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Our Impact

Our Impact has already been great and continues to grow.

We know the challenges are significant, and Teach For Australia is just one of many programs contributing to the effort of improving educational outcomes for socially disadvantaged young Australians.

Yet in just three years, Teach For Australia Associates have already made a real and meaningful impact in the school communities they're working in; across student achievement, implementing important initiatives, and contributing to the conversation on tackling educational inequity. The work and achievements of our first Cohort are now coming to the fore, as evidenced in the independent evaluations commissioned by ACER, their uptake of leadership positions, unanimous positive feedback from principals, and observations by their Training and Leadership Advisers. 

Developing school leaders

Identifying and developing effective leaders is one of the core strengths of the Teach For Australia program. Already, 50% of our Associates have been rewarded with additional responsibilities or have taken on positions of leadership within their schools. These include:

  • Studies of Societies and Environment (SOSE) Key Learning coordinator across three campuses (Western Metropolitan Melbourne)
  • Head of Humanities (Hume region, VIC)
  • Head of English (Grampians Region, VIC)
  • Year 8 Teaching and Learning Coordinator (Hume Region, VIC)
  • Careers coordinator (Northern Metropolitan Melbourne)
  • Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) program coordinator (Northern Metropolitan Melbourne)

Already, 50% of our Associates have been rewarded with additional responsibilities or have taken on positions of leadership within their schools.

Improving academic outcomes

Through inspired teaching and innovative approaches to learning, and backed by a teacher education and leadership program built on purposeful planning, reflection and continuous improvement, Teach For Australia Associates are achieving remarkable academic outcomes in their classrooms. Some recent success:

  • 100% pass rate for year 11 Physics with a number of students with extremely low literacy (Metropolitan Melbourne)
  • An Associate's Year 7 class in both 2010 and 2011 improved significantly more than any other year 7 group, making two years of progress in one year (Metropolitan Melbourne)
  • Yr 12 accounting results in Semester 1, 2011 were only 4 points below the state average -  an increase of 30 points compared to the previous year (Northern Metropolitan Melbourne)
  • 2011 VCE semester 1 accounting exam average score of 65 compared with state average of 52 (Grampians Region VIC)
  • In 2010 an Associate's History Revolutions VCE class had three study scores in the 40's (Grampians Region VIC), compared to a VCE Business Management class average study score of 33 and a wider school average of 28.

Implementing key learning initiatives

Teach For Australia Associates are always looking to introduce new programs, activities and initiatives into their classrooms, in their determination to inspire, make learning more engaging, and foster ambition amongst their students. Initiatives undertaken by Teach For Australia Associates include:

  • Coordinating the inaugural entry of a regional Victorian school into “Tournament of the Minds”, with the school winning the regional final in their first year (Hume Region, VIC)
  • Establishing a School Debating Team, reaching the Debaters Associate of Victoria finals in their first year (Northern Metropolitan Melbourne)
  • Setting up an international volunteering trip for 29 Year 10 students to Cambodia, leading the fundraising and engaging the school community to support them (Hume Region, VIC)
  • Running a Smith Family Reading program, as well as an additional program for the local primary school (Northern Metropolitan Melbourne)
  • Re-writing curriculum for Year 7 Humanities (Northern Metropolitan Melbourne)

Helping to raise the career profile of the Teaching profession

So far, Teach For Australia has received over 2,000 Associate applications representing a very high calibre of graduates and young professionals. With an average Year 12 TER amongst our Associates of 95.0, and impressive academic achievements which include Masters and PhDs, Teach For Australia is making an important contribution to the idea that our country’s finest young individuals, can, and should, consider teaching as their chosen career path.

Advancing the discussion on confronting educational disadvantage

An important part of our impact relies on maintaining, and often initiating, an active dialogue on the complex issues surrounding educational inequity in Australia. Through our close relationships with our network of school communities, government departments, academic institutions and the corporate and philanthropic sector, Teach For Australia is helping to bring the conversation on educational disadvantage to the forefront.