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Jan 7, 2007
"Sometimes a breakdown can be the beginning of a kind of breakthrough, a way of living in advance through a trauma that prepares you for a future of radical transformation." -- Cherrie Moraga
Transforming an Ailing School
Betsy Rogers is no ordinary teacher. After being named National Teacher of the Year in 2003, she switched to Brighton School –- one of Alabama’s poorest schools, with the longest run on the county's school-improvement list. Most Brighton teachers have fewer than five years of experience, and at the end of the 2004-05 school year, the school had failed to meet the state's testing goals for seven years. Eighty-two percent of last year's fourth-graders couldn't read. Could a teacher -- even one chosen as Teacher of the Year -- turn it around? Indeed: thanks to Rogers' focus on teacher quality, this year, 73 percent of that same group are reading proficiently.
BE THE CHANGE
Use a talent you have to transform someone's breakdown situation -- whether in an educational, professional, volunteer, or home-life context -- into an opportunity for breakthrough.