Forty-eight little eyes are looking up at you waiting for your next direction. Today's task: teach 24 first-graders their vowel sounds, addition and the concept of sharing. You rise before sunup and your car is the last to leave well after sundown. You work 12-hour days, and make around $30,000 a year.
This is where many Teach for America corps members find themselves, miles away from home, with little more than a month of training, directing a classroom full of students. Corps members are all fighting for a mission they believe in: to close the achievement gap for low-income communities, and give all students the possibility to excel and develop to their full potential.
TFA is a non-profit organization that selects a corps of outstanding recent college graduates and trains them to be teachers in urban and rural public schools across the country. The students selected span many different majors, from chemistry to political science.
Amy Duarte, TFA recruitment director and alum, said applicants are selected based on different competencies, including a history of past achievement, a strong organizational ability, the ability to influence and motivate people, strong critical thinking skills and the ability to persevere in the face of challenges. In addition, she emphasized applicants' desire and willingness to work for TFA's mission.
""We also look for people who are going to hold high expectations for their students and families, regardless of their socioeconomic background,"" she said.
Last year, 196 UW-Madison students applied, and 36 were accepted. Once accepted, corps members are assigned to one of 25 different regions across the country based on their assignment preferences. The areas include Chicago, New York City, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Ninety-five percent of corps members are placed in one of their highly preferred sites, and 94 percent teach in a school with at least one other corps member. Half the members teach elementary education and half teach middle and high school education.
The teacher training starts with a five week summer institute designed to teach corps members the fundamentals of teaching and classroom management. Jason Shepard, a 2001 to 2003 corps member in New York City and current journalism Ph.D. student, recalled his first couple weeks as exhausting and shocking.
""It's a totally life-changing experience,"" he said. ""Here I am, quitting my job as a reporter, putting my life into storage, living in a dorm room knowing nobody, then in the day getting on a school bus and getting shipped into the inner city school.""
As such, TFA has faced criticism that they do not adequately prepare members to teach disadvantaged children in underfunded schools. However, this does not necessarily mean corps members are ineffective, according to Shepard.
""Several studies have proven that TFA teachers are at least as good, and often better than traditionally trained teachers in these hard-to-staff schools,"" he said.
Although the summer institute may seem insufficient to some, 89 percent of TFA corps members complete their two-year commitment. The retention rate is actually higher than the national rate of non-TFA members who teach for a second year in the same area. Duarte believes this is because TFA is selecting people who want the challenge of teaching in those areas.
""If you go to an education program, you have the option of teaching in the more desirable locations,"" Duarte said, adding that TFA is so successful because, ""We have a network of people who you can share your stories and problems with.""
Even with this strong network behind them, TFA members are forced to confront huge roadblocks inhibiting their teaching every day. Shepard's school district was the poorest congressional district in the nation, and didn't have books for his students. Through TFA alumni, Shepard found private donors to donate money for books. He was also introduced to a Web site called donorschoose.org where inner city teachers could request books for their classrooms, paid for by people who wanted to donate money to failing public schools.
""The point is basic tools weren't there— we could accept that or say ‘this is completely unjust' and do something about it,"" Shepard said.
When asked to give advice to future TFA corps members, Shepard said, ""It's going to be tough as hell every single day ... spending 10 or 12 hours in a school where you go from one tough challenge, to another tough challenge, to another tough challenge. Then you get home, and all you want to do is pass out from exhaustion, but you've got a lesson to plan for the next day, you've got piles of papers to grade, you've got parents to call to talk about issues with their kids. So it really is almost a 24/7 job, and that's really draining.""
TFA members also share a proactive mentality, a trait encouraged by Emily Cohen, a 2003 corps member.
""So often people talk about wanting to make a difference in the world, well, TFA gives you the opportunity to create change in your own backyard,"" she said.
Cohen taught in a small town called Edinburg in south Texas' Rio Grande Valley, and says her Teach for America experience taught her a sense of humility and helped her understand that she is part of a larger picture.
""Looking back, I see that it gave me first-hand knowledge of the challenges facing low-income communities. So much of what TFA is about is what you make of it after your two-year commitment,"" Cohen said. She is now working in education policy.
Although cases like Cohen's are not unique, TFA has faced criticism because many of its members only teach at their respective schools for a couple years before leaving the profession, limiting their impact. Shepard believes this is the point.
""This is precisely one of the missions of Teach for America—to give smart, dedicated, idealist individuals frontline experiences in the hardest classrooms in American, and then have them fight for systemic changes from the outside,"" he said.
TFA alumni often continue working to close the achievement gap. A few work in the health field to educate families on proper nutrition. Some work as journalists and lawyers to spark social change. And many stay in school systems as leaders and teachers. Duarte estimated about 60 percent of TFA alumni stay in education after they're done, and 90 percent are still working for TFA's mission in some way.
""There are so many students who need people like the ones here at UW who are committed to social causes,"" she said. ""This will be a life-changing experience that will really help you figure out what your life is all about.""
