One year ago, a panel at Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson’s education summit focused on teaching, stating what people know intuitively: “Research has shown that teacher quality is the single most important school-based variable that impacts student achievement.”
Among the panelists was Eric Scroggins of Teach for America, an organization created in 1990 to recruit top college graduates who teach for at least two years in the nation’s hardest-to-staff schools. The premise is that young, energetic, committed teachers can make a difference in the lives of students in lower- income communities.
Now, a year later, Teach for America has announced that Sacramento is among 15 finalists for five new slots across the country. Sacramento would have to commit to 30 teachers and raise $2.7 million in private funds by April. The Bay Area Morgan Family Foundation, known in Sacramento for funding youth projects, already has pledged $600,000.
Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond sees potential for Teach for America at a handful of chronically struggling schools – particularly in hard-to-staff math, science and special education positions where Teach for America excels in drawing applicants (more than one in five of this year’s 46,000 applicants have majors or minors in mathematics, science, engineering or finance).
Teach for America has had a successful track record in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco since the early 1990s. After the two-year commitment ends, two-thirds continue to work in education. Equally important, those who work outside education have firsthand experience working with low-income students.
Jason Kamras, a 1991 graduate of Rio Americano High School in San Juan Unified, is an example. He joined Teach for America after college and taught math at a Washington, D.C., middle school for eight years. He was National Teacher of the Year in 2005 and now works developing teachers in the D.C. district.
Sacramento should jump on the opportunity to add to its teaching pipeline a corps of top graduates who want to teach in the toughest schools.