Having grown up as a child of color in a low-income community, I recognized both the injustice and the solvability of U.S. achievement gaps when I taught 7th graders in rural North Carolina in 1992. Like the vast majority of the 16 million U.S. children who are born in low-income communities, almost all my students were black, were years behind academically, and faced formidable challenges that accompany growing up in poverty. They were often engulfed by low expectations of the adults charged with educating them. Yet, in their best efforts, they proved that demographics do not determine destiny. During the two years I taught there, my students made great progress, exceeding many people's expectations, including their own.
But the fact is that if things don't change, only 9 percent of U.S. children growing up in low-income communities today will graduate from college by age 24, compared with 54 percent of their wealthier peers. Now, as the head of research at Teach for America, I look back on the 7th graders I taught as the most important experts on how we can end such inequality. We need not only an army of teachers who do whatever it takes to overcome the challenges facing children in low-income communities, but also an army of leaders, working both in and outside school, who will change an inequitable system that disadvantages the educators working with the children who need the most help. Teach for America's mission is to help build this force.
A Focus on Immediate Impact
Teach for America recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding individuals from all academic disciplines to teach for at least two years in a low-income community. From last year's record 48,000 applicants, we selected a corps of 5,000, who hail from more than 600 colleges and universities, to work in 43 urban and rural communities. Nearly one-third were low-income enough to receive Pell Grants, and one-third are people of color. Although they don't nearly represent the demographics of the students we serve, our corps has 30 percent more teachers of color than does the total population of graduating college seniors.
Teach for America recruits strive to have an immediate positive effect on students, often contributing to closing achievement gaps even in their first year in the classroom. Although a majority of recruits were not planning to enter education, two-thirds of our nearly 24,000 alumni work in the field, one-half as classroom teachers and more than 500 as school leaders.
Given the high stakes for children growing up in poverty, Teach for America understands that its teachers can't just be proficient or effective as defined by some rubric or regulation—they must, instead, be transformational in the lives of students. Having spent more than 20 years studying thousands of our teachers in low-income communities, Teach for America has developed a strong sense of what the pursuit of transformational teaching requires.
A Focus on Transformation
In our most transformational classrooms, both teachers and students display a sense of urgency and focus, a collective purpose, and a determination to defy what some call the "destiny of demographics." Students own their progress, are intrinsically motivated, and engage at high levels with rigorous and meaningful content. They behave differently in these classrooms because their teachers foster the belief that they can succeed and help illuminate the path toward a meaningful future.
Teachers in these classrooms work actively with parents, colleagues, and key community influencers to create a web of support. Through purposeful planning and effective implementation, they lead students to make dramatic progress (we look for our teaching fellows' students to make a year and a half of growth during one school year, or demonstrate an average of 80 percent mastery on the end-of-course exam). These teachers are, in fact, leaders, doing what successful leaders do in all challenging contexts—rallying others around an audacious vision, investing others in working hard to get there, and doing whatever it takes to stay on track.
Our development model centers on empowering carefully selected recruits to have a transformational effect on students' lives. We don't operate with the stark divisions between pre- and in-service development and support. Instead, our model focuses on experiential learning, access to concrete resources, cycles of reflection about what is and isn't working, and a strong collective culture that supports rapid development of our teachers in context. In this way, we can produce the leaders that we need our first- and second-year teachers to be.
Our development work is also strongly influenced by insights of experts in the field. We frequently consult with researchers, education school leaders, and practitioners as we develop and refine components of our model. Last year, for example, our initiatives to develop early childhood teachers were influenced by the Rollins Center for Language and Learning. The Rollins Center is part of the Atlanta Speech School, which serves children and adults with speech, hearing, language, or learning disabilities through clinical and education programs. The development of our math teachers is influenced by more than half a dozen scholars, such as Jon Star at Harvard University and Deborah Ball and Magdalene Lampert at the University of Michigan.
How the Training Works
Our development model begins in the spring before our new teachers arrive at our five-week summer training institute. During those months, recruits are required to study key concepts of teaching by reading texts and watching videos; observe classrooms in the communities in which they live; and reflect on the teacher actions that most powerfully accelerate student learning, such as backwards planning and investing in students so they believe they can be successful. These experiences not only build knowledge about effective teaching practices, but also deepen incoming teachers' understanding of the systemic causes of inequity and the crucial role that education can play in giving students power over their futures. We clarify the type of leadership that classroom teachers need to demonstrate to help students unlock that power for themselves. We also encourage teacher reflection about the ways their backgrounds and identities may influence their work as teachers.
We find that our teachers make the most progress when they are on their feet, teaching, and then reflecting on their practice. Our summer institute is, therefore, built around a collaborative teaching model instead of a traditional student-teaching model. With the guidance, support, and coaching of several experienced teachers at the back of the room, our teachers are fully responsible for student learning at summer schools we run around the United States. They learn how to plan lessons; check for understanding during instruction; design assessments; and build relationships with students, families, and colleagues. We use our Teaching as Leadership rubric—a road map of excellence developed from studying our most successful teachers—to diagnose teachers' needs and focus our support.<FOOTNOTE><NO>1</NO>The Teaching as Leadership rubric is available at www.teachingasleadership.org/sites/default/files/TAL.Comprehensive.Rubric.FINAL.pdf.</FOOTNOTE>
When they arrive in the community where they will teach, our teachers engage with students and their families to develop a vision for the students' future that is based not on demographics but on each student's full potential. With their coaches, our teachers translate that vision into specific academic and personal growth goals—for example, that all students in the classroom will make at least two years of growth in their reading, writing, and math skills and will meaningfully increase their perseverance, self-advocacy, and love of learning.
The summer institute's emphasis on doing, reflecting, and improving continues throughout the two-year development program. Our teachers are supported with in-class coaching, professional development seminars, and staff-led workshops as well as a rich web of online support that includes expert-led content communities. In most regions, our teachers are also enrolled in a teacher education school as part of a certification or master's program. In many cases, the most powerful resources our teachers have are the veteran mentors (alumni and non-alumni of Teach for America) with whom they collaborate daily.
What the Research Shows
A large and growing body of research shows that our corps members achieve academic gains equal to or larger than teachers from other preparation programs. Recently, three states (Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee) conducted statewide analyses on the effectiveness of various teacher preparation programs.<FOOTNOTE><NO>2</NO>The analysis for Louisiana is available atwww.nctq.org/docs/TFA_Louisiana_study.PDF; for Tennessee, atwww.tn.gov/thec/Divisions/fttt/report_card_teacher_train/report_card.html; and for North Carolina, at http://publicpolicy.unc.edu/research/Teacher_Portals_Teacher_Preparation_and_Student_Test_Scores_in_North_Carolina_2.pdf.</FOOTNOTE> Each determined that Teach for America is among the state's most effective teacher preparation pathways and that Teach for America teachers outperform other beginning teachers. Moreover, when compared with veteran teachers, Teach for America teachers were found to be at least as strong. The evidence of corps members' positive impact spans multiple subject areas and all grade levels, from prekindergarten through high school.
In addition, according to a survey of principals who employ Teach for America teachers, 92 percent indicate that our teachers are as effective as, or more effective than, other beginning teachers in terms of overall performance and effect on student achievement. Institutions like the Mary Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University, among others, are partnering with us to enrich and expand the clinical experience of preservice teachers. Moreover, feedback from our corps members is positive, with 82 percent reporting that their experience at our summer institute was crucial in their efforts to become a successful teacher.
Whatever It Takes
A day when every child has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential will only be possible with a deep commitment to continuous improvement that acknowledges the complexity of race, poverty, pedagogy, and will. I know it's possible—and Teach for America is committed to making it happen.
