Research

Validating Our Approach Through Research and Evaluation

Teach For All is a learning organization focused on creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge around developing leadership for expanding opportunity for children. As such, we need a clear strategy for assessing our immediate, medium and long-term impact and for supporting continuous improvement, while balancing the need for both research and evaluation. Our research aims to provide new knowledge to the network with an emphasis on key areas of our approach and test hypotheses about the drivers of impact in a controlled setting and allows us to publish results.

We pursue research questions that examine our full theory of change, particularly focused on:

Short-term impact: Support the assessment of partners’ impact on students whom we aim to see demonstrate growth in individual leadership through increased proficiency, strengthened dispositions, and growth in individual awareness and agency. Ensure research is culturally and linguistically sensitive to diverse contexts

Medium-term impact: Assess the impact of Teach For All partners on developing a significant number of extraordinary leaders, through assessing the impact of Teach For All partners on participants and alumni, mindsets, values, leadership skills, and career paths

Long-term impact: Explore how communities across the globe are enabling their children to have the education, support, and opportunity to shape a better future for themselves and us all.

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Short-term Impact

Student Outcomes

ENSEÑA CHILE

Estimating the Impact of Placing Top University Graduates in Vulnerable Schools in Chile
A 2010 Inter-American Development Bank study suggests a positive correlation between students being taught by Enseña Chile teachers and those students’ results on Spanish and math tests, as well as students’ non-cognitive abilities, such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, and intellectual and meta-cognitive abilities.
Mariana Alfonso, Ana Santiago, and Mariana Bassi (2010). Inter-American Development Bank

ENSEÑA POR MÉXICO

Impact Evaluation of Enseña por México on Students’ Non-Cognitive Skills
A pioneering impact evaluation of Enseña por México finds participants have a positive impact on the development of students’ socioemotional skills such as self-efficacy, self-management, growth mindset, and social awareness, in addition to creating positive classroom environments for their students. Furthermore, the study shows that students with greater exposure to participants of Enseña por México are more likely to improve in socioemotional skills. Microanalitica, a Mexico City based research firm, used a quasi-experimental evaluation to assess Enseña por México’s participants’ impact on the development of student socioemotional skills over the course of the 2016-17 academic year. The robust sample includes over 25,000 students across four states in Mexico. At the time of publication, the study is the first large-scale impact evaluation of any program on the development of student socioemotional skills in Mexico, and is the first of its kind in the Teach For All network. The findings provide evidence that socioemotional skills are malleable, laying a path of further research to understand how socioemotional learning can be fostered.
Pablo Peña and Armando Chacón (2017). Microanalitica

TEACH FIRST

Department of Quantitative Social Science: Matched panel data estimates of the impact of Teach First on school and departmental performance
In this most recent study, researchers found that General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) students benefited from the presence of a Teach First teacher in their school. The research demonstrated that in years two and three after a Teach First teacher’s introduction into a school there were school-wide gains of approximately 5% of a standard deviation, or a boost of one grade in one of a pupil’s eight best subjects.
Rebecca Allen and Jay Allnutt (2013). Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, University of London

TEACH FOR AMERICA

Impacts of Teach For America on Early Grade Student Academic Achievement in Reading
This randomized control trial provides the first rigorous evidence of the impact of Teach For America teachers on early grade student achievement. The study found that, on average, TFA corps members in lower elementary grades (prekindergarten through grade 2) had a positive, statistically significant effect on students’ reading achievement, equivalent to 1.3 additional months of learning, when compared to other teachers in the same schools.
Melissa A. Clark, Eric Isenberg, Albert Y. Liu, Libby Makowsky, and Marykate Zukiewicz (2017). Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

The Effectiveness of Secondary Math Teachers from Teach For America and the Teaching Fellows Programs
In September, 2013, the U.S. Department of Education released the largest and most rigorous study on Teach For America in nearly a decade which concluded that students randomly assigned to corps members’ middle and high school math classrooms advanced an additional 2.6 months per year compared to those assigned to other classrooms—whether they were taught by novices or veterans, and by traditionally or alternatively prepared teachers.
Melissa A. Clark, Hanley S. Chiang, Tim Silva, Sheena McConnell, Kathy Sonnenfeld, and Anastasia Erbe (2013). Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Program Performance & Delivery

TEACH FIRST

Leadership Development Programme Inspection Report
In 2016, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), England’s body for school inspections, rated Teach First Leadership Development Programme, outstanding in 41 of 48 categories. The inspectors highlighted the significant impact Teach First are making in collaboration with university partners, schools, headteachers and teachers. Participants were also praised for their readiness and commitment to addressing inequality in education.
Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (2016)

Evaluation of the Delivery of the Teach First Leadership Development Programme Cymru (Wales)
In 2016, Arad Research conducted an independent process and outcomes evaluation of Teach First Cymru (Wales). The evaluators found that Teach First has effectively delivered several components of the leadership development program such as recruitment, summer institute, and ongoing support of Teach First ambassadors. Furthermore, the evaluation demonstrated that participants’ teaching skills improved considerably during the course of the programme.
Arad Research (2016)

TEACH FIRST NZ

Final Independent Process and Performance Evaluation of Teach First New Zealand
The final of three annual performance evaluations of Teach First New Zealand concludes that the program continues to be effectively implemented, and has achieved its overall outcomes and objectives to develop effective participants who lead , and contribute, to reducing educational inequality in New Zealand.
Jenny Whatman, Jo MacDonald, and Eliza Stevens (2017). Ministry of Education New Zealand. NZCER.

Medium-term Impact

TEACH FIRST

The careers of Teach First Ambassadors who remain in teaching: job choices, promotion and school quality
A 2016 quasi-experimental study of Teach First finds that Teach First teachers are more likely to become educational leaders compared to other teachers from alternative certification programs in the UK. Teach First teachers who remain in the classroom after their second year are twice as likely to continue working in low-income communities compared to alternatively certified teachers.
Rebecca Allen, Meenakshi Parmeshwaran, and Philip Nye (2016)

TEACH FOR AMERICA

The Impact of Voluntary Youth Service on Future Outcomes: Evidence from Teach For America
A 2015 Harvard University study found that Teach For America strengthens participants’ conviction that children from low-income backgrounds can compete academically with children from more affluent backgrounds; intensifies their belief that the achievement gap is solvable; and increases the likelihood that they will pursue a career in the education sector.
Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer, Jr. (2015) Harvard University

Global Equity Within Reach – Impacts on mindsets/perceptions of Teach For America Corps Members
A quasi-experimental study of Teach For America finds the program significantly impacts corps members’ perceptions of disadvantaged communities. Compared to similar applicants who did not participate in the program, TFA alumni exhibit less class-based and racial resentment, an increased identification with disadvantaged minorities, and higher agreement on how systemic injustice affects educational and other social outcomes.
Cecilia Mo and Katherine Conn (2016) “When do the Advantaged See the Disadvantages of Others? A Quasi-Experimental Study of National Service.”

TEACH FOR AUSTRIA, TEACH FOR BULGARIA, IESPEJAMA MISIJA (LATVIA), TEACH FOR ROMANIA, AND EMPIEZA POR EDUCAR (SPAIN)

NEWTT – A New Way For New Talents in Teaching – Evidence of Teach For All Participant Mindsets and Skills to be Effective Teachers
The external and independent impact evaluation of NEWTT is a collection of two-year evaluations of five Teach For All partner organizations in Europe—Empieza por Educar (Basque Country of Spain), Iespejama Misija – Mission Possible (Latvia), Teach For Austria, Teach For Bulgaria, and Teach For Romania—on teacher development. The report demonstrates that, overall, Teach For All network partner participants are as prepared as, if not more prepared than, traditionally trained teachers before entering the classroom. Furthermore, over the course of two years, the project participants developed as much self-efficacy and pedagogical knowledge as teachers trained in traditional training programs.
Prof. Hermann J. Abs, Eva Anderson-Park, and Dr. Stefanie Morgenroth. (2019) “Recruiting and Preparing Alternative Teachers: A European Policy Experiment in Education” Universitat- Duisburg Essen

Long-term Impact

TEACH FIRST

Lessons from London Schools: Investigating the Success
Between 2003 and 2011 London schools moved from being the lowest performing in England, to being the highest performing, and now have the highest percentage of schools rated ‘outstanding.’ A report exploring the improvement journey suggests that Teach First was one of four enablers of London’s success.
Sam Baars, Eleanor Bernardes, Alex Elwick, Abigail Malortie, Tony McAleavy, Laura McInerney, Loic Menzies and Anna Riggall (2015) CfBT Education Trust.

10th Anniversary Report

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