Click here to read the article to which this responds: What Innovators Can, and Cannot, Do.

At The New Teacher Project (TNTP), we believe it is possible for organizations to implement ground-level reforms on a meaningful scale even while advocating for more fundamental policy changes. In New York, TNTP gathered data on the school staffing rules of the city teachers union contract. The city’s new contract effectively put an end to the forcing of unwanted teachers on schools. In California, TNTP worked with state senator Jack Scott and local advocacy groups to pass a bill for the reform of teacher transfer policies, changing the dynamics of teacher hiring for some 3,000 low-performing schools statewide.

The New Teacher Project has no greater financial resources, political savvy, experience, or dedication than our peer organizations. What, then, accounts for our success to date?

First, TNTP strives to effect change from the inside out. School systems and the bureaucracies that run them are a fact of life. We believe that organizations that learn to be effective within the system can do more good on a shorter timeline. Most of our staff works from within school district offices and hand in hand with district personnel. This positioning affords us unique advantages: we can earn the confidence of district staff, identify and understand the policy obstacles we encounter, and gather hard data to support our arguments for change. At the same time, we are able to establish our own subculture and maintain a high degree of autonomy.

Second, TNTP does not view policy reform efforts as separate from the daily work of recruiting, training, and hiring high-quality teachers, but rather as an integral part of it. Our recruitment programs’ frustration with the slow pace of hiring in urban districts prompted our first study of teacher hiring policies, published as Missed Opportunities. Since then, we have faced other policy challenges. To improve the performance of our programs and advance our mission, we must actively engage in these problems; the cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of speaking out.

Third, the reforms we seek share two characteristics: they are driven by objective, nonpartisan research, and they are based on commonsense arguments that address the concerns of a nonspecialist audience. Our diverse base of support shields us from some of the blowback that comes with challenging the status quo. Furthermore, we are careful to present balanced arguments and avoid targeting a particular group or constituency. We recognize that, more often than not, education challenges are created by the interaction of multiple systems and groups.

TNTP believes that marrying policy and implementation is the most effective way to tackle major problems in education. We are committed to innovation through practical, reality-based reforms. Rather than pursue either “advocacy” or “demonstration,” TNTP is blazing both paths at the same time.

Michelle Rhee is chief executive officer and president of The New Teacher Project. David Keeling serves as the organization’s communications strategist.