Schools

Teach for America to Put 'Best and Brightest' Grads in Gwinnett Schools

New teaching positions will be in the Norcross, Meadowcreek and Berkmar clusters next school year.

In the 2011-12 school year, 75 young teachers will show up to work in Gwinnett County Schools. Some come from Ivy League Schools and most will be from the top of their class. They could have studied history, art, business and law—but none would have studied education. They are participants in the national Teach for America (TFA) program.

The mission is to put “outstanding recent college graduates… in urban and rural communities in our nation’s lowest-income communities.” The idea is to close the achievement gap and eliminate “educational inequity” nationwide but putting the brightest, freshest minds on the job—and the program has been doing gangbusters so far, according to some research.

Since TFA expanded to metro Atlanta in 2000, 900 teachers have been put in front of the classroom. There are currently 187 members in Clayton, Cobb and Fulton counties. With the addition of the 75 Gwinnett teachers, that number will be bumped up to 262.

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The Gwinnett positions will be in the Berkmar, Meadowcreek and Norcross clusters, with the majority teaching at elementary and middle schools, according to school officials.

It may come as a surprise to some Gwinnett residents that any of their schools are considered either urban or lowest-income. Shyam Kumar, Managing Director of Growth Strategy and Development for Atlanta’s TFA program said these clusters were singled out because the vast majority of students get free or reduced lunch and because of their diversity. 

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“We wanted to focus more on Latino students,” said Kumar. “There’s been a lot of emphasis on the African America students (in the program) already. That's one reason for wanting to target these schools.”

“The demographic data has really changed in this area, particularly for the school district,” said Glenn Pethel, Executive Director of Leadership Development for Gwinnett Schools. “Generally, we do look a great deal like an urban population.”

There were 47,000 applicants for 4,600 Teach for America positions last year. “We like to say that we are more competitive than Ivy League Schools, “said Kumar. According to TFA materials, the majority of teachers hired score in the 95th percentile on their SAT and 90 percent have held a leadership role on campus.

The recent grads must commit for two years but they can stay on for longer. Even though the program estimates that one-third of TFA teachers do stay in the system, they hope those who do move on will become education advocates in their respective fields.

Alyssa Sinclair, who currently works at the Gwinnett Village CID, was inspired to pursue urban planning after her Teach for America experience in the Bronx. 

Taking the train from Manhattan to the uninviting campus of the school everyday got Sinclair thinking about things on a larger scale. “It really got me thinking about the inequity of places,” she said. “It got me thinking about transportation.”

The teachers will go through a six-week training program at Georgia Tech, and also be required to do the Teach Gwinnett program, which gives those interested in teaching without the traditional undergraduate coursework the ability to earn a certificate in one year while they serving as full-time teachers.

“So they will be getting a double dose, in a sense,” says Pethel. 

Sinclair said that the training program in New York was both intense and hands-on, with a group of teachers taking a yellow bus into a school to take on a different teaching subject with summer school students every day and more training at night. “I learned a lot but the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know,” she said. She said she eventually picked up some tips from the mentor who had been assigned to her and who had been in the New York City school system for 30 or 40 years.

Ultimately, though, she had to forge her own way at P.S. 31, turning an unused space into an art classroom and convincing teachers to set aside time for her class.

There is some proof that these teacher’s determination pays off: A 2008 study from the Urban Institute found that despite having less training, Teach for America educators outdid their more experienced counterparts, as measured by exam scores. The study said that they had three times the effect on students as other new teachers as well.

But some of the benefits are less tangible, according to many. “They bring a passion, they build relationships. It is very much like the Peace Corps,” said Pethel.

Sinclair said that there is a benefit to being an idealistic outsider, too, because the Teach for America educators really question the way things are done.

The program plans an aggressive expansion in the metro area, with the hopes of tripling its forces. Gwinnett School officials say it is just too early to know if that expansion will mean more brains in Gwinnett County. “We will be constantly monitoring,” says Pethel. 


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