Classroom in Estonia

In the United States, Teach For America is recognized as an unparalleled pipeline of educational and civic leadership, with most of its 24,000 alumni continuing to work for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence for all children. While fewer than ten percent of program participants say they would have taught without Teach For America, nearly two-thirds of program alumni have remained in education. They are already getting appointed to superintendencies, running many of the highest-performing schools in low-income communities, and winning the highest accolades teachers can win. They have also pioneered some of the reform efforts that are making the biggest difference in the United States — for example, the KIPP Network, which is starting and running schools in communities across the country that demonstrate that students in low-income communities excel when given extra supports, and The New Teacher Project, which is effecting systemic change in the way new teachers are brought into the profession. Other Teach For America alumni are working from other sectors to impact this issue — through authoring books, advising senators, governors, and mayors on education policy, and marshalling the resources of corporations, law firms, and medical schools in this direction.
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In the United Kingdom, Teach First has yielded 1,500 Teach First alumni "Ambassadors” dedicated to addressing educational disadvantage over the long term. More than 40% of these alumni are already in school leadership roles, and the remaining Ambassadors work in all sectors - many mentoring pupils, acting as school governors, and advocating among policymakers the need for addressing educational disadvantage. Of those Ambassadors who decide to leave teaching, the majority join one of Teach First’s business sponsors and continue to stay involved with the Teach First mission through Ambassador schemes such as mentoring, school governors placements, or joining the Teach First Territorial Teaching program whereby their employers allow them five days leave to volunteer at their old school.