At Tuesday’s “On the Issues with Mike Gousha,” Teach for America founder and CEO Wendy Kopp expressed optimism about the organization’s future success and how to address both national and local education issues.
Kopp, who just authored a new book, “A Chance to Make History,” said there are more than 20,000 TFA alumni from the two-year commitment program. More than 65 percent remain within education after this period.
She also said 48,000 people have applied to TFA this year for 5,300 spots, but the program is very selective.
“It’s a rare person who can teach, not just to survive, but also successfully in the schools we work in,” Kopp said.
Those schools are in both rural and urban areas, and usually house students of a lower socioeconomic status and learning level. For example, a particular TFA teacher taught 11th graders learning at an eighth grade level, Kopp said.
TFA has seen a substantial amount of progress in these types of schools in the past 20 years, she said. Twenty years ago, a student’s socioeconomic status spelled their academic outcomes.
“Today, we can create whole schools with talented, creative teachers who can help students from these backgrounds succeed in school and go on to college,” she said.
Gousha, distinguished fellow in law and public policy at the Law School, asked Kopp why the progress seen through this program has not been replicated more to help the nation’s education system.
Kopp said it was not for lack of trying. Education reformers try one “silver bullet” idea after another, hoping for an instant fix, when in reality this distracts them from the core of the solution to the problem.
15 million students live below the poverty line nationwide, half of which will not graduate high school. Kopp and TFA teachers see this as a significant problem.
Kopp partially blamed the structure of the national education system for the problem, in that wealthier students often are able to get a better education. However, she said finding teachers who have enthusiasm and confidence in their students’ ability to succeed can be part of the solution.
“These are people who believe in their kids,” she said. “They do what any ambitious leader does: they take only one thing as a given — the end goal.”
In Milwaukee, Kopp called for the community to recognize the need for change.
“We have a crisis in Milwaukee, and I think we need to call it as such and address it as a real problem,” she said.
Gousha addressed TFA’s critics who say the program is actually part of the problem with education. In only requiring their teachers to remain with the program for two years, the critics say, TFA does not have a long-term commitment to bettering the educational system.
Kopp recognized the counter-intuitiveness of the program, but said after two years with TFA, teachers are given the option to leave the program, and many choose to stay.
She said the experience does not have a short-term effect on these students. “It is something that never, ever leaves them,” she said.
A current TFA teacher sitting in the audience asked what separates a good teacher from a great teacher. Kopp replied it was the students’ views of education, not the test scores.
“Great teachers inspire their kids to take responsibility for their education,” she said.
Some Marquette students hope to become such teachers.
Emily McDonough and Kayla Eastman, both sophomores in the College of Education, attended the event because they wanted more information on TFA and the issues facing education.
McDonough said she may apply to TFA in the future.
“It’s a great way to go about making a difference,” McDonough said. “Kayla and I have been privileged enough to go to great schools all our lives, but when I see some of the Milwaukee schools, I want to be a part of TFA to lend a hand to people.”
Eastman said TFA is an important part of education improvement, but noted the bigger picture of the issue.
“It’s not just about TFA, but how we find a way to improve these schools,” Eastman said.