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January 2008 Only 1 in 10 students in low-income communities will graduate from college.*
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Learn how you can help end educational inequity>>
| What the Experience Is Really Like - Report from the field: "I thought about the challenges my students face and the sacrifices their families have made in order to provide them an education in the United States. I felt a sense of humility. How could I not provide my students with the quality education to justify their families' sacrifices? I became empowered by the notion that, as their classroom teacher, I have the opportunity to make those sacrifices worthwhile…"
—Janis Ortega (New York City Corps ’04)
Read more about Janis’s experience and the daily rewards and challenges of teaching>>
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| - "Teach For America is designed to attract not only the most talented on the college campus, but individuals who have a passion to make a contribution. They may lack teacher training, but we easily can compensate with instructional models and data delivery systems. You can’t buy a work ethic. You can’t buy intelligence and enthusiasm. You can’t buy hope. At the end of the day, that stuff is priceless."—Paul Vallas, Superintendent, Recovery School District, New Orleans
Read more about Teach For America’s role in post-Katrina education reform and what it’s like to live and teach in Greater New Orleans>> | | - Get ready to make an impact: Teach For America’s training institute prepares corps members to be highly effective beginning teachers while improving the academic performance of students in their summer school classrooms.
Watch one new corps member in a typical day at institute>>
- How does this affect my financial future?: Teach For America covers major expenses during the summer institute and offers no-interest loans and transitional grants ranging from $1,000 to $6,000 to help corps members until they receive their first paycheck. Additionally, corps members may be eligible to receive loan forbearance and interest payment on qualified student loans as well as an education award of $4,725 at the end of each year of service. Learn more about the salary and benefits Teach For America corps members receive>>
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How This Fits in with Your Career Goals - Graduate school and employer partnerships: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Google, and other employers join top-ranked graduate programs such as the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to offer deferrals and other benefits to Teach For America teachers. View all of Teach For America’s employer partnerships and graduate school partnerships>>
- Why Teach For America?: "It’s a really great opportunity to be part of something bigger than myself, bigger than a group of people, bigger than a company. I knew it was going to be a challenge. I was never really interested in doing something easy, but I have always been interested in a challenge."— Jason Boots (Baltimore Corps ’07)
- A lasting difference: After their two-year commitment, Teach For America alumni continue to be agents of change. Learn more about alumni working from every professional sector to level the playing field for children in low-income communities.
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*Please note that this statistic was incorrectly printed in our December newsletter. The correct statistics are:
Only 1 in 10 students from low-income communities will graduate from college. [Source: "Family Income and Higher Education Opportunity," Postsecondary Education Opportunity, 2005]
About half of students growing up in low-income communities will not graduate from high school. Nationwide, the graduation rate for "high-poverty" districts is 60 percent. However, in nearly all of the districts where Teach For America places teachers, the rate is below 50 percent. [Source: Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2006].
Opinions expressed in this document or linked documents are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Teach For America, the Corporation for National Service, or the AmeriCorps program.  
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