TFA is not only getting more power in public school systems, it is finding its way into colleges and universities now. Seattle is an example given below.
Teach for America may have started out as a good idea...a way to provide extra help for inner city schools and the needs of the children there. But like charter schools which originally were touted by education union leaders as a special help school for those who needed it....goals become changed and twisted when corporations enter the picture. A column from the
University of Oklahoma's independent student newspaper points out the problem:
Those who are thinking of participating in Teach for America with a social justice mission in mind should consider this. Although a far more daunting task for sure, those really interested in social justice should consider ways of solving problems like unavoidable unemployment and low-wage jobs.
On top of failing to make a dent in poverty, Teach for America actually detracts from social justice by hurting real teachers. Teach for America students take low, entrance-level pay while also receiving a government subsidy for their salary in the form of Americorps stipends. Schools lay off teachers and then hire Teach for America teachers to fill positions that real teachers would otherwise be filling. Teach for America teachers are undercutting the wage needs of real teachers and causing them to be laid off as a result.
Imagine this: a well-off college student takes a subsidized teaching position at an impossibly low wage and displaces actual teachers who might already be struggling to get by — all for social justice! For anyone who has any concern for labor rights, this is extremely abusive. Not undercutting wage demands of often unionized workers is rule number one of how to be a serious social justice advocate.
In sum, Teach for America is not nearly as good of an idea as it first sounds. It has a limited effect on the poor students it reaches, does nothing to solve systemic problem which cause the poverty it is trying to combat and causes the unemployment of real teachers who might need a job. If you choose to do Teach for America, do it to build your resume, not out of a concern for social justice.
Here is an article about how Teach for America graduates, with 5 weeks' training, can gain a foothold in a school system. There is help from the administrators in that district. There are people in place in many school districts who are willing to pay the 2 to 3 thousand dollars to recruit these TFA trainees. And there are companies willing to provide the price of their recruitment, 2 to 3 thousand dollars.
Just think, teachers can be hired locally for free and with full degrees.
From the Herald Sun, Durham, NC:
DPS may get Teach for America helpWhile the budget picture looks no more pleasant than it has in past years, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Jacqueline Ellis said the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, a Raleigh-based nonprofit, has offered to cover the $3,000-per-teacher placement fee that TFA would have charged the district for the 15 teachers.
The positions that TFA teachers would fill are among 21 made available by retirements, resignations and transfers.
I doubt all the transfers were voluntary, and early retirement is up greatly because of fears by teachers of what is coming their way.
The 15 teachers primarily would be placed in math, science and exceptional children's classes -- all of which can be difficult to fill, especially in a low-performing school like Neal. TFA would also like to offer training to traditionally trained teachers who are already at the school.
That is disturbing to me that they would make it sound like there are not enough teachers of the traditional type to fill those positions. It is simply not true. I do not like the way they refer to "traditionally trained" teachers needing TFA training. That is positively nervy.
I was a "traditionally trained" teacher in a low-performing school. The teachers there loved the kids, and we did our best. We were "trained" quite well, thank you. All of us had "training" far beyond what TFA grads have. We did not need college grads with 5 weeks' training in teaching coming in to "retrain" us or whatever they call it. It's insulting.
More. I find this paragraph insensitive and ignorant about the abilities of teachers already in the system.
A big piece of Neal's program would be the training for veteran teachers - it's all about changing the mind-set of teachers to believe that every student can succeed, Lakis said. He said TFA is still working out the framework for the training program.
Again...do you see that? They are planning on bringing in TFA recruits with 5 weeks' training to tell experienced teachers how to teach and think.
That is a very ugly talking point being tossed around by the reformers...that teachers do not believe every student can succeed. It's dangerous, but unfortunately it's working.
Also interesting is how a university dean in Seattle is planning a dual level training program. I doubt those struggling to get masters' degrees will be feeling much love toward the TFAers spending 5 weeks.
Teach for America in Seattle..Tracing the big push from a University of Washington deanInto the TFA fray comes Tom Stritikus, the dean of the University of Washington's College of Education and a former TFAer himself, with the creation of a partnership between the college and TFA for the recruits to earn their teaching certificate.
A timeline of this partnership is shown, and the way it ends up is shown in emails from May 18.
May 18: The dean calls a meeting with College of Education students and faculty. In the meeting announcement he stated, "I want to assure you that this new partnership will not result in a reduction in the commitment of the college to prove our current and future MIT students with a high-quality, cutting edge teacher education program." He also told his grad students that creating the TFA program had been "a goal" of his for a long time.
Consider this: You are enrolled in what is considered a top college of education in the nation. It is a rigorous master's program where you take a year of courses and a year of in-school teaching. It could take longer than two years and, of course, it's going to cost you thousands of dollars. You learn that the dean has set up a partnership with a group that "trains" recruits for five weeks and then sets them loose in their own classrooms. It seems at odds with your program and you wonder what is going on.
But wait, it gets better.
At the meeting, Stritikus said that he would pick one of his own UW-trained grads over a TFA-trained recruit. He further said that his own grads had a "moral obligation" to help students in TFA classrooms because TFA teachers aren’t as well-trained as UW College of Education grads.
He admits the TFA teachers aren't as well-trained, but the district is using them to replace veteran teachers and those who were transferred.
Huffington Post's Sue Peters tells more about the reaction to this program from the students in Dean Tom Stritikus' master's program:
Seattle's Education Reform HypocrisyHow could anyone find this double-standard even remotely fair? It isn't. Furthermore, how can Stritikus, a TFA alum and loyal supporter of the enterprise, not show favoritism towards the TFA-ers? So there's a potential conflict of interest problem as well.
This hypocrisy was highlighted at a tense and emotional meeting last week between Dean Stritikus and his M.A. students, which was covered by the local news. Understandably, Stritikus' current students had a lot of questions.
Why is Stritikus and U.W. bending over backward to accommodate TFA? Here are a couple of clues. Stritikus himself is a TFA alum with very little primary and secondary teaching experience. So he comes into the equation with a potential bias and perhaps limited understanding of the true demands of the field. He became dean only last September, coincidentally right before Seattle's school superintendent introduced a proposal to bring Teach for America to Seattle. Then-Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson was trained by the pro-privatizing Broad Foundation which has vowed to help institutionalize Teach for America in the nation's public schools system, and until recently, was a member of its board of directors -- alongside Wendy Kopp, CEO of TFA.
It's amazing how easy it is when you don't have to answer to those whom you are serving.
The education majors there are not happy. They called a meeting with the Dean of Education. Here is the video.
UW education majors speak out against 'fast-track' teaching groupStudents at the University of Washington are concerned about the school's relationship with "Teach for America," so they arranged a meeting with the Dean of Education. Right now, Ed majors have to complete a year of student teaching before they can head up a classroom of their own. But a new partnership puts "Teach for America" students on the fast track. Many UW students feel they're the ones being left behind. KING 5's Meg Coyle reports.
Sue Peters at Huff Post goes on to report that "More recently, a trove of hundreds of documents and e-mails between Stritikus and Teach for America has emerged, revealed by the public disclosure requests of two parent activists, one a local education blogger, the other the public schools parent of a child with special needs, one of the categories of children TFA plans to focus on in Seattle."
She states that these reveal that Stritikus had plans, dating back from at least since his appointment last fall, to ease the way for the introduction of TFA to Seattle using his new position at U.W. to do so.
Both President Obama and Arne Duncan are supportive of TFA. In fact Arne Duncan spoke at TFA's 20th anniversary. The words of Arne were covered by Gary Rubenstein at his TFA blog. It is quite interesting. It shows how the reformers have gotten the politicians to twist the truth to the point of lies. The article is called
Same Kids, Same Building, Same LiesPretty amazing and convincing that all we need is harder working teachers to overcome poverty and turn failing schools into wildly successful ones. Unfortunately, it’s a lie. This is what happens: Charters exaggerate (lie) about their stats then the stats get used to convince politicians and billionaires to change public policy. The fact that Duncan is using this story shows that this farce goes all the way to the top. Surely Obama believes this story.
When I heard it, it sounded pretty far fetched. So I did a little bit of Diane Ravitch style investigative reporting to get to the truth behind that facade.
According to this article, it was not the ‘same children’ attending Urban Prep as would have attended Englewood High School. They had the typical lottery which excludes certain families. It also had a mandatory three week program for students who got accepted, which eliminated even more students. And then, they did the typical ‘weeding out’ of kids who weren’t performing. Also, how could it be, literally, the ‘same children’ if Urban Prep is all-male while Englewood High was co-ed?
So really it's a matter of getting your players in positions of power and getting the media on board with you. Leaders of both parties are supportive, so there will be no opposing voices.
Then all you have to watch out for are a handful of bloggers pointing out the reality of what is going on.
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