Our Goals and Beliefs

The goals of our work are based on data from approximately 10,500 teachers, including those who participate in applications to our leadership programs, our local and national polls at our events, and surveys. Each issue area is further informed by the research literature.

The following are our goals for building a modern teaching profession and the beliefs that inform those goals. We work to give voice to teachers who share this vision.

• Improve Quality. There are variations in the quality of teachers, which impact the life chances of children. Our goal is to improve teaching and learning in every classroom by helping teachers continually access useful feedback on their practice and on their student's growth.


• Increase Good Retention. Half of teachers leave urban classrooms within their first three years, just as they begin to have the greatest impact on student learning. Our goal is to stem the premature attrition of excellent teachers from urban classrooms by dramatically increasing the number and type of leadership opportunities.


• Expand High-Need Student Access to Excellent Teachers.. Low-income and minority students are routinely assigned inexperienced and ineffective teachers at more than double the rate of their more affluent and white peers. Our goal is to close this opportunity gap by creating incentives and cohort-based programming for excellent teachers to work where they are needed most.


• Accelerate the Growth of Leadership Opportunities. The availability of leadership opportunities is a key lever in retaining excellent teachers in the classroom. A limited career path that only moves teachers up and out to administration is a missed opportunity for students. Our goal is to train teachers to be effective leaders in their schools, unions, districts, and states.


• Prioritize Performance in Decisions. Teaching has historically been a seniority-driven job where benefits and opportunities accrue based on longevity, yet teachers with fewer than ten years of experience now represent the majority in America's classrooms. The excellent teachers in this "new majority" will not wait decades for opportunities to grow and lead from the classroom. Our goal is to help teaching transition from a seniority-driven job to a performance-driven profession values excellence helping students above all else.