An Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal which, if you can get past the polarizing anti-union language, has some very interesting statistics on Teach for America:
Here’s a quiz: Which of the following rejected more than 30,000 of the nation’s top college seniors this month and put hundreds more on a waitlist? a) Harvard Law School; b) Goldman Sachs; or c) Teach for America.
If you’ve spent time on university campuses lately, you probably know the answer. Teach for America — the privately funded program that sends college grads into America’s poorest school districts for two years — received 35,000 applications this year, up 42% from 2008. More than 11% of Ivy League seniors applied, including 35% of African-American seniors at Harvard. Teach for America has been gaining applicants since it was founded in 1990, but its popularity has exploded this year amid a tight job market.
So poor urban and rural school districts must be rejoicing, right? Hardly. Union and bureaucratic opposition is so strong that Teach for America is allotted a mere 3,800 teaching slots nationwide, or a little more than one in 10 of this year’s applicants. Districts place a cap on the number of Teach for America teachers they will accept, typically between 10% and 30% of new hires. In the Washington area, that number is about 25% to 30%, but in Chicago, former home of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, it is an embarrassing 10%.
The sheer numbers here – 35,000 applications and 11% of Ivy League seniors – are remarkable. Growth of 42% in applicants should not necessarily result in an increase of 42% in slots, but one hopes that districts recognize the situation and act accordingly.
The changing economic climate has created a window of opportunity to revitalize and expand the teaching pool. Never waste a good crises.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Never underestimate the power of a global economic downturn. I welcome all the new teachers -especially the well educated! I hope they get the mentoring and support they need in order to make sure they are successful.
What else is impressive about Teach For America? They train their teachers in the use of evidence-based practices.