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Two teachers receive Charles Bronfman Award
By: Jacob Berkman
JTA - The Fundermentalist
March 30, 2009
Two teachers with roots in Jewish education have been awarded the annual Charles Bronfman Prize for their work in developing a national network of programs to help low-income students prepare for college.
Mike Feinberg, 40, and Dave Levin, 39, the co-founders of the Knowledge is Power Program, a network of tuition-free, open enrollment college prep course that are run in 19 states, were given the $100,000 Bronfman prize for their work.
While fewer than one in five low-income students go on to college nationwide, KIPP's college matriculation rate stands at over 80 percent.
Some 90 percent of KIPP's 16,000 students are black or Hispanic. But Feinberg's path to education started when he was a teaching assistant at Oak Park Temple in Chicago, and then continued when he worked as a volunteer helping new Ethiopian immigrants to Israel. He and Levin met when they were both volunteers for Teach for America.
Feinberg and Levin will share a portion of the Prize award with the Leo Baeck Education Institute to fund the development of a KIPP-inspired program in an underserved community in northern Israel, which will ultimately serve both Arab and Jewish students.
"Mike and Dave are challenging educators around the world to rethink education policy. With their audacity to confront years of educational neglect and push past those who embraced the status quo, these young visionaries are bringing about game-changing results," Charles Bronfman said in a statement. "Theirs is a remarkable accomplishment deserving of recognition."
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