Teach for America goals: unite, educate

Teach for America recruits, trains and supports hard-working and passionate teachers to fill critical roles in high-needs schools. Feb. 27 brought the fourth consecutive 7-0 vote by the Clark County School District Board of Trustees in favor of a contract with Teach for America (“School Board approves new teacher hires,” Feb. 28 Las Vegas Review-Journal).

The words of support from Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky, our elected trustees, teachers, principals and community partners were inspiring and reaffirmed the work Teach for America does each day to improve educational opportunities for our most underserved students.

I was grateful for this outpouring of support, but I was disheartened to see a set of false choices emerge in the discussion surrounding the contract. Two themes emerged: First, public support for Teach for America educators was viewed by some as a slight to other teachers: “If you say you support TFA teachers, then you must not support other educators from different pathways.” Second, concerns were raised over the resources the school district invests in the public-private partnership with Teach for America: “Why would we invest in Teach for America when we don’t adequately support all other teachers?”

I am sure these questions came from a place of genuine care and concern for our students and schools, but this is the type of rhetoric that promotes division and mistrust, when we really need all parties to come together if we hope to build a world-class education system in Southern Nevada.

Teach for America is a nonprofit organization that recruits and trains committed recent college graduates and professionals of diverse backgrounds to teach in low-income public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to end educational inequity. There are 270 corps members in their first two years of teaching and nearly 200 Teach for America alumni, most working in education, throughout the Las Vegas Valley. The School Board approved a $600,000 contract to offset a small portion of the cost of recruiting and supporting up to 150 new teachers over the next two years.

The claim that Teach for America creates divisiveness between corps members and educators from traditional pathways is simply not true, nor the intention. I think of schools such as Chaparral High School and Gibson Middle School, where we are witnessing schoolwide progress spurred by camaraderie and common purpose among all educators in the building. Teachers from the Teach for America program work arm-in-arm with teachers from traditional pathways and other alternative routes to the classroom.

Chaparral and Gibson offer a clear reminder of how much the success of new teachers, Teach for America educators included, rests on the guidance and mentorship of experienced educators in their buildings and the embedded coaching and feedback all new educators need. Principals I have spoken with say the route that each teacher took to enter the field matters less than their ability to focus on the final destination and deliver for students.

I consistently hear from Nevada legislators that developing a compelling plan to boost achievement is a necessary precondition to increasing investments in education. The good news is that education leaders are stepping up to do just that, and Teach for America is just one of many initiatives worth studying and scaling.

The Clark County Education Association’s peer assistance and review program is an example of a pilot that has significant promise to cultivate collaboration and teacher leadership. In this model, master teachers focus on feedback and development to improve the teaching practice of other teachers in their buildings. School leaders are another important piece of the puzzle, especially when research suggests that the school principal accounts for 25 percent of a school’s impact on student achievement.

The Public Education Foundation’s Executive Leadership Academy, which I am fortunate to participate in, is focused on the belief that high-quality school leaders create the conditions required for teachers to thrive and students to succeed. In a similar vein, Nevada Succeeds is partnering with UNLV to ensure that the university’s re-established master’s degree program in school leadership capitalizes on a growing body of knowledge around what makes a strong school leader and the set of skills necessary to lead high-performing schools. At the system level, Skorkowsky is pushing for innovation to make classrooms and schools more responsive to the needs of their communities. Next year, the district will pilot several innovative programs designed by schools to meet the individualized needs of their students and move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach.

Teach for America is a small but important piece of the broader plan to improve outcomes and better deliver on our promises to students and families. I think it’s time to reframe the conflict-driven dialogue of the past and move toward a future in which every child, regardless of their ZIP code or the size of their parents’ bank account, has the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

Victor Wakefield is the executive director of Teach for America in the Las Vegas Valley.