UC Berkeley contributed the most graduates to Teach For America’s 2012 teaching corps class, after placing in the top five for the past two years.
This fall, 88 campus graduates began their two-year teaching terms at K-12 schools across the nation.
Marlene Castro, a fifth-year campus political science and rhetoric major and TFA campus campaign coordinator, said Teach For America’s salient presence on campus is one reason UC Berkeley has been such a significant contributor to the organization.
“Cal is such a big campus, and I think a lot of the reason is that we want to give back and we’re all pretty smart,” Sarah Kingston, a 2012 UC Berkeley graduate and member of this year’s Teach for America recruit corps said.
In August, Kingsley began teaching physics at a high school in Houston.
“I want to tell you that we have this perfect formula, but honestly, we are fortunate to have a team that supports each other,” Castro said. “Not all campuses have recruiting managers, and having a go-to person on campus really helps.”
Teach For America — a nonprofit organization that sends recent college graduates to teach at K-12 schools in low-income communities — sends recruiters to more than 600 college and university campuses across the nation to recruit students into the corps, according to a statement released Wednesday. Teach for America’s acceptance rate has averaged below 15 percent of applicants for the past three years, according to statistics provided by the organization.
Yet, the organization has received criticism from educators and policymakers who are skeptical of recent college graduates’ teaching abilities and contend that the low retention rate of corps members who continue to teach beyond the two years required adversely affects the students.
A study conducted this year by Phi Delta Kappa, a professional association for educators, found that about 56 percent of corps members leave after the two-year commitment to pursue other careers. This low retention rate resulted in students achieving lower standardized test scores than those taught by more experienced teachers, according to a 2010 study by the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Yet, according to a Teach for America alumni survey, approximately 63 percent of past corps members continue working in the field of education after their placement.
“We want to encourage longer commitments as much as possible,” said Gaby Barahona, manager of regional communications for the organization.
Castro said that she wants to join the organization’s teaching corps after graduating from UC Berkeley in the spring and use that experience to jumpstart her career in teaching and education policy.
“I am motivated by the impact my teachers had on my own education, especially in middle school,” Castro said. “It’s possible that I could do that for someone.”
Justin Abraham covers academics and administration. Contact him at Click here to read the full comment policy.