For nearly three decades, Teach For America has been a pacesetter for education reform in the city of Houston. We find, develop, and support a diverse network of leaders who expand opportunity for children in classrooms, schools, and every sector and field that shapes the broader systems in which schools operate. In order to accomplish our mission of seeing that one day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education, we recruit outstanding and diverse leaders, who have demonstrated evidence of the values and leadership necessary to expand opportunity and access for all children inside and outside of the classroom. We ask leaders to make a lifelong commitment that begins with two years teaching in a public school, partnering with children and families most acutely impacted by educational inequity.

Teach For America Houston continues to build, assess, and refine our institutional and instructional practices. On average, our elementary reading students grow 1.3 months more when compared to students taught by novice and veteran teaches according to a recent study led by Southern Methodist University. We place equal emphasis on growing the instructional practice of our corps members. This growth, as measured by our Corps Strength Index (CSI) data is a testament to the power of the ongoing coaching coffered by our Teacher Leadership and Development team. In fact, when compared to other like TFA regions we were considered a top-performing large and jumbo region, surpassing national averages by 13%. 

As one of the country’s first and most successful regions, Teach For America Houston continues to work toward making that vision a reality. In addition to the 200+ corps members teaching and leading nearly 15,000 students in our eight local partner school districts, there are more than 1,700 Teach For America alumni in Houston working from inside and outside the field of education in pursuit of a better education for our city’s students. Our alumni are systems leaders, non-profit founders, city council candidates, policy advocates, and more. They are pollinating the Houston education landscape with messages of equity and hope while leading and founding organizations like Discover U, Good Reason Houston, EMERGE, YES Prep and KIPP Schools to name a few. The dynamic leaders we develop both inside and outside of the classroom continue to push Houston to live out its promise to transform outcomes for underserved students.

Teach For America works in partnership with urban and rural communities in 53 regions across the country to expand educational opportunity for children. Founded in 1990, Teach For America recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding leaders to make an initial two-year commitment to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to end educational inequity. Today Teach For America is a force of 56,000 alumni and corps members committed to profound systemic change.

From classrooms to districts to state houses across America, they’re reimagining education to realize the day when every child has an equal opportunity to learn, to grow, to influence and to lead. Teach For America is a proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.