Research

Leadership Effects

Research shows that Teach For All partners are shaping the mindsets, beliefs, and priorities of the teachers they're recruiting and developing—fueling the development of collective leadership for ensuring all children fulfill their potential. These studies show that:

Participants come to believe more in their students and in the assets in the communities in which they’re working

TEACH FOR AMERICA

The Impact of Voluntary Youth Service on Future Outcomes: Evidence from Teach For America
A 2015 Harvard University study found that Teach For America strengthens participants’ conviction that children from low-income backgrounds can compete academically with children from more affluent backgrounds; intensifies their belief that the achievement gap is solvable; and increases the likelihood that they will pursue a career in the education sector.
Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer, Jr. (2015) Harvard University

Impacts on Mindsets/Perceptions of Teach For America Corps Members
A quasi-experimental study of Teach For America finds its program significantly impacts corps members’ perceptions of disadvantaged communities. Compared to similar applicants who did not participate in the program, Teach For America alumni exhibit less class-based and racial resentment, an increased identification with disadvantaged minorities, and higher agreement on how systemic injustice affects educational and other social outcomes. The study was published in the American Political Science Review and received the Best Paper award from the American Political Science Association in 2018.
Cecilia Mo and Katherine Conn (2018) “When Do the Advantaged See the Disadvantages of Others? A Quasi-Experimental Study of National Service.” American Political Science Review, 1-21. doi:10.1017/S0003055418000412

They come to believe more in their own potential to make a difference

TEACH FOR AMERICA

Impacts on Women’s Political Ambition
Teach For America female alumni are, on average, 10 percentage points more likely to be interested in running for political office and six percentage points more likely to participate in political campaigns. The effects are particularly stronger for women of color who were 22.7 percentage points more likely to pursue a political office. The researchers argue that Teach For America helps to expose women to systemic issues affecting educational equity and helps integrate women in networks that help foster continued civic participation.
Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, Katharine M. Conn & Georgia Anderson-Nilsson (2019) Youth national service and women's political ambition: the case of Teach For America, Politics, Groups, and Identities, 7:4, 864-877, DOI: 10.1080/21565503.2019.1630288  

ENSEÑA CHILE

Impacts on Participants’ Self-Efficacy
A quasi-experimental study finds that Enseña Chile participants have higher levels of perceived self-efficacy—they are more likely to agree with sentences like "I am effectively contributing to improving educational opportunities" and "I can make an impact in the field of education." The researcher aligns this finding with the hypothesis that "higher trust in one’s own capacity to make change today is related to preference for adaptive policies."
Susanna Claro (2018, unpublished). “The Effect of Teaching on Educational Policy Preferences: A Regression Discontinuity Design from the Case of Enseña Chile.”

They come to understand the systemic nature of the problem and that it requires adaptive change

TEACH FOR AMERICA

Impacts on Alumni Beliefs and Educational Policy Preferences
Teach For America alumni are significantly more likely to believe that widespread social injustices and disparities are the primary causes of income-based differences in student academic performance. When evaluating educational policies to address these differences, the study found that Teach For America alumni were no more likely, and at times less likely, than non-participants to recommend various ‘politically-charged’ policy levers—including school choice policies, Common Core standards, and teacher merit pay—as effective policy instruments. Instead, Teach For America’s former participants favored more investments in early childhood education and school-based services for low-income children, as well as increased efforts to elevate the status of the teaching profession. Moreover, Teach For America alumni were more likely to believe in the potential of teachers to affect positive change in student outcomes, and expressed more confidence in the notion that the income-based educational opportunity gap is a solvable problem.
Conn, Katherine, Virginia Lovison, and Cecilia Mo. 2019. “What is the Effect of Teaching in Underserved Schools on Beliefs About Education Inequality? Evidence from Teach For America”

ENSEÑA CHILE

Preference for Adaptive Over Technical Solutions
Enseña Chile participants demonstrate decreased preference for technical policies (i.e., reduced classroom size; improvement of infrastructure; increase in school funding; improvement of social services to the poor) and increased or constant preference for adaptive policies (i.e., improving principal quality; focusing efforts on encouraging teachers, principals and parents to believe in their students’ potential; empowering parents to give support and demand better education for children; promoting the integration of students from lower and higher economic backgrounds in schools; facilitating the replacement of ineffective teachers). The results of this study suggest Enseña Chile teachers decreased their faith in simple "silver bullet"-like solutions through their teaching experience.
Susanna Claro (2018, unpublished). “The Effect of Teaching on Educational Policy Preferences: A Regression Discontinuity Design from the Case of Enseña Chile.”

Their priorities change and they stay engaged in mission-related work

TEACH FOR INDIA

Shifting Participants’ Career Trajectories and Aspirations in Teach For India
Does participating in Teach For India affect participants’ career aspirations and career trajectories? A forthcoming study investigating the effect of participating in Teach For India finds that the program has an important and large effect on the career pathways and values of former participants. Overall, participants are approximately 55 percentage points more likely to be working in the field of education itself, broadly defined. Participants are significantly more likely to work in careers that focus on addressing a social cause (e.g. welfare, human rights, civic issues, etc), and are more likely to be engaged in an activity related to serving low-income communities. Career aspirations also shift; when asked about their “ideal future job," TFI participants are 14 percentage points more likely to propose career titles within the field of education. These results demonstrate the dramatic effects of participating in Teach For India in transforming not only the participants’ career trajectories but also an individual’s sense of purpose and values within a chosen occupation. This analysis was presented at the Comparative International Education Symposium (CIES) in April 2021.
Katharine Conn, Virginia Lovison, Cecilia Hyunjung Mo (np) “The Impact of  a Service-Focused Teaching Corps on Participants’ Career Pathways and Aspirations: Evidence from Teach For India.” 

ENSEÑA POR MÉXICO

The Impact of Enseña por México on Alumni Professional Trajectories and Mindsets
A quasi-experimental study of Enseña por México investigates the impact of the fellowship on alumni career trajectories and mindsets compared to non-participants. The results demonstrated that nearly 79 percent of Enseña por México alumni are working in the social sector. Compared to non-participants, ExM alumni are 26 percentage points more likely to pursue careers in social sectors. On average, alumni of Enseña por México reported that they intended to continue working in the social sector and to work to support educational equity throughout their careers at least 14 percentage points more often than the comparison group.
Andrés Peña Peralta and Nayeli Melisa Rodríguez Leonardo (2021) “El impacto de Enseña por México sobre las trayectorias, habilidades e intereses de sus egresados de las cohorts 2013 a 2017” Enseña por México

TEACH FIRST 

The progression and retention of Teach First teachers
This 2023 impact evaluation conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that, within the first three years following their Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) year, Teach First teachers were 38% more likely to be in middle leadership roles than teachers trained through higher education routes, and 22% more likely than those trained through school and employment based routes. They are also 20% more likely to remain in middle leadership five years after their NQT year.
McLean, D. and Worth, J. (2023). The progression and retention of Teach First teachers. Slough: NFER

TEACH FOR AMERICA

Civilian national service programs can powerfully increase youth voter turnout
What is the effect of enrolling young people to participate as Teach For America teachers on rates of voter turnout? By matching Teach For America administrative records to large-scale nationwide voter files and through the employment of a fuzzy regression discontinuity design the study finds that serving as a teacher in the Teach For America national service program has a large effect on civic participation—substantially increasing voter turnout rates among applicants admitted to the program. This effect is noticeably larger than that of previous efforts to increase youth turnout. Particularly, after their two years of service, it is estimated that these young adults vote at a rate 5.7 to 8.6 percentage points higher than that of similar nonparticipant counterparts. The results suggest that civilian national service programs targeted at young people show great promise in narrowing the enduring participation gap between younger and older citizens in the United States.
Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung, John B. Holbein, and Elizabeth Mitchell Elder. "Civilian national service programs can powerfully increase youth voter turnout." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119.29 (2022): e2122996119.

They develop relationships and networks that enable connectivity and collaboration

ENSEÑA PERÚ

Exploring How Teach For All's Networks Connect Local Educational Organizations: A Case Study of Alumni Professional Connections in Peru
A RAND social network analysis of Enseña Perú’s alumni shows strong professional connections including peers collaborating directly within and across organizations at NGOs and private-sector organizations, government ministries, and schools. The study also finds that alumni connections are mostly influenced by their shared initial experiences with peers in their own Enseña Perú program cohort, rather than factors like geography, age or gender. The authors note that Enseña Perú's example provides evidence that an intensive shared program experience can influence individual and cross-organizational networks in education over an extended period.
Benjamin K. Master, Harold D. Green, Brian Phillips, and Elaine Lin Wang; RAND Corporation (2023). "Exploring How Teach For All's Networks Connect Local Educational Organizations: A Case Study of Alumni Professional Connections in Peru"

TEACH FIRST

Network Map of Children’s Services in England
A group of UK academics’ 2021 analysis of the networks influencing children’s services in England found Teach First to be the most connected node in the network they mapped, with more immediate connections than even the Department for Education. The study also shows that Teach First ranks first in terms of closeness, being best able to quickly reach all other actors in the network. The map shows the extent of the connections and influence the Teach First community exerts across the entire English education system.
Robin Sen, Joe Hanley, Caroline Bald, Christian Kerr, and Calum Webb (2021). "The Interdependence of Independence: A Network Map of Children’s Services"

Communities & Systems Impact

We've seen in many communities that a critical mass of alumni can influence systemic change and aggregate outcomes across a whole system. We can point to some independent research substantiating these effects and are working to generate more of this research across our network:

Communities across the U.S. have seen significant progress, in part thanks to the leadership of thousands of Teach For America alumni

In the U.S., 84% of Teach For America’s alumni still work full-time in mission-related work—education, child services, policy, public health, law, and other sectors that enable them to work towards the systemic progress that’s necessary. Alumni have founded and led hundreds of social enterprises to take on the gaps in the public system and assumed critical leadership positions throughout the public education system; 10 have served as state commissioners of education, and 4700 are currently in school leadership. In a third party study of U.S. communities which have beaten the odds in improving outcomes for children, each of the eight cities featured are places where Teach For America has placed thousands of teachers and where its alumni have assumed significant leadership roles—teaching in hundreds of classrooms, leading a substantial portion of schools as principals, and serving in numerous positions of district, non-profit, school board, and policy leadership.

Teach For America alumni network attributed to systems progress toward improved student outcomes in the District of Columbia
A report detailing how District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) transformed teaching noted that much of the district’s leadership team came to education through Teach For America: “[Kaya] Henderson [Teach For America alumna] brought in a raft of talent to help lead reform, with many on her new team having started in public education through Teach For America.” The report provides a compelling story for how Teach For America alumni collectively led to policy shifts that helped to shape the structures of the DCPS system that led to dramatic increases in student outcomes. This 2020 article  by the same author highlights the five major factors that led to this progress, including that “many leaders started in public education in Teach For America, a reflection of that organization’s substantial contribution to school reform beyond the classroom.”
Tomas Toch (2018; updated July 2020). “A Policymaker’s Playbook: Transforming Public School Teaching in the Nation’s Capital.” FutureED at Georgetown University.

The educational outcomes for disadvantaged students in London have improved dramatically, in part thanks to Teach First alumni

Teach First has recruited almost 15,000 teachers for schools in cities and towns across England and Wales. For years, London was among the worst-performing areas in England in terms of outcomes for pupils from low-income communities. Today, the city’s schools have become the highest performing in the country, and independent research identified Teach First as one of four key factors in this transformation. Over 6500 Teach First teachers have been placed in the city since 2003, and now one in 14 of all teachers working in schools serving London’s low-income communities are Teach First participants and alumni, with over 1000 alumni in middle or senior leadership positions in London schools. Beyond the classroom, dozens of alumni are working at every level of policy, and 40 have founded and lead social enterprises, including organizations that train and develop teachers and school leaders, expand the focus of schools to ensure students are developing holistically, and provide mentoring and support to facilitate first-generation college students attending selective universities.

Lessons from London Schools: Investigating the Success
 A report exploring the improvement journey suggests that Teach First was one of four enablers of London’s success.
Sam Baars, Eleanor Bernardes, Alex Elwick, Abigail Malortie, Tony McAleavy, Laura McInerney, Loic Menzies and Anna Riggall (2015) CfBT Education Trust.

We're beginning to see similar effects all around the world

Over time, just as in the U.S. and U.K., alumni form a critical force for change all over the world. Since its launch in 2009, for example, Teach For India has developed more than 4700 leaders and 77% of alumni continue to work in the social sector—leading classrooms and schools, founding and leading nonprofits, training teachers, designing policy, and working in government. Teach For India alumni at various levels of the system are reaching 33 million children—that’s one in 10 of India’s children. We’re seeing these systemic effects around the world, even from organizations that are much younger and much smaller. Within its first four years, for example, Teach For Cambodia’s alumni now make up a third of the staff of a sweeping nationwide education reform run by the Royal University of Phnom Penh, which is re-training thousands of teachers and school leaders.