Complexity of Collaboration: Striving for Authentic Partnership Between Teach For America and Its University Partner

• In Event: Exploring the Impact and Influence of Collaborative School-University Partnerships

Abstract

Teach For America (TFA) partners with universities in most of its 40 regions nationally; however there is little research examining the content and processes of a partnership between the systems of TFA and of their partnering institutions. Faculty at an urban university and TFA personnel co-designed a two year-long mixed-methods study to examine their partnership. This paper will highlight qualitative data and perspectives from a range of university and TFA stakeholders, including Corps Members, in order to illuminate the expectations, goals, practices, impact, and potentiality of the collaboration of these two disparate organizations uniting for the purpose of urban teacher development and equitable educative opportunities for all children.

Authors

• Barbara Meyers, Georgia State University

• Teresa R. Fisher, Georgia State University

• Monica M. Alicea, Georgia State University

• Lauren Frank, Achievement First

• Kolt Maya Bloxson, Georgia State University