That is but one sign of the New Teacher Project's growing influence in the teacher-recruitment arena. The nonprofit consulting group has been credited with producing dramatic gains in both teacher applications and hires in a number of U.S. cities. Not coincidentally, it's also behind many of the highly popular alternative-certification programs popping up around the nation with names like the New York City Teaching Fellows and Teach Baton Rouge.

TNTP was started in 1997 as an offshoot of Teach for America, the private Peace Corps-style program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in hard-to-staff schools. The group's mission is to partner with school districts to build on Teach for America's experience in recruiting and training teachers.

The idea has clearly met with a receptive audience. TNTP now has contracts with more than 20 districts nationwide, and has expanded from eight employees in 2000 to more than 65 today. According to Ariela Rozman, the group's vice president for marketing, TNTP has helped place about 6,500 teachers since its start, and brought in some 3,500 last year alone.

TNTP's most conspicuous role is in setting up alternative programs modeled on Teach for America. Combining aggressive marketing with intensive, fast-track training opportunities, these sometimes controversial programs aim to bring talented noneducation majors—particularly restless "mid- career professionals"—into the teaching ranks. They have generally yielded far more applications than they have open spots.

Yet TNTP also provides more traditional consulting services. For example, it helps districts develop targeted recruiting strategies and materials, streamline hiring and selection practices, and implement data-tracking tools. By reports, it has had marked success in helping some districts attract traditional education majors.

TNTP stresses that its recruitment strategies are specifically tailored to individual school districts' aims. Still, some general themes are apparent in its work. Where noneducation majors are concerned, for example, the group's marketing materials—like Teach for America's—make strong appeals to prospective teachers' idealism. They cast teaching as a uniquely meaningful profession in which caring and purposeful adults can make a difference. In keeping with that message, TNTP targets individuals with strong leadership characteristics.

Relying heavily on market research and focus-group studies, the group also employs innovatively personalized outreach efforts. In a campaign for an alternative program in Washington, D.C., for example, rather than attending job fairs, the group "leafleted local coffee shops, bookstores, and volunteer groups that tend to attract professionals," according to a 2001 Education Week article. When targeting education majors—who, according to Rozman, "are often distrustful of glossy brochures or other district marketing materials"—TNTP has been known to hire current teachers to serve as "ambassadors" for a client district. These teachers travel to area education schools and encourage students to check out their district.

TNTP's various programs are not without their critics. Some question the preparedness of teachers hired through alternative programs and the message such programs may send about the profession's standards. The group's underlying methods, however, are clearly instructive.

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