As a Campus Campaign Manager for Teach For America for the last three months, I have realized that Teach For America is much more than just a teacher recruitment program—it is a movement. Your influence is not limited to the 60 students you teach over your two-year term but rather it affects and charges the education system both inside and outside the classroom. When I first learned about its two-part mission, I found myself, like many of my peers, skeptical that someone fresh out of college could actually be effective, but the more I learned about the severity of the problem kids are facing, the more I realized that the effectiveness would come because it simply has to. I was shocked when I learned that according to U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, Connecticut’s achievement gap is the largest in the nation. On average, Connecticut’s low-income eighth grade students are 2.9 grade levels behind their non-low income peers in reading and 3.7 grade levels behind in math.“ Across the country in Phoenix, an estimated 1000 classrooms started the school year without teachers. That’s 25,000 kids!
Even more importantly, we as 21-and 22-year-olds have the power to change this. Teach For America teachers are not over-achievers trying to get community service credit. They’re overcoming the odds and moving kids forward several grade levels in one year. In the Kane, Parsons, and Associates, Inc Principal Survey, 74 percent of principals considered Teach For America teachers more effective than other beginning teachers, with respect to their impact on student achievement. I ask myself, knowing all of this, why wouldn’t someone want to at least find out more? There are Teach For America corp members and alums all over the country teaching, practicing law, practicing medicine, involved in business, running for public office, that are all linked by a common bond and goal: addressing education inequity to their greatest capacity and giving kids a fair chance at life. In effect, you are not alone in your efforts, as there is a highly motivated and inspiring coalition of individuals that will guide and strengthen this necessary fight against education inequity.
To me, education is one of the most powerful predictive forces determining a child’s future—at the base level, it can either be the source of a community’s strength or the reason for its demise. And in forgoing a thorough deconstruction of the socio-economic effects of education, I will say thi—t is the key, and the heart to the American dream. You can truly do anything when you grow up…if you have a good education. So join the movement, and equip the children of America to make better lives for themselves.
Learn what it takes and how to get involved by contacting me at matthewkbrownstein@gmail.com.
Also check out:
Teachforamerica.org
Info session: ”How has Teach For America Changed over the past 13 years. Hear from a Wesleyan alum and current corps member.“
Tuesday, Dec. 5th @ 7:30 in Fisk 210.
Learn about the problem:
National assessment of education progress (nces.ed.gov)
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