The Impact of IRT
Mission
The Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) addresses the lack of diversity in the nation’s teaching faculties by recruiting outstanding college students of color and other scholars committed to diversity, counseling them through the graduate school application process, and advocating for the sufficient funding of advanced study.
Key Features
- Transformative Programming: Year-round advising and application support for aspiring educators pursuing graduate programs and careers in K–12, higher education, and related fields.
- Personal and Professional Development: Support for 7–12 graduate program applications, including advising from two IRT mentors, fee waivers, discounted GRE prep, and access to the IRT Alumni Network.
- Community Partnerships: Connection to 40+ consortium schools that admit and fund IRT students in master’s and PhD programs—key partners in advancing educational equity and diversity.
Our Program
3,000+
Alumni to Date
104
Students Admitted Annually
Over 488
PhD degrees and
1,000+
terminal master's degrees earned by alumni
54%
of 2026 cohort are first-gen college students
93%
of 2026 cohort identify as people of color
Impact and Results
- 71% of the 2025 cohort are matriculating into graduate school
- 41% of the 2025 cohort received full funding to graduate school
- 57% of the 2025 cohort received partial–full funding to graduate school
- 592 grad school applications processed for the 2025 cohort
- 206 PhD degrees in process
- Tenured faculty: 64
- A partial list of institutions where tenured faculty work include: Boston University, Brown University, Cornell, Howard University, MIT, NYU, Northwestern University, University of California – Berkeley, University of Michigan, Sarah Lawrence College, UCLA, and UVA
- Tenure-track faculty: 62
IRT gave me the community, time, and space to think about the type of researcher, educator, and public historian I wanted to be. I feel more than prepared to take on graduate school in the fall and to build a career beyond that.
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I truly cannot imagine having applied to a PhD program without the IRT—from an amazing statement of purpose advisor who reviewed my application materials meticulously to the wonderful advising team who built my confidence through professional development workshops. I truly think the IRT is responsible for why I got into four fully-funded history PhD programs.
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One thing that I love most about the IRT is the community, and that everyone there is willing to help and support you in any way possible.
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Thank You
The Institute for Recruitment of Teachers is primarily funded through the generosity of individual donors. As a result, the program is free of charge for all selected students, which includes individualized support and extensive counseling around graduate school and career goals, application and GRE fee waivers, and course materials. Thank you!
