Durham Public Schools has decided to end its relationship with Teach for America over retention issues.
At a meeting last month, the DPS Board of Education voted 6-1 to not renew its contract with TFA. The program, which gives recent college graduates teaching positions in low-income schools, employs 12 corps members in DPS and 500 statewide. Teachers hired through the program will complete their contracts through the 2015-16 school year, but no new ones will be hired afterwards. The change comes because the school district was concerned about the high teacher turnover rate, said Heidi Carter, chair of the DPS Board of Education.
“The board is more focused right now on developing the capacity of our teacher workforce long-term," Carter said. "The majority of the board felt like TFA, while they have quality candidates for sure, is more of a short-term solution. The corps members don’t tend to stay.”
The board's problem with TFA was about retention, but not about the quality of the teachers they provided, Carter said.
“We value the ones we have in our schools already,” she said. “The model of TFA is just not one that we believe supports the quality of a long-term, high-quality teaching force.”
Becky O’Neill, communications director for TFA in North Carolina, said that the state's TFA teachers have consistently had a positive impact in their classrooms. She cited a 2014 study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which found the program to be the most effective source of early-career public school teachers in North Carolina.
“Consistently, TFA has ranked as the most effective program in terms of student outcome,” O’Neill said. "There’s always going to be lots of politics swirling around—we want our focus to be on actual impact.”
O’Neill also cited statistics claiming that the organization yielded high retention rates among teachers. She said the majority of TFA teachers go on to teach a third year, and that the about two-thirds of TFA alumni are still working in education.
The nonprofit has recently launched two pilot programs aimed at improving training and retention, O’Neill said. She referenced a training program that would offer TFA recruits a year of classes in educational theory, as well as a mentorship program aimed at providing assistance for those corps members returning past their second year.
Carter said these pilot programs might address some of the school board’s concerns.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” she said. “I think TFA nationally is receiving some criticism for their model, which appears to be a short-term solution to a longer-term problem. I think they’re working hard to tweak their program.”
The decision has potential to have effects in other districts, said Helen Ladd, Susan B. King professor of public policy and professor of economics.
“Some districts going forward will be looking a little more carefully than they did in the past at whether the TFA program meets the district’s long-term goals,” she said.
Many factors affect a school district’s relationship with programs like TFA, Ladd said.
“If Durham were a rural NC district, as opposed to being an urban district, TFA might well be the best option,” she said. “These are complicated trade-offs as is often the case in these decisions.”
O’Neill and Carter both said they are open to eventually reestablishing a relationship between DPS and TFA.
O'Neill mentioned specifically that TFA recognized the implications of the decision and the impact it would have on schools and students in Durham.
"We are going to continue to figure out how we can be the best partner possible at some point down the road," she said.
The school district might reconsider their decision if the program model changed significantly, or if DPS had a large shortage of teachers, Carter said.
“We’re going to be continuing to monitor this to make sure we’re making a good decision,” she said. “Our goal is to have the best outcome for the most children over time, and for us, that means a high quality teaching force that’s here as long as possible.”
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