Which thinkers contributed to the development of TFA's training program?

January 25, 2020 10:59 AM

I was a Teach For America (TFA) corps member and found the training invaluable for goal setting and learning how to achieve big, audacious goals. What I learned through teaching, I've applied to the rest of my life with successful results. Recently, I started learning about OKRs and CFRs and realized that TFA had taught me to do this: to set a vision, create objectives, set measurable key results, track my progress, etc. in a very structured way. Where can I learn more about the concepts and resources that went into developing TFA training?

I am reading Measure What Matters by John Doerr and am familiar with Peter Drucker's work. I'm curious about what other authors/thinkers are aligned with or perhaps contributed to TFA's training program. The jackpot would be a resource that describes exactly what went into developing TFA's training, but I'm not sure if that exists!

Many thanks in advance.

posted by saltypup to Education (2 answers total)

What you describe sounds like "strategic planning." The Complete Guide to Nonprofit Management by Smith, Bucklin & Associates, Inc. was a textbook in my M.Ed program that included a focus on strategic planning that we were encouraged to apply to our teaching practice, and similar resources that may be helpful are listed in responses to this previous AskMe.
posted by katra at 11:34 AM on January 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

At Princeton, Ms. Kopp ended up writing a thesis proposing a national teacher corps in which she expressed her dual goals: To get bright young missionaries into some of the nation's neediest classrooms and to create a cadre of civic leaders conscious of the challenges of education and poverty. To the critics who chafe at the notion of know-it-all Ivy Leaguers cycling through schools on two-year tours, Ms. Kopp seems to say, so what? Look what happens later. Source.

Here is one of the first recruitment drives, from MIT in 1990.

It may be said that TFA has no more philosophy than being a good recruiter of teachers for schools who need them at the lowest cost.

However I found a comprehensive report on its redesigned training program.
posted by parmanparman at 3:37 PM on January 25, 2020