Teach for America recruits to solve educational inequality
On the fringe of today's political awareness and social conscious is the little-known but all too significant issue of educational inequality. In an America that prides itself on equal opportunity for all, a divisive gap in educational achievement exists between low-income students and their more advantaged peers.
The gap opens early and stretches wide. Students in low-income areas are falling behind students in higher-income areas. Many of them are graduating high school equipped with little more than a middle school education. According to Teach for America, by the time a low-income student reaches the fourth grade, he or she will be performing at the same level as a first grade student from a higher-income community.
Teach for America is a professional organization that is dedicated to closing the gap. It places recent college graduates in low-income areas to teach full-time for two years, although many of them choose to stay longer. This past week, two Teach for America recruiters visited Tech campus.
"There's an incredible student population here that is both intelligent and socially responsible," said Kinnari Chandriani, director of Undergraduate Recruitment. "We're focusing our recruitment efforts here because there's a high need for good math and science teachers, and these are subjects that Tech excels at. We want to make sure students know about...Teach for America."
Chandriani, along with Director of Science and Math Recruitment Darcy Thompson, represented the program at the Career Fair this week and met with potential applicants. Both were former members of the Teach for America corps.
Chandriani joined after seeing firsthand the educational problems in western Philadelphia, where she tutored as a volunteer during her undergraduate years at the University of Pennsylvania. The disparity between her own educational experiences and those of the students she worked with spurred her to action.
"I saw that I could make an immediate impact to help with [Teach for America]," Chandriani said. She ended up teaching ninth grade biology in the Mississippi Delta for two years.
Thompson worked in the same region. He began teaching high school mathematics in 1998, covering seven classes that ranged from Algebra I to AP Calculus. Teaching was far from easy, and Chandriani and Thompson had to overcome many challenges, including helping their students overcome the low expectations others had for them.
"I had to make sure the students felt they could be successful," said Chandriani. "Once you hold them to that standard and they know they can do it, they run with it."
Thompson struggled to bring his AP Calculus students up to par when he discovered they were starting the class with only an Algebra I skill level.
"In our training, we learn not to settle for less than what's expected nationally," he said.
By the end of the year, all of Thompson's students had progressed far enough to be competitive on the AP exam.
With results like these, Thompson and Chandriani hope the gap in academic achievement can be bridged.
They believe that many gifted students are failing because they do not attend good schools. Their solution? Send these schools better teachers, which is exactly what Teach for America does.
Teach for America operates in 25 regions across the U.S. Applicants can specify preferences to teach wherever and whatever grade levels and subjects they want. Any applicant that accepts the two-year commitment receives almost $10,000 to help pay off loans, as well as a two-year deferment of any student loans.
"It's hard work," Thompson said. "It takes a lot to lead students to the academic goals that we reach for. But it's worth it. The experience is life-changing."
