(Teach for Colombia) A local program in a global network

A local program in a global network

Enseña por Colombia (Teach for Colombia) is a alternative program for entry into the school teaching profession. It follows a model pioneered by an American organization, Teach for America, more than 20 years ago.

This presentation addresses the history of Teach for Colombia, and how its partnership with a network of like-minded organizations has resulted in strengthening the local capacity of the program.

The origins

Teach for Colombia was born as the project of three like minded individuals who where looking to create a program to have an impact on Colombian education quality around the years 2009 - 2010

The three individuals believed (and still do) that teachers are the key factor impacting student learning in schools. There is compelling research (Barber & Mourshed, 2007) supporting this belief.

The origins

The founders are Luis Enrique García, Pablo Jaramillo and Jorge Mahecha. While the first two had contacted the Teach for All network due to their involvement with other network (World Teach) and volunteering programs in Colombia, Jorge had independently made contact with TfAll as part of the real-world continuation of an academic project in he form of a new program/NGO.

TfAll had the three of them working together by the end of 2009.

The need

The most effective teachers are those who show both outstanding leadership and command of their subject areas (Mondak, 2004; Stronge, Ward, Tucker, Hindman, 2007)

We found that our national education system was not selecting prospective teachers based on these premises.

Our need was to attract the best possible candidates into school teaching.

The model

The idea is to bring outstanding, recent graduates coming from the best educational backgrounds into the teaching profession for the first two years of their career to:1. Get excellent professionals as teachers2. Build a social movement around the importance of

education in Colombia, that allows for social support for improvement in the future.

The model and the Network

The model was pioneered in USA in 1989. A young entrepreneur (Wendy Koop, CEO of Teach for All) started Teach for America

Some eight years after that the model was duplicated in the UK and the Teach for All network was started.

By the time Teach for Colombia was about to be founded (2010), 18 organizations were already in the Teach for All network.

The Network and the Program

By different means, the three founders of Teach for Colombia get in touch with the Teach for All Network in 2009.

The Network started a process of accompanying the founding of the organization. This process lasted a little over a year. Teach for Colombia was founded as a non profit in January 2011.

The Network and the Program

The involvement of the network accompanying the start-up of Enseña por Colombia was key for several reasons:

1. It helped to maintain the spirits high, and focused on concrete feasible goals such as:1. Having and articulate, solid business plan.2. Recruiting a CEO3. Finding national support as related to funding and

visibility.

The Network and the Program

The involvement of the network accompanying the start-up of Enseña por Colombia was key for several reasons:

2. It gave the team of founders a qualified peer network to discuss issues regarding the start up of the program.

3. It gave the team of founders a sense of support and responsibility with the process.

4. It gave the start-up a sense of legitimacy that helped in counteracting skepticism due to the novelty of the program.

The Network and the Program

The Teach for All network has been a key partner in supporting the Program in Colombia, which currently has its first cohort of 20 teachers in high-need schools by facilitating:1. The opportunity to know similar programs in the Latin

American region, such as Enseña por Chile2. Providing with software and knowledge management

tools to support the very selective recruiting process (we selected out of a pool of almost a thousand people)

The Network and the Program

3. The continuous exchange of experiences between people facing similar challenges in different national contexts. Regularly CEOs of the network join to discuss issues of common interest.

4. Not only staff members are part of an international network which regularly meets for professional development, but also program participants are included in these intellectual exchanges.

The Network and the Program

Currently, Teach for All includes 26 participating countries in every continent: http://teachforall.org/network_locations.html

The involvement of the network in fostering the Colombian program has proven to be decisive in giving the program visibility and support both nationally and overseas.

References

Member of the Teach For All Network

Barber, M., Mourshed, M. (2007) How the world best performing school systems come out on top. Mc Kinsey company. Mondak, M.J. (2004). Influences on teacher selection. Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Stronge, J., Ward, T., Tucker, P., Hindman, J., 2007. What is the Relationship Between Teacher Quality and Student Achievement? An Exploratory Study. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education. 20:165–184.