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Our Work

Teach For America is a leadership development organization for those who want to co-create a more just world alongside young people in their communities. Today we are a network of nearly 70,000 leaders who started in the classroom and remain in lifelong pursuit of the vision that one day, all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

Our Mission

Teach For America finds, develops and supports equity-oriented leaders to transform education and expand opportunity for all children.

Our Why

We envision a world where educators, policymakers, parents, and students are working together to ensure that their communities’ children have the foundation they need to learn, lead, thrive, and shape a better future for themselves and all of us.

Photo of a young girl sitting on a stoop with her chin resting in her hand, smiling and looking upward

Our Goal

In 2020, we set a 10-year goal for our organization's work. By 2030, twice as many children in communities where we work will reach key educational milestones, indicating they are on a path to economic mobility and co-creating a future filled with possibility.

Our Approach

The educational inequities our country faces are deeply rooted in systemic racism. Solving them will take many interventions from many directions over a prolonged period of time. Teach For America’s contribution to the effort is leadership. 

Our approach draws on historical lessons of what enduring change requires:   

  • Leaders both inside and outside of the system, working to challenge the status quo and demonstrate what’s possible.
  • Those most directly impacted by injustice shaping the effort, alongside others with proximity to the complex issues.
  • A broad and diverse coalition of people united around common purpose and shared values, translating lessons into policy and practice.

Our Impact

Our Impact

Together with partners throughout the educational ecosystem, our alumni, corps members, and fellows are helping achieve measurable student growth in and out of the classroom. They know there is no single solution to ending educational inequity, and they are providing grounded leadership and hard work from all career fields to expand opportunity for all.

A teacher is surrounded in a big hug by several smiling students

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness 

TFA made a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion more than a decade ago, and continues to operate with certainty that a broad, diverse, and accountable coalition of people united around who share a common purpose is essential to the mission of educational equity and excellence. 

Our evolved commitment maintains our original belief with two additional insights.

1. The change we seek must be shaped by those of us who are most directly impacted by educational inequity alongside those whose identities and experiences differed. 

2. Racial inequity interrupts the possibilities of educational equity. The progress we seek is only possible if the coalition works.

Get Involved

Get Involved

We need bold, diverse hand-raisers to join our mission. Learn about the impact you can have as a corps member, Ignite Fellow, supporter, or partner.

A young boy wearing glasses smiles brightly at the camera from a table in a school science lab