Teach for America

In Connecticut, the problem of educational inequity is pervasive. Of the approximately 545,000 students attending Connecticut’s public schools, one-third live in low-income households and are overwhelmingly students of color. We are building individual and collective leadership in partnership with students, families and communities so that, one day all students in low-income and historically oppressed communities will grow to attain a wide-range of self-determined opportunities in life: opportunities not limited by systemic injustices, but reflecting children’s fulfilled potential.  Our mission is to enlist, develop and mobilize as many as possible of our nation’s most promising leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence. Since 2006, Teach For America – Connecticut has worked across the state, in partnership with many others, to eliminate disparities in access to opportunity and educational outcomes between students growing up in poverty and their more affluent peers. We do so by recruiting and developing a diverse corps of outstanding individuals who commit to teaching for at least two years in high-need schools in our local communities of Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. These individuals go on to impact change through their leadership and over the course of their careers as alumni.