Natasha Danielle Escobar is a tad flummoxed.
The guidelines on the piece of paper she鈥檚 holding say she has to document that she鈥檚 led a 鈥減rofessional learning community鈥� in her school. But that is difficult to do when you are one of only two Spanish teachers.
鈥淭his is the first year I鈥檝e even been in a department that had more than one person!鈥� she says.
Holed up in a conference room in Teach For America鈥檚 Baltimore headquarters and fueled by Indian takeout, Escobar and a half-dozen other teachers here are trying to make sense of the city鈥檚 process for recognizing 鈥渕odel鈥� teachers. Earning that status conveys a major salary boost.
A teacher has to have at least three years of experience to be eligible for the bonus program. And that鈥檚 a key factor in why Escobar is applying. She is a Teach For America alumna midway through her fourth year of teaching, and her participation is part of a regional TFA pilot initiative to keep its recruits in the profession.
What are generally considered high rates of turnover among TFA corps members after their two-year commitments are up remain a major point of the criticism of the now-25-year-old organization.
Getting a fix on TFA鈥檚 retention rates actually turns out to be difficult, partly because most district retention analyses don鈥檛 account for teachers who move on to teach in other districts. The best analysis of TFA retention suggests that only 15 percent of TFA teachers stay in their original placements past four years or so, but that 2011 study relied on data that are now more than a decade old.
Some of the criticism is warranted: Retention was not, until recently, a big focus for TFA. In its early years, the organization made virtually no formal attempts to hang on to its teachers after the two-year commitment period.
Nor was TFA鈥檚 messaging on the value of staying in teaching particularly strong. As even some TFA staffers acknowledge in private moments, there was often an implicit message that alumni needed to go on to do 鈥渕ore鈥� after their teaching stints ended.
Not until 2011 did the organization establish a teaching award for alumni, its first real acknowledgment that staying in the classroom could be a form of leadership, too.
Almost from the start, critics seized on the group鈥檚 own lack of emphasis on retention as evidence that the program was more about r茅sum茅-building than about teaching. And such concerns have increased as researchers discovered that teacher turnover can have a detrimental effect not just on a departing teacher鈥檚 students but also on others in the school.
CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard describes TFA as a 鈥渢eacher-leadership-development organization.鈥�
The real push, though, seems to have also come from within TFA: Corps members in some regions began their own 鈥渢each beyond two鈥� campaigns. Now, 12 of TFA鈥檚 regions are experimenting with strategies for extending corps members鈥� tenures in teaching.
TFA Founder Wendy Kopp once was famously quoted as saying that TFA was 鈥渁 leadership organization, not a teaching organization.鈥� Asked recently for her take, TFA CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard said determinedly: 鈥淲e are both.鈥�
Finding Purpose
A Texas native from a low-income community, Escobar figured her background meant she鈥檇 be able to connect with her students with relative ease. The reality ended up being a different story entirely, and like many novice teachers鈥攊n TFA or not鈥攕he had second thoughts about whether to stay beyond a couple years. But there was always something that kept her from leaving.
鈥淚 think I always believed I could get better as a teacher, and that made me say, 鈥業 can make it another year.鈥� And then it was, 鈥楲et me see what happens a third year,鈥� 鈥� she said. 鈥淧art of it was knowing that teaching is a long game. It gave me a sense of purpose for wanting to stay.鈥�
To help build on that kind of resolve, TFA鈥檚 Baltimore region has latched onto the city鈥檚 pay-incentive program, rather than reinvent the wheel with its own initiative. Last school year, the office launched a support program for TFA-alumni teachers and others seeking model status.
As the teachers鈥� meeting at TFA鈥檚 Baltimore office illustrates, prepping to submit a model-teacher portfolio for review isn鈥檛 a whole lot of fun, requiring the teachers to wrestle with tedious documentation specifications and submission guidelines.
Still, Escobar reasons, the model-teacher pathway gives her a reason to think ahead and see herself as advancing in the profession. 鈥淚t is a lot of hoop jumping, but you have to be a solid teacher in order to start the process,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f the program weren鈥檛 here, I don鈥檛 know if I would be so gung-ho about trying new things.鈥�
Selection Factor?
Of course, teacher-retention issues are complex and can鈥檛 be solved with just one strategy. Other TFA regions are trying different approaches. Its Charlotte, N.C., region, for example, offers additional professional training for teachers in years three and four and stipends for teachers who want to earn master鈥檚 degrees.
Baltimore is also trying to tailor additional supports. That job mainly falls to Amy Wilson, the director of alumni affairs for TFA鈥檚 Baltimore region, who spends about half her time visiting alumni teachers, acting as a combination career coach and problem-solver.
鈥淗aving been in Baltimore for 22 years, I want them to stay here,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淚 want them to feel like they鈥檙e accomplishing something in their work. So my first line of questioning is to figure out, 鈥榃hat do you like about teaching? Do you like the planning? The execution? Do you need to see another school before you give up teaching?鈥� 鈥�
What TFA鈥檚 efforts probably won鈥檛 solve is the puzzle of how much of its corps members鈥� turnover is a function of the types of schools in which they work, how much of it is a generational issue, and how much is related to TFA鈥檚 organizational model itself.
TFA鈥檚 highly touted selection system seeks smart, goal-oriented, and ambitious individuals, and while those traits might give corps members an edge in the classroom, they could also be one reason why so many move out of it.
鈥淭hey get some high-quality people, but it鈥檚 a lot of type A, super-driven people, always needing to get to that next level,鈥� said Joe Francaviglia, a TFA alumnus and Baltimore model teacher who now teaches at the city鈥檚 KIPP Ujima Village Academy. 鈥淭here is a top-out at teaching or mental burnout, and you look around and see that you鈥檙e impacting 32, 90 kids, and you think: 鈥榊eah, I鈥檓 doing good, but I feel like I can be doing more.鈥� 鈥�
Escobar says she struggles with some of those thoughts, too.
But there is a persistent question that niggles at the back of her brain. It comes to mind when she sees her Spanish 2 students, many of whom came to her without the basics because they had a long-term substitute for Spanish 1 the previous year.
鈥淚f it鈥檚 not me teaching,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hen who?鈥�
