Alumnus promotes Teach for America
Ali Berryman
Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: News
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America is currently experiencing an academic achievement gap: the graduation rate of low-income students is 50 percent, and of that percentage, only half can perform at an 8th grade level. One in ten students from low-income families will graduate from college. Because of this, Teach for America strongly believes that "educational inequality is the nation's greatest injustice." Teachers are expected to go above and beyond standard expectations; they have to motivate students to push themselves to reach new levels and to achieve goals. Currently, there are over 5,000 corps members and over 17,000 Teach for America alumni.
As it was noted in the presentation, before the school year begins, corps members attend a 5-week intensive training institute. During this time, they gain first-hand experience by teaching in a summer school classroom and learn to formulate lesson plans and curricula. Immediately following the training institute, corps members begin a regional orientation in the assigned school district. This orientation provides the opportunity to establish clear goals for the year and to plan for instruction. Ongoing support and professional development, including personal feedback and guidance from program directors, is available during this time, and continues throughout the two-year period.
Seifert, the New England Recruitment Director, studied government and philosophy at the College, and taught language arts and social studies to sixth through eighth grade students in South Dakota. Seifert's experience in the language arts classroom highlights the goals of Teach for America well. As he explained, his students went from not knowing the definition of "syllable" in the beginning, to writing haikus and reading Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet by the end. While encouraging his students to learn, Seifert found they were also very self-motivated and determined. Like many students in low-income areas, these students were in no way lacking in ability-they simply lacked opportunity.
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