The New Teacher Project (TNTP) is a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap by ensuring that high-need students get outstanding teachers. Founded by teachers in 1997, TNTP partners with school districts and states to implement scalable responses to their most acute teacher quality challenges. Since its inception, TNTP has trained or hired approximately 43,000 teachers, benefiting an estimated 7 million students nationwide. It has established more than 75 programs and initiatives in 31 states and published four seminal studies on urban teacher hiring and school staffing.
The Problem
Every child deserves an excellent education, yet a persistent gap in academic achievement separates poor and minority students from White students. By the end of high school, African-American and Hispanic students read and do math at virtually the same level as 8th grade White students. As a result, African-American and Hispanic students are much less likely to graduate from high school, acquire a college diploma, or earn a middle-class living. In a nation founded on principles of equality, this gap in student achievement is evidence that America's schools have not delivered on the promise of an equal education for all.
The Solution
Effective teachers can close or eliminate the achievement gap. Research has shown that teacher quality is the single most important variable that schools control in their efforts to provide students with an excellent education. A 2006 analysis of Los Angeles public school data concluded that, “having a top-quartile teacher rather than a bottom-quartile teacher four years in a row may be enough to close the black-white test score gap” (Gordon, Kane and Staiger, 2006). A 2002 study of teachers in Texas found that, “having a high quality teacher throughout elementary school can substantially offset or even eliminate the disadvantage of low socio-economic background” (Rivkin, Hanushek and Kain, 2002). Unfortunately, research has also shown that schools serving urban and low-income communities, where poor and minority students are concentrated, are far less likely to be staffed with effective teachers. In order to close the achievement gap, TNTP believes that high-need students must be provided with outstanding teachers.
Become a Teacher
Looking to make a difference? The New Teacher Project has established high-quality programs across the country to recruit and train talented new teachers for public schools.
TNTP's alternate routes to certification are highly selective programs designed to recruit and train high-achieving individuals who do not have education backgrounds to become teachers for hard-to-staff schools. These "Teaching Fellows" programs currently operate in more than 17 locations nationwide.
For more information about a specific program, including application instructions and upcoming deadlines, click on one of the links below to visit the program's website.
East Coast
Midwest
South / Southwest
· TeachNOLA (New Orleans, LA)
Recruitment Programs and Initiatives for Traditionally Certified Teachers
In addition to its alternate routes to certification, TNTP operates other recruitment initiatives designed to attract and hire high-quality teachers who are already licensed to teach. These include:
· TeachNOLA (New Orleans, LA)
