Read the excerpt and submit 2-3 paragraphs of your view/opinion of the reading. Answer the question at the end of the excerpt reading by identifying (titling the question) and submit 1 paragraph of your answer. Therefore, assignment submission should consist of at least 3 or more paragraphs. Submissions must be in full and complete detail and error-free.

VOICES IN THE COMMUNITY WENDY KOPP Wendy Kopps vision for Teach for America began as her senior undergraduate thesis. This Princeton graduate is the youngest and only female to receive the universitys Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor bestowed to alumni. In the following excerpt from her book One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach for America and What I Learned Along the Way, Kopp (2001) explains how to Teach for America began with an idea: Princeton University was not the most likely place to become concerned about whats wrong in education, but it made me aware of students unequal access to the kind of educational excellence I had previously taken for granted. I got to know students who had attended public schools in urban areasthoughtful, smart peopleas well as students who attended the East Coast prep schools. I saw the first group struggle to meet the academic demands of Princeton and the second group referred to it as a cakewalk. Clearly at Princeton, I could not glimpse the depths of educational inequity in our country, but the disparities I did see got me thinking. Its really not fair, I thought, that where youre born in our country plays a role in determining your educational prospects. In an effort to figure out what could be done about this problem, I organized a conference about the issue. At this time I led an organization called the Foundation for Student Communication. . . . So in November of my senior year, my colleagues and I gathered together fifty students and business leaders from across the country to propose action plans for improving our educational system. . . . At one point during a discussion group, after hearing yet another student express interest in teaching, I had a sudden idea: Why didnt this country have a national teacher corps of top recent college graduates who would commit to teach in urban and rural public schools? A teacher corps would provide another option to the two-year corporate training programs and grad schools. It would speak to all college seniors who were searching for something meaningful to do with our lives. . . . The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that this simple idea was potentially very powerful. If top recent college graduates devoted two years to teaching in public schools, they could have a real impact on the lives of disadvantaged kids. Because of their energy and commitment, they would be relentless in their efforts to ensure their students achieved. They would throw themselves into their jobs, working investment-banking hours in classrooms instead of skyscrapers on Wall Street. They would question the way things are and fight to do what was right for children. Beyond influencing childrens lives directly, a national teacher corps could produce a change in the very consciousness of our country. . . . In the end, I produced A Plan and Argument for the Creation of a National Teacher Corps, which looked at the educational needs in urban and rural areas, the growing idealism and spirit of service among college students, and the interest of the philanthropic sector in improving education. The thesis presented an ambitious plan: In our first year, the corps would inspire thoughts of graduating college students to apply. We would then select, train, and place five hundred of them as teachers in five or six urban and rural areas across the country. (Kopp 2001:56, 10) In its first year, Teach for America received 2,500 applications, of which, as Kopp planned, 500 were selected and trained for two years of teaching. Since then, more than 56,000 teachers and leaders have been placed or are currently placed in more than 50 urban and rural sites throughout the United States. Corps members' salaries and health benefits are paid directly by the school districts they are placed in. Kopp adapted the Teach for America model to a global model, cofounding Teach for All in 2007. What social problem does Teach for America address? What evidence is necessary to determine if it is an effective strategy?