Teach for America (TFA)

Teach for America (TFA) is a nonprofit organization that was developed to provide teachers for low-income school districts in cities and rural communities across America. The program recruits college graduates to a two-year program by offering the potential for student loan forgiveness, if the candidate has qualifying loans. In addition, TFA teachers, known as corps members, receive the same salary and benefits as other first-time teachers in their assigned school districts. Despite its success, the organization, which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2021, has been criticized over the years for underpreparing its teachers and focusing too much on standardized test scores as measures of achievement.

History of Teach for America

Teach for America began as part of Wendy Kopp’s senior thesis when she was a student at Princeton University in 1989. Kopp had the idea for an organization that recruited college graduates to teach in some of the nation’s most underfunded schools. After graduation, Kopp turned her idea into a business plan and started looking for investors.

Kopp only had a few investors at first, one of which donated office space in New York City. However, it was enough for her to get her organization incorporated and start hiring recruiters and teacher administrators. TFA really got off the ground in 1990 after billionaire Ross Perot agreed to give the organization $500,000 if it could raise an additional $1.5 million on its own. Kopp and her staff managed to raise $2 million, and TFA was finally in business. In 1990, the organization received 2,600 applications and 384 corps members began teaching in six regions, which included cities like Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 1994, then president Bill Clinton established AmeriCorps, a new national service program. Teach for America became a part of AmeriCorps and received $2 million in federal funding to continue its mission. By 1996, 20 percent of TFA’s funding was coming from AmeriCorps. In addition, AmeriCorps provided tuition reimbursement for qualifying TFA corps members as well as grants for continuing education. By the end of the 1990s, the organization had more than 1,400 alumni, and corps members were teaching in schools in fourteen regions.

Teach for America continued to expand in the early 2000s. The organization attracted more donors, allowing it to recruit more teachers and expand to new regions. By mid-decade, TFA was one of the top employers of recent college graduates at several universities. TFA also garnered positive recognition for its work. A study released in 2008 showed that Teach for America’s high school math and science teachers were just as effective as their more experienced counterparts and that their students performed well on end-of-year exams. This led to even more funding for the organization.

As Teach for America continued to grow, there were shifts behind the scenes. Kopp stepped down as TFA’s chief executive officer (CEO) but remained on the organization’s national board. TFA’s president Matt Kramer and regional operations manager Elisa Villanueva Beard became co-CEOs in 2013. Kramer stepped down from his post in 2015, and Villanueva Beard became TFA’s sole CEO. By 2025, the organization had more than 70,000 alumni. Some of these alums went on to hold public office, others ran school districts, and some even worked for the US Department of Education.

Controversy Surrounding Teach for America

Although many people support Teach for America’s mission to provide struggling school districts with bright and ambitious young teachers, the organization is not without its critics. Some of these critics even include former TFA corps members.

One of the main complaints is that TFA often selects college graduates who have no educational background in teaching. While applicants are often very bright, many have not taken education courses. Additionally, once corps members are selected, they are given just a few weeks during the summer for training, which includes teaching a small summer school class, before they are expected to teach on their own. Some corps members have complained that this system left them unprepared for the realities of teaching, particularly when it comes to disciplining students. Many people have also viewed this system of training as an effort to "deprofessionalize" the teaching field. Traditionally trained teachers usually spend more than one thousand hours in the classroom, and they teach as students under the guidance of a more experienced instructor before they are certified. TFA’s critics worry that sending underprepared teachers to struggling schools could negatively affect student outcomes.

Another common complaint is that there is a high turnover rate of TFA teachers. All TFA corps members have a two-year commitment, but many of these corps members do not continue teaching once that commitment is fulfilled. This is a point of contention among school district administrators who are hoping to provide their students with some stability by hiring teachers who are dedicated to teaching for the long haul.

Around 2016, the organization began making some significant changes. Some recruits are now hired as college juniors so they can spend more time training before entering the classroom, and there are fellowships available to teachers who commit to staying with the program for more than two years. Despite these efforts, the organization’s number of new applicants continued to decrease into the 2020s. For example, in 2013, TFA put almost six thousand new teachers into the classroom. By 2023, that number dropped to 2,200. Their application acceptance rate is typically around 12 percent. The selective nature of the applicants has remained an important part of the organization's influence, and in spite of declining numbers, TFA candidates continue to perform well, produce positive outcomes, and rank above other educators hired at the same time.

Bibliography

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