What We’re Talking About
Welcome to TFA’s Connection Blog. A space to bring you the latest news, resources, and events happening among the Teach For America Community. Here is what we’re talking about in May:
Americorps
Cuts to national service threaten the future of education and workforce development across the country and will deeply impact kids and communities. For Teach For America, AmeriCorps grants are essential to our ability to recruit thousands of new teachers across the country, including the 4,000 TFA corps member teachers currently teaching 300,000 students.
While we’ve taken immediate steps to support our current corps, losing this funding threatens the long-term sustainability of our teacher pipeline—especially for aspiring educators navigating student debt and financial barriers to entering the classroom.
It’s not too late to reverse course. We stand ready and committed to work with the Administration and Congress to find a path forward to preserve this critical work and protect the students and communities who rely on it.
Speak out. Contact your elected officials.
Share your story on social media. Grab one of these graphics.
Spotlights
The Next Decade in Education Demands Bold Action. Is the Nation Ready?
On his first day as Teach For America’s new CEO, Aneesh Sohoni shared his perspective on what the next decade in education will require: bold leadership, real urgency, and a national commitment to doing better by America’s kids. Aneesh’s opinion piece in The 74 calls for a collective effort to create lasting change so all children get the education they deserve.
Bring washers and dryers to your school!
Learn about our partnership with Whirlpool to help schools combat absenteeism with the Care Counts™ Laundry Program. Read about the partnership and fill out an interest form to bring the program to your school.
TFA in the News
- Working Nation Story on National Service Ft Elisa Villanueva Beard
- WPRI: TFA RI Executive Director, Michael Broschart, Highlights Education Awareness Week Partnership Focused on Career Exploration and Equitable Access
- The 74: TFA’s New CEO, Aneesh Sohoni, Outlines Data-Driven Priorities for Addressing National Learning Declines and Supporting Educators
- KOTV: TFA and Whirlpool Partnership Supports Clean Start Laundry Program at Tulsa’s Marshall Elementary
- BizTech Magazine: TFA Chief Data & Technology Officer, Alan Murray, Discusses Digital Transformation in Identity Management
- The Oklahoman: TFA Oklahoma Executive Director, Sarah Park, Outlines Local Strategies to Address Chronic School Absenteeism
- Authority Magazine: TFA RGV Executive Director, Ana Gonzalez, Details Teacher Pipeline Strategy and Ignite Fellowship Model
- Commonwealth Beacon: TFA Alum and 2025 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, Luisa Sparrow, Supports New MA Law Expanding Teacher Pathways
- Trending in Education Podcast: Unpacking “The New Absenteeism” with Colleen Keating-Crawford and Izzy Fitzgerald from TFA’s Reinvention Lab
- The Johns Hopkins News-Letter: TFA Ignite Fellow, Riley Strait, Reflects on Tutoring Underserved Students and the Impact of Their Shared Growth
*Note: In pursuit of our vision of One Day and our 2030 impact goal, Teach For America has built a broad coalition, and we work alongside over 300 communities across 37 states, the District of Columbia, and sovereign nations. To meet the needs of the children we serve and our participants, we partner with several other organizations and entities to establish a repertoire of resources and supports. While we review these resources, we recognize the content of links may shift, change, or be not fully aligned with our complete view, values, or vision. The inclusion of any link is intended to direct users to potentially useful information. Teach For America encourages users to exercise their own judgment when accessing linked websites.
Data & Research
The New Absenteeism
In the most recent national data from the 2022-2023 school year, 20 states reported that more than 30% of their students missed at least three weeks of school.
When a young person isn’t attending school, they aren’t learning. Chronic absenteeism has a major impact on student learning, which has a compounding effect throughout a student’s academic career.
Teach For America’s Reinvention Lab, the organization’s Research & Development team focused on the future of learning, conducted research on chronic absenteeism, surfacing the importance of listening to young people and understanding their experiences in order to effectively track and address the issues that keep them from consistently attending or engaging with school.
TFA’s Reinvention Lab published their research on contemporary causes of chronic absenteeism in FutureEd, The New Absenteeism: What Measuring Attendance Misses
What’s Happening Around May
Stay tuned for upcoming events!
Stay Connected
Whether you just joined the Corps or completed your service decades ago, there are many ways to find your fellow Corps members and friends and connect. We provide both an alumni directory for looking up your old friends and a career networking platform – TFA Connect – for when you want to expand your career network, and several networking events each year. You can even join the national TFA Alumni group on LinkedIn! Wherever you go, the TFA alumni network is accessible and ready to support you.
