West Orange Resident Brett Kimmel Selected as America Achieves Fellows for Outstanding Performance in Education

West Orange resident, Brett Kimmel, has been chosen for excellence as part of a group of 100 outstanding educators nationwide to participate in the highly selective America Achieves Fellowship for Teachers and Principals. America Achieves is a non-profit organization with several initiatives including this Fellowship Program, supported with lead funding by Bloomberg Philanthropies as well as funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and was launched in 2010 as part of the inaugural NBC News Education Nation Summit.

As part of the America Achieves Fellowship Program, Kimmel will participate in the NBC News Education Nation Summit – a national conference held Sept. 23-25 in New York City – to discuss the state of education in America. Here, he will meet and advise public officials and educational leaders on educational policy and practice including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. This Fellowship Program helps communities and states leverage policy, practice, and leadership to build high quality educational systems.

During the coming year, these fellows will meet again and participate in nationally significant projects to impact students, schools, and national educational policy to help prepare each student for success in careers, college, and citizenship.

One example of a Fellowship project is the America Achieves Common Core website, which can be accessed at www.americaachieves.org. This initial website will be unveiled during this year’s Education Nation Summit. By the end of this school year, this teacher-to-teacher website will be expanded with help from America Achieves Fellows to demonstrate for more than 75,000 New York City-area teachers how to make the shift to the nation’s new, rigorous college- and career-ready standards in math and literacy at the grade levels they teach.

All America Achieves Fellows will participate at Education Nation. Most of them will participate in Education Nation’s kick-off this Sunday, Sept. 23, with a nationally televised Teacher Town Hall hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. Those fellows will gather alongside other nationally recognized educators to explore solutions and opportunities in education today.

“We searched for the best educators in the nation to recognize as America Achieves Fellows and to expand their influence on educational policy and practice,” says Jon Schnur, executive chairman and co-founder of America Achieves. “This Fellowship enables outstanding teachers and principals to help improve education in their school districts and across the country without having to leave their role as school educators. The America Achieves Common Core website is a prime example of our Fellows working collaboratively to improve education.”

America Achieves Fellows were selected based on their profound impact on student achievement, the quality of their classroom and school leadership, and their commitment to learning and sharing their expertise. 

Brett Kimmel is the principal of Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) in New York City. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Teachers College Cahn Fellowship for Distinguished NYC Principals (2010-2011) and under his leadership his school was part of the New York City Department of Education Middle School Quality Initiative (MSQI). 

About America Achieves
America Achieves is a non-profit organization with financial support from the Kern Family Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and others, as well as planning funds from the Hyde Family Foundations and the Noyce Foundation. In particular, this fellowship program is supported financially by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information visit www.americaachieves.org.