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Teach For America

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Teach For America

Official Information

Full Name: Teach For America
EIN: 13-3541913
Tax Status: 501(c)(3)
Website: http://www.teachforamerica.org
Address: 315 West 36th Street
7th Floor
New York, NY 10018

About this Nonprofit

Mission: Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in underserved urban and rural public schools. Our mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort. In America today, educational inequity persists along socioeconomic and racial lines. Nine-year-olds growing up in low-income communities are already three grade levels behind their peers in high-income communities. Half of them will not graduate from high school, and those who do graduate will, on average, read and do math at the level of eighth graders in high-income communities. These disparities severely limit the life prospects of the 13 million children growing up in poverty today. In addition, because African-American and Latino/Hispanic children are three times as likely to grow up in a low-income area, these disparities also prevent many children of color from truly having equal opportunities in life. But it does not have to be this way. While the problem is daunting, we see evidence every day in classrooms across the country that when students in low-income communities are given the educational opportunities they deserve, they excel. It is this clear potential of students that makes the disparities in educational outcomes so unconscionable and fuels our sense of urgency and responsibility to do everything we can to ensure educational opportunity for all. Therefore, each year we launch an aggressive effort to recruit the most outstanding graduating college seniors and recent college graduates - people who will be the future leaders in fields such as business, medicine, politics, law, journalism, education, and social policy. Our theory of change is that building a corps of our country's most promising future leaders who commit two years to teach in low-income communities has an important immediate and long-term impact. During their two years, corps members go above and beyond traditional expectations to ensure that more students growing up today have the educational opportunities they deserve. Over the long-term, Teach For America has an impact on two levels: 1) By changing the career paths of the majority of our alumni, who remain long-term in education or in related efforts in low-income communities, Teach For America builds a unique pipeline of leadership for education and social reform. 2) By building a force of leaders who assume positions of influence in all sectors and who have the rare perspective and commitment that comes from their teaching experience, Teach For America ultimately influences our national priorities and the prevailing ideology.
Description: Teach For America is building a diverse, highly selective national corps of outstanding recent college graduates—of all academic majors and career interests—who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools in our nation's lowest-income communities and become lifelong leaders for expanding educational opportunity.
Our nation's most pressing problem: In America today, educational inequity persists along socioeconomic and racial lines.

Nine-year-olds growing up in low-income communities are already three grade levels behind their peers in high-income communities. Half of them won't graduate from high school. Those who do graduate will, on average, read and do math at the level of eighth graders in high-income communities.

These disparities severely limit the life prospects of the 13 million children growing up in poverty today.

It doesn't have to be this way.
Our impact: Since 1990, nearly 17,000 individuals have joined Teach For America, affecting the lives of more than 2.5 million students and leading key education and social reform initiatives.

There are currently some 4,400 Teach For America corps members working in 25 urban and rural areas profoundly affected by the achievement gap, from the Bronx and East LA to the Mississippi Delta and Native American reservations. They are working extraordinarily hard to ensure their students achieve academic success—despite the inequities they face.

Teach For America alumni—most of whom are still in their 20s and 30s—are already at the center of the effort to realize educational opportunity for all. They are pioneering education reform initiatives, working from other sectors to marshal necessary resources and change policies, winning the highest accolades teachers can win, and running many high-performing schools in low-income communities.

It is through the combined efforts of our corps members and alumni, and by working alongside others in the communities that we serve, that we will achieve our vision: One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

Nonprofit Scorecard

  • 23 causes
  • 9,075 members
  • $2,545 donated
  • 48 donors

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