85 New Teach For America Teachers Join Local Efforts to Expand Educational Opportunity

Teach For America-Greater Newark to Reach Nearly 7,000 Students in the Coming Year

For Immediate Release

Contact: Masharika Maddison | Teach For America
917-836-7365 | masharika.maddison@teachforamerica.org

NEWARK, N.J., June 7, 2011—Teach For America announced today that 85 new teachers will teach in Greater Newark beginning this fall as part of the largest entering corps in the organization’s history. These new teachers represent a 43 percent increase in Greater Newark’s total corps size. In all, 130 Teach For America corps members will be teaching in high-need public schools across northern New Jersey this year, collectively reaching nearly 7,000 students.

 “I am personally excited to welcome new Teach For America corps members to our city,” said Mayor Cory Booker. “I have seen firsthand the passion and the energy they bring to the classroom and the difference they make in the lives of their students.”

Teach For America’s new national corps totals 5,100 teachers who are top graduates from colleges and universities across the country. These corps members represent a wide variety of personal and academic backgrounds and professional experiences. One-third identify as people of color, including 12 percent who are African American and 8 percent who are Hispanic. Twenty-two percent are the first in their family to graduate from college, and nearly one-third received Pell Grants. Twenty-three percent are graduate students or professionals. 

This year, nearly 48,000 individuals applied to Teach For America, and 14 percent were accepted. Applicants included 16 percent of seniors at Princeton University and 220 seniors at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

 “We are thrilled to see such growth in our Greater Newark corps,” said Fatimah Burnam Watkins, executive director of Teach For America in Greater Newark. “These 85 new teachers are poised to have a real impact on Greater Newark’s highest-need schools and students.”

A growing body of rigorous research demonstrates the effectiveness of Teach For America corps members in the classroom. Recent studies from Louisiana, North Carolinaand Tennesseefound that corps members have a positive impact on student achievement. The Tennessee study identified Teach For America as the most effective of the state’s 42 teacher-preparation programs, with corps members demonstrating a greater impact on student achievement than the average new teacher in every evaluated subject area.

School leaders give Teach For America corps members high marks. Nationwide, 94 percent of principals who employ corps members report seeing a positive impact in the classroom. 

 Teach For America is building a strong pipeline of leaders in education. Two-thirds of Teach For America alumni are working full-time in the field, with more than 550 alumni serving as school principals or school system leaders. In addition, many alumni are launching innovative efforts to expand educational opportunity, including Dominique Lee (Greater Newark Corps ’07), founder and executive director of B.R.I.C.K. Academy an organization which has formed a strong partnership with Newark Public Schools with the purpose of turning around chronically failing schools in Newark’s South Ward. More than 450 Teach For America alumni are living and working in Greater Newark.

About Teach For America

Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. Today, more than 9,000 corps members are teaching in 43 regions across the country while nearly 24,000 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 http://www.teachforamerica.org.