Cultivating New Education Reform Leaders: The Effect of Teach For America on Education Reform Through Policy Feedback

• In Event: From Philanthropists to Parents: Interest Groups in the Battles for and Against Education Reform

Abstract

During the 1990s and 2000s, both Teach for America and an array of accountability and choice-oriented policies, known as "education reform," spread across the states. This paper explores the relationship between the introduction of TFA in a state and education reform policy passage.

Drawing on TFA documents and secondary sources, we describe how TFA cultivates values focused on teacher quality, leadership, and accountability among corps members, pushes them to see themselves as leaders within the education reform movement, and provides them tools to become policymakers and advocates. We argue that through these actions, TFA activates policy feedback, whereby corps members start organizations and become policy leaders, impacting the subsequent passage of policies. We test this theory by examining the relationship between TFA presence in a state and education reform policy passage. Specifically, we hypothesize that, if policy feedback is kicking in, the presence of TFA in a state should lead to the passage of charter laws, performance pay, and tenure reform. However, TFA should not be associated with school vouchers or increased spending, two policies that do not conform to the leadership and accountability-oriented values imparted upon corps members.

We test this exploiting a novel panel dataset spanning 1990 to 2013 with data on the year of TFA introduction, the size of corps members over time, and the introduction of policy changes. We find support for our expectations; TFA is most strongly related to the passage of charter laws, and has a weaker - but still positive - relationship with tenure repeal and performance pay. However, TFA is negatively associated with the establishment of private school choice and is not related to school spending. Altogether, we provide evidence that, through policy feedback, there are concrete policy consequences to the establishment of TFA in a state.

Authors

• Leslie Finger, Harvard University

• Carlos Lastra-Anadon