Teach For America

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 15 claims (10 for, 5 mixed) · 5 studies (3 causal, 2 quant-synthesis), q3 · 1 of 5 report an effect size · 15 claims rest on one study

Description

Teach For America runs a nationwide alternate-route teacher-preparation and teacher-placement programme that recruits and prepares corps members to teach in low-income K–12 schools.

Components

• Teach For America alternate-route teacher preparation program: Teach For America is a nation-wide alternate route teacher preparation program designed to address the shortage of effective teachers in high-poverty rural and urban K–12 public schools in the USA. It "selectively recruits both college undergraduates and graduates—many from top colleges—and professionals to teach in low‐income schools". Roughly 25% of recruits become corps members through a selection process including a writing activity, telephone interview, sample teaching lesson plan, group discussion, and in-person interview. Since 1990 TFA has placed approximately 40,000 corps members, and in 2012 recruited approximately 5% of the graduating classes of 135 colleges and universities. (Turner H et al. (2018))
• Teach For America alternative certification program: Teach For America (TFA) is a highly selective route to teacher certification that places non-traditionally trained teachers in high-need public schools, requiring a commitment of "at least 2 years of teaching". Recruits complete 5-7 weeks of summer training including practice teaching, then receive ongoing coaching from a manager of teacher leadership and development, regional learning teams, and subject- and grade-tailored toolkits during a 2-year commitment. Admission is highly selective; in 2015 TFA admitted 15% of applicants. (Teach For America (2016))
• Teach For America (TFA) as a teacher-supply program for hard-to-staff subjects in high-poverty schools: Teach For America is a program that supplies teachers for hard-to-staff subjects in high-poverty U.S. schools. The article describes it as "an important but controversial source of teachers for hard-to-staff subjects in high-poverty U.S. schools" and evaluates its secondary math teachers experimentally. The program requires only a two-year commitment from its teachers, a feature the authors explicitly address in their analysis. (Hanley S. Chiang et al. (2014))
• TFA Theory of Change: a data-driven five-component program model from recruitment through alumni leadership: The review distills TFA's Theory of Change from TFA's 2010–15 Business Plan. TFA "uses a data‐driven program model comprising (1) recruitment, (2) a rigorous selection process, (3) intensive pre‐service training for selected corps members, (4) two years of ongoing professional development for corps members, and (5) programming that fosters alumni leadership". Selection identifies candidates likely to succeed; training is guided by a Teaching as Leadership approach codifying a goal-oriented approach to teaching; ongoing mentoring provides regular feedback on teaching impact; alumni continue to receive professional development and leadership resources. The model hypothesizes these skills and a (Turner H et al. (2018))

Claims

• Teaching by first- or second-year TFA corps members shows no significant effect on elementary-grade students' reading compared with non-TFA novice teachers [~W]
• The evidence base for estimating TFA's effects on student academic outcomes reduces to just four studies [~W]
• Prior experimental studies of TFA consistently showed a positive, statistically significant effect on student math achievement but no discernable effect on reading [+W] — (also cited [~W])
• TFA shows a small positive effect on reading for early elementary students (PreK to grade 2) but not in math [+W] — (also cited [~W])
• Students with alternatively certified teachers did no worse on achievement tests than students with traditionally certified teachers [+W]
• In some cases, Teach For America and Teaching Fellows secondary math teachers are more effective than traditionally certified math teachers [+W]
• Secondary math teachers from Teach For America and the Teaching Fellows programs are as effective as teachers receiving traditional certification [+W]
• TFA secondary math teachers increase student math achievement by 0.07 standard deviations over one school year relative to other math teachers in the same schools [+W]
• A randomized controlled trial found TFA secondary math teachers outperformed non-TFA comparison teachers in mathematics achievement [+W]
• An elementary-school RCT found no statistically significant difference between TFA and non-TFA teachers in mathematics or reading achievement [~W]
• TFA teachers show no discernible effects on English language arts achievement for students in grades pre-K-12 [~W]
• TFA teachers show no discernible effects on social studies achievement, based on one study [~W]
• TFA teachers have positive effects on mathematics achievement for students in grades pre-K-12, based on six studies [+W]
• TFA teachers show potentially positive effects on science achievement, based on one study [+W]
• TFA teachers in their first two years of teaching are more effective than more experienced non-TFA teachers in the same schools [+W]

Related Products and Programmes

• On the Rise Academy

Key Sources

• Turner H, Ncube M, Turner A, Boruch R, Ibekwe N. (2018). What are the effects of Teach For America on Math, English Language Arts, and Science outcomes of K–12 students in the USA? Campbell Systematic Reviews 2018:7. https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2018.7
• Teach For America. (2016). WWC Intervention Report: Teach For America. What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. https://www.teachforamerica.org
• Hanley S. Chiang, Melissa A. Clark, Sheena McConnell. (2014). Supplying Disadvantaged Schools with Effective Teachers: Experimental Evidence on Secondary Math Teachers from Teach For America. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/supplying-disadvantaged-schools-with-effective-teachers-experimental-evidence-on-secondary-math

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	teach-for-america
title	Teach For America
description	Teach For America runs a nationwide alternate-route teacher-preparation and teacher-placement programme that recruits and prepares corps members to teach in low-income K–12 schools.
status	review
moved_from	element/teach-for-america-program, element/teach-for-america-program-element, element/teach-for-america-teacher-supply-program, theory/tfa-theory-of-change-five-component-model
product_kind	programme
generated	by process:sweep-kinds on 2026-10-10
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	3 — turner-h-2018, teach-for-america-2016, hanley-s-chiang-2014

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