Recently, I got teary-eyed listening to Wendy Kopp tell the story of Teach For America on Guy Raz’s podcast How I Built This on NPR. Essentially, it reminded me of the moment when I read about Teach For America and Kopp in Newsweek magazine in July 1990. It told the story of a Princeton grad who was launching a national teacher corps by sending recruiters to top university campuses and placing those idealistic, talented undergrads to teach in the nation’s neediest schools.

Recent commentary has declared that TFA has lost its way and moved radically left, sacrificing its rarefied status as an organization that brings together bipartisan support for improving the U.S. education system. As an alumna and former TFA staff member, I believe this conclusion represents a fundamental misreading of history. Current TFA “policy” does not reflect some move toward a progressive agenda and away from conservative ideals, but instead represents a combination of the mood on college campuses coupled with what the organization is learning as part of its struggle to meet its programmatic goal — closing the achievement gaps for poor kids.

The truth of the matter is that TFA was never built to be an arbiter of policy or politics, and to the extent that it wades into sector debates, the voice of the organization captures the perspectives of its corps members and alumni. TFA is the quintessential big tent — able to expand when pushed and pulled by its inhabitants and tolerant of conflict in the service of vetting new ideas and perspectives. TFA’s voice and stance are more akin to those of its recruits: talented, hardworking undergraduates trying to change the world.

Read the full article by Heather Harding about teach for America from The 74