The Walton Family Foundation has announced a three-year, $49.5 million grant to Teach for America to help double the size of its national teaching corps and provide professional development for first- and second-year educators in seven communities located in the foundation's priority investment regions.
The investment by the foundation makes it TFA's largest private donor and will support the organization's efforts to recruit up to 15,000 recent college graduates to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools by 2015. It also includes more than $24 million in support to provide training and professional development opportunities to over 5,000 first- and second-year corps members in seven communities, six of which are priority areas of focus for the foundation: Denver, Colorado; Los Angeles, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Newark, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Washington, D.C. The grant also targets efforts in the Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi, a region where the foundation has long been active.
Prior to today's announcement, the foundation had contributed more than $22 million to TFA since 1993, in part because of the organization's strong record of leadership development. Indeed, a 2011 study by Monica Higgins of Harvard University and Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute found that TFA is producing more founders and leaders of education organizations than any other nonprofit in the country.
"The Walton family's support for Teach for America is driven not only by their ability to place the best and brightest college graduates into classrooms that need them most, but also by their proven track record of producing leaders for the parental choice and education reform movement," said Jim Blew, head of the Walton Family Foundation's K-12 education reform efforts. "Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, founders of theKnowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), and Michelle Rhee, former D.C. Public Schools chancellor and founder of StudentsFirst, trace their education reform roots to Teach for America, as do hundreds of other reform leaders. Because Teach for America alumni and corps members are involved in efforts to empower all parents to choose quality schools for their children, they are inspiring all schools to improve, helping transform public education in our nation."
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