Jay Mathews

When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that—and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which today...

Chronicles the remarkable life and work of a man who, himself an immigrant, coached and inspired underprivileged Hispanic students thought to be "hopeless" to excel to unprecedented standards in mathematics.