The New Teacher Project (TNTP)

Background

TNTP claims that its focus is providing consulting and teaching services for school districts to help build curriculum and instruction for students and teachers.  The organization’s stated goal is to provide curriculum building for up to 50 million students by 2035 to provide them with “meaningful work and meaningful lives.”  As of fiscal year 2025, TNTP had reported roughly $137.8 million in revenue. ^{1  2}

Notable prior TNTP research publications include The Widget Effect (2009) and The Opportunity Myth (2018). TNTP had received funding from several organizations including the Gates Foundation, the New Venture Fund, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.  ^{3  4  5  6  7}

History

TNTP was founded in 1997 as the New Teacher Project by Michelle Rhee to provide education for certified teachers in New York City school districts. Rhee worked as executive director until she departed in 2007 to serve as Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools in the administration of Mayor Adrian Fenty (D). ^{1  6}

Ariela Rozman and Timothy Daly were later appointed as CEO and president respectfully until 2015. During that time, the group published several educational studies such as The Widget Effect in 2009 and The Irreplaceables in 2012. By 2015, the organization had a staff of 370 and an annual operating budget of $61 million. ⁶

In 2011, the organization formally adopted TNTP as its operating name, dropping The New Teacher Project. The group later claimed it intended to expand its focus towards consulting work on school district leadership and culture. In 2015, Daniel Weisberg and Karolyn Belcher became CEO and president, respectively. Before Weisberg’s departure from the role of CEO in 2022, TNTP published several additional education studies including The Mirage in 2015 and The Opportunity Myth in 2018. ^{1  7  6}

Tequilla Brownie is the CEO of TNTP, having worked in the role since 2022. She previously worked as TNTP’s executive vice president of strategy, policy, and community coalitions before her appointment as CEO. Prior to TNTP, Brownie worked for the Memphis City School District. ⁸

Activities and Activism

Teaching Fellows

TNTP has run a teaching fellow program since its inception in 1997. The fellowship trained recent college graduates and mid-career professionals to serve as teachers in low-performing public-school systems. Fellows partnered with school districts in New Orleans, New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. Shortly after the publication of these reports, TNTP was consulting with school districts in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. ⁹

Research and Consulting

In 2003, using the research compiled from the fellows program, TNTP published their first policy report titled, “Missed Opportunities: How We Keep High-Quality Teachers Out of Urban Classrooms.” In 2005, another report was published titled, “Unintended Consequences: The Case for Reforming the Staffing Rules in Urban Teachers Union Contracts.” In 2009, another report was published titled, “The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in teacher Effectiveness”. This later became the basis of advocacy and consulting efforts to state departments of education and charter school management organizations. ^{10 11 12}

TNTP focuses primarily on four areas: advising, data collection, designing new systems, and execution of new systems. Their advising focuses on providing leaders with support in areas such as negotiations and engaging community members. The data collection focuses on collecting data from observations and surveys and interpreting this data. The design focuses on providing action to problems discovered during the data collection process such as designing new curriculum or teacher pay models. Lastly, execution focuses on implementation of the programs that were designed by TNTP. TNTP clients are in 10 states to include Massachusetts, California, Indiana, and Texas. ¹³

Education Policy

In 2018, TNTP published a report claiming that college students spend $1.5 billion a year on remedial classes because students do not receive “grade-appropriate” assignments and proper instruction in K-12 schools, and that students experience a lack of engagement and a lack of high expectations. ^{14 15}

It also argued that Latino and African American students required additional remedial college courses and that in order to be more “equitable,” teachers and school districts should provide greater educational instruction at the K-12 level. Additionally, it advocated for students and parents to both hold a “legitimate role” in education policy and in classroom decisions. ¹⁶

Fishman Prize

TNTP previously offered the Shira Fishman Prize to teachers that it argued were of exceptional quality. The prize was named after Shira Fishman, a former engineer who later left to participate in the TNTP fellows program and would go on to become a public school teacher in the District of Columbia public school system. The prize’s winner would earn $25,000 and a five-week summer residency that included an essay requirement, meetings with education policy leaders, and trips to Washington, D.C. In order to qualify, applicants would have to be full-time teachers in a public school where at least 40% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. ¹⁷

The last Fishman Prize was awarded in 2018. As of May 2026, TNTP has not announced a new round of applications, and no press releases announcing winners have appeared on the organization’s website since that year. ¹⁸

The Bridge Fellowship

The Bridge Fellowship was a year-long fellowship that encourages education professionals to develop new curriculum, while working with personal advisors to implement said idea. Fellows were paid a $100,000 salary. ¹⁹

Funding

TNTP has previously received funding from left-of-center organizations and foundations. These include the Gates Foundation, the New Venture Fund, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the Robin Hood Foundation.  ^{3  4  5  20}

In March 2022, TNTP announced it had received an “unsolicited” $20 million donation from Yield Giving, the philanthropic group founded by MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. TNTP CEO Tequilla Brownie announced on the group website that it was “the largest single donation we’ve ever received.” ²¹

In October 2022, TNTP received an $8.4 million grant, paid over a three-year period, from the U.S Department of Education. The donation was through Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED), a program intended to “[s]upport pathways that allow teachers, principals, or other school leaders with nontraditional preparation and certification to obtain employment.”  ^{22  23}

Financials

According to its 2024 990 tax filings, TNTP reported revenue of $137,839,373, expenses of $131,005,848, and net assets of $78,125,451. Contributions totaled about $33.3 million, or roughly 24 percent of revenue, and program service revenue totaled about $102.4 million, or roughly 74 percent of revenue.  ²⁴

Leadership

Michelle Rhee was the founder and initial CEO of TNTP from its founding in 1997 until her departure in 2007 to serve as chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. In 2007, Ariela Rozman was appointed CEO and Timothy Daly became president. In 2015, Daniel Weisberg was named CEO as Karolyn Belcher was named president. Belcher worked as President until 2018. ^{25  26}

In January 2022, Tequilla Brownie was named as TNTP’s CEO after previously working as executive vice president and vice president of the client and consulting team. Prior to TNTP, Brownie worked for the Memphis City School District. Brownie holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale University, a master’s degree in social work from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and a doctorate in education leadership and policy studies from the University of Memphis. She also sits on the board of Stand for Children, ForwARd Arkansas, the MindTrust, KIPP Delta School Board, and Memphis Seeding Success, and is a founding leadership committee member and former board member of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). ^{27  28}