As Teach for America's (TFA) local branch concludes its first school year in the Boston area, teachers and principals are reporting successes across the board, despite initial reservations.
TFA Regional Communications Director Kaitlin Gastrock said the incorporation of 50 new corps members into local public schools in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea and Revere has had concrete results, although most quantitative data will not be available until the end of the school year.
"The corps members have had really great experiences in the schools," she told the Daily. "We've had positive feedback from the principals … and we're confident that we'll have the data to back up the qualitative information."
Gastrock explained that success is measured in individual students' progress throughout the year.
"A lot of the students unfortunately start out the year behind, so what we want to see is if the teachers were able to catch them up or even get them ahead," she said.
Emily Berman, a recent graduate of Boston University (BU), is finishing her first year with TFA as a sixth grade social studies teacher at Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in Charlestown.
Berman feels that her participation in TFA has been a valuable experience, and she is encouraged by the progress her students have made throughout the year. She said being a part of the TFA corps has been good preparation for a career in education. "I feel like I'm a radically better teacher than I was at the beginning of the year," she said.
Despite these positive reviews, the announcement of TFA's arrival in Boston was not originally met with such positive reactions.
The decision last spring sparked objection from the Boston Teachers Union. President of the Boston Teachers Union Richard Stutman said that the union initially rejected the incorporation of corps members due to the threat that they would pose to incumbent teachers' employment.
"That was last year, when we were losing 700 people," he said. "What we objected to was Teach for America and other organizations taking jobs when we had members currently in place."
Stutman said that these worries have since been alleviated, and there is no longer a conflict. "[The relationship] is fine, and we've reached an accommodation," he said.
Gastrock and Berman have not noticed any animosity, and Berman added that encouraging faculty members in the school in which she taught played a large role in her development as a teacher.
"One of the best things is the support you get," she said. "The staff are phenomenal; I felt welcome right from the start. They've been so ... willing to help out. I immediately felt part of the community."
Gastrock says that a strong sense of cooperation in the education system is one of the factors that made TFA choose the Boston area as its next outreach post.
"We need to make sure that there are community members available to work with the corps members," she said. "[Boston] was a great place where we had a number of people … and principals who were willing to incorporate Teach for America [into the school]."
Gastrock added that while TFA corps members are placed in all levels of schooling and all subjects, most get jobs teaching hard-to-staff subjects like math or science.
"The choice is based on the need in the community and the need in hard-to-staff schools in low-income communities," she said.
Berman said that learning about discrepancies in education quality among different socioeconomic groups during her time at BU led her to teaching.
"I thought it was so wrong that depending on where children are born, they're getting greatly different educations," she said.
Berman is from New York but plans to stay in Boston after another year with TFA to continue her teaching career.
This intention, Gastrock said, is common among TFA corps members, many of whom eventually become teachers or work for non-profit education organizations. "We're really excited to see that long-term impact," she said.
The TFA Boston corps includes several graduates from Massachusetts colleges and universities, including Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University.
Gastrock explained that while personal preference and the availability of jobs specific to a candidate's abilities are the principal factors considered in matching candidates with positions across the country, a personal connection to the region is also a plus.
"It's always an added bonus when we can take [people] who already have an attachment to the area," she said.
