What are some of the responsibilities in your current role?
For low-performing schools, effective teachers are critically important. Every new teacher hired represents an opportunity to strengthen a school and raise student achievement. Yet in school districts across the country, teacher hiring receives little attention.

As Vice President of the Staffing Initiatives business line, I am charged with growing and improving a set of services that help low-performing schools build strong instructional teams and open the school year fully staffed. I support our managing Partners and their site-based teams in each of our districts to provide consistent, high-quality support to schools that have historically struggled to attract and retain top tier teacher talent. In addition to guiding the growth of this business line, I work with our partner districts to ensure we are helping them solve their most pressing staffing challenges.

What impact have you had in your current role?
Each year, over the past couple of years, we have staffed over 140 historically low-performing and hard-to-staff schools in districts around the country, filling over 1,000 teacher vacancies a year. That would be the equivalent of staffing all the schools in cities the size of Boston, Cleveland or Seattle. We have helped the principals and teachers in these schools to build stronger teams of like-minded colleagues to focus on the challenge of raising student achievement. That feels very rewarding at the end of the day.

What challenges, barriers, or difficulties do you see (or have you experienced) in working in the field of education reform?
The challenges are tremendous. There are so many competing priorities, and sadly, education can make for good political sport, so efforts to drive change are often thwarted and not given the time and stability they need to take root. But the future is very promising. Change is coming at a faster pace than I have experienced in the past 20 years. Our tools and research base are getting stronger, and it seems like political will and common sense may finally be converging to focus on what really matters – making sure every child has an effective teacher.

What do you like most about TNTP?
I know most of us answer this question the same way, but without a doubt, the people. This is the most talented, smart, creative, hard-working and fun group of people focused on solving some of the nation’s toughest problems. To be able to love the work you do, for it to be meaningful work, and to be able to do it with people who enrich the quality of your work and experience everyday is truly a treat. 

What are some of the responsibilities in your current role?
I am responsible for internet campaign management and application generation for all Teaching Fellows Programs sites. It involves everything from researching job posting websites to negotiating national and local posting packages with account reps. We continue to see internet campaigns as the number one source of applications across sites. I also manage AmeriCorps and Incoming Fellows surveys which help to meet federal guidelines and provide important feedback from Fellows on how our programs are run. We use this information as a tool to continue making program improvements each year.

What impact have you had in your current role?
I have helped to bring in over 12,000 applications for our program through internet recruitment campaigns. Those applications translate to the hundreds of Fellows that began teaching each fall to help close the achievement gap. I’m privileged to be a small part of making sure all students receive the high-quality education they deserve.

What challenges, barriers, or difficulties do you see (or have you experienced) in working in the field of education reform?
I’ve found that folks have strong opinions on education reform but typically want to continue doing what’s comfortable instead of pushing the envelope for what will truly evoke change. I’m honored to work for an organization that’s not afraid to voice innovative and strategic education reform and put a stake in the ground for creating ways to make that change.

What do you like most about TNTP?
Undoubtedly, it is my colleagues. It’s so important to have people around you with the same drive, focus and commitment to excellence. It keeps me excited about the work we’re doing at TNTP. 

What does a typical work day look like?
My days look very different depending on the time of year and the number of requests I receive. During contract renewal season, I spend a large part of my day reading and reviewing contracts. On a regular basis, I spend much of my time responding to contract and compliance inquiries from my colleagues.

What impact have you had in your current role?
I have the opportunity to contribute to TNTP’s work in education reform by serving as an internal support person for the organization. In managing our client contracts and ensuring we are in compliance with all state regulations, my work behind-the-scenes helps facilitate the innovative work of our external programs. I help our staff members finalize an agreement with a district client quickly so that we can get our programs launched as soon as possible.

What challenges, barriers, or difficulties do you see (or have you experienced) in working in the field of education reform?
Certainly it is always challenging to effect change within a long-standing institution. However, through TNTP’s programs and policy work we are leading the reform movement despite this.

What do you like most about TNTP?
One of the best parts about working for TNTP is feeling continually inspired by our mission and the work we do. It is wonderful to work with a group of like-minded, mission-driven professionals who are truly passionate about the work we are doing. 

What are some of the responsibilities in your current role?
Last year, I launched TeacherNex as a pilot program in Newark, NJ. It’s a new model that aims to connect both the area’s district and charter schools with high-quality alternate route and traditionally certified teachers. I’m working closely with our team there to figure out how we can best serve the respective human capital needs of our charter and district school partners, from strategic support on staffing policies to recruiting great teachers and supporting principals through professional development.

What impact have you had in your current role?
We have been able to connect school leaders to teachers who are great for their students. There is nothing more gratifying than finding an excellent teacher and connecting them to a school where they will be successful.

What challenges, barriers, or difficulties do you see (or have you experienced) in working in the field of education reform?
At a high level, most of us in public education agree that we are failing poor students in our urban public schools. We may even agree that success would be a public education system where hard-working, talented kids raised in Chicago get the same college opportunities as talented, hard-working kids from Wilmette, IL. In my opinion, the challenge is that we don’t yet agree on what incremental success looks like, or we don’t yet share a common scorecard that allows us to measure progress. When people in public education disagree, we often challenge each others’ metrics as a way to dispute strategies – for example, whether state standardized tests in NY or Alabama are legitimate measures of student learning. As a result, we struggle to identify which policies and programs we need to replicate and which ones we should discard. In the absence of a shared scorecard, progress is subjective and, too often, rational, well-intentioned people continue to do what is most comfortable and familiar. At TNTP, we try to avoid this and tend to push hard to figure out how to measure program effectiveness even if it isn’t easy or familiar.

What do you like most about TNTP?
One of the inspiring things about working at TNTP is that we are immersed in so many different districts. TNTP’s knowledge about effective district practices is an incredible resource. Any time our clients encounter a challenge, I am able to reach out to staff members across the country and across our business lines to talk to someone who has been through this before. Each time we work with a client to solve a problem, we’re learning from their experience and able to share that learning with their colleagues and counterparts in other districts. While no day has the same activities, they all involve seeking a solution and relying on other people’s experiences. 

What path led you to your current role?
I always knew I wanted to work in the education field, but I was disillusioned early on by the political roadblocks to systemic reform. I started by working in after-school programs in Oakland and New York City because it was satisfying to see the immediate impact on students’ lives. I loved seeing kids who didn’t feel successful during the school day come out of their shell in an arts program or realize they’re not “bad” at math when they had a strong tutor or after-school teacher supporting them. Eventually, the frustration at seeing how far behind these students already were when they came to our programs led me to look for work that had a bigger impact on the public school system, and I was very lucky to find a role in The New Teacher Project that fit exactly that.

What are some of the responsibilities in your current role?
On the Policy team, my role is always evolving according to my interests and the team’s needs. Right now, I both gather and analyze data, and support our analyst team. As a Project Director on our Washington state policy engagement, I oversee data gathering and analysis for our research aimed at increasing the state’s quality and supply of science and math teachers. I also collaborate with our team to write the findings and recommendations. Additionally, I support other projects with their data analysis, hire and orient new Data Analysts, and develop internal documents on topics such as the impact of Race to the Top.

What challenges, barriers, or difficulties do you see (or have you experienced) in working in the field of education reform?
There is a high degree of resistance to change in the education field, and on the policy team we deal with that constantly. It takes a lot of political will to make true changes to school systems, and most reforms end up tinkering around the edges. This is an exciting time to work in education, as the Obama administration has made school reform a national priority and made it far more feasible for states and districts to enact reforms with funding support and political cover.

What impact have you had in your current role?
I’ve been with the Policy team since its inception, and have been closely involved in developing our data analysis protocols and best practices as well as hiring of all of our data analysts. I was also a co-author for our Chicago and New York policy reports, including Mutual Benefits, and it is gratifying to see our findings in those publications cited in research, editorials, and legislative proposals.  

What path led you to your current role?
Working as a literacy volunteer several years after earning my undergraduate degree made me realize how our education system was letting down so many people who wanted to learn. I became even more aware of how important a quality education is during my two years as an Education Volunteer in the Peace Corps in Cameroon. My experiences led me to TNTP, where I could focus on finding ways of closing the achievement gap and pushing to ensure that effective education is available to students.

What are some of the responsibilities in your current role?
My main responsibilities center on working with our district clients to provide school administrators access to our pool of new, high quality teachers that may meet the needs of their schools. I work to help facilitate a good match between a Fellow and a teaching position that a school principal is trying to fill. Some of my other responsibilities include supporting staff and directing projects to ensure that all Fellows have the best experience possible as they move through process to becoming a Fellow.

What impact have you had in your current role?
In my four years with NYC Teaching Fellows, I have helped over 4,000 Fellows find teaching positions in the schools that need them most. I’m most proud of my collaboration with our clients to develop new and innovative ways of connecting Fellows and school principals or other staff responsible for hiring. Knowing that these Fellows teach tens of thousands of students each day makes me very proud of my work and the work of TNTP.

What do you like most about TNTP?
I believe that the people I work with make TNTP a great place. Day in and day out TNTP staffers strive to improve the education system; no matter what angle we are taking to accomplish it. Knowing that all of us are pursuing the same vision and care greatly about reaching our goals makes even the most challenging day rewarding.