Secondary Math Teachers from Teach for America: higher scores on end-of-year mathematics achievement tests

“The Effectiveness of Secondary Math Teachers from Teach for America and the Teaching Fellows Program”



This study examined the impact of Teach for America (TFA) and The New Teacher Project’s Teaching Fellows (TF) programs on the mathematics achievement of students in grades 6–12. TFA and TF provide alternative routes to teacher certification and aim to provide high-quality teachers to schools in low-income areas. TFA and TF were studied separately, using students in eight states during the 2009–10 and 2010–11 school years. For each analysis, students were randomly assigned to either an intervention (TFA or TF) or a comparison teacher who taught the same mathematics subject. The TFA analysis included more than 5,700 students, and the TF analysis included more than 6,800 students. End-of-year state mathematics achievement tests were administered to middle school students. End-of-course mathematics assessments, developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association, were administered to high school students.

What did the study report?
The study reported that students in the TFA group had statistically significant higher scores on end-of-year mathematics achievement tests than those in the comparison group. However, no differences in mathematics achievement were detected between students in the TF and comparison groups.