Teach for America (TFA). the Peace Corps-style program that recruits graduates from the best colleges to teach in educationally underserved schools, continues to provoke controversy as educators analyze the results of a national Mathematica study released last month. A recent Washington Post article concludes that although TFA teachers are shown to be no worse, and perhaps slightly better than other new teachers, TFA alumni are responsible for spawning the creation of innovative school models such as KIPP that are demonstrating dramatic improvement in student achievement.
TFA does not necessarily offer a silver bullet for improving student performance with its TFA teacher corps. It does, however, clearly address the issue of teacher shortage at needy schools. Perhaps even more importantly, it has exposed bright college graduates to the realities of educational inequity. In doing so, the TFA experience has effectively planted strong seeds among TFA graduates, ensuring that their knowledge of educationally underserved schools will serve as a base from which they will launch their careers. And TFA alumni have not disappointed. They are a driving force for many of the successful initiatives targeting educational inequity.
Some of TFA's greatest merits should not be overlooked. It selects talented TFA teachers who absorb the hard lessons of facing underresourced classrooms. Their experiences have helped expand the pool of future leaders and advocates for educational reform who can tap into their firsthand knowledge to generate educational innovation with greater success.
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