Amanda Cox and John Rezendes have something in common.
They both say they wouldn’t be the school leaders they are today if not for Teach for America Idaho.
Cox, the co-founder of Future Public School in Garden City, joined Teach for America in 2007 as a corps member in North Carolina and Rezendes, a vice principal at Elevate Academy in Caldwell, joined the alternative teacher program as an Idaho corps member in 2015.
“They gave a platform for people to become leaders,” Rezendes said.
Teach for America as a national program has been around for 37 years, but Teach for America Idaho this year is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
The organization is best known for placing recent college graduates, who didn’t study to become a teacher, in under resourced K-12 public schools around the country. The program seeks out non-educators with diverse backgrounds and experiences who want to serve and lead in their communities. These corps members teach in classrooms under two-year contracts. The organization also provides ongoing leadership and mentoring support.
Teach for America has faced criticism over the years for placing inexperienced teachers in low-income schools for two years.
The Idaho Education Association declined to comment for this story, but an issue explainer on its website states the gold standard for teacher training is a four-year university program. “Diluting standards robs students of an educator at the top of their practice, negates educators’ investment in their careers and trivializes expectations of these important professionals,” the IEA website states.
Tony Ashton, executive director of Teach for America Idaho, told EdNews he is very familiar with the criticism. In fact, he said his mother, a teacher with a master’s degree in education, was livid 25 years ago when he decided to join Teach for America as a New Orleans corps member. He said he was the only white teacher at the school.
“She was like, ‘How can you do what I do?'” Ashton said.
The biggest misconception, he said, is that Teach for America tries to cram four years worth of education training into a six-week summer program, when in reality it is designed to be an in-service program where corps members learn on the job.
During their two years as corps members, teachers receive ongoing coaching from mentors, along with monthly virtual professional development and several in-person training sessions per year. After that, Teach for America alums can engage in a host of leadership development programs.
Ashton said the organization’s leadership training programs are also open to non-corps members.
“The thing I always say about Teach for America is you’re never alone,” Ashton said.
Corps members do not pay to get into the program, Ashton said, and can receive transitional grants and loans. He said the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation is the program’s largest donor.
In 10 years, Ashton said Teach for America Idaho has maintained 15 to 20 new corps members annually, supported a total of 400 leaders and impacted about 60,000 students.
“We want to continue to grow that,” he said.
Over the next three years, Ashton said the Idaho organization wants to impact 30,000 students.
The program started out in Caldwell, Nampa and Homedale school districts, but has grown to include Weiser and Payette, along with three public charter schools: Future, Elevate and Mosaics Public School in Caldwell. All schools and districts are within a 90-minute radius.
“If there’s one place that exemplifies what we can provide, it’s Future Public School,” Ashton said.
Inside Future
Elementary students at the innovation lab at Future Public School on Wednesday morning were rotating between stations that connect to different school values: Joy, honor, craftsmanship, bravery and honor.
Students could race marbles down foam tracks, set up scenes at an ocean wonder table or play oversized checkers.
The modern, three-story school building in Garden City has been open since 2018. Its two co-founders, Cox and Brad Petersen, and several teachers are Teach for America alums.
“Our personal vision and mission as a school has felt really aligned to the mission and vision of Teach for America,” Cox said.
The school’s academic scores are above the state average.
Last school year, 58.4% of students were proficient in English language arts compared with the state average of 53.2%, and 54.7% were proficient in math, while the state average was 42.3%. The school also has more low-income students and students with disabilities than the state average.
“We can serve multilingual students, we can serve low-income students and still see really transformative academic results,” Cox said.
Halima Muya, a Teach for America teaching fellow at Future, said she didn’t see people who look like her when she was in school. A member of the Somali Bantu community, she came to the country in 2006.
“The main reason why I became a teacher was for representation, but I think it became greater than that,” Muya said.
Joining Teach for America has opened new doors and new connections within the community, she said. As a teacher, she wants to build confidence in kids who come from diverse backgrounds.
“That’s my ‘why,'” she said. “That representation. But then also making an impact for all students, that they can rise to the occasion and do what they want to do.”
Cox said Teach for America members might not come in with content knowledge on the science of reading or sixth-grade math, for example, but those are skills that school leaders can teach.
The right mindset, she said, is harder to learn.
“They’re coming in with the mindset of wanting to be transformational for kids, they are coming in with the fuel and the fire to know what’s possible for all kids,” Cox said.
Ongoing support and training from TFA is another huge benefit, said Principal Heather Efaw, who was a 2008 corps member in Phoenix. She’s had the opportunity to visit schools around the country through Teach for America.
“I know that personally Teach for America Idaho has provided both Amanda and I some really great professional development opportunities,” Efaw said.
A district’s perspective
Ashton said there is often a misconception on how Teach for America corps members are hired and paid.
He said they have to apply and compete for classroom positions along with every other applicant. Districts and charter schools have to hire, pay and evaluate them the same as other teachers.
Teach for America’s relationship with Payette School District has changed over the years.
Assistant Superintendent Marci Holcomb said TFA was initially a hiring partner when they were short on teachers. But now it provides other services, like mentoring and leadership training for staff members, including folks who weren’t corps members.
The district for the past three years has hosted the Teach for America Idaho summer institute. New corps members come to Payette for about a month as student teachers for summer school before stepping into their own classrooms.
This is the first school year that Payette has not hired any new corps members, Holcomb said. The district retained enough teachers and didn’t need to hire anyone from TFA.
She said she’s had incredible teachers come from four-year programs and incredible teachers come from Teach for America. It comes down to the individual and finding the right person for the job. She said the ongoing support from Teach for America is a big help.
“The thing about education is that it is a struggle, always, when you’re in your first and second year,” she said.
Elevating educators
Rezendes, the vice principal at Elevate Academy, has been involved with Teach for America Idaho since the beginning. He said the program has put people in place that change what is possible for kids.
In his experience, he said the most important part of teaching is being genuine and authentic to yourself. Kids will respond to that authenticity.
“If you have that component, everything else is going to come,” Rezendes said.
He said he’s had lots of support from mentors, and the culture of the program is built around relationships. Ashton regularly checks in to talk about education, but they also chat about baseball and how their kids are doing.
“Sometimes you need people you didn’t even know you needed, and somehow they always showed up at the right times,” Rezendes said.
Now Rezendes has the opportunity to mentor new Teach for America corps members, like Tyler Worwood, who is now in his second year at Elevate Academy.
Worwood said he likes how the program is community driven. He said he feels supported in his role and wants to continue helping students in the classroom. He’s enjoyed learning on the job and meeting people from all walks of life who are in his cohort.
“I’m gonna stay in teaching as long as I can,” Worwood said.
Disclosure: Idaho Education News and Teach for America Idaho are both supported by grants from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation.
