive a quality education. A rising tide lifts all boats – and so we must work in the same way. Teach For All’s social The promise of this model can be seen in the US where Teach For America entrepreneurs are collaborating and adapting daily.