Teach for America veered left and lost its way: Can it refocus on achievement?

Teach for America, founded 35 years ago, "lost its way" completely "in the last 8-10 years," tweets Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion. "For years TFA brought smart motivated people into schools and focused them on student achievement in areas of high need. [T]hey traded that noble work for a set of political objectives that made corps members feel virtuous at the expense of the very students they claimed to serve … It’s been a long time since they cared more about student achievement than say trying to 'teach young people to interrogate systems of power'.”

Teach for America produced achievement gains for students, and a huge group of alumni who've shaped education reform, writes Dale Chu, a former TFA teacher and now an education consultant. But he thinks Lemov, "hardly a TFA hater," is right.

When Chu joined the corps in 1997, Teach For America focused on teaching, not politics, he writes. "Equity" meant holding "all students to high expectations, especially those living in marginalized communities."

Applications for TFA slots peaked in 2013, then began a long slide as mission creep set in, he writes. The size of the teaching corps declined. And, Chu writes, TFA's "public messaging began weighing in more directly on policing, structural racism, gender, and identity."

Under the leadership of Aneesh Sohoni, who took charge last year, recruitment is rebounding, writes Chu. And Sohoni is talking about reading, math, and college and career readiness. "The cultural currents that pulled institutions like Teach For America toward more ideological terrain appear to be receding, while disappointing student achievement results have returned much-needed attention to the basic work of schools and teachers." Chu hopes TFA can That refocus on its mission and "rediscover what once made it so effective."

The greatest barrier to improving schools is "a lack of belief in what's possible," Sohoni tells Rick Hess in an interview in Education Next. "We're working to reinspire belief by bringing talented young people into communities to improve student outcomes."

A former TFA English teacher at an alternative high school for Somali refugees, he went on to work in the Tennessee education department and as CEO of One Million Degrees, before becoming CEO of TFA.

"Teach For America’s goal is still to make sure every kid has access to an excellent education," Sohoni says. "We’re still focused on recruiting the next generation of educators." The incoming corps size is up 43 percent in the last three years.

In the AI economy, TFA can be "the first best job," helping college graduates build leadership and human skills, he argues. "Nine in 10 Gen Zers say purpose matters to their job satisfaction." The new recruitment slogan is: "Find your purpose."

As a TFA teacher, "I entered the classroom deeply committed — but not fully prepared, writes David Donaldson, who runs the National Center for Grow Your Own. He urges TFA to adopt an apprenticeship model, giving corps members a year as a teacher's aide before leading their own classroom. "Participants would work under the guidance of a certified teacher while gaining real-time experience and completing relevant coursework."