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Teach for America

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Disconnected from its mission and is people - Director Teach for America Employee Review

2.0
Apr 23, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Important note: be sure to distinguish between "staff" and "corps member/CM/Teacher" in these reviews since CM's are not staff members and their experience is far different (and far more variable). From the staff side of things, its great to work with such intelligent and talented people. Also the offices are nice as well as the benefits. I'm tempted to say that its nice to work in an organization where everyone shares the same values but as I experience more with TFA, I don't believe this is the case. I think everyone appears to have similar values but in reality they are overarching beliefs that mean very different things to different people/settings. I will say one firm shared belief that I valued was the limitless potential of kids and the belief that they can learn/grow/achieve at any level. Despite all the cons, everyone is extremely well intentioned - I just think the culture and organizational effectiveness produces the cons below.

Cons

1) The workplace is dominated by Millennials who have not worked anywhere else than at Teach for America. 2) Poor change management (growing too quickly and not to scale). 3) It is a private-sector/"corporate" leadership model (quantity of ideas, not necessarily quality). 4) There are far too many "innovations", pilot programs, etc to maintain effectively and the pace of work is unsustainable which leads to... 5) It is dominated by people from privileged backgrounds who have the privilege of work being "the main thing on their plate" and therefore can invest more time/energy to their work. It is also a very cultured privilege with most staff members coming from upper middle class/wealthy families and the culture associated with it (recreational travel, eating out for many/most meals, being able to pay for business expenses then be reimbursed). TFA has grown in some components in this are (reimbursments) but the imposed culture by the majority from privileged backgrounds hasn't been addressed. Along with this it is a a white, Anglo-normative culture as well. 6) Too much variability of experience depending on who your manager is (and their training/experience). 7) Very few (if any) educational experts on staff who know development theory, pedagogical theory, etc and who did not earned their degree through a TFA degree partnership program (which are many times watered down).

Explore other reviews about Teach for America

5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

It was diverse and fun; the experience was always different and you learned new things.

Cons

It was online so some disconnect.

5.0
Aug 13, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great culture and atmosphere to all employees.

Cons

I have not encounter one so far.

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