Thinking Globally, Teaching Locally

Young Educators Discover Children in Need Close to Home

David Bramlett had planned on traveling overseas after college to work with the underprivileged, until he discovered the need in the United States.

"I began to realize there were issues really close to home that I was overlooking, education issues that were injustices really close to where I was living," he said. "I became intrigued about these issues, and Teach for America provided a great opportunity to get involved."

The Teach for America program, founded in 1990, places high-achieving college graduates in low-income communities throughout the United States, where they teach for at least two years. The program's teachers, known as corps members, are not required to have majored in education.

Their school systems pay them the same salaries and benefits as other new teachers, and they receive $9,450 from the national service network AmeriCorps over their two years of teaching. They also can apply for transitional grants or loans, based on need and cost of living in the area where they are assigned, the Teach for America Web site says.

The program began in Prince George's last school year with 27 teachers, and 26 are in their second year in county schools, including Bramlett, 23, a District Heights Elementary kindergarten teacher. Forty-five program teachers began in Prince George's this school year.

Bramlett, a Georgia native and Wheaton College graduate, said his students have challenges to overcome, such as not knowing the alphabet. "Seeing examples of these 5- and 6-year-olds take off in reading, no matter the situation, their being able to step forward and really achieve is a great joy," he said.

Robert Gaskin, recruitment officer for the Prince George's public schools, said the school system requests the number of teachers it needs and the specialty areas it would like to cover. Once Teach for America chooses recruits, they are interviewed by principals and placed in classrooms. The school system provides each with a mentor.

Members of the Teach for America corps meet Maryland's definition of "highly qualified," which requires teachers to have a bachelor's degree and a valid teaching certificate and to meet other requirements.

Within the program, the school system focuses on recruiting teachers in high-need subject areas, such as math, science, foreign languages and early childhood education. One critical-need area that is not addressed by Teach for America in Prince George's is special education.

Gaskin said the school system hopes to retain the teachers after their two-year commitment by making sure they are aware of the training and financial incentives available to permanent faculty members.

The school system pays Teach for America $5,000 a year for each teacher, to offset recruitment and ongoing training costs.

Emily Barton, Teach for America's executive director for the Washington area, said that last year, 25,000 people applied to the program nationwide, and 4,000 were offered positions.

Those accepted spend the summer after college in training, at a regional site and in their local school districts. Teachers are assigned a program director who supports them throughout their two years, and participants attend monthly workshops, Barton said.

Barton said that of Teach for America's 16,000 alumni nationwide, 67 percent work in education. About 25 to 75 percent of the teachers stay beyond their second year, depending on the region.

For Kendra Wergin, 23, a Richmond native and graduate of the College of William and Mary, teaching became attractive as she considered the future role of the United States in a global economy.

Wergin, a second-year Spanish teacher at Central High School in Capitol Heights, said her first year of teaching was the most challenging of her life. Yet, she said, "I was always able to come home still feeling optimistic and knowing it was just a matter of me making the necessary changes."