The Indianapolis branch of Teach For America (TFA Indy) was established in 2008, expanding the national organization’s mission—to build and deploy a corps of high-quality education leaders to support high-needs students—into the Hoosier State. Since that time, hundreds of TFA teachers have served students in district and charter schools in the area, assisted by local philanthropic entities, like the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In 2021, the foundation commissioned RAND to assess the operations and impacts of the program and the resulting report was recently released.
The RAND team looked at academic outcome and teacher employment data from the Indiana Department of Education and specific information on TFA members’ employment trajectory during and after their participation, using data provided by TFA Indy. The analysis covers 2008 through 2022. While some TFA Indy members were placed in schools outside of Marion County, the report deals only with traditional district and charter schools located therein, an area of greatest interest to the Fairbanks Foundation. This sprawling county includes both the city of Indianapolis, whose public school student population is characterized by higher levels of household poverty and lower academic achievement than is typical statewide, and several smaller suburban and exurban districts. There are dozens of charter schools in the county, the vast majority of which are within the borders of Indianapolis Public Schools. TFA Indy teachers were more likely than other teachers to work in charter schools, in more-disadvantaged school contexts, and in schools serving more-diverse student populations.
Among the teachers themselves, TFA and non-TFA instructors during this period were similar on racial, ethnic, and gender dimensions (though non-TFA teachers were slightly more likely to be white). TFA Indy teachers were split almost evenly among elementary, middle, and high schools in the initial two-year cohort under study, but were far more prevalent in elementary schools by the final cohort.
The impact findings largely mirror previous TFA research across the country: TFA Indy teachers were, on average, more effective at increasing student achievement than their non-TFA peers. One year of instruction by a TFA Indy teacher was associated with 1- to 2-percentile increase in student performance in English language arts (ELA) and math, respectively (e.g., moving from the 50th percentile to the 52nd percentile).
The researchers also note that TFA Indy teachers who worked in schools with five or more TFA peers were even more effective at increasing student achievement, both overall and relative to non-TFA peers within the same school. Instruction by these TFA Indy teachers was associated with roughly 2- and 5-percentile gains in student achievement in ELA and math, respectively. More on this below.
While TFA Indy teachers left teaching earlier in their careers than non-TFA teachers, often as soon as their initial two-year commitment ended, more non-white TFA Indy teachers remained in the field (and in the county) than their non-TFA peers. Overall, TFA Indy teachers were promoted to school and district leadership roles at similar rates as non-TFA teachers, but non-white TFA Indy teachers were less likely to be promoted than non-white non-TFA peers. Among alumni who left teaching, non-white TFA Indy alumni were more likely to continue working in education-related careers than were white TFA Indy alumni.
The researchers note a couple of limitations, including the likelihood of unobserved variables around teachers entering and leaving the field, the geographic limitations imposed, and a simplified value-added model that imprecisely attributes student achievement to individual teachers. However, they note that “most of our findings tell a consistent story, and, in many cases, the effects we observe are highly statistically significant.” Thus, they conclude with reasonable confidence that hiring a TFA teacher in comparison to a non-TFA teacher results in a net-positive effect on student achievement. This includes negative effects from higher TFA Indy teacher turnover rates, which are far exceeded by the positive effects accrued by TFA teachers’ differential impacts on student achievement.
As to the finding that having more TFA teachers in individual schools led to even greater gains for students, TFA Indy staffers had some interesting thoughts. Among other hypotheses, they suggested that TFA teachers at these schools may be encountering school leaders and coaches who share similar mindsets and instructional strategies aligned with TFA training, or that TFA Indy teachers in these schools were part of larger incoming cohorts of novice teachers, and the camaraderie and collaboration generated more concerted effort. Very collegial of them not to suggest the simpler, more obvious possibility: TFA-trained teachers are better at serving students than are traditionally-trained teachers, and the more of them you have, the better the outcomes will be for kids.
SOURCE: Benjamin K. Master et al., “Teaching and Leading: An Evaluation of the Impacts and Professional Trajectories of Teach For America Participants in Indianapolis,” RAND Education and Labor (July 2023).
