TFA training more intense

Teach for America’s high success rate in the classroom is prompting UNC-system administrators to take a closer look at how TFA prepares its teachers.

According to a study recently released by the UNC system, TFA teachers outperform other inexperienced teachers from all other sources, including UNC-system schools of education.

The difference is that TFA teachers come from an elite applicant pool and go through a more intensive training program, UNC-system administrators said.

Equally important is the continued guidance that TFA teachers receive from the organization.

TFA provides 0.3 percent of the state’s new teachers, while teachers who received their undergraduate degrees from UNC-system schools of education account for 32 percent.

Before their two years leading a classroom, TFA teachers start with five weeks of intensive training while teaching summer school.

They work closely with the organization for those two years — a TFA staff member meets frequently with teachers to mentor and evaluate them.

“They literally hold your hand the entire time,” said Amy Lowman, a UNC graduate and TFA teacher who is in her second year teaching first grade in Atlanta.

This ongoing support is a major reason that TFA teachers experience such success in the classroom, said Nick Cabot, a clinical assistant professor in UNC’s School of Education.

“I think the traditional model could benefit from the continued monitoring,” Cabot said.

UNC offers three routes for teacher training: a bachelor’s degree in education, a master’s degree in teaching, and a lateral entry teaching program that more closely resembles Teach for America.

UNC-system lateral entry teachers come from fields other than education and complete a four-week, part-time preparation program and one year of review in the classroom, Cabot said.

Kaitlin Gastrock, TFA’s regional communications director, said that the program is more successful than traditional models because it uses a goal-centered teaching approach and chooses people who are likely to be effective teachers.

“We look for people with traits that we find to be predictors of success in the classroom,” Gastrock said.

But the TFA model is too intense to be sustained long term, Cabot said.

“They would burn out if they continued to perform at that level,” he said.

The program’s teachers bring energy to the classroom but typically move on to different careers — and replacing a teacher can cost as much as $18,000, he said.

But while TFA teachers lack training in specific subject matters, they benefit North Carolina by filling some open teaching spots in the state.

“They definitely fill a niche,” Cabot said.



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