Ethnic and socio-economic diversity in the 2007 corps |
|
|---|---|
| People of color | 28.3% |
| African-American | 10.0% |
| Latino/Hispanic | 6.0% |
| Asian-American | 5.0% |
| Native American | 0.3% |
| Multi-ethnic | 5.0% |
| Other (Non-white) | 2.0% |
| Pell Grant recipients | 25% |
Teach For America strives to enlist the energy and commitment of individuals who have the characteristics and skills necessary to advance our cause. These leaders will be diverse in ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic background. Their places on the political spectrum and their religious beliefs will be similarly varied, and we seek individuals of all genders and sexual orientations and regardless of physical disabilities.
Maximizing the diversity of our corps and organization is important in engaging all those who can contribute to our effort and also in ensuring our access to and participation in the circles of influence in our tremendously diverse society. Moreover, we seek to be diverse because we aspire to serve as a model of the fairness and equality of opportunity we envision for our nation.
At the same time that we value each individual who commits to our cause, we also place a particular focus on attracting and fostering the leadership of individuals who share the racial and/or socioeconomic backgrounds of the students underserved by public schools, many of whom are African-American and Latino/Hispanic children living in low-income communities. We emphasize racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity to enhance our impact:
| Impact on students | Based on our experiences, we know students benefit from all talented, committed teachers. When such teachers are themselves from historically under-represented racial backgrounds or low-income families, they can have a profound additional impact because they can be particularly persuasive with students regarding the potential for success in education and in life. |
|---|---|
| Long-term impact | Alumni who share the racial and/or socioeconomic backgrounds of our students can also be particularly influential in the long-term push for societal change, because of their rich perspective and credibility, and because their leadership in and of itself demonstrates the value of that change. |
| Collective strength | While it is the responsibility of each person within Teach For America to make decisions with sensitivity to the needs and desires of our students and communities, we have seen that individuals who are themselves from under-represented racial backgrounds or low-income family backgrounds can often ground the discussions and advance the thinking of our corps, alumni groups, and organization in important ways. |
As part of this effort, we also focus on Native Americans and Native Hawai'ians, given that these groups are disproportionately impacted by the achievement gap and we place corps members in several regions that are comprised almost entirely of students with these particular backgrounds. However, because of the geographical concentrations of these groups, we aim to bring on more Native Americans and Native Hawai'ians through regional efforts, but don’t prioritize this nationally.
The long-term effects of the gaps in educational opportunity, which Teach For America is working to address, are evident in the number and percentages of African-Americans and Latino/Hispanics who graduate from U.S. colleges every year. While our corps includes higher percentages of African-American and Latino/Hispanic college graduates than do the 400 colleges and universities at which we most heavily recruit, we aim to increase these proportions within our corps.
*College graduates from the 400 public and private colleges at which Teach For America most heavily recruits, including Historically Black Colleges & Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
Teach For America’s recruitment team is working aggressively to increase our diversity. To accomplish these goals, we personally cultivate students of color on campus and connect top African-American and Hispanic/Latino prospects to corps members and alumni with shared backgrounds. To increase awareness and identify top prospects, we present to campus-based student organizations and governing bodies (e.g. Black Student Union, Latino Student Union, minority Greek organizations) and seek referrals from influential faculty and staff. Moreover, we supplement our campus-based efforts through relationships with national organizations and scholarships and through national marketing and public relations efforts.
We know from our experience and research that people of all backgrounds can be successful teachers in low-income communities, and that race, ethnicity and socio-economic background alone do not make an individual successful in our program. Given this, our selection criteria are based on a set of characteristics that our research has found differentiates the most effective teachers in our program, as indicated by the degree to which they make measurable advances in their students’ academic achievement.
Leaders come in many forms with varied past experiences, and there is no one profile of an ideal applicant. Our admissions model enables us to gain a holistic view of each candidate through a variety of lenses: written application, phone interview, sample teaching, group activity, problem solving activity, personal interview, letters of recommendations and transcripts. Our interviewers seek to understand applicants’ levels of achievement and perseverance within the context of their individual experiences and backgrounds.
Who we're looking for
College graduates and professionals
Corps and Alumni
