Teach for America San Antonio Launches Tutoring Program

SAN ANTONIO, November 3, 2021—Teach For America San Antonio announced the launch of its new tutoring program, the Ignite Fellowship, which is focused on helping elementary literacy and middle school math San Antonio students address learning loss from the pandemic.

TFA finds, trains, and places educators who spend at least two years teaching in under-resourced schools in rural and urban areas nationwide to expand educational opportunity for children. Through the Ignite program, Teach For America will also recruit college students to serve as small-group learning fellows who partner directly with local schools and students. Each fellow is leading a cohort of 2-4 students, meeting in virtual learning communities during school hours. This fall, 36 fellows are working across five San Antonio schools to support students at Bowden Academy, Cameron Elementary, Compass Rose Elementary, Lamar Elementary, and Martin Luther King Jr. Academy.

The Ignite Fellowship was first developed by Teach For America Phoenix and has expanded to six communities where Teach For America works, including San Antonio. The Phoenix pilot, which ran during the 2020-2021 school year, showed incredible results. Students at one school achieved an average of fifty-three percent growth in their middle school math assessments, and forty percent of students in another school exited third grade reading remediation after engaging in the Ignite program for eight weeks.

The learning loss experienced by students last school year was severe. In late June, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released the results from the 2021 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). According to the TEA, the percentage of 3rd through 8th grade students meeting grade-level expectations dropped by 4% in reading and 15% in math; these drops were significantly more pronounced in students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This was a trend found nationwide, according to the NWEA.

“While the TEA results may not have come as a surprise, they were alarming. Before the pandemic, our education system did not serve all children equally. The pandemic only exacerbated those inequities,” said Nick Garcia, executive director of Teach For America San Antonio. “We also know that learning loss can have effects that ripple far beyond one academic year. We saw the Ignite Program as an opportunity to provide additional support to San Antonio students to help them thrive this school year and ensure they’re on a track to academic growth.”

Research shows that tutoring, particularly in-school tutoring, is one of the most effective tools available to improve students’ academic outcomes. Teach For America is focusing on 3rd grade reading and 8th grade math based on the predictive power of those outcomes as they relate to future academic and life opportunities. The Ignite program is also layering in an additional focus on social-emotional learning priorities for students, including growth mindsets, belonging, and self-efficacy. Fellows will receive ongoing training from TFA and their schools to accelerate student learning, and Teach For America will measure students’ academic and personal growth through school-based assessments and surveys.
“Now, more than ever, our schools need to think outside the box and leverage every resource available to support our students,” said Doug Dawson, executive director of the School Innovation Collaborative, which includes three of TFA’s Ignite partner schools. “This innovative partnership with TFA Ignite provides our students with the opportunity to access high-quality tutoring from across the state and country. We know the dramatic impact tutoring can have on academic progress, and we believe it is innovations like Ignite that will allow us to come out of a pandemic stronger than before.”

About Teach For America
Teach For America works in partnership with 350 urban and rural communities across the country to expand educational opportunity for children. Founded in 1990, Teach For America recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding leaders who make an initial two-year commitment to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to end educational inequity. Today, Teach For America is a force of over 64,000 alumni and corps members working in over 9,000 schools nationwide in pursuit of profound systemic change. From classrooms to districts to state houses across America, they are reimagining education to realize the day when every child has an equal opportunity to learn, lead, thrive, and co-create a future filled with possibility. Teach For America is a proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Contact: Rachel Tennenbaum
408.250.2877
rachel.tennenbaum@teachforamerica.org