Teacher Preparation Opinion

Perspectives on TFA in Its 20th Year

In its two decades, Teach For America has dispatched more than 20,000 young teachers to work in some of America’s poorest schools and communities. The nonprofit organization, which sprang from a thesis that founder Wendy Kopp wrote in college, now provides teachers for some 500,000 urban and rural students each year and is a major employer of recent graduates of elite colleges and universities. TFA is celebrated by many as an innovative force in K-12 education. But critics question its short-term teaching commitments—two years—and say its recruits, though well educated and well intentioned, aren’t sufficiently prepared for the classroom. In 2011, TFA boasts of ever-more-intensive work in teacher preparation and development and of what it sees as the organization’s long-term impact on policy and practice. To mark TFA’s 20th-anniversary year, 2010-11, Education Week’s Commentary editors sought out a variety of perspectives on Teach For America and its effects on teachers, students, and schools. For more on TFA, read Education Week’s news coverage of the organization.

Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten
Teacher Preparation Opinion Perspectives on TFA
Education Week asked five leaders in the education sector to give their views on Teach For America’s past, present, and future. Randi Weingarten, Steve Zimmer, Jennifer Goldstein, Michael D. Usdan, and Michael L. Cormack Jr. weigh in.
March 14, 2011
14 min read
Teach for America corps member Jessica Haskell teaches math to children at Scott Montgomery Elementary School in Washington in 2007. Today, she is the managing director of programs in TFA's Washington regional office.
Teach for America corps member Jessica Haskell teaches math to children at Scott Montgomery Elementary School in Washington in 2007. Today, she is the managing director of programs in TFA's Washington regional office.
Christopher Powers/Education Week-File
Teacher Preparation Opinion TFA: Our 'Chance to Make History'
In its 20th year, Teach For America is working to increase the impact of its corps members in the classroom and beyond, TFA founder Wendy Kopp writes.
Wendy Kopp, March 14, 2011
7 min read
Linda Darling-Hammond
Linda Darling-Hammond
Teacher Preparation Opinion Teacher Preparation Is Essential to TFA's Future
Creating systems that nurture the teaching profession is crucial to schools and TFA, Linda Darling-Hammond writes.
Linda Darling-Hammond, March 14, 2011
7 min read