Our impact
Studies have shown that teacher quality is a critical driver of students' educational success. Educational achievement in turn is the most effective way to achieve social mobility and end the cycle of poverty which persists in some societal and geographic groups within Australia and around the world.
Our affiliates across the Teach For All Network have proven the power of our approach and theory of change. Both have been independently assessed and shown to produce highly effective teachers who achieve significant gains in student achievement and positively impact their students and communities. Vignettes of the two longest-running programs, Teach First and Teach For America, provide evidence of the positive impact Teach For Australia is poised to make.
Teach First
Teach First was officially launched in 2002. Their first cohort of teachers graduated in completed the program in mid-2005 and have embarked on the next stage of their Teach First journey as ambassadors of the programme. Since its inception, over 1,000 of the UK's best graduates have taught in some of the UK's most challenging schools.
A year-long inspection by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), the inspection service for education and children's services in the UK, found that half of Teach First's 2006 cohort achieved the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status at an outstanding (the highest) level. Some "were judged by inspectors to be amongst the most exceptional trainees produced by any teacher training route."
Teach First's rigorous selection process and the quality of the training provided ensures graduates entering the profession through Teach First have, and retain, a considerable commitment to the mission of addressing educational disadvantage. The Ofsted report stated that participants are highly committed to Teach First's mission of countering educational disadvantage and "have a markedly beneficial impact on the schools involved."
To learn more, see Teach First's website.
Teach For America
Since its inception in 1990, the Teach For America network has grown to include more than 20,000 individuals, with some 6,200 Teach For America corps members currently teaching in 29 urban and rural areas of the U.S.
The most rigorous independent research has found that, on average, students taught by Teach For America corps members advance more in a year than do students taught by other teachers. In 2008, the Urban Institute, a non-partisan think tank, released a study showing that the incremental impact of a Teach For America corps member on student achievement was three times greater than the incremental impact of a comparison group of teachers with three or more years of experience. In December, a study commissioned by the state of Louisiana found that a program certifying Teach For America corps members produced the highest student gains in reading and mathematics of any of the seven programs studied, and produced higher gains than veteran teachers in the same schools.
Teach For America alumni are leading many critical education and social reform efforts - as highly effective teachers in the classroom, as principals and founders of high-performing schools, as leaders in government and advocacy, and through many other avenues. Teach For America alumni include:
- Michelle Rhee (Baltimore Corps '91), Chancellor, D.C. Public Schools
- Cami Anderson (Los Angeles Corps '93), Superintendent of District 79, Alternative Schools and Programs, New York City Department of Education
- Chris Barbic (Houston Corps '92), Founder and Head of Schools, YES College Prep (Houston)
- Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin (Houston Corps '92), Cofounders and Superintendents, KIPP Schools (National)
- Jason Kamras (Metro D.C. Corps '96), 2005 National Teacher of the Year, Director of Human Capital Strategy, D.C. Public Schools
- Sarah Usdin (South Louisiana Corps '92), Founder and President, New Schools for New Orleans
To learn more, see Teach For America's website.
