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Teach for America

Assessing the Effects of Voluntary Youth Service:
The Case of Teach for America

Doug McAdam, Stanford University
Cynthia Brandt, Stanford University

We use survey data from all accepted applicants to Teach for America 1993-98 to assess the longer-term effect of youth service on participants’ current civic attitudes and behaviors. While TFA “graduates” score higher than the two comparison groups – “dropouts” and “non-matriculants” – on a broad range of attitudinal items measuring civic commitment, these differences appear to be less a byproduct of the TFA experience than a reflection of current involvement with the TFA organization. Moreover, the attitudinal differences are not reflected in actual civic behavior. Specifically, graduates lag behind non-matriculants in current service activity and generally trail both non-matriculants and drop-outs in self-reported participation in five other forms of civic/political activity measured in the study. Graduates also vote at lower rates than the other two groups. Finally, fewer graduates report employment in “pro-social” jobs than either non-matriculants or drop-outs. We close by speculating on what mechanisms may help explain variation in the long-term effects of youth service or activist experiences.

A Commentary: Why We Need To Learn More About Youth Civic Engagement

James Youniss, Catholic University of America

Teach For America is a program which provides college graduates the opportunity to teach disadvantaged students in schools with low resources under the supportive sponsorship of an organization built on the principle that all children merit quality education. In this respect, TFA surely represents a just cause around which youth can rally. It should not be surprising, therefore, that graduates of the TFA two-year experience think and act like especially engaged citizens. They hold positive attitudes toward civic engagement. They vote at exceedingly high rates. And, after serving, they remain committed to the TFA organization and, presumably, its guiding ideology about educational reform and equal opportunity.
    Thus, it is surprising that Stanford University's Doug McAdam and Cynthia Brandt, in their article, "Assessing the Effects of Voluntary Youth Service: The Case of Teach for America," find that TFA graduates don't live up to the aims and claims of the organization. It is clear that the authors reached this less-than-favorable assessment of TFA by comparing graduates from the program with participants who started to teach in the program but dropped out, and with non-matriculants who were vetted and invited, but for unknown reasons, failed to join.  A momentary step outside of the study itself seems appropriate here.

These articles appear in the December 2009 issue of Social Forces.

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