Why Not Teach? Encouraging Top College Graduates to Pursue Teaching as a Long-Term Career

Problem Statement

The education system has failed to consistently recruit top achieving college graduates to be teachers. Though Teach for America (TFA) has been successful in bringing highly motivated graduates into the teaching profession, the service only requires two years of commitment. If TFA has any interest in maintaining long-term engagement of top achievers in education, it needs to create programming that address the deficiencies within teaching that deters top achieving graduates from pursuing the profession.

The teaching profession has innate shortcomings that dissuade many college graduates. The profession lacks a dynamic career trajectory; the only opportunity for a teacher to climb the ranks is to stop being a teacher and work in administration. Relatedly, teachers are often rewarded with higher salaries or immunity to being laid off based on time of service, not by teacher performance. Furthermore, when teachers feel as though they have become experts in their field, they often have little recognition for their accomplishments compared to masters in other fields. The combination of limited visibility of top performers and minimal sharing of teaching success perpetuates teacher discontent.

Though many of these grievances require changes within the education system directly, an organization such as TFA can develop programs that give teachers motivation to improve their abilities and recognition for mastering their craft. If Teach for America has any interest in recruiting and retaining top achieving graduates as teachers, it has to begin programming that address the aspects of teaching that are current disincentives to potential candidates and demonstrate to those candidates that it is possible to become successful as a teacher.