St. Louis
About Us
About Us
Teach For America St. Louis is a diverse network of leaders working to confront educational inequity.
Over the past 20 years, Teach For America St. Louis has invested in developing and retaining high-quality educators, offering professional development opportunities to continue growing their leadership and instructional skills.
Our goal is that by 2030, twice as many children in St. Louis will reach key educational milestones, particularly 3rd grade reading and 8th grade math, indicating they are on a path to economic mobility and co-creating a future filled with possibility. Teach For America St. Louis believes that all students deserve access to a high-quality education, and our diverse network of leaders are equipped to confront educational inequity and ensure more students are academically successful.
Our Community
Our Community
Since 2002, Teach For America has recruited nearly 1,000 teachers to St. Louis and today, a network of 600+ alumni dedicated to ending educational inequity are living and leading in the region.
Today, 84% of TFA alumni work in roles that directly impact education or low-income communities in St. Louis. Alumni who no longer work directly in education are able to act on the conviction and insight they gained from teaching with TFA to affect fundamental changes needed in a variety of areas like law, policy, healthcare and business, further ensuring that all children are able to grow and lead in equitable communities.
Our Alumni Network Includes:
Over
600
Alumni living in the region.
Approximately
200
Alumni teaching in classrooms.
Nearly
50
Alumni leading schools and school districts.
Over
600
Alumni living in the region.
Approximately
200
Alumni teaching in classrooms.
Nearly
50
Alumni leading schools and school districts.
“Without Teach For America St. Louis, as well as the community and opportunities it has provided me, I wouldn’t be making the impact I am today. I have fallen in love with our city, our kids, our families and our community, and St. Louis will forever be my home.”
Our Work
According to 2019 APR data from the Missouri School Improvement Project, students in schools led by TFA alumni principals were three times as likely to exceed their English Language Arts target and more than three times as likely to exceed their math targets than students in schools not led by TFA alumni. This is specifically impressive, knowing that academic outcomes in St. Louis significantly lag those across the state. In 2021, only 18% of students in St. Louis public schools were proficient in 3rd-grade reading, compared to a 42% state average, and only 10% of 8th graders were proficient in math, compared to 27% in the state.
To confront the challenges in St. Louis education in service of our 2030 goal, Teach For America St. Louis serves as a strategic talent partner to local schools and educators across three main areas.
We offer programs and fellowships for local educators to help schools develop and retain teachers and build a stronger principal pipeline. This is done through programs like the Aspiring School Leaders Fellowship and the Instructional Excellence Fellowship. Read about our fellowships.
We help connect schools and education organizations to TFA talent and support the TFA network to find education and education-adjacent leadership opportunities. This is done through TFA’s Connect Recruitment Platform and the Ignite Tutoring Fellowship, a high-impact tutoring program based on research-based best practices that support student learning and expose future educators to teaching experience. Learn more.
We convene and network with St. Louis' best educators and education advocates to impact education reform across all levels of the systems. This is done through our annual Lead in The Lou Education Summit and ongoing regional networking opportunities for local educators and schools.
100% of participants would recommend a TFA STL program to another educator.
Get Involved
Get Involved
Looking for professional learning opportunities to support your development? Check out what TFA St. Louis offers.
“I’ve learned that the goal for reforming education is not a one-stop shop, but an ongoing process. This program has fueled me with enough knowledge and connections - I am empowered to impact education as a leader”
Support Our Work
Your generosity enables us to build a diverse network who take the narrative around opportunity and success for St. Louis students, and flips the script. All gifts help to recruit, select, train, and support excellent leaders who will work to accelerate progress towards an excellent education for all children.
Mailing Address
5501 Delmar Blvd, Ste A280
St. Louis, MO 63112
Contact
Jennifer Sherer, 314-443-1728
Jennifer.Sherer@teachforamerica.org
Local Leadership
Elizabeth Bleier
St. Louis '06
Executive Director
Elizabeth serves as the Executive Director of Teach For America St. Louis where she works to support a network of 600 local educators and educational equity advocates to improve outcomes for students from historically underserved communities.