Thursday, June 21, 2012

Printed: TFA Growing

Teach for America announced today that, as of this fall, the group will have more than 10,000 first- and second-year corps members working in schools—the largest corps yet and a 10 percent increase over last year's total. The organization has also become the top employer for graduating seniors at 55 universities... including the University of California-Berkeley, Howard University, Yale University, and Arizona State University.

Other interesting factoids about the 5,800 incoming first-years, as stated in the press release, include the following:
• 38 percent identify as people of color (13 percent are African American and 10 percent are Hispanic), making this the most diverse corps yet;
• 35 percent received Pell Grants;
• 23 percent are the first in their family to get a college degree...  - EdWeek

This is really interesting, especially as the projected growth of City Year has been on all of our minds for so long.  I'd be curious to know if the quality of their program and training has changed.  I am VERY glad to hear that they're becoming more diverse as they grow, especially after Book Club's discussion tonight about the possible implications of minority children having white teachers most of their lives! However, with so many budget cuts, I'm curious to see if it's harder for them to place their teachers in districts as they get bigger...

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