Program areas at TFA
Corps Members - TFA recruits, selects, trains and develops exceptional, diverse, equity-oriented leaders to teach the nation's most underserved students. The organization hosts on and off campus recruitment events, networks and cultivates relationships with prospects and communities in order to recruit exceptional leaders. The organization then processes applications and conducts interviews to select corps members, placing them in various urban and rural regions throughout the United States. Corps members are supported financially, and engage in intensive virtual, hybrid, and in-person training where they have the opportunity to understand their role and work, build community with one another, learn practical skills, and apply their learning in preparation for their first day of school. Corps members are then supported throughout a two-year classroom experience with additional coaching and instructional supports as well as leadership and/or educator professional development.
Systems Change - TFA recognizes that significant progress in education can only be achieved with extraordinary actions and partnerships within the communities in which we work. Creating system change is about researching new opportunities - working alongside a coalition of alumni, students, and community leaders and partners to identify patterns and strategies that can lead to system impact and achieve our goals. Investing in work that allows learning of new capabilities and experimentation with innovative practices to bring forth a reinvention of the existing school models. This is a new program for TFA in FY23.
Alumni - TFA has an alumni base of former corps members all over the world. This network is instrumental in driving real change and impact in education. TFA engages in activities that support and encourage alumni to continue work in education and across sectors by connecting them with various career and partnership opportunities, as well as resources, programs, and events. TFA also supports alumni via activities intended to develop alumni in leadership practice and/or specific programmatic areas: classroom practice, school leadership, school systems leadership, policy/organizing work, and social entrepreneurship.
Ignite Fellowship - Ignite fellows are a national tutoring corps designed to accelerate learning and foster belonging with students, leveraging research-based best practices for high-impact tutoring. Ignite builds on Teach For America's over 30 years of experience recruiting, developing, and supporting talent and partnering with communities across the country to help students overcome the systemic barriers to an excellent education. The Ignite Fellowship brings exceptional, equity-minded leaders into classrooms virtually to add immediate value for students, while creating shifts towards the future of equitable learning.