This fall, Dallas ISD will get 75 new teachers through Teach for America (TFA), a nonprofit organization that recruits outstanding college graduates and trains them to teach in some of the nation’s most impoverished schools.
TFA recruits earn degrees in math, science, English, and other fields. None are education majors, but all go through a five-week bootcamp to prepare them for their teaching assignments. The district pays them exactly what other new teachers make—approximately $42,000 in Dallas—and they commit to working in the district for two years.
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said nearly half of the teachers will work in the district’s most challenging schools. “I feel very confident about their track record,” Hinojosa said. “Teaching is tough in urban America, but I think they can handle it.” Charles Glover, executive director of TFA–Dallas, said the partnership will help the district close minority student achievement gaps.
Dallas’ teachers don’t share that view. Dallas Alliance-AFT President Rena Honea said her group fears that TFA recruits could take teaching positions away from current teachers. “It’s a horrific time to bring in people who aren’t even trained educators,” Honea said.
Dallas ISD is the third Texas location for TFA. The organization has been at work in Houston ISD and in districts in the Rio Grande Valley since 1991. A two-year, $8 million grant from the state will support the placement of TFA recruits in all three locations.
TFA will place 250 new teachers in Houston’s high-needs schools this fall, the region’s largest corps in history (up from 230 in 2008). Forty percent of the TFA recruits in Houston teach math and science classes at the secondary level.
One hundred and ten new teachers will be placed in Rio Grande Valley schools this fall, bringing the total number of TFA corps members there to 200. Robert Carreon, executive director for TFA in the Rio Grande Valley, believes that districts continue to request more TFA teachers because of the enthusiasm and idealism they bring to the job.
In June, the San Antonio ISD board approved a partnership with TFA, a move that had been considered but set aside in the past. TFA recruits could begin teaching there as soon as fall of 2010. The organization plans to supply San Antonio ISD with a corps of 150 teachers.
Seventy-one University of Texas at Austin graduates were selected to join TFA at the end of the spring 2009 term. UT–Austin ranks second among all participating colleges and universities in terms of production of TFA recruits.
This year, TFA had more than 35,000 applicants, a 42 percent increase from 2008, to fill 4,100 jobs in 35 regions across the country. The high number of applicants resulted in an even more selective recruiting process than usual, with TFA having to turn away some applicants who had the required qualifications and would likely have made the cut to become recruits in prior years.
—“Dallas schools to get 75 new teachers via Teach for America,” by Mark Norris, The Dallas Morning News, June 22, 2009.
—“Teach for America placing record number of teachers in Houston,” Houston Business Journal, May 27, 2009.
—“Teach for America continues to grow in the Valley,” by Laura Tillman, The Brownsville Herald, May 30, 2009.
—“Teach for America’s benefits can be priceless,” by Gloria Padilla, mysanantonio.com, June 27, 2009.
—“Teach for America sees new interest,” by Bryan Lee, The Daily Texan, July 1, 2009.
