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" As a founder of two organizations that recruit top college graduates to expand educational opportunity, I've spent a lot of time examining what's at work in successful classrooms and schools over the past two decades. "

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" Education is the gateway to the American Dream. But today our immigration laws make higher education - a virtual requirement for financial security - out of reach for more than one million undocumented students. "

Wendy Kopp

Dream

Education

Today

" Across the globe, disadvantaged children are not living up to their potential because if they attend school at all, the schools are usually not designed to meet their extra needs. "

Wendy Kopp

School

Potential

" Persistent inequality costs the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars a year, undermining our global competitiveness, our democracy, and our ideals as a nation. "

" Tests that sugar-coat the truth only set up our kids to fail in worse ways down the road. "

" When you think of the typical Teach For America corps member, soldiers and ex-bankers are probably not the people who come to mind. In fact, there is no such thing as a typical corps member. They can't be neatly pigeonholed or painted with a broad brush. "

" All around the world, we send our top talent into finance, technology, medicine and law - everywhere but towards expanding opportunity for our most marginalized children. "

" The teachers are trying to build the same culture in the classroom as we're building in the organization. "

" Common Core results finally give families an accurate barometer of whether our kids are mastering the skills they need to succeed in a knowledge-based global economy, early enough that we can intervene. "

" The lack of diversity in higher education is a problem we as a country must tackle if we're going to live up to our promise. "

Wendy Kopp

Live

Problem

" We must broaden the definition of who our neighbors are, and extend the boundaries of our interest and empathy. "

" I had been very focused on the issue of education disparities in our country, and literally, by the time kids are just nine years old, in low-income communities, they're already three or four grade levels behind nine-year-olds in high-income communities. "

" We aspire to be equal opportunity, but all across the country where a student is born, their race, their class affect where they end up. "

" If we could reach the point where many of our nation's future leaders know what teachers know after teaching successfully in our highest-need schools, we would have a very different situation. "

" I'm happy to admit that I'm a hopeless optimist. "

" If we freed up all the money in the certification process, think about how much more money we'd have to put into teacher salaries. "

Wendy Kopp

Money

" Common Core reminds us what testing can do right. Modeled on standards of the world's education superpowers, questions demand critical thinking and creativity. Students are asked to write at length, show their work, and explain their reasoning. "

" I'll get up at 5 or 6. I try to catch up on sleep on the weekends, so I'll try to get seven hours of sleep. During the week, my ideal is to go to bed at 9 and wake up six hours later. "

Wendy Kopp

Bed

Wake Up

" If we're going to see sustainable results from all the other investments we're making in education, we need to build leadership capacity in each and every country. "

" I think Teach for America has suffered from the fact that I did not teach, in a major way. I also think if I had taught, I wouldn't have started Teach for America. "

" The idea that computers can ever replace teachers and schools reveals a deep lack of understanding about the role leadership plays in student success. "

" We collaborate with other countries on issues like public health and climate change because we understand these issues affect our collective welfare. "

Wendy Kopp

Change

Understand

" When I started Teach For America, I wasn't trying to come up with an idea that would change the world. I was trying to solve a problem much closer to home: I was a senior in college, and I had no idea what I was going to do with my life! "

" More often than not, the most effective leaders have been shaped by teaching successfully in high needs classrooms. Because of their experience, they know that it is possible for low-income children to achieve on an absolute scale and understand what we need to do to allow them to fulfill their potential. "

" Let the tech firms and consulting firms build your skills, but be sure to ask yourself, 'Am I maximizing my impact?' 'Am I living up to my values?' "

" We look for people who demonstrate perseverance in the face of challenges, the ability to influence and motivate others - people who want to work relentlessly to ensure that kids who are facing the challenges of poverty have an excellent education. "

" Research shows that whether you are low-income or not, mindset is a bigger predictor of success than academic skills, and how students gain great academic skills and persevere in the face of challenges. "

" I think people are attracted to teaching because they want to make a real impact. "

" Cultivating more leaders who reflect our heterogeneous society depends on universities' transparent use of race as one of many factors in an admissions process that is accessible to all. "

Wendy Kopp

Reflect

Race

" There's no how-to guide for how to change the world. But it's easy to get hung up by misconceptions about what it takes to make an impact. "

" It's Teach For America's responsibility to ensure that all alumni know their voices are heard and valued, and to surface the range of opinion they represent. "