A district study 
of the student performance of Teach for America (TFA) teachers in Houston ISD shows mixed student performance results and indicates that TFA teachers are much more apt to leave the district than other newly hired teachers.
The district has good reason to pay attention to the performance of its TFA corps. It hired 647 new TFA teachers from 2005-06 to 2009-10. While the overall number of new teachers hired decreased during that time period, the percentage of TFA new hires rose from 15.3 percent to 30 percent.
In 2009 and 2010, students of TFA teachers passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) math, science, and writing tests at higher rates than students of nonTFA teachers. In the same years, the students of TFA teachers fared no better than those of nonTFA teachers in reading and social studies.
Stanford 10 achievement test results offered a less flattering view of the abilities of TFA teachers. Students of nonTFA teachers outperformed students of TFA teachers at the majority of grade levels and on most subtests. On standardized reading tests, students taught by nonTFA teachers passed at higher rates than their TFA-taught peers, so much higher that Houston ISD deemed the results “significant.”
The district intends to do additional analysis of the effect of TFA teachers on student progress, but the fact that TFA requires only a two-year commitment from corps members may make that a challenge. According to the report, “…longitudinal analysis of the academic performance of students taught by TFA teachers are limited because many TFA teachers leave HISD after the two-year program commitment is fulfilled.”
TFA teachers typically leave Houston ISD at higher rates than their nonTFA peers. Forty-four percent of nonTFA hires from 2005-06 remain with the district but just 9 percent of TFA hires remain. Seventy-two percent of the nonTFA teachers hired in 2008-09 still teach for the district, but just 44 percent of the TFA new hires do. The study notes that when teachers leave the district, “…the investments made by HISD in their hiring and professional development leave with them,” and encourages district leaders to find ways to retain effective TFA teachers.
The study hasn’t changed the district’s approach to hiring, at least not yet. A district spokesman indicated that the study’s findings were not “surprising or alarming” and that Houston ISD is committed to staffing schools with a mix of teachers with different backgrounds and experience levels.
According to the study, the district has “relied on TFA as a resource to find qualified college graduates to fill teacher vacancies” for 20 years now and believes that TFA teachers help in its core initiative to put an effective teacher in every classroom. The Houston ISD school board has committed $600,000 to fund the district’s TFA program for next year.
—“Houston ISD’s Teach for America teachers stronger in some areas, weaker in reading, than counterparts: Study,” Texas Watchdog online, July 2011.
