Should Teach for America place teachers into charter schools?

To put the finder's fees in perspective: If one city's TFA cohort, consisting of 200 corps members, comes with an annual finder's fee of $4,250 for each teacher recruited from the organization—then that cohort's two-year commitment will cost the district an additional $1,700,000 in dues to the organization. read more

Theoretically, Teach For America should place teachers in any partner school seeking high-performing candidates from non-traditional teaching backgrounds. Many charter schools struggle to find teachers because the pay is typically lower and the expectations are higher than surrounding district schools. read more

If TFA intended to place students in schools with insufficient numbers of teachers, it has strayed far from its original goal. As an essay by Chicago teacher Kenzo Shibata asked last summer, "Teach For America wanted to help stem a teacher shortage. read more