Improving Teacher Selection and Student Performance in India

Teach for India (TFI) views itself as a nationwide movement aimed at eliminating inequity in India’s education system. Based on the model of its partner, Teach for America, TFI recruits and places highly qualified young graduates and professionals as full-time teachers in under-resourced municipal and private schools. Since its inception in 2009, TFI has worked with nearly 12,000 children in the cities of Pune, Delhi, and Mumbai through its robust Fellowship program and theory of change. These early years have highlighted the importance of TFI’s ability to consistently recruit talented teachers and leaders in enhancing the program’s impact on students’ outcomes. TFI now seeks to expand its programs in keeping with its long-term vision of eliminating inequity in India’s education system. To fulfill this goal, TFI plans to expand the movement to two additional cites, Chennai and Hyderabad, in the coming year. In November 2011, TFI enlisted the help of a group of SIPA students to evaluate key facets of the TFI program as it embarks on this rapid expansion. The SIPA team was given two related, but separate, tasks: First, it conducted a detailed analysis of the selection methodology based on which TFI hires its Fellows every year. Second, the SIPA team designed a multi-year evaluation study, including survey instruments and an implementation plan to measure TFI’s impact on it students’ non-academic outputs.