Examining Spillover Effects from Teach for America Corps Members in Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Despite a large body of evidence documenting the effectiveness of Teach For America (TFA) corps members at raising the math test scores of their students, little is known about the program’s impact at the school level. This study reveals that a strategy to “cluster” TFA corps members in some of Miami’s highest-need schools contributed to large gains in student math achievement, but had little impact on reading skills. The authors also found no evidence that the clustering strategy led to any spillover effect on school-wide performance.

The study examined five years of data through the 2012-13 academic year. TFA partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida to supplement the district’s school turnaround efforts.