Press Release

Teach For America Teachers Outperform Novice and Veteran Colleagues in Math;
Achieve Same Results in Reading as Their Peers, National Study Reveals
First Major National Evaluation of Teach For America Indicates That TFA Teachers
Report Greater Challenges in Managing Elementary School Classrooms

Contacts: Paul Decker, (609) 275-2290
pdecker@mathematica-mpr.com, or
Joanne Pfleiderer, (609) 275-2372
jpfleiderer@mathematica-mpr.com

PRINCETON, N.J. (June 9, 2004)—Students of Teach For America (TFA) teachers outscored their schoolmates on math achievement tests, and matched their average performance in reading, according to a national study of the program released today by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

The study compared the performance of corps members from Teach For America—which since 1990 has recruited more than 10,000 carefully selected recent graduates of liberal arts colleges to teach in urban and rural low-income communities—to that of other novice and veteran teachers in the same elementary schools.

The study reveals that after a single school year, students of TFA teachers outscored a randomized control group of non-TFA teachers' students by three percentile points on the math portion of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills—the equivalent of one extra month of math achievement. On the reading portion of the test, the average gain in test scores of TFA students was nearly identical to that of control students.

"TFA teachers not only had more success than other novice teachers but they had more success than teachers with an average of six years of experience in the classroom," says Paul Decker, vice president and director of human services research at Mathematica^® and principal investigator for the research effort.

The study is based on a large national sample, including nearly 2,000 elementary school students in 100 classrooms in 17 schools in six geographical high-poverty areas-Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles (Compton), New Orleans, and the Mississippi Delta. In each school, students in the study were randomly assigned to either TFA teachers or control group teachers in the same grades. Student performance was measured at the beginning and end of the 2002-2003 academic year.

Other Key Findings

The report also examined teacher attitudes about their work, their expectations for their careers, and impacts on student behaviors. It found:

• Differences in classroom management perceptions. While more than one-third of the non-TFA teachers said student tardiness was a problem in their classrooms, over half of the TFA teachers said it was a serious problem. Twice as many TFA teachers as control teachers reported that physical conflicts among students were a serious problem in their classrooms.
• No significant impacts on grade promotion or summer school attendance. Students in both types of classrooms attended summer school or were held back in their classrooms at about the same rates.
• No clear impacts on behavioral outcomes. According to estimates based on school records data, students of TFA teachers had the same rates of absenteeism and disciplinary incidents, such as suspension or expulsion from school.
• Future career plans vary. Most TFA teachers said they planned to teach for just a few years. Roughly 10 percent said they expected to teach until retirement; 60 percent of non-TFA teachers said they expected to do so.

Teachers Have Significantly Different Backgrounds

Demographic information compiled by researchers shows differences in race, education, age, and experience levels between TFA and non-TFA control group teachers.

• Almost all TFA teachers received four weeks of student teaching experience prior to placement in the classroom. In contrast, 45 percent of non-TFA teachers had 10 or more weeks of student teaching experience, but 29 percent had never student taught.
• TFA teachers, consistent with the program's philosophy, generally were from academically competitive colleges. For instance, 70 percent of the TFA teachers-but less than three percent of the non-TFA teachers-graduated from colleges ranked as "very," "highly," or "most competitive."
• TFA teachers held degrees in liberal arts subjects; three percent held an education degree prior to be placed in the classroom. Of the control group, more than half (52 percent) held a B.A. in education.
• TFA teachers were more likely to be white. Two-thirds of the TFA teachers were white, compared with only 11 percent of the control group.
• With a median age of 24, the TFA teachers were younger than the non-TFA novice teachers, who had a median age of 30 years.

Teaching Styles Vary

The researchers found that control group teachers said they were more likely to emphasize the memorization of math rules and getting correct answers in math. While about six in 10 control group teachers (59 percent) placed a major emphasis on memorizing facts, rules, and steps, only about one-quarter of TFA teachers (26 percent) emphasized these skills. About twice as many TFA teachers (40 percent) said they emphasized computational speed and accuracy in their math instruction, compared with control group teachers (22 percent). In reading instruction, TFA teachers reported they were less likely to believe in using phonics instruction than control teachers.

The evaluation included two stages, with a pilot study first in Baltimore during the 2001-2002 school year, followed by the full-scale evaluation in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, the Mississippi Delta, and New Orleans in 2002-2003. The sample includes six of the 15 regions in which the TFA program placed teachers at the time the study was designed.

The full report, Effects of Teach For America on Students: Findings from a National Evaluation, by Paul T. Decker, Daniel P. Mayer, and Steven Glazerman, is available on the web at http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/redirect_pubsdb.asp?strSite=PDFs/teach.pdf. Call Publications at (609) 275-2350 for printed copies of the study.

TFA was founded in 1989 to address educational inequities facing children in low-income communities by expanding the teacher candidates available to schools in these communities. TFA recruits recent graduates from more than 360 colleges and universities around the country who are willing to commit to teach for a minimum of two years in low-income schools. Between 2000 and 2003, the applicant pool grew more than threefold-from 4,068 to 15,706. Since the program began in 1990, nearly 10,000 TFA teachers have taught over 1.5 million students.

Mathematica, one of the nation's leading nonpartisan research firms, conducts policy research and surveys for federal and state governments, as well as private clients. The employee-owned firm, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., has conducted some of the most important studies of education, health care, welfare, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs in the United States. Mathematica strives to improve public well-being by bringing the highest standards of quality, objectivity, and excellence to bear on the provision of information collection and analysis to its clients.

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