More UCLA students have been applying to Teach for America, a national program that recruits college graduates to teach in lower-income and disadvantaged neighborhoods, than in previous years, despite a national trend of decreasing applications to the program.
Nationally, the nonprofit teaching program has been receiving a decreased number of applications for the second year in a row, the organization reported this month.
Teach for America, which started in 1989, seeks to bring a Peace Corps-like approach to education by recruiting college graduates to teach in lower-performing schools for a minimum commitment of two years. The program has been popular and competitive among college graduates, with a 15 percent national acceptance rate last year. UCLA sent 70 students to the program last year.
Carly Chittim, a recruitment manager for Teach for America at UCLA, said she thinks the recent economic growth and a decrease of interest in the teaching profession are causing the decrease in applications nationwide. Chittim added that she thinks many college graduates have more lucrative job options.
Data from the United States Department of Education showed that enrollment in teaching programs has decreased by 12 percent from 2010 to 2013.
Sheila Lane, a Teacher Education Program faculty advisor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, said she thinks UCLA has seen an increase in applications for the program because UCLA has a diverse campus where students come from different backgrounds and want to give back to their communities.
Gloria Gallardo is one of those students.
Gallardo grew up in a lower-income community in Anaheim. She said she wants to join Teach for America to give back to her community and inspire students from similar backgrounds as her.
“I empathize with these students’ struggle and I want to show them that they too can go to college,” the third-year English student said.
While Teach for America has received positive acclaim for its work, it also has its share of criticisms.
Megan Hopkins, a Teach for America corps member from 2002 to 2005 who went on to pursue a doctoral degree in urban schooling at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, said she thinks she did not receive adequate training for her role as a bilingual elementary school teacher in Arizona.
After undergoing a four-step application process that involves an online application and several interviews, the corps members attend a five-week long summer training institute before they go to teach in the schools.
Hopkins, who studied Spanish in college, said she felt that she did not receive any assistance or training from Teach for America on bilingual education.
“Teach for America did not give me the tools I needed to be able to connect with my students, their families and the community,” she said. “I had to do everything on my own.”
Hopkins said she stayed in education despite her unpreparedness because of the connections she made with her students.
Hopkins also said she thinks the program negatively affects students because they have to face new teachers every couple years after the majority of Teach for America alumni leave their teaching positions.
Chittim said Teach for America understood the five-weeks training is not enough, and that the teachers receive ongoing assistance throughout the two years.
Darren Ramalho, a current Teach for America corps member in Uniontown, Ala. said he thinks corps members’ college experiences can supplement the training provided by Teach for America.
He said his experiences serving as the academic affairs commissioner in the Undergraduate Students Association Council last year and working at the UCLA Lab School are helpful in his current work teaching high school English and government.
“While I agree that our training was short, it was very helpful and the training coupled with the work I did at UCLA are helping me now,” he said. “Teaching here is still the hardest work I have done, but it’s very rewarding.”
Ramalho said his favorite part of the job is connecting with students outside of class, playing sports and doing other activities with them.
Ammar Zia, a fourth-year English student who was accepted into the Teach for America program this year, said he decided to apply in spite of the program’s criticism because he thinks Teach for America’s corps members are motivated to change education for the better.
“Teach for America’s recruitment process is really rigorous and they only pick people who actually care about reforming the education system,” he said.
Teach for America is taking steps in response to the nationwide decrease in applications although the organization will not be increasing the acceptance rate, Chittim said.
She also said that in order to reverse the decrease in applications, the organization is still trying to spread the word through campus networking, such as holding meetings to reach out to students, before the final March 6 deadline.