Jay Mathews, a longtime education reporter at the Washington Post and author of its Class Struggle column, is the rare journalist who seems to like telling hopeful stories. Decades ago he wrote Escalante: The Best Teacher in America, about the teacher who was later featured in the movie Stand and Deliver. And now he’s written another cheerful profile, this time of Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, the founders of the uber-successful KIPP schools. This week, Mike Petrilli talks with Jay about his book, Work Hard, Be Nice, about what KIPP means for the larger education reform debate, and whether Hollywood has bought the rights to his story. (An excerpt of Work Hard, Be Nice, was published in the Spring 2009 issue of Education Next.)

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