After 16 years of deploying thousands of motivated college liberal-arts graduates to work in the nation鈥檚 urban and rural schools, Teach For America plans to launch an early-childhood-education initiative this coming fall.
The Teach For America regional office in Washington鈥攚here 15 TFA recruits will begin working in pre-K and Head Start classes in September鈥攚ill serve as the pilot site for the initiative. Another 15 teachers will be added during the 2007-08 school year.
Summer training programs are being updated in Washington to address the distinctive issues related to teaching in early-childhood classrooms.
During the 2007-08 school year, the project is set to kick off nationally, with Teach For America planning to place 150 early-childhood 鈥渃orps members鈥� across the country.
鈥淲e are thrilled to be the incubator for this initiative, because all the research shows that early interventions can make real strides towards closing the achievement gap,鈥� Amy Black, the executive director of the Washington office, wrote in an online newsletter last month.
