CASE STUDY
Teach for America
TFA’s focus on racial equity has grown in recent years, reflected especially in the increased diversity of its teaching corps. The push to diversify the teaching corps was driven by a desire to better reflect the diversity of TFA’s students, and by research showing that teacher diversity contributed to improved student achievement.
Operations, Culture
Background
Founded in 1989, Teach for America (TFA) recruits and deploys teachers to serve public or public charter K-12 schools in low-income communities. Since its establishment, TFA has placed over 15,000 teachers in schools across the country. The vast majority (over 90%) of students served by TFA teachers are students of color.
The equity journey
TFA’s focus on racial equity has grown in recent years, reflected especially in the increased diversity of its teaching corps. The push to diversify the teaching corps was driven by a desire to better reflect the diversity of TFA’s students, and by research showing that teacher diversity contributed to improved student achievement.
Operations
In 2007, TFA wrote and released a Diversity & Inclusiveness statement, which focused on recruiting a more racially and socio-economically diverse teaching corps and staff. TFA wanted its teaching corps to better reflect the diversity of students served. This was values-based as well as evidence-based, with research showing that teacher diversity contributes to improved student achievement. TFA’s intensive push to recruit more teachers and staff of color has been effective. In 2010 31% of TFA’s teaching corps identified as people of color; by 2020, this increased to 54%; comparatively, only 20% of teachers nationwide identify as people of color. In 2010, only 33% of TFA staff (non-corps) identified as people of color; by 2020, that number increased to over 50%.
Culture
Like many organizations TFA has realized that it isn’t enough just to hire more people of color. In 2021, CEO Elisa Villaneuva Beard publicly shared results of an internal racial equity survey, showing that, while they had diversified their staff and corps dramatically, there were still significant racial disparities within TFA. Despite increased representation for people of color, racial and ethnic groups across the organization reported very different lived experiences, particularly around issues of identity and work life. For example, while 81% of white staff believe that there is open and honest two-way communication within their team, only 68% of Black staff hold that belief. Similarly, while 78% of white staff believe that TFA delivers impact to the communities and partners they serve, only 61% of Black staff hold that belief.
These findings led TFA to publicly commit to a long-term plan for building and modeling a racially equitable organization, confronting racial inequities both inside and outside TFA. Beard has stated: “Since the experiences of our Network emerge from the structural practices within the organization, we think it is critical to start with staff to strengthen the overall experience of everyone who interacts with the organization. We need to build on and strengthen the core talent practices of the enterprise to both maintain and build from traditional DEI measures, address vital gaps in the lived experience of staff members, and build the needed capabilities to create a community with a strength of connection that nurtures a sense of belonging.”
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