Teach for America teachers with six weeks of training outperformed teachers with two years of University of North Carolina education classes, writes Jay Schalin in Ed Schools, Leave Those Teachers Alone! in the Pope Center’s Clarion Call.
UNC studied The Impact of Teacher Preparation on Student Learning in North Carolina Public Schools (pdf) to figure out “what kind of teachers get the most out of their pupils,” as Professor Gary Henry, the lead researcher, put it.
. . . middle school math students with Teach for America teachers tested as if they had an additional 90 days of instruction — when the entire school year is only 180 days of instruction.
The study looked at how much students improved in a year controlled for students’ prior achievement levels, family incomes, teachers’ pre-college preparation, and so on.
. . . in five of nine measureable categories—overall high school, high school math, high school English, high school science, and middle school math, students with Teach for America teachers significantly outperformed students with UNC-trained teachers. In high school social studies, middle school science, elementary school reading and elementary math, their performance was roughly equal to their UNC-trained peers.
TFA teachers do best teaching specific subjects in secondary schools. Schalin suggests