Since our inception 17,000 individuals have participated in Teach For America, impacting the lives of more than 2.5 million students.

Our nation's greatest injustice

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 by the time they're 18. Those who do graduate will, on average, read and do math at the level of eighth graders in high-income communities¹. Only 1 in 10 will graduate from college.

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 by the time they're 18.
Those who do graduate will, on average, read and do math at the level of eighth graders in high-income communities¹.
Only 1 in 10 will graduate from college.

These educational disparities unfairly limit the life prospects of the 13 million children growing up in poverty today. And because African-American and Latino/Hispanic children are three times as likely to live in a low-income area², these disparities also prevent many children of color from having truly equal opportunities in life.

Why does this problem exist?

Educational inequity exists because children in low-income communities face extra challenges and attend schools that don't have the capacity to meet their extra needs and put them on a level playing field with children in other communities. Added socioeconomic pressures can include inadequate health care and nutrition, lack of high-quality pre-school programs, and stressful home lives that don't make it easy to find adequate space, time, and support to focus on school. Communities haven't taken sufficient steps to mitigate these socioeconomic pressures — either by improving economies and public services or by investing extra resources and capacity in schools in low-income areas — because of our prevailing priorities, policies, and practices.

It doesn't have to be this way

While the problem is daunting, we believe that all children have the potential to achieve, and 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 on an absolute scale.

Read about Teach For America's approach to solving this problem

Hear corps members and alumni talk about their personal views on this issue.

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¹ National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2005
² National Center for Children in Poverty, 2006