Your next two years can make an incredible difference.

FAQ - Training and Support

What are the basic components of training and support?
Teach For America provides a comprehensive two year program of training and support. The basic components of Teach For America’s training and support are:

  • Pre-institute independent work
    • This independent preparation is designed to engage you in important thought and reflection about what you will soon undertake, as well as to help you internalize knowledge about teaching that you will build upon during the summer training institute.
  • Regional induction
    • Before the summer institute, corps members will have the opportunity to come together as a corps in their assigned region.Induction allows corps members to learn about the local community where they will teach and become familiar with their school district, programs, and curricula.
  • Summer institute
    • We operate rigorous five-week summer preparation institutes in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. Through opportunities for practice, observation, coaching, and study — as well as careful planning and thoughtful reflection — corps members develop the foundational knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed to be highly effective beginning teachers.
      Learn more about the summer institute.
  • Regional orientation
    • Before beginning to teach in their full-time classrooms, corps members participate in orientations in their placement regions. During this time, corps members learn about the schools and communities in which they will teach and become familiar with school district-specific policies, programs, and curricula.
  • Ongoing professional development
    • Teach For America's regional support network provides ongoing professional development to corps members throughout the two-year commitment to ensure that they succeed as teachers. Our growing set of online resources (i.e., TFANet (the Teach For America online resource bank and exchange site)) help corps members share their knowledge and foster student achievement in their classrooms. In addition, each corps member is assigned a regional program director who serves as a source of support during the corps experience.
      Learn more about ongoing professional development.

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Do I have to attend the entire summer training institute?
Yes. Given the ambitious goals of preparing corps members to be effective teachers and increasing the academic achievement of their summer school students, the summer institute schedule is very full. Thus, corps members must attend the entire five weeks of institute. Events generally are not scheduled on Saturdays, but corps members often meet with institute staff and other corps members on Sunday evenings. Also, corps members often find it necessary to spend some time over the weekend preparing for teaching summer school during the week. It is also important to note that some certification exams are administered during weekends, and corps members who have not already taken their exams must be present to take them on those dates. Corps members who experience an unforeseen personal or family emergency during institute work with institute staff to find a suitable solution.

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Can I choose the location of my summer training institute?
No. The location of your summer training institute depends on your regional placement. Each institute houses corps members from a specific set of regions so that corps members can collaborate with one another and build the relationships that will be crucial during their two-year commitment.Teach For America operates summer training institutes in seven locations: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. The summer institutes begin between June 7th and June 28th, 2009.

Read more about the 2009 summer institute locations, regional assignments, and dates.

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What should I do if I have a conflict with the required dates of institute for a region in which I prefer to teach?
Corps members are requiredto attend the entirety of the institute corresponding to their assigned region. See institute schedule (please note that these schedules are subject to change).Attending the institute that corresponds to a regional assignment is important because of the dates corps members mustbegin teaching in their region, and becausecorps members attend region-specific events and build critical relationships with others from their region while at institute. For these important reasons, we encourage applicants that anticipate potential conflicts to explore the flexibility of theirconflict or their preference for other regions.Weknow there are some applicants whohave a highly urgent personal circumstance or need to teach in a region which corresponds to an institutethat posesa date or locationconflict. In these cases, we recommend applicants still apply and share this information when they complete their assignment preference form.

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What are the living arrangements during the summer training institute? Are there accommodations for families?
During institute, all corps members and staff members live and work together in dormitory-style housing. Housing and meals are paid for by Teach For America. Because of the demanding schedule of institute and the need to collaborate with other corps members and institute faculty, all corps members are required to live in institute housing for the five weeks of the institute.

Teach For America can arrange family housing for corps members who choose to bring family members to the institute, and can provide information about childcare services. Please note that corps members are responsible for any costs incurred for the lodging of family members.

Read for more information about the summer training institute.

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How do you know if corps members are making an impact in their classrooms? Teach For America actively seeks out rigorous evaluations of the impact of our corps members, and a growing body of external research shows that corps members have a positive impact on their students’ achievement.

  • A 2008 Urban Institute study of Teach For America in high schools found that corps members have a positive impact on student achievement relative to other teachers, including experienced teachers and those who are fully certified in their subject areas. The study found that the impact of having a Teach For America corps member is two to three times the impact of having a teacher with three or more years of experience. These findings were confirmed in a 2009 update of the study, which employed a larger sample of corps members and additional comparison groups. [The Urban Institute/CALDER, 2008-09]
  • The most methodologically rigorous study to date found that corps members have a greater impact on student achievement than even the veteran and certified teachers in their schools. [Mathematica Policy Research, 2004]

In an annual survey of principals who manage Teach For America teachers, two out of three principals (63 percent) rated corps members’ training as better than that of other beginning teachers.Nearly all principals (95 percent) regard Teach For America teachers as effective as, if not more effective than, other beginning teachers in terms of overall performance and impact on student achievement. [Policy Studies Associates, 2007]

Read more about these studies.

Read individual stories about the impact corps members are making.


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