About Kira Orange Jones:
Kira was appointed executive director of Teach For America – Greater New Orleans in 2007. Prior to working at Teach For America, Jones founded and served as executive director of Right Quick Productions, a nonprofit media organization in Baton Rouge, La., dedicated to amplifying community voices through documentary filmmaking. She holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.Ed. focused in school leadership from Harvard University.
To learn more about Teach For America, visit our Nonprofit Spotlight section.
Q: Why did you join Teach For America?
A: I joined Teach For America first because I felt fortunate that I had access to an excellent public education. I fundamentally believe that teachers are leaders and as such, I could think of no better way to make an impact in a community than as a Teach For America corps member.
Q: What is the impact Teach For America has in our schools?
A: Our impact on the public school systems here is truly exciting. I mean, this is the whole reason I moved down here three years ago. I came to New Orleans for a three day conference. After seeing what was going on down here, on the front lines, I knew that my place was here, that I wanted to be a part of the movement. So, I went back to New York, packed up my apartment, and moved to New Orleans to lead our office here. Our corps members go above and beyond the call of duty every day in their classrooms, and our collective impact is so intense here, our corps members and alumni are impacting 1 in 3 students in the area.
Q: What are some of the challenges that you think we still face in the region?
A: I think that even though we are seeing exciting gains in our schools, we still have a long way to go. If you look at how our students are scoring, we still aren’t preparing them to attend and graduate from a four year institution. It’s data like that that really drives me every day to work towards our mission of ensuring that one day, every child here has the opportunity to attain an excellent education.
Q: How do you see Teach For America fitting into the renaissance that we are currently enjoying?
A: Following the storm we really ramped up the number of outstanding recent graduates that we brought to the area who commit to teach for two years in public schools here and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. Once we started bringing in an increased number of teachers, we saw the number of our alumni who chose to stay rise as well. Last summer we had about 200 alumni in the area, and we recently found out that we now have over 300 alumni who are leading and driving forward some of the most successful social ventures here, and who work throughout the Greater New Orleans region as lawyers, physicians, school leaders, as well as many who remain in the classroom.
New Orleans is a very exciting place to be right now, and the opportunities to make a real difference in the way the community operates are very tangible and very attractive to these talented young professionals…we just have to make sure that we maintain this openness to reform, change, and a new New Orleans.
Q: What are the greatest opportunities you see in education for our region?
A: I was watching “When the Levees Broke” the other day, the documentary film that Spike Lee made, and there was a comment that a woman on the film made that resonated particularly…she said something like, “People used to call New Orleans the city that care forgot”.I just think that we have come so far these past four years since the storm. I think that there are numerous opportunities for education reform in our region, we have more resources than before, and we have a revamped system. However, I truly believe that one of the greatest things that we have going for us is that people are not glossing over those things that still aren’t working. We care about our kids and their right to a great education, and we are very vocal about this. I don’t think that we are still the city that care forgot, and a lot of people are fighting to make sure that we don’t slip back to that place.
thanks