The Careers of Teach for America Corps Members: A Sample From New York City

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Degree type
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Education
Discipline
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attrition
retention
teacher
Teach For America
TFA
turnover
Education
Education Policy
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2016-11-29T00:00:00-08:00
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Abstract

The careers of Teach For America (TFA) corps members are much discussed but less often analyzed. Critics of TFA suggest that corps members remain teachers for too short a time, while supporters suggest the program bolsters education reform even if corps members leave teaching. In this paper, I analyze the employment of TFA corps members who begin their careers in NYC. To do this, I first combine data from TFA, NY State, NY City, and charter management organizations to generate a dataset superior to prior datasets used to explore corps member employment. Second, I use the Kaplan-Meier survival method to estimate how long corps members remain in the teaching profession. Third, I use logistic regression to identify predictors associated with corps member attrition from teaching. Fourth, I use survey weights and raking to track the employment of TFA alumni and adjust for non-response bias. I find that corps members remain teachers longer than is commonly reported. Roughly 90% of corps members remain teachers for a second year, 57 to 61% remain for a third, 42 to 45% remain for a fourth, and 32 to 36% remain for a fifth. Further, many corps members who leave teaching remain educators. In year 10, 61% of TFA alumni remain employed in the education sector, including 43% employed in preK-12. Finally, I identify several strong predictors of TFA attrition. Corps members have the lowest odds of attrition in year 1 and the highest odds in year 2. Adjusted for other covariates, corps members are less likely to leave teaching if Hispanic, an education major, a special education teacher, or a teacher at a school with higher test scores. Corps members are more likely to leave if Asian, male, or a teacher at a charter school, and corps members are also more likely to leave if their college GPA was high, they attended a selective college, or they majored in a subject with high potential earnings. Older corps members and corps members from lower-income backgrounds are more likely to leave teaching in their first year, but less likely to leave teaching thereafter.

Advisor
Richard M. Ingersoll
Date of degree
2016-01-01
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