Read Our Stories

Education

The Foundation is committed to reducing the number of students dropping out of school and increasing the number of high school graduates who go on to post-secondary education or job training programs.

Our principal target areas in education are:
  • Efforts focused on middle school and high school retention – programs and supports that motivate young people to learn, to reach graduation and to seek further education opportunities
  • Investments in charter schools and specialty schools where best practice can be learned and shared with larger schools and districts
  • Programs addressing professional development and peer support for educational leaders

Teach For America is a proven national program that will expand into Rhode Island in the fall of 2010 with 30 new teachers. The Foundation is proud to have played a part in bringing this innovative group to our state.

See a complete list of 2009 Education grantees.

Teach For America: Coming in 2010 to a school near you

As a senior at Princeton University, Wendy Kopp had a vision of an America where all students had equal – and equally wonderful – educational opportunities. She turned that vision into Teach For America, a program that for the past two decades has placed the nation’s top college graduates as teachers in urban and rural schools with low-income and minority students. Teach For America is a success story by any standards, with a proven track record of student achievement in its 35 cities and regions nationwide. This fall, Rhode Island will become number 36 in that national roster.

Commissioner Deborah Gist 
Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Deborah Gist at the February 2010 announcement of Teach For America's expansion into Rhode Island. Gist stated emphatically, "The single most important factor in the education of our students is the effectiveness of our teachers." Photo credit: Stuart Milne
Abundant studies document the national program’s effectiveness: “Other things being equal, disadvantaged students taught by TFA teachers would be better off than they would be in the absence of TFA” (Urban Institute); “Teach For America corps members students’ make more progress in both reading and math than would typically be expected in a year” (Mathematica Policy Research Institute).

And at the individual classroom level: “In my own 8th grade classroom, more than 50% of my students started the beginning of the year proficient at 7th grade reading and writing levels. At the end of the school year, all but one of my students achieved proficient or higher on the 8th grade English Language Arts exam.”

This “finding” is from Heather Tow-Yick, who taught middle school in the South Bronx through TFA and earlier this year was named executive director of Teach For America – Rhode Island. A Rhode Island native, she graduated from Moses Brown School and Brown University before joining TFA.

Of her decision to join the national corps of teachers, she shares, “Eliminating the gap between kids growing up in low income communities and the kids who grow up in more affluent communities is the most important work of my generation. (Through TFA) I gained a deep conviction that all kids have the potential to learn, if given the opportunity.”

 Drew Madden
Brown University Class of 2010 graduate Drew Madden will join the Teach For America corps of teachers in June 2010. Here, Drew listens at TFA's expansion into Rhode Island is announced at the Foundation in February 2010. Photo Credit: Stuart Milne

“Transformative” is how Chris Kaleel, TFA vice president for new site development, describes his experience as a TFA classroom teacher in Phoenix. “It was all about the kids’ achievements. I was personally involved in my kids’ lives, their families, and their communities. At the end of the day, you realize all students have the capacity to succeed.”

It is that opportunity – the “potential to learn” and “capacity to succeed” – that students in Providence Public School District and Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley will have this fall when 34 TFA teachers (27 in Providence, 6 at Democracy Prep, and 1 in Central Falls) begin their assignments.

Much of the credit for bringing TFA to the Ocean State belongs to Education Commissioner Deborah Gist who has made improving teacher quality her mission. At the public event where TFA’s expansion to Rhode Island was announced, held in February at The Rhode Island Foundation, Commissioner Gist stated, “The single most important factor in the education of our students is the effectiveness of our teachers. That’s why my highest priority for Rhode Island is ensuring that every student has excellent teachers. For that to happen, we have to expand the variety of pathways into the teaching profession by attracting outstanding programs like Teach For America to Rhode Island. I’m confident that Teach For America will provide us with wonderful, talented teachers and leaders for years to come."


“Teach For America will bring a breath of fresh air to our schools. We need the excitement and energy these new teachers – our brightest and best college graduates – will bring with them. Teach For America’s proven track record is well aligned with the Foundation’s goal in education of reducing the number of students who drop out of school.” - Denise Jenkins, grant programs officer


TFA has made a minimum three-year commitment to Rhode Island, pledging to add an additional 30 teachers each year. The organization chose Rhode Island based on the state’s “compelling vision of how the organization’s presence will help to close student achievement gaps; the existence of a feasible alternate route to teacher certification; the commitment by local partners to place a critical mass of corps members across the range of subject areas and grade levels; and community support that will enable Teach For America to fund the new site in a sustainable way.”

 Heather Tow-Yick and David Hirsch
Foundation Chairman David M. Hirsch in conversation with Rhode Island Teach For America Executive Director Heather Tow-Yick, herself a veteran of the TFA teaching corp. The Rhode Island corps of teachers began orientation in June 2010. Photo Credit: Stuart Milne
The Rhode Island Foundation spearheaded the drive for community support for TFA, contributing $300,000 and leading the effort to raise the balance of the $2.7 million required funding over three years. The goal was reached in six weeks, thanks to an enthusiastic response from local individual and corporate philanthropists, many of
whom met Wendy Kopp when she visited Rhode Island in November, 2009.  (A complete list of donors here.)

Denise Jenkins, grant programs officer at the Foundation, says, “Teach For America will bring a breath of fresh air to our schools. We need the excitement and energy these new teachers – our brightest and best college graduates – will bring with them. Teach For America’s proven track record is well aligned with the Foundation’s goal in education of reducing the number of students who drop out of school.”

Adds Foundation President and CEO Neil D. Steinberg, “All Rhode Island school children deserve a high-quality education. Their future success – and the future success of our state – depends on it. For two decades, Teach For America teachers have led students in low-income communities nationwide to dramatic improvements in their academic achievement. This approach works. We are honored to have played a part in bringing Teach For America to Rhode Island.”

For more information, http://www.teachforamerica.org/.