Teach for America (TFA)?recently announced it is receiving $100 million from four philanthropists to start its first endowment. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, one of the “Big Three” Education philanthropists, pledged the first $25 million, which encouraged matching donations from three others. “A few years ago we embraced the priority of making Teach For America an enduring American institution that can thrive as long as the problem we’re working to address persists,” said Wendy Kopp, the founder of TFA. “I think it’s only appropriate in our country – which aspires to be a place of equal opportunity – that we have an institution which is about our future leaders making good on that promise.”
The money comes at an interesting time, to say the least. As budget cuts around the country have state legislatures threatening to lay off thousands of teachers, the teachers typically deemed most expendable are younger, less-experienced teachers. (Some politicians, meanwhile, are pushing back against the pro-seniority, pro-tenure thinking, from Mike Bloomberg in New York to G.O.P. governors across the country.) If you take a look at the graphic to the right from the illustrated edition of SuperFreakonomics (you might want to hit your “magnify” key), you’ll see that describes TFA’s demographics to a T. But that very youth and dynamism are of course part of what has made the TFA movement so strong.
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It’s absolutely true that from a management and instructional standpoint, a veteran teacher is simply better than a first or second year teacher. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but not many.
I am currently in Teach For America, and there are two clear reasons to prefer Teach For America teachers over many veteran teachers:
1) Work ethic: Teach For America has a core value of ‘Relentless Pursuit of Results,’ and participants in the program take this notion seriously. Prior to TFA, I worked for a Big Four accounting firm. I was surprised to discover that almost across the board, TFA teachers work harder than their peers in business; and they do so without any monetary incentive. Now, I understand that it is reasonable to say that it’s unfair to compare the dedication of fresh out of college TFA teachers to older teachers who have more responsibilities outside of work. I would agree. However, for a Teach For America teacher, that dedication often translates to more than 80 hours a week of work. I have personally put in multiple 100+ hour weeks. (I am now in my second semester of my second year of teaching.) Many skill deficiencies and inadequacies can be overcome through tremendous hard and purposeful effort.
2) Academic success: TFA teachers know how to be successful academically. Amy mentioned that many TFA teachers are placed outside their area of study in college. This actually matters very little. There are a few TFA teachers teaching high school AP and honors classes, but it is not a significant percentage. Those are the jobs coveted by many veteran high school teachers, and schools generally don’t give those assignments out to new teachers. Instead, TFA teachers tend to end up in courses no more rigorous than an introductory high school biology or chemistry course. This is hardly a challenge for most TFA teachers, and most have fairly deep knowledge in many subject areas, even if they did, as I did, major in philosophy. More relevant is the ability to teach how to be successful in school. Being largely from the top third of the class at the top universities in the country, this is something TFA teachers know a lot about. Teaching disadvantaged students the study skills, personal discipline, and myriad other steps and skills to get to and be successful in college is something that Teach For America teachers are extraordinarily well qualified to convey.
It’s not a simple issue whether TFA teachers are, on balance, making a positive difference. At the very least, however, the diversity of perspective, the discipline, and the academic experience of TFA teachers gives their students access to ideas and opportunities that they would otherwise have been extremely unlikely to learn about.
0.16% are US teachers? This clearly shows TFA grads had no passion in teaching but to boost their MBA/Law/Med school resumes. No knowledge of social and psychological issues of those kids and only 5 weeks of training. What a joke.
TFA is just a social experiment on low-income communities comprised of predominately Latino and black populations. If you are going to teach, teach because you care and not because you want to use it to say “I taught for two years” and go to Law School or to join some firm like Deloitte or KPMG. The people that fund these places would never dream of sending their children to schools that TFA serve…
@ Dmitry and Jose:
You two obviously have no idea what TFA, as a program, is trying to do. I am joining TFA’s 2011 Corps in Chicago and frankly, your generalizations and platitudes just show how little you know about the program.
TFA wants their alumni to go on to do things outside the realm of education. As much as having passionate, intelligent, and dedicated teachers helps, only so much change can come from within. TFA understands this, and they want to instill in the minds of future lawyers, doctors, bankers, policy makers, and politicians the importance of closing the achievement gap.
Generally, I am not against TFA, and I agree with the author’s statement. I also agree with some of the posters, who state that TFA’s strong points are in their commitment to closing the achievement gap and their consistent hard work.
My problem with TFA comes when school districts are laying off teachers and instilling hiring freezes while still honoring their TFA contracts. I am a young teacher who cannot find a job because of these reasons, and it is a slap in the face to find that thousands of people will be given teaching jobs who have no experience or training.
Very interesting numbers! I was under the impression that 30% stayed in education, not necessarily “in the classroom” teaching– is this the case? There was some talk of the Americorps grants being revoked for this years corp, however, which would be a blow to those who are planning on going on to public policy/education grad school.
I’ve been loving this corps member’s perspective on the experience:
http://twoyearsattheblackboard.blogspot.com/2011/03/mr-ns-curmudgeonly-rant-about.html