Philanthropedia - Teach for America nonprofit profile

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Education: Teach for America

Mission: Teach for America's mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort.

BASIC INFORMATION	EXPERT ASSESSMENT	BENEFICIARY REVIEW

Basic Information
Social Cause: Education
Issue Area: Education

Year Founded: 1990
Problem

Only 1 in 10 students growing up in poverty will graduate from college.
Solution

TFA recruits outstanding recent college graduates and working professionals from all backgrounds and career interests to commit to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools. TFA then provides the training and ongoing support necessary to ensure their success as teachers in low-income communities.
Impact

Numbers: More than 24,000 individuals have participated in TFA, impacting the lives of approximately 3 mil students.

Commitment: 61% of TFA corps members continue to teach beyond their two-year corps commitment.

Effective Teachers: 95% of the principals rated corps members as effective as other beginning teachers and 61% rated corps members as more effective than other beginning teachers. 90% of the principals said they would hire a corps member again.
Financial Breakdown

Expenses Breakdown

Program Expenses : 68659102
Administrative Expenses: 8113182
Fundraising Expenses: 6620014
Charity Navigator Profile
Contact Information

Website: http://www.teachforamerica.org/
Email: donations@teachforamerica.org
Phone: 800-832-1230

The contents of this page are primarily from this nonprofit organization's website. The views expressed on this page are those of this organization and not necessarily those of Philanthopedia.

SummaryLearn more about these experts>>

Summary: Education experts believe that Teach For America does a great job at developing human capital in education. Perhaps most importantly, they have changed the way people look at the teaching profession which is a huge success. At the same time, Teach for America has difficulty retaining their teachers and it is not clear that Teach for America teachers are outperforming peer teachers.

Strengths

Outstanding Human Capital Developers

"They are dramatically increasing the number and quality of people who go into the teaching profession."
"They are creating future education leaders."
"They are a developer of human capital."
"They recruit top quality college graduates into teaching."
"They focus on talent development."
"The secondary effects of Teach for America alumni who are in leadership roles is now felt."
"They have a commitment to infrastructure."
"Their huge network provides awareness of and avenues for full time opportunities in education reform, whether in teaching or elsewhere."

Inspirational

"They have a transformational vision."
"They are inspiring more students to consider teaching as a desirable, meaningful and high-impact profession."
"They have raised the status of teaching as a career."

Results Oriented

"They pay attention to evaluation and data."
"They are a results-driven organization."

Areas for Improvement

High Teacher Turnover

"Teach for America teachers are not planning a career as a teacher and have no experience with urban students."
"They should focus on getting a long-term commitment from their teachers rather than a two-year stint."
"A strong indicator of success in my mind is the retention of teachers after the program has ended. This could be improved pretty significantly from current levels."
"They have high teacher turnover rates."
"They have difficulty with teacher support and retention."
"They have difficulty retaining now-well-trained teachers in schools and showing student achievement gains."

Unproven Success

"Research shows it is not an effective program."
"The contribution of Teach for American teachers is hard to evaluate."
"They need to improve their primary effects - corps members need to clearly outperform peer teachers."

Organizational Difficulties

"They need to improve their recruiting process."
"They have not realized their full scaling potential."
"They need to improve their own internal bureaucracy."

Relationship with Alumni

"They should have a more formalized collaboration with their alumni community."
"They should try to keep their alumni engaged in K-12 education."

The views expressed on this page are those of each individual expert and not necessarily those of Philanthopedia. Note that each quote represents the views of just one person and may not reflect the sentiments of the entire group. We do not disclose the names of the experts who gave each comment to protect their anonymity

" My relationship with TFA is that they bring a lot of core members to teach in our schools, right now there are around 1000 in New York Public Schools. I believe they are bringing real talents to kids in high needs neighbor…I’m really one of their great cheerleaders."
-Joel Klein (Chancellor New York City Department of Education)

" It's surprising and it's challenging."
-Janee Jones (Mississippi Delta Corps '06 - 5th Grade Math, Carver Upper Elementary School)

" Every single day is an adventure, every single day is a story. My marker isn't working. But what keeps me going but seeing the students grow."
-Silvio Delgado (Phoenix Corps '07 - Middle School Math, Valley View School)

" I can see everyday that I'm making a difference." (Read more)
-John Peterson (Metro D.C. Corps '06 - 7th Grade English, Powell Middle School)

" It's been six weeks since the first day of school, the day I gave each of my students temporary college acceptance letters from universities all across the country. And already it's working. I am seeing their motivation to learn. Not only do I have parents calling me to inform me that their children are doing homework on a regular basis for the first time, but I have students asking me questions about college, excited to be a part of the Class of 2013—the year they will graduate high school and attend college—and they are even coming back to school at 5:30 p.m. to pick up forgotten homework. The confidence that I see in my students is inspiring. Their sense of responsibility motivates me to maintain the momentum we have already achieved."
-Joseph Almeida (TFA corps member and 5th grade teacher)

" Getting Ricardo to the place where he is now has taken great persistence and creativity—and we still have many hours of work ahead of us to make sure that he is ready to move onto high school—but the journey has been amazing. I've been able to reach Ricardo, to help him find a new love of reading and learn important skills. Most importantly, however, I believe I have been able to help Ricardo see that he is in control of his own success and that he is responsible for his future."
-Mariel Elguero (TFA corps member and 8th grade teacher)

" It is not for lack of ability or desire that students in lower income communities are falling through the cracks. What happened in my classroom was not magic. It was a product of setting incredibly high standards, pursuing results relentlessly, and never giving up. Under those conditions, anything is possible."
-Liam Honigsberg (TFA corps member and high school teacher)

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