Jeanne Allen is the founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform. In 2021, she launched the Yass Prize, which has awarded more than $84 million to education entrepreneurs. She’s long been deeply invested in the worlds of parental activism and educational choice. And she’s out with a new book, The Education Avengers: How and Why a New Class of Heroes Is Fighting America’s Biggest Battle, which carries an enthusiastic endorsement from the directors of “Avengers: Endgame.” I was curious to hear more about the heroes, the battle, and what Jeanne sees on the ground. Here’s what she had to say.
—Rick

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Rick: Jeanne, you’re out with a new book, The Education Avengers. As a Marvel fan, I loved the title. What’s it about?

Jeanne: The book includes 12 stories of ordinary people who did extraordinary things because they saw children were being failed and decided they could not look away. They are parents, educators, entrepreneurs, and community leaders from remarkably different backgrounds.

Rick: Was there a particular “aha” moment that sparked this volume?

Jeanne: Meeting the people who have been disrupting the landscape—and realizing they each had their own deeply human stories—was a kind of “aha” moment for me. On a more personal level, a new baby boy with Down syndrome entered my family. It taught me that no matter how close you are to an issue, it doesn’t fully land until it lands in your own life. That experience showed me that there are people working themselves to exhaustion to serve typical students in atypical ways and atypical students in better, more responsive ways.

Rick: How’d you select the dozen people you profiled?

Jeanne: I was trying not to assemble a list of the most famous people in education innovation circles but to mobilize—like the Avengers—people who each bring a different “artifact” to the group. I looked for dramatically different origin stories and a shared pattern of action. Some were propelled by their children, others by faith, loss, injustice, curiosity, or a problem in education that they could not ignore.

Rick: You and I have been doing this long enough to see a lot of one-time education “heroes” disappoint. What led you to use the superhero framing?

Jeanne: Because genuine heroes are not flawless, and they are rarely self-appointed. The people in this book have made mistakes and sometimes been badly misunderstood. They keep standing when standing becomes costly. They battle what I call the “education Hydra": tangled rules, compliance mandates, and legacy systems that reproduce themselves even when they no longer serve children.

Rick: What do these fights look like in practice?

Jeanne: One of the Avengers—our Justice Keeper—was building a school around research, but officials kept putting new obstacles in her way. She was told she couldn’t use public funds for the phonics-based reading program she believed would work because it wasn’t on the state’s approved list. She decided to use it anyway. Today, of course, phonics anchors the science of reading. That’s the Hydra: Sometimes, doing right by children means having the courage to push past a system that insists the rule is more important than the result.

Rick: You don’t focus here on test scores or market share. So what does success look like?

Jeanne: This book draws deeply from the science on human flourishing, something education reformers rarely think about. If you read Robert Putnam, Arthur Brooks, or the ancient philosophers who told us what it takes to create a lifetime of real happiness, you realize that we don’t do much to create those conditions for most kids.

Rick: For those concerned that disruptors will undermine community schools, is there anything here to assuage their doubts?

Jeanne: I hope so, because this book is deeply concerned with community. These builders are restoring ties that large institutions have often weakened or displaced. The skeptics are right that children need stability, relationships, and shared responsibility. My disagreement is with the assumption that only familiar systems of education can provide those things to students and families.

Rick: What’s an illustration that captures this spirit of building community?

Jeanne: I might pick the Alchemist—Cris Gulacy-Worrel, the vice president of Oakmont Education, which operates tuition-free charter schools for youth who have dropped out of school and need a second chance. Her power is transformation, and her artifact is the Kintsugi Bowl—a nod to the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold rather than throwing it away. Cris does this with young people that traditional systems have written off. She surrounds them with adults who know them, helps them discover what they can do, connects them to meaningful work, and stays with them as they build a future. As Cris says, “We don’t throw the pot away. We fill the cracks with gold.”

Rick: You’re writing at a time of great frustration with academic achievement and ubiquitous screens. Any insights on this count?

Jeanne: The central lesson is that flourishing precedes learning. Young people today are connected digitally but often isolated, surrounded by affirmation but starved for meaningful challenge. The people profiled in my book have created environments where students are known, expected to contribute, and given real responsibility. As one of my Avengers puts it: “You can’t mass-produce love.” Technology can expand access and personalize instruction, but it cannot replace a caring adult who sees possibility in a child.

Rick: In 2010, Davis Guggenheim’s similarly hero-themed education film “Waiting for ‘Superman’” sparked a national debate. What parallels or differences do you see between his film and your book?

Jeanne: The parallel is the refusal to normalize failure. But the film’s title also captured the helplessness of that moment: Families were waiting for rescue. My book begins somewhere different. The heroes are already here. The lesson is not to wait for Superman. It is to recognize your own responsibility and build.

Rick: You’ve been at this awhile. When you think back to the education “heroes” of a generation ago, what’s changed?

Jeanne: The earlier heroes had to make new ideas legitimate. Howard Fuller and Polly Williams established that low-income parents deserved real authority. Ted Kolderie and Joe Nathan created the architecture for charter schools. Bill Bennett restored substance, character, and choice to the national conversation. John Walton funded builders before their ideas were proven. Today’s heroes stand on firmer ground. They are more likely to be practitioners who combine entrepreneurship, community leadership, and their own unique life experiences.

Rick: If you had one piece of advice for educators, what would it be?

Jeanne: Start with the child in front of you. Ask what that child needs and what is getting in the way. Then find others who see what you see and begin making room for a better answer.