Notable alumni of Teach First include:  As part of the Teach For All network, Teach First is subject to many of the same criticisms levelled at its main partner organisation Teach for America, and offshoots such as Teach First Norway and Teach First New Zealand. Criticisms have been raised about the cost effectiveness of Teach First, with training costs higher per participant when compared to other training routes. Teach First asks for the graduates it recruits to give two years of teaching, and so retention rates for Teach First are lower than other routes into teaching, forty percent of Teach First participants stay in teaching after 5 years compared to much higher percentages (ranging from 62-70%) coming through PGCE and GTP programmes. It is anticipated and accepted that many of them will go on to careers in other sectors (hence the name, Teach First), also described as "teach first, then get a better job". The higher turnover rate and rapidly increasing cohort size of Teach First has been alleged as allowing schools to reduce their costs by employing teaching staff at unqualified teacher pay scales, it has been alleged that Teach First has been targeted by some academy school chains because of this. Teach First has been accused of elitism, and has also been accused of being biased to middle-class applicants within the application process. Teach First participants interviewed as part of an evaluation were predominantly middle‐class, possessing social and cultural capital which had facilitated their access to the Teach First scheme. A Study by London Metropolitan University found some recruits displayed patronising middle-class attitudes, coupled with a belief that they as graduates of prestigious universities, have much to offer but nothing to learn from low-income communities. In 2009 it was reported that Teach First participants were being placed in schools where GCSE grades were above the local and national averages, and not in the worst performing secondary schools. Education Data Surveys analysed the results of all the schools involved in Teach First and found 15 of the 79 London secondaries (19 per cent) had GCSE achievements above their local authority average, and 17 schools had results above the national average. In the North West, five Teach First schools, or 23 per cent, had exam results which were the same or better than the local authority average. In the Midlands, results at five schools, or 18 per cent, were the same or better than the local authority average and two had results at or above the national average, raising the question of why schools with GCSE results up to 80 and 70 per cent were taking part. In response Teach First said that exam results were not the "whole story" of the initiative, and the number of children claiming free school meals was as important in selecting schools to be involved.