East Graduates Join Teach for America Program

In May 2009, 96 percent of graduating seniors from Shawnee Mission East went on to a two or four year college. The same can’t be said for schools in lower-income communities, where half the students dropped out, and those that did graduate were on par academically with eighth graders from Mission Valley or Indian Hills. A program called Teach for America aspires to grant equal educational opportunity and bridge the gap between rich and poor schools, and East alumni have taken interest in joining their effort.

Teach for America recruits active leaders in college environments from around the nation to teach in low-income urban and rural schools from Boston to Los Angeles. The idea is to put strong leaders in low-quality schools to teach. These teachers, in the program’s eyes, have the capacity to raise the number of graduates and college-bound students. Since 2008, Kansas City has been included in the Teach for America agenda, which has put 124 teachers in the Kansas City Missouri School District, the Hickman Mills School District and 10 charter schools.

The number of incoming corps members has doubled from 2005 to 2010. East graduates have seen the appeal of Teach for America in recent years. 2006 alum Katelin Clark goes to Elon University in North Carolina and saw an informational video on the program for one of her classes and will start teaching in Tulsa in August.

“After that video, I was hooked,” Clark said. “I have never felt the sense of purpose or the draw to a cause I did after seeing that video. It was so inspirational to witness personal accounts of people in the program and to see how much of an impact specific teachers have had on their communities.”

Clark’s academic studies have had little to do with teaching, as she is majoring in Media Arts and Broadcast, but she is minoring in leadership. Teach for America puts a large emphasis on leaders in communities as well as academic success in college classes. Of the 4,100 members of Teach for America, 89 percent have college leadership experience and an average GPA of 3.6.

The biggest impact Teach for America has comes directly from their numerous corps members in the classroom. Studies conducted by the Urban Institute found that Teach for America teachers were more effective, based on an end-of-course student exam from 2000 through 2006.

“Teachers from the program are more effective because they can assess an environment and rightfully place an effective leadership style to that environment,” Clark said.

There’s no need for potential corps members to major in education, as the program focuses more on bringing in strong leaders. Before entering their classrooms, corps members must qualify for the state and district in which they will teach. Clark has to pass a middle school science exam, which will cover everything she will be expected to teach and more, and will qualify her as an educator in the state of Oklahoma. Outside of state regulations, Teach for America trains its members for five weeks by having its members teach summer school. Clark and her fellow trainees, supervised by veteran educators, will teach in a Phoenix district summer school starting in June. They will also attend classes in the evening to further develop their teaching skills.

At Elon, Clark takes classes that focus on different leadership styles. Clark is also in an intensive four-year leadership program called the Isabella Cannon Leadership Program, which doesn’t count towards her grade. The program is entirely extra-curricular. She believes it’s what Teach for America was drawn to when reviewing her application.

Starting in August, she will be teaching middle school science classes in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mark Modrcin, another East graduate, is almost finished with his first year in the program.

Modrcin teaches fifth grade math and social studies at Walt Whitman Elementary School in Tulsa. In his own class, he has seen tremendous growth. A child that started the year at a third grade reading level has almost caught up with the rest of his class.

“Before joining TFA, I felt, and still do feel, that I can be the difference for the children in my classroom,” Modrcin said. “It’s a huge burden, but it is motivating and I take great pride in it.”

Teach for America puts young educators like Clark and Modrcin in schools that need them. The program looks for energetic students that will invest themselves in their students and set “big goals,” according to Modrcin. The program measures the effectiveness of its corps by having the teachers administer periodic reading and math tests. There are also “trackers” that measure a student’s progress in objectives for specific subjects. One section of Modrcin’s trackers is specifically focused on Estimation in his math classes.

After the two years are over, many corps members continue teaching, while others pursue other careers. Clark is unsure what the future may hold. She has always wanted to be a teacher, but isn’t sure how soon she’ll want to make it her career. It all depends on her time spent in TFA.

“I will most likely be doing one of two things,” she said. “Continuing to teach or going back into the broadcasting industry.”

Modrcin is also unsure of his future plans, but not for lack of passion for teaching. He may go into banking or an athletics administration, but does see himself teaching again at some point.

Both Modrcin and Clark have seen the influence of Teach for America on students.

“The most effective teachers set big goals for their classroom and work relentlessly to provide their students the best opportunities,” Modrcin said. “Leadership, execution, and relentless pursuit of education equality are the reasons why Teach for America has produced such outstanding results across the country.”