Dive Brief:
- Mississippi’s poorest schools are among those that struggle with high teacher turnover and a shortage of qualified staff interested in taking on the relatively low-wage work, but Teach for America is working to get some of the state’s natives to commit to the local schools.
- According to The Hechinger Report, Teach for America brings its own high teacher turnover rates to struggling districts, placing inexperienced teachers in schools that are already more likely to have a large number of newcomers to the profession.
- A Mathematica Policy Research study found last year that 90% of TFA teachers do not see themselves teaching for their entire careers, compared to just a quarter of non-TFA teachers, and in Mississippi, that compounds below-average teacher retention rates compared to other states.
Dive Insight:
Teach for America has been criticized for putting predominantly wealthy, white college graduates in front of students who are mostly poor and black or brown. TFA has a short training window to prepare recent grads for some of the hardest classrooms. But the organization’s proponents say it has recruited highly intelligent and driven individuals to the field of education and set them up to be powerful advocates for school improvement, whether they do so from the policy realm or inside of education.
Importantly, the organization has helped address teacher shortages nationwide. These shortages have gotten increasingly dire in some states, including Utah, which recently passed a law saying teachers do not need any type of certification or teaching experience to get hired by the state’s schools.
