Mike Feinberg | Learning by teaching

When I was a senior at Penn in 1991, I heard about a new program called Teach For America that was recruiting seniors to work in high-need public schools. I wasn’t the most focused soon-to-be graduate, but I liked Teach For America’s vision that one day all children will have access to a high-quality education, so I signed on.

Little did I know that the next two years would forever change the trajectory of my life and the lives of my future students. My experience with Teach For America gave me three important insights into education that have been instrumental in my work over the past 18 years.

First, all children can learn if they have the right resources and support. Second, the quality of teaching a child receives is the most important factor in determining his or her educational future. And third, great teachers are made, not born. In other words, together we have the ability to turn the phrase “All children can learn” into “All children WILL learn.”

I learned the first lesson when I started the Knowledge is Power Program with Dave Levin after we completed our two-year commitment to Teach For America in Houston,. When our first KIPP class of 50 students started fifth grade in 1994, two-thirds were identified “bilingual” (limited English), but by the end of the first year, their test scores were so high that two-thirds were deemed “gifted and talented.”

Dave founded the second KIPP school in 1995 in the South Bronx, and in 2000, we were lucky enough to meet Doris and Don Fisher, co-founders of the Gap, Inc., who gave us $15 million in seed money to grow KIPP nationwide.

Over the past decade, KIPP has grown from two to 82 schools in 19 states and D.C., serving nearly 20,000 students. President Obama’s Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, has singled out KIPP as a model in public education that works and should be expanded. KIPP is proving that demographics need not define destiny. KIPP schools are open-enrollment public schools. Eighty percent of KIPP students qualify for the federal lunch program and 80 percent enter behind academically in either math or reading. Since the first KIPP school began, more than 80 percent of KIPP middle school graduates have matriculated to college, compared with an average of 20 percent in low-income communities nationwide.

How does KIPP get these results? As Dave and I learned back in our Teach For America days, the day you eliminate the excuses is the day the solutions begin.

KIPP schools start at 7:30 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m., with Saturday sessions and summer school. Even our kindergarten students at KIPP elementary schools see from day one that effort and persistence are the most important determining factors in success.

Which brings me to the third lesson that Teach For America taught — great teaching is a science, not an art. I thought my charm and sense of humor would be enough to succeed when I started out, but I learned quickly that I needed help, and lots of it. Teach For America has built its excellent reputation on this understanding, and through training and hands-on mentoring, its corps members become excellent teachers that make a lasting difference for their students.

The reality in 2009 is different than when I graduated from Penn, with a global recession and uncertainty about the future. But one thing is the same — Penn students are still looking for work that will make a difference, leave a mark on the world and build a better tomorrow.

The next deadline to apply to Teach For America is Oct. 28 — what are you waiting for?

Mike Feinberg is a 1991 Penn graduate and co-founder of the Knowledge is Power program.

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