National Nonprofit Joins Local Effort to Expand Educational Opportunity for Students in Twin Cities Public Schools
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kerci Marcello Stroud | Teach For America
917.734.4847 | kerci.marcellostroud@teachforamerica.org
MINNEAPOLIS, June 23, 2009—Teach For America announced today that it will expand to the Twin Cities, outlining plans to bring 40 top college graduates to teach in the area’s highest-need schools for each of the next three years. The organization will place teachers in traditional and charter public schools in Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center, and charter public schools in St. Paul.
Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding college graduates who commit to teach for at least two years in under-resourced schools and become lifelong leaders in the pursuit of educational equity. Teach For America’s charter Twin Cities corps will be part of a national incoming corps of 4,100, selected from an applicant pool of more than 35,000. These applicants included 11 percent of all Ivy League seniors, 11 percent of graduating seniors at Macalester College, 8 percent of those at Carleton College and 3 percent of those at the University of Minnesota. Incoming Teach For America teachers earned an average GPA of 3.6, almost 90 percent held leadership positions on their college campuses, and one-quarter received Pell Grants.
“Minneapolis Public Schools strives to provide all of our students with the excellent education they deserve, and we are pleased that Teach For America will join us in this effort,” said Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Bill Green. “Bringing in these outstanding teachers will help accelerate our efforts to close the achievement gap.”
“Our students’ ability to succeed greatly depends on the quality of the teachers,” said Brooklyn Center Schools Superintendent Keith Lester. “Our new Teach For America teachers will contribute both a high level of quality to instruction for our students and a high level of dedication to them and their learning. Their example will benefit our students, staff, and community. They will help us make a difference."
Teach For America decided to expand to the Twin Cities based on the community’s compelling vision of how the organization’s presence will help to close student achievement gaps; the existence of a feasible alternate route to teacher certification which was made possible by the leadership of the Minnesota Board of Teaching; the school districts’ commitment to placing a critical mass of corps members across the range of subject areas and grade levels; and community support that will enable Teach For America to fund the new site in a sustainable way. The expansion to the Twin Cities is part of Teach For America’s 2010 growth plan, which calls for 7,500 corps members to be teaching in more than 33 regions by next year.
“I am pleased that Teach For America will bring some of our nation’s top college graduates into Minnesota’s classrooms,” said Governor Tim Pawlenty. “Our children’s future success depends on the education they receive today, and innovative programs like Teach For America will help us ensure that our students are well-prepared to meet the challenges ahead.”
A broad coalition of supportive community groups, corporations, local philanthropists, and the leaders of Minneapolis Public Schools, Brooklyn Center Schools, and area charter schools made the Twin Cities an ideal location for Teach For America. The Medtronic Foundation and the General Mills Foundation are the founding investors in Teach For America’s Twin Cities site, each pledging $600,000 over three years. Instrumental in bringing Teach For America to Minnesota, Medtronic is also a national corporate sponsor of Teach For America, providing total support of $1.4 million. Additional support in the Twin Cities is being provided by the McKnight Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, the Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation for Children, the Frey Foundation, the Carlson Family Foundation, Best Buy, TCF Bank, the Saint Paul Foundation, the Bigelow Foundation, the George Family Foundation, the Carolyn Foundation and Mr. Steve Mahle.
“Ensuring that every child has a full opportunity to succeed in the classroom is one of the most important investments we can make in our community,” said David Etzwiler, vice president of community affairs and executive director of the Medtronic Foundation. “Teach For America’s teachers are deeply committed to helping all students succeed, with a proven track record wherever they are deployed. We support Teach For America’s national math and science initiative to inspire the next generation of innovators, and we are thrilled to be a part of bringing the organization to our hometown to help close a widening achievement gap.”
“The General Mills Foundation is proud to help bring Teach for America to the Twin Cities, ” said Ellen Goldberg Luger, executive director of the General Mills Foundation and vice president of General Mills, Inc. “We’re pleased to support the important work this group of dedicated teachers will bring to our schools. We look forward to the positive impact Teach for America’s teachers will have on our students, schools and communities.”
“As a community foundation with a long history of working to strengthen our public education system and creating opportunities for all of our children to succeed, we are pleased to help bring Teach For America into our schools,” said Sandra Vargas, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Foundation. “High-quality teaching is one of the most critical elements of student success, and we're excited to find new ways to bring high-performing teachers into the classroom."
Teach For America's local university partner will be Hamline University. All area Teach For America corps members will enroll at the university to obtain their state teaching certification, and they will have the opportunity to pursue a master of arts degree in teaching. Teach For America selected Hamline because of the university's deep commitment to and history of fostering innovation in education and for its focus on preparing teachers for urban schools.
"As a university that is committed to social justice and service, we are thrilled to partner with Teach For America and support their mission to end educational inequity," Hamline University President Linda N. Hanson said. "We look forward to welcoming these teachers into our university and our community's classrooms."
“We’re excited to build on the ongoing efforts here in the Twin Cities to expand educational opportunities for all children,” said Matthew Kramer, president and chief program officer of Teach For America. “We’re also grateful for the broad-based support we have received under the leadership of Superintendents Green and Lester, and for the generosity of the philanthropic community, led by Medtronic, General Mills, the McKnight Foundation, and the Minneapolis Foundation, which will enable us to establish a new pipeline of talented teachers and education leaders for the region. On a personal note, as a longtime resident of the Twin Cities, I’m happy that some of our corps members will have the opportunity to call the cities home.”
A growing body of rigorous research demonstrates that Teach For America corps members are highly effective in the classroom. An Urban Institute study published in 2008 and updated this year found that high school students taught by Teach For America teachers outperformed their peers, even those taught by fully certified teachers. The updated study is available at www.caldercenter.org/upload/TFA_final_v-March-2009.pdf.
In the 2009-10 school year, Teach For America’s network will include more than 7,300 corps members in 35 regions, including the Twin Cities, and some 17,000 alumni across the country working from every professional sector to level the playing field for children and families in low-income communities. The Twin Cities are home to more than 100 Teach For America alumni. Nationally, about two-thirds of Teach For America alumni remain in education, where they are starting schools, serving as principals and district administrators, and winning accolades in the classroom, including 2007 teacher of the year awards in two states and the 2005 National Teacher of the Year Award.
Daniel Sellers will serve as the executive director of Teach For America-Twin Cities. Sellers, a graduate of South High School in Minneapolis and Gustavus Adolphus College, joined Teach For America as a corps member in Eastern North Carolina. During his first year in the classroom, he increased the percentage of his students who passed the North Carolina state standardized math exam from 40 to 75. The following year, he led 97 percent of his students to pass and was a finalist for Teach For America’s Sue Lehmann Excellence in Teaching Award.
“I’m incredibly excited to be a part of bringing Teach For America to my hometown,” Sellers said. “I am pleased to welcome our first group of corps members to the Twin Cities and I look forward to working with them as they do whatever it takes to help their students succeed.”
About Teach For America
Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. In the 2008-09 school year, 6,200 corps members are teaching in over 1,600 schools in 29 regions across the country while more than 14,000 Teach For America alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence and equity. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org.
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