Our Commitment to Diversity
To build an effective effort to help eliminate educational inequality, Teach For America strives to enlist the energy and commitment of individuals who have the characteristics and skills necessary to advance our cause. These leaders will be diverse in ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic background. Their places on the political spectrum and their religious beliefs will be similarly varied, and we seek individuals of all genders and sexual orientations and regardless of physical disabilities. Maximizing the diversity of our organization is important in engaging all those who can contribute to our effort and also in ensuring our access to and participation in the circles of influence in our tremendously diverse society. Moreover, we seek to be diverse because we aspire to serve as a model of the fairness and equality of opportunity we envision for our nation.
At the same time that we value each individual who commits to our cause, we also place a particular focus on attracting and fostering the leadership of individuals who share the racial and/or socioeconomic backgrounds of the students underserved by public schools, many of whom are African-American and Latino/Hispanic children living in low income communities. We emphasize racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity to enhance our impact.
Impact on students
Based on our experiences, we know students benefit from all talented, committed teachers. When such teachers are themselves from historically under-represented racial backgrounds or low-income families, they can have a profound additional impact because they can be particularly persuasive with students regarding the potential for success in education and in life.
Long-term impact
Alumni who share the racial and/or socioeconomic backgrounds of our students can also be particularly influential in the long-term push for societal change, because of their rich perspective and credibility, and because their leadership in and of itself demonstrates the value of that change.
Collective strength
While it is the responsibility of each person within Teach For America to make decisions with sensitivity to the needs and desires of our students and communities, we have seen that individuals who are themselves from under-represented racial backgrounds or low-income family backgrounds can often ground the discussions and advance the thinking of our corps, alumni groups, and organization in important ways.
