Paul T. Decker, Daniel P. Mayer, Steven Glazerman, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.June 2004
Earlier this month, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. released this study, which compares the impact of Teach for America teachers - who teach in disadvantaged districts for two year stints and typically do not have formal education training - and their traditionally-trained peers. Specifically, researchers compared "the outcomes among students taught by TFA teachers with the outcomes of students taught by other teachers in the same schools and at the same grades." The researchers found that despite the TFA teachers' lack of formal ed school training (only 3 percent of them held regular or initial certification before setting foot in the classroom, compared with 67 percent of the control teachers), and much to the dismay of critics who have long maintained that effective teaching requires certification and an ed school degree, TFA teachers outperformed both novice and veteran teachers in math. In reading, TFA teachers performed equally well as their non-TFA peers. In other words, it seems that bright, motivated, young teachers with little formal training can be at least as effective, if not more so, than the crop of traditional teachers who are relegated to serve the hardest-to-teach students. This is welcome, if not altogether surprising news to those of us who strongly believe that ed schools, like schools of journalism, should be options - not prerequisites - to entry into the profession. It's a worthy read, and you can find it here.
