The Teach For All global network develops leaders in classrooms and the community to ensure that children everywhere have the opportunity to learn. Through a wide-ranging global education partnership, BCG helps Teach For All senior leaders plan strategies and priorities as the organization expands.
Founded in 2007, Teach For All is a global network of 60 independent organizations, including the cofounding organizations Teach For America and the UK’s Teach First. Teach For All and its network partners recruit and develop promising future leaders who commit to teaching for two years in high-need classrooms.
BCG has partnered with Teach For All since 2012 to support the organization’s projects in the US and internationally. We work with Teach For All leaders as they add member organizations to grow the group’s global footprint. As part of our support, BCG posts consultants to temporary assignments as strategy managers with Teach for All or one of its member organizations. In that capacity, BCGers have worked with member organizations in Australia, Austria, Chile, China, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, the UK, and the US.
Mills Schenck
I helped Teach For Uganda refine their growth strategy and develop a fundraising approach and future operational model. In Uganda, aid and expenditure for education is significantly lower than for other sectors, despite a high societal return on investment in education. BCG provided guidance to help Teach For Uganda achieve their funding targets by creating an approach that helps them navigate complexities across funder segments.
One of my biggest takeaways was to listen to the client. It’s also important to interact throughout a project. They have a better understanding of the organization, which allows for continuously refining the hypothesis and leads to better outputs.
I supported Teach For All’s work with a consortium of global development organizations to examine the role of knowledge sharing to achieve the United Nations’ sustainable development goal for education. That goal is to provide a free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education for all by 2030. In the project, we looked at the roles of networks, capacity building, and global public goods in advancing education. We learned from experts, funders, and practitioners, created case studies, and documented our findings.
It was a pleasure working so closely with Teach For All and our partners. The relationships I built along the way have lasted to this day.
I supported two Teach For All meetings for global education and development leaders. In both, the groups identified gaps in the global education ecosystem and opportunities to reform global systems. They looked at how aid funding is biased toward projects that are short term, or more tangible or easier to measure, such as in infrastructure or health. But that approach can overlook the investments in the human capital and networks needed to build local ownership and sustain change. I used BCG’s analytical horsepower to diagnose the problem the group wanted to address and to develop a strategy for how to create change.
The projects taught me the value of visionary leadership and bringing a diverse group to the table. It also taught me the importance of creating a clear, concrete message when asking others to change.
As a Teach For All social impact secondee and strategy manager, I engaged with internal teams and network partners on a variety of projects. Those projects included conducting an organizational efficiency study for network partners, building knowledge materials to support the launch of Teach For All’s Education in Emergencies work, and streamlining internal data to facilitate organization-related reporting.
Teach For All’s intense focus on creating impact, reducing inequity, and promoting inclusion affects everything the organization does. Being part of it made me realize that creating change is best achieved when it’s addressed from multiple angles, coupling locally rooted ownership with globally informed development of collective leadership.
I worked at Teach For All as a social impact secondee and strategy manager. I was in charge of preparing for board meetings, managing organizational transformation, and evaluating global program outcomes and efficiency. I also supported establishing a regional educational fund to accelerate growth of early-stage programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
The initiatives I worked on were key to Teach For All’s plans for the next 10 years. My work in program evaluation and setting up a regional fund strengthened the organization’s global infrastructure and knowledge-sharing platform. My work in organizational transformation helped the group scale while staying close to the communities it serves. Since my time there, Teach For All has expanded by 20%, the fastest growth since the organization started.
The skills I learned at BCG helped me provide added value to the organization. And working with such a mission-driven, forward-looking group motivated me. Driving changes in a nonprofit organization sharpened my consulting skills, making me a more well-rounded manager and leader.
Our top global education partnership consultants work with Teach For All on a variety of projects and initiatives.
This report—coauthored by the Center for Global Education at Asia Society, Results for Development, Teach For All, Boston Consulting Group, and World Innovation Summit for Education—outlines the path forward for effective knowledge sharing in education.
In virtually all countries—developed as well as developing—children in poverty have relatively fewer educational opportunities. How can this nearly universal problem of educational equity be addressed?
