Every year, scores of outstanding college seniors sign up to teach low-income students in urban and rural public schools. Over the past 16 years, 17,000 of them - students of all academic majors who are among the nation's most sought-after young leaders - have committed two years of service to Teach For America, the national teaching corps of recent college graduates who fight educational inequity firsthand in the classroom and become lifelong leaders in the effort to expand opportunity for all children.
Educational inequity is not the most glamorous topic in contemporary political debate, but it is certainly one of the most important. The commitment of Teach For America corps members speaks to a sense of urgency that is greater than ever before. They see firsthand what the national statistics tell: that by the time children in low-income areas are nine years old, they are already three to four grade levels behind their more privileged peers. The gap only widens from there, to the point where a child who grows up in Southeast D.C. is seven times less likely to graduate from college than a child who grows up in Virginia's Fairfax County.
These schools are less than 20 miles away from each other, yet they represent the extreme disparity in educational opportunity students have based solely on the communities they are born into. This is shocking given what we know: that when students in Southeast D.C. are given equal opportunities, they achieve at the same level as their peers in Fairfax. America's achievement gap can be overcome for large numbers of low-income students, but not without the idealism and determination of our generation.
Those who are worried that they can't succeed in the classroom without formal teacher education shouldn't fret. For 16 years, Teach For America has studied what distinguishes the most successful teachers in underresourced communities, and has put this learning to use in selecting,
training and supporting corps members. A 2004 Mathematica Policy Research study found that students of Teach for America corps members scored significantly better in math and made the same gains in reading as those of veteran instructors. Another study conducted last year showed that three out of four principals considered first-year corps members more effective than other beginning teachers with whom they've worked.
Those who choose not to continue to work in education after two years find success in many fields, including medicine, law and business. If you're interested in law school, what better place to see the effects of legislation than in the communities you teach? If you're considering medical school, what better place to learn the practical implications of solving social health problems than in classrooms where 100 percent of students receive free breakfast and lunch and cannot afford necessary nutrients in their diets? Wherever corps members go, they recognize the urgency of providing academically rigorous schools to all children and work toward that end.
The challenges are big, and they certainly make it seem impossible for one person to make a difference. But it can be done. Today, 4,400 corps members (including 13 AU alumni) work as full-time paid teachers in 25 urban and rural areas profoundly affected by the achievement gap.
Coffeehouse pontification about the world's injustices may be a popular undergraduate pastime, but nothing can be done about injustice unless we are willing to do something about it. With Teach For America we have the opportunity to make an immediate, measurable impact upon graduation, from advancing a child's reading level two grades to preparing a high school student for the Advanced Placement Biology test. As an AU student who has joined the fight to level the playing field as a 2007 Los Angeles corps member, I urge all AU students to consider Teach For America as a postgraduate option. The final deadline is Feb. 18.
Leslie Colwell is a senior in SPA and SOC.
