Teach for America may extend to Pittsburgh

When Mark Young graduated from Pitt last year, he told Teach for America that it could send him anywhere.

But now, one year later, Pittsburghers are arguing for Pitt students and graduates, like Young, to have the opportunity to stay closer to their alma mater.

Linda Lane, superintendent for Pittsburgh public schools, wants to use Teach for America teachers to fill 15 to 30 vacant spots among the 54 district schools for the 2014 school year. Lane said that instead of hiring new staff, the school district is considering recruiting individuals from Teach for America’s applicant pool, mostly comprised of recent college graduates without education degrees, to fill the positions.

Lane said the matter should be up for debate at the school board legislative meeting later this month.

Young currently teaches math to seventh and eighth graders in the Louisiana Delta through Teach for America. Young didn’t list a preference for desired location on his application to the organization.

Young participated in Jump Start, a national literacy program that links college students with preschool age students, which sparked his interest in Teach for America, a nonprofit organization that places college graduates in schools nationwide.

Lane said she is excited to potentially work with Teach for America because of the nonprofit organization’s track record for hiring teachers of different racial backgrounds. She hopes the diversity could reflect upon both her school district and Teach for America’s commitment to education. 

“Teach for America is doing a much stronger job of attracting people of color,” Lane said. “We have a goal here of finding diversity in the workplace.”

Danielle Montoya, a spokeswoman for Teach for America, said it would be possible for Pitt graduates working for Teach for America to stay and teach locally. She added that placement ultimately depends upon the number of available positions in the region and which applicants match up with that region.

“They can certainly have the opportunity to prefer where they are teaching,” Montoya said. “But it also depends on how many teachers the public schools need, and we would need to see which individuals match.” 

According to an August press release from Teach for America, Pitt ranks 20th among large universities whose graduates entered the 2013 Teach for America corps. Last year, 38 Pitt graduates joined Teach for America. The 2013 corps was composed of 4,366 graduating seniors — 0.8 percent of which came from Pitt. 

New college graduates play a large part in Teach for America’s staff, and graduating seniors compose 74 percent of the organization’s teaching staff, according to the release.

Lane said that the purpose of using Teach for America staff in local public schools would be to bring in “hard-to-find teachers” for certain subjects.

“Our priority would mostly be for hard subjects like chemistry or physics,” she said. “Not elementary schools.” 

According to its website, Teach for America staff members receive annual salaries ranging from $25,000 to $51,000 and in some cases also receive health benefits, depending on the region to which they are sent.

After a school district releases its target number of teachers, both the school district and Teach for America work together to determine the individual teachers to send, depending on which subjects require new educators.

“It is entirely a partnership,” Montoya said. “We would work with the superintendent and have conversations with the school district’s human resources director.”

Lane said she is not worried about possible inexperience in teachers brought in through the program.

“We hire inexperienced teachers a lot,” Lane said. “I would hope that [people who oppose the idea] review data for the success that Teach for America has and remind themselves that they are college-educated teachers.”

Montoya said that Teach for America seeks to “recruit people with a passion to teach,” among other qualities.

“We have developed a pretty robust selection and recruitment model over the past 23 years,” she said. “Our most successful teachers have a past history of achievement and leadership, have persevered through challenges and have critical thinking skills.”

Young said that his training consisted of a six-week summer training program, followed by three weeks spent in the classroom, one hour per day.

“So I had 15 hours of teaching experience,” Young said, though he added that he did not feel unprepared.

Teach for America’s application process lasts several months, beginning with online applications and followed by phone interviews. Recruiters then personally interview selected applicants.

Most college graduates who enter into the Teach for America program are sent across the country to any of the 48 regions in 35 different states for which Teach for America provides teachers, according to the program’s website.

But by requesting the organization to send teachers to Pittsburgh, Pitt graduates such as Young may have the option to stay local and still contribute to the program. 

Young said that if given the opportunity, he would stay in Pittsburgh while working with Teach for America.

“I would have stayed because I already knew these preschool children I have worked with,” he said. “It definitely would have changed my preference.”

Lane said she is unsure if the decision will pass the school board vote later this month, but hopes that it does.

“Every board member has to make their own decision,” she said, “and I strongly hope that they will.”