Why not teach for America?

Today marks the third deadline for this recruiting season of the popular Teach for America program. A brainchild of a Princeton senior’s 1989 undergraduate thesis, the non-profit organization has been selecting recent college graduates to serve two year as teachers in low income communities since 1990. In 2011, 53 Duke students were accepted into the program, which was the fourth highest of any mid-sized institution that year. As recently as 2014, Duke was still listed by the organization as a top ten contributing mid-sized university, and in 2015, TFA was noted as one of the top five employers of graduating Duke seniors. In light of the popularity of TFA on campus, we evaluate the shortcomings of the program and urge students to be critical of their decision to apply.

As a university that heavily emphasizes “knowledge in the service of society” with signature service learning programs like DukeEngage, Duke creates an environment in which many students unsurprisingly consider service-oriented post-graduation plans. For students who volunteer in Durham through programs like America Reads/ America Counts, TFA may seem to be a mere extension of the Duke experience. The incentive to receive a master’s degree in education subsidized by the program and TFA’s relative prestige (the 2014 acceptance rate was 15%) only augment their attraction to the program. However, beyond these considerations, some students remain unaware of the pitfalls of entering the teaching profession fresh out of an elite university education.

Critics have pinpointed numerous problems associated with TFA. To begin, TFA scholars only receive five weeks of training, which is considerably shorter than the training teachers receive in accredited, full-time master’s programs in education. Moreover, TFA’s selection criteria does not necessarily choose the applicants most qualified to teach or interact with low-income students, but rather opts for top graduates with higher statistics. For some TFA applicants, the organization has become a resume builder to be used as a launching pad for careers tangentially related to teaching in underserved communities. In some instances, TFA has even disadvantaged traditionally trained teachersdue to some school districts using the program as a legal loophole around federal pay regulations. The combination of these critiques leads many to argue that the program has been ineffective in its mission to right the wrongs in the current education system.

To combat these institutional problems, concrete reforms should be made to the TFA program. The creation of a one-year mentorship component with a licensed teacher would alleviate some of the training-related concerns. An increased required time commitment in these lower-income communities would dissuade those who are not committed to the program’s core mission.

Whether or not these proposed reforms take effect, Duke students should ascertain their own motivations for pursuing the program before joining the TFA program. Even students who enter the program with the true intent to serve underprivileged communities could benefit from exploring short-term alternatives. AmeriCorps offers an 8 to 10 week community service program that provides “opportunities to engage disadvantaged youth in productive service activities in the summer,” while the Breakthrough Collaborative recruits undergraduates to teach low income students during the summer through a teaching residency program. Challenging the status quo of the TFA program should not discourage those passionate about reforming the current education system, but rather should promote deeper reflection on how best to achieve that goal.