By Tunji Adebayo The California State Board of Education just adopted a new accountability system acknowledging that the quality of a school is about more than just test scores. Parents will now have access to vital measures that provide them with greater insight into how a school may serve their child, such as college preparedness, language...

By Benjamin Feinberg Teachers unions often argue that the “last in, first out” policy is the only fair way to lay off teachers. Reformers say that LIFO protects bad teachers while indiscriminately getting rid of young and creative new teachers. The way we lay off teachers will become more important as Los Angeles Unified School District...

By Caroline Bermudez Reflexive opposition to Teach For America (TFA) is commonplace and the arguments against the organization are recycled regularly: Corps members are ill-prepared, they don’t stay in the profession, or they primarily teach at charter schools. It’s rare to come across fresh or fair takes on TFA, much less from someone who is a...

A handful of San Francisco elementary school principals facing an urgent need to fill positions for the fall have hired Teach for America recruits despite the school board’s vocal opposition to the organization. In May, the board severed the district’s partnership with Teach for America, which supplies enthusiastic if inexperienced teachers to thousands of schools...

Science lessons set to rap music. Aspirations in envelopes pinned to the ceiling. And a commitment to live alongside students. Tunji Adebayo, who teaches 7th and 8th grade science at Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter Middle School, was honored Monday night for his innovation and dedication at Teach For America’s “Celebrating Changemakers in Education.” “Tunji’s dedication to...

By Lida Jennings In many ways, Los Angeles is the birthplace of Teach For America. It was at University of Southern California 25 years ago that Wendy Kopp gathered 500 idealistic corps members for the very first summer training institute and launched them into teaching positions at high-poverty schools in Los Angeles and across the...

A group of anti-charter school activists is circulating an online petition that calls for LA Unified to rescind a contract with Teach for America (TFA) intended to fill 25 special education teaching positions. The petition points out that the teachers from the organization will be trainees but does not acknowledge that the district is allowed by...

By Emilio Solano Growing up Mexican-American in a predominantly white community in Oregon, I never had a Latino teacher. I remember men of color working as security guards and coaches, but no one of my ethnicity led a classroom. Even in our textbooks, Cesar Chavez merited just a paragraph. While many Los Angeles residents know we...

The growing diversity gap between teachers and students of color has been problematic for years, and school districts have struggled to find ways to attract a workforce that more closely resembles changing student demographics. Now, one organization is tackling the issue head on: Half of this year’s Teach for America (TFA) recruits are people of...

Over the next couple of years, Los Angeles will see an influx of more than 700 teachers from Teach for America, a non-profit that recruits college graduates, trains them, and places them in public schools across the country. Most of them will end up in charter schools. Of the 340 teachers teaching in Los Angeles this...