Teach for America gives recent college graduates two year assignments in under-served rural and urban neighborhoods. Emma Routhier '12, who is teaching at a charter school in New York City, explained that TFA appealed to her almost immediately.
"I was struck by how awesome of an opportunity it was to dive really deep into really purposeful work after graduating," she said.
Members of academic circles as well as TFA and alumni have criticized the program. It has admirable ideals: to encourage under-resourced students to achieve by providing highly educated, enthusiastic teachers. But several problems arise in its structure.
How much impact can a teacher make in two years, critics ask? How will the constant turnover of teachers effect educational attainment in these already struggling districts? Some have proposed extending the service period to five years, giving more time for teachers to adjust and make an impact. The longer commitment may weed out applicants simply looking for a resume booster and attract those who seek a career in education. By involving more career teachers, the hope is that long-term education reform will occur.
Michelle Shankar '12, who is currently teaching chemistry at a public high school in Oakland, Calif., said that a significant part of TFA's mission is to educate college graduates about the education gap, which might not require an increase in program length. If TFA graduates move to other careers and use their influence to bring about education reform, TFA's mission will be realized.
Angela Callado, a program recruitment manager for Dartmouth, explained that though only one in six corps members originally plans on a career in education, more continue in the field after their experience.
"Over 61 percent of the corps ends up staying for a third year," she said, "One-third of all alumni end up staying as classroom teachers, so again that really speaks to the broader experience."
Katie Renzler, a 2010 Brown University graduate, served in the greater New Orleans corps and plans to go to law school and work in community development and juvenile justice. Many of her friends in the program have continued working with their schools after the two-year requirement.
"I have friends who are writing curriculums," she said, "I have friends who started after-school programs and now run those, so maybe they're not traditional classroom teachers, but they've still wound up doing stuff that they never thought they would before."
Another criticism of the current system is the lack of training. Although participants are some of the brightest in the nation, they are not always adequately trained to deal with many of the situations they face. Their students' educational experiences are often complicated by difficult home lives or other environmental factors. They may act out in the classroom, and TFA employees are often unprepared to handle these cases appropriately. Additionally, corps members receive the same training regardless of the grade levels and subjects they teach.
"My training was effective insofar as I definitely had a foundation on how do you create roles for a classroom, how do you make a lesson plan," Renzler said. "But content-wise I was over my head and also just overwhelmed behaviorally by my classroom."
Shankar believes that the best way to learn how to deal with difficult situations is through experience. TFA gives her the support she needs, and the rest is part of a learning curve.
Callado affirmed the idea of learning by doing.
"We are a two-year training program," she said.
TFA's targeted recruiting policies have also been a source of controversy.
"They're very aggressive and it's almost annoying," she said, "Within those schools they target so-called leaders, like a president of a frat, a president of a journal, anyone who exhibits leadership skills."
Critics say that teachers who grew up in similar situations have less difficulty managing underprivileged classrooms and are more likely to continue serving low income communities. Shankar notes that because of a dearth of qualified teachers willing to serve in challenging environments, enthusiastic college graduates are the best some schools can hope for.
"Who better to do it than young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed college grads," she said.
Callado added that the disparity of experience forces corps members to reflect on societal issues.
"I'm just really appreciative of the fact that we're pushing our corps members to think about identity and privilege and class," she said. "We want to consider how all intersects within our classrooms so that you can empower our students to end generational cycles of poverty."
Scouring the Internet, I found many accounts of success stories. Several current teachers were former students of TFA participants,inspired by their teachers to get a college education and pursue teaching themselves. They admit that although the turnover was difficult, teachers are always replaced by equally enthusiastic educators. Each successor had something new to offer to the classroom, and many cited the inspirational role these teachers played in their lives.
TFA is not a perfect system. The teachers are not perfect, the structure is not perfect and the support is not perfect. Callado explains how TFA takes the criticisms seriously, and is always looking to improve.
"Every single summer we tweak and we tweak to make sure that we're becoming more and more effective every time," she said. "I think that's something that I do appreciate about the organization, they're very receptive to feedback. You really want to know what they can do better."
TFA is an important effort to close the education gap in underprivileged communities. It offers college graduates an opportunity to continue learning and contribute to the learning of others. For teachers, this may mean bringing their knowledge and passions to other professions, while continuing to fight to fix the wrongs they witnessed during their time in the corps. For students, the hope is that they are inspired to persevere and overcome their educational situation to attend college and to realize the joy of learning.
