Over the next few weeks, 8,200 Teach For America teachers, also known as corps members, will start the school year in classrooms in 39 urban and rural regions around the country. They'll touch the lives of over 500,000 students living in low-income communities who are less likely to be academically on grade level or to graduate from high school or college than their more affluent peers.
Emily Johnson's recent column ("Teach for Prestige," Aug. 10) referenced a study carried out by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice in direct contradiction to the findings of other recent studies that demonstrate the high efficacy of Teach For America classroom teachers. In April 2010, the University of North Carolina released a study that found, at every grade and subject level studied, corps members did as well or better than traditionally prepared UNC graduates. In addition, a 2008 Urban Institute study updated in 2009 found that Teach For America corps members have a positive effect on student achievement relative to other teachers including those with full traditional certification or years of experience in the field.
These findings are particularly meaningful because the initial two-year commitment to Teach For America often translates into a longer and more significant experience for corps members more than two-thirds of Teach For America's 20,000 alumni continue in the field of education and half of those alumni continue to serve as classroom teachers. It is thus clear that Teach For America's model to create systematic change in low-income communities through recruitment of the nation's best and brightest is working.
Teach For America is not just impacting individual students, but successfully and systematically improving the school systems in low-income communities. The Knowledge Is Power Program, for instance, has created 99 high-quality, free, open-enrollment schools across the country and was founded by two Teach for America alumni. Further, the KIPP program works significantly better in cities that already has a mass of Teach for America teachers, according to Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews.
Furthermore, Teach For America's recruitment from the nation's top 300 universities is purposeful, so that the students making up the corps are future leaders and will gain firsthand experience dealing with the problems of education systems in our low-income communities. These leaders will then take their experience with them into various fields. A number of alumni of this program all say the same thing: once you complete your two years with Teach For America, it is hard not to think about those children in everything you do.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education recently awarded Teach For America $50 million through the Investing in Innovation grant program. The award affirms that Teach For America's approach has been proven effective in improving the educational and life prospects of all kids no matter where they grow up.
It may be true that some apply to Teach For America solely to improve their chances of being accepted into other, more highly-paid professions. And since Teach For America's application process is not perfect, a few of those applicants will surely slip through the cracks. But if they make it through the five-week intensive institute training, these applicants will ultimately come to understand the purpose of Teach For America and enter their classrooms eager to make a difference.
As an intern with Teach For America this summer and a former student of a school system founded by a Teach For America alumnus, I support corps members' efforts to fight the injustice that exists in our nation's classrooms. Without Teach For America, I personally would not have received my first-class education, an education equal to those of my wealthier peers at Dartmouth.
