Classroom in Estonia
In 1989, many college graduates in the United States were searching for a way to have a social impact after graduation and weren’t seeing the opportunity to do that. Teach For America, which founder Wendy Kopp proposed in her undergraduate senior thesis, filled that void and in one year magnetized 500 of the nation’s most talented and committed young leaders to address the educational inequity that persists in its country along socioeconomic and racial lines. More than fifteen years later, some 5,000 Teach For America corps members are teaching in 26 of the country’s lowest-income urban and rural communities. At the same time, 12,000 Teach For America alumni are leading the effort to expand educational opportunity; while they are still in their twenties and thirties, they are already leading school systems, running some of the highest-performing schools in low-income communities, winning the highest accolades teachers can win, advising governors and senators on education policy, and marshalling the resources of other sectors toward the movement to end educational inequity.
In 2001, London First and Business in the Community, two British business membership organizations dedicated to community involvement, engaged McKinsey & Company to ascertain how businesses could help improve pupil performance in London. Recognizing that teacher quality was one of the strongest predictors of pupil performance especially in challenging schools and inspired by the success of Teach For America, McKinsey recommended a program targeted at top graduates, using the support of education and business leaders to bring additional excellent teachers into challenging schools for two years. The result was Teach First— a Teach For America-inspired British program that aims to address educational disadvantage by transforming exceptional graduates into effective, inspirational teachers and leaders in all fields. Since its launch in 2002, over 1,000 Teach First graduates have been placed in challenging secondary schools, in London, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, and Nottingham. The most recent Times annual survey of graduate employers ranked Teach First as the 9th most prestigious employer in the country, the highest ranking ever for a charity. Teach First alumni are also already assuming leadership roles in addressing educational inequity.
In response to requests from champions and social entrepreneurs in several countries across the world who are inspired by the Teach For America and Teach First model and want to replicate it in their respective countries, Teach For America and Teach First collaborated on a project with the pro-bono assistance of a team from McKinsey & Company. Together they sought to understand the experiences of other international organizations, the needs of the entrepreneurs who were seeking assistance, and the enablers of impact in our model. The end result was the plan for Teach For All.
Teach For All was launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in September of 2007 with significant start-up support from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the Nduna Foundation. Teach For All is a separately incorporated, funded and staffed organization that is being incubated within Teach For America.
In 2001, London First and Business in the Community, two British business membership organizations dedicated to community involvement, engaged McKinsey & Company to ascertain how businesses could help improve pupil performance in London. Recognizing that teacher quality was one of the strongest predictors of pupil performance especially in challenging schools and inspired by the success of Teach For America, McKinsey recommended a program targeted at top graduates, using the support of education and business leaders to bring additional excellent teachers into challenging schools for two years. The result was Teach First— a Teach For America-inspired British program that aims to address educational disadvantage by transforming exceptional graduates into effective, inspirational teachers and leaders in all fields. Since its launch in 2002, over 1,000 Teach First graduates have been placed in challenging secondary schools, in London, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, and Nottingham. The most recent Times annual survey of graduate employers ranked Teach First as the 9th most prestigious employer in the country, the highest ranking ever for a charity. Teach First alumni are also already assuming leadership roles in addressing educational inequity.
In response to requests from champions and social entrepreneurs in several countries across the world who are inspired by the Teach For America and Teach First model and want to replicate it in their respective countries, Teach For America and Teach First collaborated on a project with the pro-bono assistance of a team from McKinsey & Company. Together they sought to understand the experiences of other international organizations, the needs of the entrepreneurs who were seeking assistance, and the enablers of impact in our model. The end result was the plan for Teach For All.
Teach For All was launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in September of 2007 with significant start-up support from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the Nduna Foundation. Teach For All is a separately incorporated, funded and staffed organization that is being incubated within Teach For America.