Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-229).

America's failure to educate millions of children is a crisis that strikes at our fundamental ideals and health as a nation. Since 1990, Teach For America has been building a movement to end educational inequity in America. Now its founder, Wendy Kopp, shares the lessons learned from the experiences of more than 25,000 teachers and alumni who have taught and led schools in low-income communities . This book cuts through the noise of today's debates to describe what it will take to provide transformational education--education that changes the academic and life trajectories predicted by children's socioeconomic backgrounds. Kopp's experiences and insights also shine light on why we have not made more progress against educational inequity--how and why the misguided quest for easy answers actually distracts from the hard work--and on what we need to do now to increase the pace of change.--From publisher description.