Dive Brief:
- On Tuesday, Teach for America CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard spoke with Harvard students, employees, and affiliates about school quality and education reform.
- Villanueva Beard defended TFA’s short-term teaching stints, saying few young people today expect to hold the same position for their entire career or for long periods of time.
- She also argued for less partisan politics in education and urged her listeners to seek out innovative solutions as the demands on schools morph, saying, “Our schools don’t work for our kids today. It’s just a design question."
Dive Insight:
Teach for America has found itself at the heart of the question of what schools should look like and be. It has drawn criticism for failing to adequately prepare its teacher trainees, often recent college graduates, as have other teacher training programs. Similarly, it has drawn criticism for its relative lack of diversity, a common theme in examinations of the current American teaching corps. But its role has also shifted, as more diverse candidates have entered the program and its focus on training has increased.
Still, Villanueva Beard likely faced a mixed crowd of supporters and critics at Harvard. While the Ivy League institution has close ties with TFA, several student groups have protested the organization and called for an end to its involvement — and that of other reform-minded groups — with Harvard’s education school.
