Teach for America Grads Lack Involvement

Though many recent college grads sign up to help out the country's less fortunate school systems by participating in the two-year Teach for America program, a new study shows their commitment to public service may stop there. The paper, "Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Youth Service: The Puzzling Case of Teach for America," showed that when it comes to voting, charitable giving, and civic involvement, those who complete TFA were less active than those who either dropped out of the program or who declined their acceptance. Teach for America founder and President Wendy Kopp suggested the study to Stanford researchers, but disagrees with its findings, saying the program's goal is to increase dedication to education equality, not to activism more broadly. But researcher Doug McAdam says TFA graduates are not only burned out and exhausted from the program, but seemingly disillusioned with its approach to resolving the issues that plague the country's educational system. As Teach for America nears its 20th anniversary, 63 percent of its 17,000 alumni remain in the education field. Monica C. Higgins, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard who studies organizational behavior, says she's not surprised. "They're not trying to make global citizens," she concluded.