The text of this article is just a bunch of letters. But when we look at them, they immediately become words. This transformation - the process of reading - is fairly automatic for most college students. We acquired this skill during elementary school, and by now it has become second nature. We take our literacy pretty much for granted.

But not everyone can read.

Some schools lack the resources and the teachers to give students this vital tool. Children who never learn to read, and even those with less extreme deficits in their educational development, endure the bitter consequences for the rest of their lives as they are continually cut off from many jobs and opportunities and often condemned to a marginalized life of poverty.

Distressed by this inequality, many recent college graduates - Brandeis alumni among them - have made it their mission to fill gaps in suffering school districts. And they don't just volunteer once in a while. This is their full-time job.

These young adults are part of Teach for America (TFA), a program of the AmeriCorps national service network that, since its inception in 1990, has recruited college graduates to teach in public schools in the nation's lowest-income communities.

"All it really takes is students trying really hard, parents trying really hard and teachers trying really hard," Shari Ruben '00 said. Ruben taught pre-kindergarten through sixth grade science in P.S. 92, a Harlem, New York elementary school.

TFA teachers, chosen in a highly selective process - there was a 12.5 percent acceptance rate for 2003-2004 - undergo intensive summer training, teach summer school, and are then hired to teach for two years in one of 20 regions nationwide. About half work in elementary schools and half in secondary schools, according to TFA publications. The closest region to Boston is New York City.

TFA corps members dedicate themselves to the job, but they do not sacrifice everything. While teaching, they receive full teachers' salaries, paid directly by the district in which they are employed. "I knew I could support myself ... that was a big pull," Ruben said.

Each year, corps members also receive an education award of $4,725 from AmeriCorps to be put towards past or future educational expenses, though with the uncertain future of government funding for AmeriCorps, this benefit may change. In certain cities, TFA also pays for corps members to receive their Master's degrees in education, either during or after the two-year teaching period.

What defines a TFA school?
Schools are chosen primarily based on the economic situation of the communities they serve. Hilary Stathes, Recruitment Director of TFA's New England Recruitment Team, said that the process begins at the district level. Stathes explained that by examining certain factors, "the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunches, test scores, and teacher turnover rates," TFA and districts collaborate to identify schools in need.

Jonas Chartock, Executive Director of TFA Houston, said that all the Houston schools employing TFA teachers are classified as Title I schools. This means that at least 85 percent of the student body is eligible to receive free or reduced lunch, which "basically equates to high poverty," Chartock said.

According to Stathes, TFA reaches out to principals at the selected schools and explains the mission of TFA. Principals who sign onto the plan usually (though not always) interview corps members before they are placed at the schools, she added.

Abby Zeveloff '02, an anthropology major and currently a TFA teacher at Sherwood Gissens Middle School in North Carolina, said some principals have mixed feelings about TFA teachers. Zeveloff attributed this ambivalence to the fact that corps members are not certified teachers when they begin teaching, and to the reality that many TFA teachers leave the schools after their two years are over.

Similarly, David Zalkin '02, a science teacher at Burnet Elementary School in East Houston, Texas, said that some people resent TFA because the program implies that "you can take people without a formal background in education and put them in a difficult classroom.
"But if you look at the results-and I speak from my own experience-I think they're just being naysayers and not looking at the progress," Zalkin added.

Contrary to these suspicions, most principals believe TFA teachers have a positive impact on schools, according to a June 2003 study conducted by the independent research firm Kane, Parsons & Associates, Inc.
Almost three-quarters (74 percent) of principals surveyed said that TFA teachers are "more effective than other beginning teachers," and 58 percent considered TFA teachers above average "in terms of their impact on student achievement."

Judy Harris, a secretary for 15 years at Lee High School in Houston, Texas, said that students at Lee are a "really neat population," hailing from 70 different countries. "They're bright kids, but they were all being overlooked because they didn't speak English and people thought they didn't know anything," Harris said.

Many students, she said, "think the American dream is working at McDonalds. They think that once they learn how to say, 'Would you like fries with that?' in English, they can leave school.' "

Recently, the school has tried to reverse that attitude, and TFA teachers have played a role, Harris said, adding that principal Steve Amstutz works well with TFA corps members.

With a new college guidance center in addition to the regular guidance counselors, more students are realizing that college is a viable option. Harris described one student whose family almost got deported from the country, but was allowed to stay at the last minute. This student became president of his class and earned a full scholarship to Rice University.
"We've really kept their heads above the water," Harris said.

Meet the teachers
Corps members, though connected by their desire to educate underprivileged children, come to the program with different backgrounds and goals. They need not have majored in a specific subject during college, and though many choose to remain teachers after the program ends, this commitment is by no means required.

Zalkin, a biology major, had originally planned to start medical school right after Brandeis. "I decided that instead of rushing, why not do something I might never have the chance to do again?" he said. He is now applying to medical school, not because he does not value teaching, but because he said he feels he could "do even more by furthering (his) own education."

Ruben was also a biology major at Brandeis, and hoped eventually to work as a physician in an under-resourced community. She said she wanted "to get to know the issues," and she applied to TFA. In addition to teaching science, Ruben served as the HIV educator for the New York Board of Education, training teachers on ways to educate about the virus.

She is now a medical student at the University of Texas, Medical Branch. She also volunteers at a homeless clinic, coordinates AIDS teaching to students and participates in Watch, a program that teaches students about health. Ruben said TFA solidified her ambition to work in a poor community and led her toward pediatrics. She said she may open a health clinic someday.

Zeveloff, who majored in anthropology, said, "I felt that I had such an excellent college education and teachers who cared about me that it was time to be a little bit less selfish."

"It's a symbiotic relationship," she added. Both she and her students are exposed to a new lifestyle through her teaching position. Zeveloff is currently applying for Master's programs in public health, an interest that was confirmed by her time with TFA.

Leo Fuchs '98, a sociology major, stayed at Brandeis for an additional year after graduation and earned a M.B.A. in Policies and Programs for Children, Youth and Families (CYF). He then worked at an educational policy institute in Washington.

"I decided if I was serious about education, I had to at least teach for a little while," Fuchs said.

In the fall of 2000, through TFA, he began teaching special-education math at Frick Middle School in Oakland, Calif. Fuchs decided to stay at Frick after his TFA term ended, and he is currently in his fourth year. Last year, he said, his students rose two grade levels in math.

These teachers said Brandeis helped propel them towards TFA. During college, "I was surrounded by other people who felt change was possible," Fuchs said. "Brandeis nurtured my sense of ability to, and efficacy of making a change in the world."

Zalkin, who was involved with Waltham Group while at Brandeis, said he values TFA because it provides a "chance to move beyond all the rhetoric and actually get out, and through blood, sweat and tears, actually do something."

No one said it would be easy
TFA is incredibly challenging, according to all participants. The largest obstacle, Zalkin said, is that students, teachers, and administrators have low expectations for the students. "It's almost subconscious," he said.
To Zeveloff, the most difficult part was a lack of training and teaching experience. She also cited a teacher shortage and overly large class sizes for difficulties in controlling the classroom and reaching the students.

Even though he said he feels compassion for his students, Zalkin added that TFA teachers should not "befriend the kids and be their buddies." Rather, he continued, "it's about tough love ... I really believe that by holding these high expectations, in the end they'll benefit."

"The educational system seemed designed for failure,"Fuchs said. On his first day of work, Fuchs' mentor - the teacher assigned to train him - told him, "These kids can't learn."This was very upsetting, he said, and pointed to an inherent mental barrier.

The district and the educational system are "constantly making teachers jump through more and more hoops, making them want to leave,"Fuchs added, stressing the importance of TFA teachers in a demoralized district.

"My kids are all kids who have failed over and over again,"Fuchs, who teaches remedial math, continued. "They're afraid to try. I taught them how important it is to make mistakes,"he said.

Ruben also discussed the poor social skills she saw in her students. "They didn't know how to deal with others,"she said. Even before teaching science, she taught them how to work together and resolve conflicts. When she taught students to walk down the hall in a straight line, they had to repeat the task countless times. "Practice, practice, practice. It might take an hour the first time, but you'll get it eventually,"she said. "You can't let things slide."

Poverty is also a devastating part of the students' daily lives. Zalkin recounted a girl who was unable to purchase school supplies until her mother, a fast-food worker, received her paycheck. "She's such a sweet kid and she works really hard, but the odds are against, her,"Zalkin said.

Students are so hungry that "they can't do their work or think,"Ruben said.

But it's worth it
Even though the task is formidable, TFA teachers say they do see encouraging results. TFA teachers become role models for the students. This is especially true for Zalkin as a male, he said, "because a lot of these kids don't have positive male role models."

"I demonstrate responsibility to them, and commitment, and a love of learning,"Zalkin said. "A lot of it is leading by example."

Each TFA teacher told success stories: improved rapport between teacher and students, students who came for extra help and grasped a new concept, students who expressed aspirations to be engineers or marine biologists, students who decided they wanted to go to college, students who won the school's first-ever science fair and went on to the district fair, higher test scores, an increase in self-confidence and overall progress in displaying appropriate classroom behavior.

Fuchs described a class trip to the Electronic Arts (EA) headquarters. "Although almost every student claimed to want to be a music producer, rap star, NFL star or NBA player before the trip, when the guide asked who wanted to work at EA someday at the end of the trip, every hand went up,"said Fuchs.

The situation, however, is not perfect. Fuchs and Ruben described tension with other teachers, especially during their second year with TFA, when they held leadership positions in their schools - both became chairs of their academic departments. To keep the peace with older, more experienced teachers, Ruben said she stayed very humble. "They had been teaching for 30 years. Some of them had gone to this school as kids. They knew the community,"she said.

Zeveloff said she does not feel she had sufficient training. "I didn't feel very secure,"she explained. "I didn't feel like an expert at all. I felt exactly how I was - a recent college graduate who didn't know much at all about teaching."Now, in her second year of teaching, Zeveloff said she has adjusted and developed more effective teaching strategies.

With the opposite perspective, Zalkin said he did not feel at a huge disadvantage coming in without a teaching degree. During his first year teaching, Zalkin, along with all other TFA Houston participants, went through an alternative certification program, but he said that the hands-on experience was more helpful. "It's not rocket science,"he said. "It's more getting in there and having strong interpersonal skills and being a leader, learning by doing."

TFA teachers are not magicians, and their schools still fall far behind wealthy, suburban schools. But without them, struggling schools would have fewer teachers, and might be even worse off. The role of a TFA teacher, therefore, is to be as resourceful, creative and diligent as possible and bring each student to a higher level.

"Your job is to make the green peas seem like chocolate cake,"Ruben said.