Causes: Community & Neighborhood Development, Economic Development, Education, Elementary & Secondary Schools, Leadership Development, Literacy, Philanthropy, Voluntarism Promotion

Mission: Teach For America''s mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation''s most promising future leaders in the effort. We do this by building a corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in ensuring educational excellence for all children.

Programs: At Teach For America, we are working with a great sense of urgency to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort.

We recruit outstanding recent college graduates of all majors and career interests and working professionals to commit to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools, and we invest in the training and professional development necessary to ensure their success as teachers in our highest-poverty communities.

Our teachers, also called corps members, go above and beyond traditional expectations to lead their students to significant academic achievement, overcoming the challenges of poverty despite the current capacity of the school system. Additionally, in succeeding with their students, corps members show that children in low-income communities and children of color can achieve at high levels, thus influencing the prevailing ideology.

At the same time, we know that teachers who go above and beyond to compensate for the extra challenges facing children and the weaknesses of the system are not the ultimate solution. We believe that the best hope for a lasting solution is to build a massive force of leaders who have the insight and conviction that comes from teaching successfully in low-income communities.

During their two-year commitments, corps members see firsthand that educational inequity is a problem we can solve and gain a grounded understanding of how to solve it. As alumni, they bring strong leadership to every level of the school system and across all fields, working to minimize the extra challenges facing children growing up in low-income communities, build the capacity of schools and school systems, and change the prevailing ideology through their examples and advocacy.