Tidewater’s Z-Degree Concept Gets Traction
New America Foundation’s Lindsey Tepe is a terrific new voice in D.C. policy circles. Lindsey is a Teach for America veteran who taught fifth and sixth grade in Chicago before getting hooked up with New America’s highly respected education policy group. What has me over the top, though, is her decision to focus on Open Education Resources (OER). It is incredibly heartening to see someone with Lindsey’s experience and talent promoting public awareness of OER, starting with the incredible Tidewater Community College Z-Degree breakthrough.
The education industry has many moving parts. Most of them will eventually be improved, transformed even, through the application of open practices and open resources. It’s already starting to happen. It has to happen. But it is happening far too slowly. That is why we need more scholars and activists just like Lindsey, women and men who understand that this is a unique moment, this is a way, these are ideas that allow us to push on history’s arc and bend it toward justice. The Tidewater Z-Degree story is about more than than Tidewater and more than Z-Degrees. It’s about helping more leaders like Lindsey rise.
