Tomorrow, Teach for America hopefuls will be frantically handing in their application forms, with all the best intentions of making a real difference in America.

Since its founding in 1989, Teach for America has become a nationwide force in dispatching recent college graduates to teach for at least two years in blue-collar, low-income communities. Its mission is to eliminate educational inequity in the country by closing the achievement gap—creating chances at college admission for underprivileged kids who otherwise might have none. It is a noble cause and a sexy post-grad option—especially for seniors who want their 4-year degree to have an instant impact on society. But many have applied a hard layer of skepticism to the program, and even downright resentment toward TFA’s stated efficacy, which has become grounds for a fierce debate. 

One of the main points of contention is whether TFA-trained teachers have the capacity to teach effectively. Critics say that TFA-training is too cursory and under-resourced to sufficiently prepare prospective candidates who will teach fulltime in America’s most challenging environments. Prior to becoming a fulltime teacher, TFA trainees go under a 5-week summer program, known as “the Institute,” which can be characterized as field training exercise.

On the verge of finishing the two-year commitment in the Bay Area, an NYU alum—who wished to remain anonymous—said TFA’s training was a “crash course” and offered “a very one-dimensional approach to planning lessons, behaviour management, and mindset about teaching.” As corps members hone their professional teaching skills, they begin to realize “how limited the [TFA] training actually was,” he said.

But another NYU ’05 alum, Ravina Daphtary, saw the rapid training session as a good formula for entering the field. She was in Arkansas with the program, teaching 6th graders math and science. “I think TFA’s true success at Institute is mimicking the pace and intensity of your first year of teaching… Being exposed to the frenzy and mental stress of that lifestyle ensures you don’t break down your first few weeks of “real” teaching,” she said.

Robert Cohen, a history and social studies professor at Steinhardt and an expert on public education, questioned the quality of TFA’s training in comparison to regular university programs which are better endowed with resources and finance. “Say you’re a math teacher. If you had more time, say a year in graduate school, you could really advance your math and pedagogical skills,” he said, “I don’t understand what the rush is when the job market [in public education] is frozen.”

To be accepted by TFA does not mean to be hired as a full-time teacher. Rather, it serves the function of an agency. This is a common misconception among applicants–many consider TFA to be an employment alternative given the shortage of jobs demanded in times of recession. In most cases TFA recruits are subject to the same selection processes as traditional path candidates, while, according to a campus recruitment officer, direct supply-and-demand from TFA to public schools does exist.

The question of teacher quality has been batted around as long as the institution has existed. In a TIME article last year, Dan Goldhaber, a University of Washington economist and one of the leading researchers on education, was quoted saying TFA-trained teachers were “at least as effective as other teachers” who have explicitly gone under traditional education training, and have years of field experience up their sleeves. TFA’s statistics on their official website indicates 95% of the principals surveyed rated corps members as effective as other beginning teachers in terms of overall performance and impact on student achievement.

But a study conducted last June by Julian Vasquez Heilig, University of Texas, and Su Jin Jez, California State University revealed that, “TFA teachers were less effective in both reading and mathematics than fully prepared entrants teaching similar students, at least until the TFA teachers become prepared and certified themselves.”

The few who do stay beyond two years are found to be more effective in teaching math, but since more than 80 percent of TFA recruits part with education after three years, “few students receive the benefit of this greater effectiveness,” according to the study. On TFA’s official website, 61% of TFA corps members are said to remain in the teaching procession for more than two years. With TFA-trained instructors only making up about 0.2% of the US’s 3.5 million teaching force, its overall impact on the state of U.S. public education almost seems trifling.

Another issue is the retention rate. Understandably schools in low-income areas are quite the trial for teacherlings, and thus have higher turnover rates. This creates a “revolving-door effect,” (a term coined in an in-depth report published in Education Week)—vacancies created by new and vulnerable teachers are filled again with first-timers. Under such circumstances, the report also pointed out:

“schools also lose their investment in formal and informal professional development… Moreover, routinely high levels of teacher turnover impede a school’s efforts to coordinate curriculum, to track and share important information about students as they move from grade to grade, and to maintain productive relationships with parents and the local community.”

In the end it’s the already-troubled students who suffer. Interestingly enough, the abovementioned report also stated that after two years more than half (56.4%) of TFA recruits leave their initial placements in low-income schools, and by their fifth year, only 14.8 percent continue to teach in their original low-income placement—presumably headed to schools in higher-income areas where the teaching experience on average is less of a Normandy landing.

Ravina Daphtary reflected this in her correspondence, “I doubt there are many other professions [other than teaching] that foist the reality of low-income Americans on you so blatantly.” The other NYU alum shared this sentiment, “I have seen a lot of first year teachers (not just TFAers) become depressed and stressed out to a point that is unhealthy.” Professor Cohen also underscored the lackluster nature of hasty training offered by TFA, which could lead novice teachers to “become disillusioned” prematurely given the testing nature of the classrooms they are made to face.

The two NYU alums who have taught in these environments did identify that it was indeed an arduous task, but a thoroughly rewarding one at that. The anonymous alum said although it was at times “an unhealthy and absolutely infuriating experience,” but that it deepened her understanding of professionalism and the education system.

“I will always respect teachers—you have no idea how hard it is,” she said.

The other alum, Daphtary said, “A lot of people choose to teach because they believe the work will be rewarding, but in reality the rewarding nature of the job is what gets you through challenging times, rather than the end goal.” Having left the official teaching occupation, she had been integrating education with her work to this day, “I have taught college students, conducted professional trainings, designed curricula, and mentored other teachers – all of which draw on my background as an educator.”

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