Teach For America provides one of the most critical pipelines for bringing new talent into public education.

It's critical that states improve how teachers are trained, recruited, evaluated, compensated, advanced, and retained.

Managers are responsible for setting workplace policies under which teachers can succeed. Managers are responsible for negotiating contracts that create the conditions under which teachers can succeed.

I believe in two things: One, Andrew Carnegie said, 'He who dies with wealth dies in shame.' And someone once said, 'He who gives while he lives also knows where it goes.'

Every single person that spent a few bucks to buy a book that I wrote deserves a big thank you from my whole family.

There's nothing illogical, it seems to me, about saying, 'I am going to care deeply about my work and my writing. I'm also going to care deeply about my family and my child.'

I remember people - not my family - always asking, 'Oh, so are you going to make movies when you're older?' I felt pressured, and that always kind of deterred me.

My family's a very musical family, so music's always been a part of my life.