Critics joke that TFA stands for “Teach For Awhile.” But a new study suggests a more troubling and counterintuitive phenomenon. A Stanford University study shows TFA grads are less likely to vote, give to charity or be otherwise civically engaged than those who dropped out of the program, or those who were accepted into the program but declined the offer. Doug McAdam, a sociologist at Stanford University, says the reasons for the lower rates of civic involvement, include not only exhaustion and burnout, but also disillusionment with Teach for America’s approach to the issue of educational inequity, according to the New York Times.
The study, “Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Youth Service: The Puzzling Case of Teach for America,” is the first of its kind to explore what happens to participants after they leave the program. It was done at the suggestion of Wendy Kopp, Teach for America’s founder and president, who disagrees with the findings. Ms. Kopp had read an earlier study by Professor McAdam that found that participants in Freedom Summer — the 10 weeks in 1964 when civil rights advocates, many of them college students, went to Mississippi to register black voters — had become more politically active.
“While Teach for America graduates remain far more active than their peer group, the findings indicate that the program neither achieves an earlier organizational goal of ‘making citizens’ nor produces people who, in great numbers, take their civic commitments beyond the field of education,” writes the Times’ Amanda Fairbanks, herself a former TFAer.
“It’s hard to see the incredible outpouring of interest among this generation and think of it as a lack of civic engagement,” Kopp tells the Times. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if this study looked at Teach for America’s core mission, by evaluating whether we are producing more leaders who believe educational inequity is a solvable problem, who have a deep understanding of the causes and solutions, and who are taking steps to address it in fundamental and lasting ways.”
I can’t find the study anywhere on the interwebs. Maybe Ted Stevens has it. Do you have a link?
If it turns out that the author contacted the Times (knowing an anti-TFA story will be of interest), but hasn’t posted the study on his own for others to read, I’d think less of him.
Comment by GGW — January 4, 2010 @ 7:58 pm
It’s very difficult to judge the merits of the study or the validity of its conclusions without seeing the study itself. The Times article leaves too much unsaid. The actual study is apparently forthcoming….
Comment by Claus — January 4, 2010 @ 11:10 pm