Teach for America

The Challenge

In America today, the circumstances children are born into predict the opportunities they will have in life. Our education system was not designed to enable all children to realize their potential or achieve their dreams. 

• 16M: children in the U.S. live below the poverty line
• 2X: more children of color are born into poverty than are white children
• 14%: of children growing up in poverty will graduate from college within eight years of graduating high school

The Opportunity

While no single solution is enough to bring about an equitable and excellent education for all children, Teach For America has learned over three decades that dramatic progress is possible. Lasting change takes bold, grounded leaders working together, inside and outside of schools, fighting for the aspirations of children and their families. 

Our Approach

Teach For America finds outstanding leaders who commit to expanding educational opportunity, beginning with at least two years teaching in an under-resourced public school. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with students, educators, and community members, corps members go beyond traditional expectations to support the academic and personal growth of their students. The impact corps members have in the classroom fuels a lifelong commitment to their students and shapes the trajectory of their lives and careers.

We are locally rooted and nationally connected

Alumni and corps members work in partnership with rural and urban communities across the country, inside schools and from every sector that shapes education.

Impacting Lives & Communities

Since 1990, nearly 60,000 leaders have impacted millions of students as Teach For America corps members, many of them returning to teach in the communities in which they grew up. More than 84% continue to work in education or in fields that impact the communities where our students and their families live.