Examining Ideas About Impact: Perspectives on the Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellowship

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Support and Development of Teacher Leaders

Abstract

This mixed methods study explored how Teach Plus leaders and Policy Fellows think about the impact of the Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellowship. These groups define success for the program in different ways: senior leaders tend to prioritize instrumental impact on policy, whereas Fellows tend to value more greatly the experiential impact of relationship- and capacity-building. Site Executive Directors also emphasize instrumental impact, but sympathize with the Fellows’ desire for experiential impact. This spectrum of perspectives makes the program interesting while also creating some tension in the organization. There are implications for the effectiveness of Teach Plus and the Policy Fellowship, as well as for efforts throughout the education sector to include teacher voice in policymaking.

Author

• Elizabeth Marshall Carroll, Yale University