Our Mission

The mission of Teach Plus is to improve outcomes for urban children by ensuring that a greater proportion of students have access to effective, experienced teachers.  It is founded on the premise that teachers want to learn and grow in the profession, and want to ensure that their development results in increased learning among their students. In order for schools to continuously improve student achievement, teaching must become a career that motivates and rewards continuous improvement among practitioners.

Why We Exist

Research makes clear that teachers are the most important school-based variable in student success, yet the profession is not organized to reward excellence, promote teacher development, or retain top performers in the classroom.  Nearly half of teachers leave urban schools within their first three years in the classroom—just as they reach their peak effectiveness.[i] Teach Plus addresses the urgent need for effective, experienced teachers in urban classrooms. We work with both results-oriented teachers and education policy leaders in transforming the profession to reward excellence and results.  Our programs focus on demonstrably effective teachers in the second stage of their careers (years 3 through 10) who want to continue classroom teaching while also expanding their impact as leaders in their schools and in national, state, and district policy.

History

Teach Plus began as a pilot in Fall 2007, incubated at the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our goal, then as now, was to engage early career teachers in rebuilding their profession to better meet the needs of students and the incoming generation of teachers. The program began with 16 founding teachers from urban district and charter schools in the Greater Boston area. Teach Plus became an independent 501c3 in August 2009 and has grown to a network of more than 9,000 reform-minded teachers in six cities.

[i] William L. Sanders and June C. Rivers. 1996. Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement. University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center. Knoxville, TN.; Robert Gordon, Thomas J. Kane and Douglas O. Staiger. 2006. Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.