Teach For America鈥檚 longtime chief executive officer, Elisa Villanueva Beard, will depart the organization in 2025.
The announcement comes amid a period of change for the nearly 35-year-old organization, which recruits and prepares high-achieving college graduates and others to teach for at least two years and ultimately become civically minded leaders with a passion for education.
During the pandemic, Teach For America saw its corps size shrink three years in a row. It . Given the smaller corps size, the nonprofit stopped placing new teachers in about a dozen of the communities it serves, focusing instead on developing the alumni there.
But there are signs of recovery: Last fall, TFA鈥檚 incoming teacher corps grew by nearly 40 percent from the previous year鈥檚 low鈥攆rom 1,616 to 2,220. (Even so, 2019鈥檚 incoming class had more than 3,000 members, and the incoming class had about 6,000 members at TFA鈥檚 peak a decade ago.)
The organization is also focused on its new tutoring program, designed to address pandemic-related learning gaps and build a pipeline into the corps.
In an exclusive interview, Villanueva Beard said Teach For America is now in a position of strength and is ready for new leadership.
Villanueva Beard got her start in Teach For America as a corps member in 1998, when she taught 1st and 2nd grade bilingual education in Phoenix. After three years in the classroom, she joined TFA鈥檚 staff, working her way up to co-CEO in 2013. She became TFA鈥檚 sole CEO in 2015.
Villanueva Beard spoke with Education Week ahead of her Monday announcement. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You鈥檝e been Teach For America鈥檚 CEO for about a decade. Tell me about your decision to step away.
I love Teach For America. I love my job. And it鈥檚 just time鈥攜ou just sort of know when it鈥檚 time. The organization is in an incredible position of strength.
We grew our corps by almost 40 percent last year. That trajectory is continuing. We grew our tutoring program by 125 percent. We鈥檙e on track to grow that by another 50 percent this year. And our alumni continue to take on these incredibly vital roles to drive change. Given the moment we鈥檙e living in, it matters so much.
And what鈥檚 important here is, I鈥檓 not leaving tomorrow. This is an 18- to 24-month transition, and that鈥檚 by design. As I work with the board, we really want to make sure that we are taking鈥攐r they are taking鈥攁 deliberate, transparent, inclusive process that allows us to do this well and not miss a beat. My goal and commitment is to have this be a seamless transition.
TFA is operating within a broader shrinking of the teacher pipeline. Many young people are not interested in going into teaching, and teachers are not recommending it to their children. What needs to happen to reverse this trend?
It鈥檚 such a good question, and one that we reflect on all the time at Teach For America. Our teachers are operating within an outmoded system鈥攖he system was designed at a different time, in a different place, with never the intention of ensuring every child could learn, lead, and thrive.
We live in a 21st century global society. What the workforce is demanding is just different from what we鈥檝e been up to [in schools]. And of course we鈥檙e seeing some innovation. But I think we need to come to terms with that. What is the purpose of an education? What are the objectives? And then how do you organize yourself to ensure that we鈥檙e able to deliver that for our kids?
And I think that we need to make it easy for this generation to say yes [to teaching]. Right now we鈥檝e created a role which is easy to say no [to]. Over 50 percent of teachers have to work a second job [both within and outside of the school system] to make ends meet. They honestly have to be a jack-of-all-trades, and this makes it a role that makes it very difficult to say yes to.
We鈥檝e got to be innovating. We鈥檝e got to really center the student and what they need, and then design the structures that are going to enable us to meet the moment. There are good things happening, and people trying different things. I think we need to keep at it.
One of the initiatives in your tenure has been the Ignite tutoring program. Why has that become so important to TFA鈥檚 mission?
We brought Ignite to life during COVID. This was born from my executive director at the time in Arizona, who was really listening and asking what is needed. People were saying, 鈥淲e just need more. We need more teachers. We need more adults helping us here.鈥�
Teach For America鈥檚 core capabilities are finding exceptional talent, matching that talent to the greatest need, and developing it. And tutoring is just that.
We have grounded ourselves in high-dosage tutoring, which is one of the most effective interventions to accelerate learning. We鈥檙e focused on undergrads [as the tutors], and of course we鈥檙e trying to recruit undergrads into the corps. It made sense for us. We have a built-in infrastructure.
We鈥檝e seen incredible success. We have focused on early literacy and middle school math. The demand is growing. The supply鈥擨 don鈥檛 think it has limits at the moment. People are excited about this.
Our intention with Ignite is first and foremost impact for kids, ensuring that we are helping them accelerate learning, which we are seeing. And then, secondly, it鈥檚 become a really authentic pipeline into the corps.
This generation wants to change the world. They just also want to know that they can do it鈥攖hey鈥檒l have the support, they鈥檒l have community. So they get a taste of that with Ignite.
We have a goal of getting to 10,000 tutors by 2030. And we think that we could be generating up to a third of the corps from our Ignite fellows.
A persistent criticism of TFA has been that the teachers don鈥檛 tend to stay in the classroom for long. How does retention fit into TFA鈥檚 long-term strategy?
What I would say is that our leaders stay forever. The whole point of Teach For America is to bring in incredible leaders who are all in for kids, who have a direct, immediate positive impact for kids, and who commit to working toward solving this problem in the way that they can most contribute. The point is that we know we need leaders who believe in every child, who believe this problem is solvable working in classrooms.
Obviously, we need incredible teachers, many of them. We also need great principals鈥攁 big lever to teacher retention and ensuring that teachers are inspired and excited about their jobs is their principal. You also need system leaders who are running the whole [school] system. You need social entrepreneurs who are filling in gaps for needs for kids. And you need policymakers and elected officials. You need everybody at every ecosystem. That鈥檚 the point of Teach For America.
We love it when people decide to stay for as long as they want in the classroom, and we also know that it is a good thing when they are deciding to go on to contribute working toward educational excellence and equity from a different level.
TFA has faced criticism from both the left and the right. How have you navigated politics in your tenure, and where do you see TFA鈥檚 place in an increasingly partisan world?
When you do our work, we鈥檙e in the field, we are in classrooms every day. I鈥檓 obviously very self-aware of the politics around me. But at the end of the day, the the way I navigate this and the way Teach For America will continue to navigate this is, we focus on our kids.
We serve children all over the United States鈥攎iddle America, the coast, the South鈥攁nd that鈥檚 our focus and what those communities and our partners expect of us.
We will continue to do that. If we get distracted and are focusing on other things, we are not focused on the fact that kids need to know how to read. And right now, post-pandemic, our communities in urban and rural America got hit the hardest. They鈥檙e recovering the slowest. We鈥檝e got to teach kids how to read. It is the greatest act of leadership. And if we鈥檙e working toward educational equity and excellence, that鈥檚 the way to do it.
We have a racially, ethnically, socioeconomically diverse organization and corps members. The research shows that really matters. We鈥檙e looking at, what are the levers that ensure that we are responsibly teaching kids and using all the evidence base out there and integrating it into our training and support. The 鈥渟cience of reading鈥� is something that we do.
We鈥檙e really working to stay focused and clear on our accountability to community, and that being ultimately what drives our decisions. I think part of the problem in our country today is that we鈥檙e caught up in things that actually aren鈥檛 the things driving what鈥檚 most important for kids.
We have to stay focused on what鈥檚 in front of us because our kids, they have one shot at 3rd grade. They have one shot at 7th grade math. We can鈥檛 get distracted from the implications of that, and our responsibility in it.
What are you most proud of in your tenure at Teach For America?
I鈥檓 really proud of the millions of students that we have impacted over the last few decades, and that we鈥檝e done well by them. What excites me the most about it is, this last incoming corps, nearly 10 percent of our corps members were what we call second-generation corps members. They were students who were themselves taught by corps members. I think that speaks volume to the power of what TFA does in classrooms.
I think it鈥檚 incredible that our network is now 70,000 folks who have said yes across generations. How powerful to have Gen Xers鈥攚hich is what I am; TFA was founded by and built by Gen Xers鈥攖hen our millennials have said yes to this, and now we have Gen Z. We鈥檝e all had to continue to adapt to meet the generation we鈥檙e working with. They want to change the world, and they鈥檙e incredible. We鈥檝e got to meet them halfway.
I鈥檓 really proud of our alums. This was never about two years [in the classroom]. It just really wasn鈥檛. And we have evidence of that in our over 65,000 alums who are literally working at every level of the system, as teachers and principals and system leaders and policymakers and social entrepreneurs.
I think that鈥檚 incredible to have that kind of leadership working alongside many others to do big things for kids.
