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Download File From the Schoolhouse to the Statehouse: The Role of Teach For America and Its Alumni in Education Policy Vikash Reddy Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 ©2016 Vikash Reddy All rights reserved ABSTRACT From the Schoolhouse to the Statehouse: The Role of Teach For America and Its Alumni in Education Policy Vikash Reddy Teach For America (TFA) is a non-profit whose mission involves addressing and eliminating the racial achievement gap in education. To that end, TFA recruits and trains thousands of teachers each year, mostly recent college graduates, to spend two years teaching in low-income neighborhoods across America. The theory of change publicly espoused by TFA, however, includes a second component that is predicated on the notion that participation in TFA will be a “transformational experience” for those who join the organization – an experience that will turn participants into lifelong advocates for educational equity, and inform and influence their future endeavors. While TFA has long been a magnet for controversy, the criticisms have come to include the organization’s place in a policy context awash with neoliberal influences. Researchers have looked at the impact of TFA teachers on student outcomes with increasingly sophisticated research designs, but much less has been written about the second half of TFA’s theory of change. Further, while the exploits of TFA and its alumni in policy are increasingly the subject of both academic and popular articles, little of this research examines the role that the TFA experience is playing in the current work of TFA alumni in policy. Using data gathered from 45 semi-structured interviews with TFA alumni who now work in public policy, as well as news sources, public statements and press releases from TFA and its leadership and other publicly available materials, this dissertation examines the ways in which TFA and its alumni are involved in education policy, and how the TFA experience factors into the lives and work of these alumni. This study also examines the ways in which TFA and its alumni are engaged in matters of charter schools and school choice, teacher evaluation and accountability, and teacher preparation policy, as well as the ways in which alumni credit their TFA experience for influencing their views. Further, this work looks to separate the influences that come directly from TFA, such as TFA messaging or TFA-planned events, and those that are the result of joining TFA, but that fall outside of TFA’s immediate control. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... iii PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... vi I. POLICY AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS ............................................................................. 1 OVERVIEW OF DISSERTATION ...................................................................................................... 4 AMERICAN EDUCATION POLICY ................................................................................................... 5 AMERICAN EDUCATION REFORM – DOMINANT ACTORS AND INTEREST GROUPS ...................... 18 TODAY’S LANDSCAPE AND TFA ................................................................................................ 27 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................... 33 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 34 II. BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL CONTEXTS ..................................................... 36 TEACH FOR AMERICA ................................................................................................................ 36 SOCIAL MOVEMENT LITERATURE AND TFA .............................................................................. 44 RESEARCH AND LITERATURE ON TFA AND TFA ALUMNI.......................................................... 56 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 63 III. STUDY METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 65 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................... 65 STUDY DESIGN ........................................................................................................................... 66 DATA SOURCES AND COLLECTION ............................................................................................. 67 DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................ 75 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ...................................................................................................... 76 LIMITATIONS .............................................................................................................................. 77 IV. ALUMNI REFLECTIONS ON CORPS EXPERIENCE ................................................. 79 MOTIVATION FOR JOINING TFA ................................................................................................. 80 GENERAL IMPACT OF TFA PARTICIPATION ................................................................................ 88 PLACEMENT SCHOOL CHALLENGES AND STRENGTHS ................................................................ 96 TEACHERS UNIONS ................................................................................................................... 105 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 109 V. ALUMNI REFLECTIONS ON POLICY AND THE IMPACT OF TFA ON POLICY PREFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 113 CHARTER SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL CHOICE ............................................................................... 115 TEACHER EVALUATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY ....................................................................... 130 TEACHER PREPARATION ........................................................................................................... 138 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 150 VI. TFA, TFA ALUMNI, AND POLICY CHANGE ............................................................. 153 TEACH FOR AMERICA, LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATIONAL EQUITY, AND THE POLICY WORLD ... 154 ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT WITH FORMAL AND INFORMAL NETWORKS ......................................... 172 LARGER POLITICAL QUESTIONS ............................................................................................... 184 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 198 VII. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 201 TEACH FOR AMERICA PARTICIPATION ..................................................................................... 202 TEACH FOR AMERICA AND PUBLIC POLICY.............................................................................. 205 STUDY LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................ 207 IMPLICATIONS .......................................................................................................................... 208 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 212 Appendix A – Interview Protocol for TFA alumni ................................................................ 236 Appendix B – Alumni Interviewees ......................................................................................... 240 ii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Sample – Corps Year ...................................................................................................70 Table 3.2: Sample – Corps Region ...............................................................................................71 Table 3.3: Sample – Current Occupations ....................................................................................72 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Words don’t exist to adequately thank my mom and my dad for their intellectual support, their emotional support, and their financial support through the writing of this dissertation, and throughout my graduate school experience. Their influence on this work can be traced far further back than their encouragement to pursue a Ph.D. They taught me how to read, write, and think critically about the world around me, and I owe more to them than I can express in the space afforded. The same goes for Dr. Shravanthi Reddy and Dr. Anjani Reddy. My attempts to escape their shadows may never meet success, but such attempts have always led to my best work. My committee members have been extraordinary, not just in their service here, but for everything they have taught me heretofore. Doug
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