This just arrived in my email box. The writer signed her name:
There has been so much debate about educational reform and about Michele Rhee and her Students First organization. I am compelled to describe my experience this past June with the Rhode Island Teaching Fellows Program, a Rhee brainchild. The Teaching Fellows work along the same lines of The New Teacher Project but the Teaching Fellows is an alternative route to teacher certification. The premise is to attract people from the public sector and after 5 weeks of training they will be employed as first year’s teachers in high needs urban schools. The catch phrase is “Let’s close the achievement gap” and get your teaching certification in an alternative route program-well yes I know all about the achievement gap and only starting to realize all the components at work and I decided to re-enter school to become a teacher and this program sounded perfect. I could not have been more wrong!
We start week one learning this militant type tactics of behavioral control-such as “Do it again” “Do it now” and “Slant” to name just a few-we practice this over and over again in a highly structured environment where our every move is scheduled and monitored. We are told where to sit, when to stand and when to speak-they occasionally mix up the tables I believe so friendships are not formed and “talk” starts. We have lunch in groups with our coaches. We are actually scheduled to meet with our coaches for “debriefing” where we are told not to talk and only answer with yes and no. We watch videos of children in which these tactics are employed in other States.
Students are drilled on how to line up, hands by side, mouths closed-told which way to turn and what muscle to move next. They are instructed like they are in the military or prison. All the kids in the video are of course black-these behavioral control tactics are of course not utilized in white schools. A strict agenda is posted in the morning requiring us to adhere to it without question. We are at this point working 16 hours a day and not thinking clearly at all. We are then told to start working on lesson plans that we will implement in the field experience component in the evening and e-mail them to our coach for a review. This lesson planning has to be evidently self-taught as I have taken no education courses, which is one of the requirements of the program.
The second week of the program we begin the field experience component is a 4 week 2.5 hour class consisting of students requiring summer school to recover credits. These are the very students we are supposed be so concerned about with the achievement gap. After 1 week of training we are individually thrown in front of this class of 22, still being monitored by training team members. I will argue that I am NOT an effective teacher after one week of training and these kids WILL suffer because of it. By the third day, 6 of my students were not in class and I believe they will ultimately drop out and as an inexperienced RI Teaching Fellow I am completely responsible; it is reprehensible what we are doing to these kids.
At the end of this 5 week period we are then placed in an urban school where we are allowed to teach under an emergency teaching certification. At this point we are required to join the TNTP academy where throughout out the year we attend classes and workshops to get our own teaching certification after one year. So the premise is that to qualify for the $5500 educational grant through AmeriCorps you must work in a high need urban school in Rhode Island, what is called the urban4-Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and Central Falls. These are exactly the only districts we are allowed to apply to. We are also enrolled in AmeriCorps and will receive our educational grant of $5500 after one year of service.
The cost of this TNTP academy is $6ooo-hmmm…so I will argue that the Teaching Fellows Program doesn’t care one bit about closing the achievement gap but in fact victimizes our low income minority students to achieve their own agenda which is enrollment in the TNTP academy and to fill their own pockets with outlandish salaries. . I saw advertisements on employment agencies sites for jobs within the Teaching Fellows organization paying anywhere between $60-and $78,000.00 per year-a lot of income to certify perhaps 20 teachers a year in the State of Rhode Island and my guess is less than half of those will stay in the high needs urban public schools. When I began the program there where 28 fellows; I was the fourth to drop out by the eighth day. I believe this organization is syphoning money from public education grants to serve their own purposes and the students that are being harmed are the low income black and brown students in these high needs urban schools. Michelle Rhee and this organization need to be stopped. I have decided to continue on and obtain my M.A.T. and become an effective teacher the proper way in two years and not destroy the lives of unsuspecting students on my way. I am continually looking for ways to expose this organization for what it is and hope it’s days are numbered before any more harm is done to these students.
–Theresa Laperche
Thanks Theresa for sharing your story. I am very familiar with the DC Teaching Fellows program.
This is horrible….just when you think you have heard it all. How could this be allowed? Who monitors this program? This account should make it into the national media. Everything Rhee touches is poison.
Theresa, I am glad you are speaking out and I hope your plans work out for you.
Did I read/understand correctly that having had NO teaching program experience is a requirement of this teaching program?
Having no experience as a teacher is the requirement for teach NOLA as well.
Yes, you cannot have a teaching license or degree in teaching or any classroom experience to apply to the RITF program. And the fellows are teaching in classrooms that are NOT high need as well, like ELA and History, just b/c the districts have to set aside so many positions solely for the program to fill.
yes it is- we are NOT allowed to have more than 6 credits in education course to be accepted.
This is because they want to be able to control you. If you had
experience or any education background, you would question their practices. They don’t respect you or the kids. You serve their purposes…to replace the higher paid experienced teachers so they Can lower the labor costs….more money for top positions. Teachers are to control the kids while prepping for test taking…nothing more
than that. I am glad you got out and I wish you the best. Look for a teacher with experience and he or she will help you. Run from the reformer types who taught for two years and then proclaim themselves to be experts.
Hello…I stumbled upon this blog when I “Googled” the program since receiving emails regarding Teaching Fellows openings in the Ft.Worth area. I have a B.A. in English from CSU, Chico (2010). English Education was my major until my last semester, spring ’10, so I completed all of my education courses except the internship and capstone. Thank you for posting this blog with the truth; I heard about AmeriCorp while in class, as well as other horrors of certain programs. It is true that the “big ed businesses” don’t like people who are previously exposed to teaching practices so they can mold them into accepting whatever is thrown their way. Teaching remedial reading is why I returned to finish college after raising three children to responsible adulthood, but the reading program was suspended by CSU, Chico due to “budget cutbacks.” We are moving to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area from northern California this June/July to be near our two oldest children who now live there. The youngest will come with us for a better life and a job! I am going to pursue a position as a reading teacher aide or similar position to make a difference in people’s lives. Thank you for sharing this blog. It has help immensely.
They don’t want you to know anything,coming in, so you can be indoctrinated in their way. A veteran teacher would have got up, the first hour, and run, screaming, from the room. Especially a high school teacher. We do not like to be told where to sit!
A “change agent” cannot successfully mold the mind of the INFORMED.
Theresa, thank you for your courage and good luck to you in your studies! You made the right move. These fly by night organizations will be their own undoing because you can only keep a charade going for so long. In the meantime we will spread the word and hurry their destruction along.
Yes, forward Theresa’s story far and wide….everyone should read her account. Thank you Theresa!
Do I understand correctly that each fellow personally pays $6,000 to be enrolled in the RI Teaching Fellows program?
after the initial 5 week training program we receive a $2,000 pre-tax stipend-we are then required to join the TNTP Academy which is $6,000 for the year. Only upon completion do we receive our teaching certification at the end of the year. In the mean time we are working as teachers in schools. Seems like they are putting the cart before the horse and the students are the ones to suffer the consequences.
Theresa,
Please e-mail me, I was a fellow in the latest cohort of NYC Teaching Fellows and will be quitting the program also. I completely agree with what you said and have documented my experiences in the program as well. I am working on a research paper on how ineffective this program is. I would love to include testimonies from fellows across the country. Please fellows speak out, these students deserve to receive a high quality Education, it is a universal right. Theresa thank you for sharing this!
Thank you for posting this info!
What a travesty! Although I don’t think that any kind of inanity in education would shock me at this point. Why don’t we just privatize all of our schools so some people make LOTS of money and NO child gets an education… The rich get richer and everyone else gets poorer.
This is absolutely a misrepresentation of the summer training. Diane, I have a lot of respect for you and have followed you for many years. If you can push this out with such disregard for the truth, I have to question the rest of your platform and ideas. You are a published author and while you may not have the responsibility to fact check here, you do know journalistic best practices.
There is no such thing as Do it Now. Do It Again is a technique that helps students practice routines and asks them to stop it and repeat as soon as it goes wrong. How many teachers have told a class to sit back down and try again when they are noisy lining up for dismissal? SLANT is an acronym that sets the expectation that students sit up straight and pay attention to their teacher when they are talking.
These are some of the techniques from Doug Lemov\’s book, Teach Like a Champion. Heres the link: http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Like-Champion-Techniques-Students/dp/0470550473
The book offers the magic formula that the best teachers already know and should be read by all teachers – especially those who wallow in schools with unskilled administrators and no professional development. It would take a teacher a dozen years to learn these through trial and error and observations. These Fellows will be ready with these skills on day one.
I agree the tone of preservice training can be intense sometimes. But with such a momentous goal and the gravity of preparing bright, talented and energetic teachers for the challenges of teaching in an tough urban school in seven weeks, it is justified.
And these Fellows – the ones that can hack it- will be ready to teach day one and will truly be master teachers by 2013-14. Then it\’s up to the city and administration to pay and retain them after that.
I wonder if they use these techniques at Sidwell
Friends in DC with the Obama girls. We have already discussed the Lemov book and other charter prison prep training tips No need to defend the indefensible.
“Teach Like a Champion”, “The book offers the magic formula”
I have no desire nor need to teach like a “champion” whatever the hell a “champion” teacher is (but the idea sells the book). There is no “magic formula”, maybe some tips and advice but until one experiences the day in and day out interactions of the classroom one can’t begin to fathom the hundreds of choices that teachers make about classroom management on a daily basis. I’ve not read the book but have read many classroom “management” books over the years but it sure sounds like a “training” manual and not a “teaching” one. Canned approaches inevitably fail.
“These Fellows will be ready with these skills on day one. . . and will truly be master teachers by 2013-14″. So after one year of teaching they “will truly be master teachers”. Good thing I didn’t have a mouthful of tea or I would have wet my computer screen. Let’s ask the “Fellows” that stick around for ten years of teaching (good luck finding any) if they think that they were “master teachers” after their first year.
Marcus, I have some beautiful ocean front property down at the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri that I can sell you quite cheaply. Let me know if you’re interested!
Thats the kind of thing they pump into Teach for America that they are smarter than the real teachers and better than they are. The TFAs believe it and come in arrogant until some grubby five year old knocks them down to size.
it doesn’t matter what the program is or is not. NOBODY should be allowed to teach on their own after only five weeks of training. And if Gist manages to get these hacks labelled as highly qualified, then I will be livid. Why have I invested so much of my time and money in becoming a teacher if this is the only way to actually be in a classroom???
@iTeacherLady – You’d be surprised at what Gist can do. Here she is on video attempting to break a kissing record in Washington, DC. BTW she was married when attempting this record..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/18/AR2009021803387.html
They do certify them in Louisiana and they have to be highly qualified under NCLB
“MAGIC FORMULA.”
You, sir, are either delusional— “MASTER TEACHERS BY 2013!”— or selling Snake Oil.
Step away from the children, please.
Let the real champion teachers teach the children and teach other teachers.
You must be employed by one of those outfits. It takes YEARS to become a good or great teacher. A few little weeks doesn’t cut it. Bright and energetic, whatever those mean, don’t cut it in public school education if you don’t have any real classroom experience.
3 years after an education degree. Sometimes 5 for special ed. You learn how to teach in college. You become a teacher when you teach and apply what you have learned. The first year is hell. The second you are more comfortable. By year three you are pretty good if you have stuck to the same grade or disability. Then the good ones go back and get a Masters.
AMEN! Enthusiasm and energy are the icing on the cake. If there is no cake, eating only icing can give you a stomach ache. And as for bright, well some very good teachers are not as bright but they know what they are doing and can relate to the difficulties the kids are having. Experience counts for a whole lot. Our department head in New Orleans had ADHD and worked a second job and was involved in her church. She was an excellent EBD teacher because she knew how her kids felt and had the energy to keep up with them. She had challenged her own challenge through years of experience.
That kind of teaching does not work for all kids or for all teachers. A teacher has to know when to be structured, when to stimulate creativity, thinking and conversation and when and who to hug. Some kids respond to high structure, but I always found that inner city kids responded to sincerity and genuine caring. They need teachers to love them and to expect them to to achieve and behave, not to boss them around all the time.
It has always made me sick to see a young mother walking with her children with a switch in her hand constantly threatening and cajoling them and never explaining that flower,rock or worm—just screaming, “Put that down”. That is what “teachers” in that program are going to be like if they follow the training, like inexperienced young mothers who don’t just relax and enjoy the beautiful gifts of God that their children/students are.
Marcus, Diane doesn’t need to fact check a person first-hand account.
I agree. Why would this lady make this up and sign her name? Have a friend in Providence schools. Will run it by her.
“The book offers the magic formula that the best teachers already know and should be read by all teachers –”
“magical… “?
This is an example of “magical thinking.”
Come on… even the least knowledgable corporate stooge knows that
he / she is supposed to deny the existence of “silver bullets” or “magic formulae” to teaching. Get with the script!
Here’s the medical definition:
“magical thinking: the erroneous belief… that thoughts assume a magical power capable of influencing events without a physical action actually occurring; a conviction that thinking equates with doing, accompanied by an unrealistic understanding of cause and effect;.”
“Examples Dreams in children, in primitive peoples, and in patients under various conditions
Segen’s Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.”
Just saying or thinking that some too-good-to-be-true “magical” solution or strategy will work does not make it so.
Thanks for the ‘magical’ explanation, Jack. I was drafting a response but right now I’m functioning on brain fumes. Good job! Magical. I love it. Later tonight Marcus, I’ll be wishing away war, hunger, and poverty. Care to join me?
Magical thinking is also part of the developmental level of 4-7 year olds. They think that if they wish, think, or talk about something that it will happen. (They often think that if someone dies it is because they were mad at them.) Sounds like Lemov thinks his thought and words will magically cure the problems of Education.
I just don’t like the arrogant and condescending tone of your response. The hubris of youth, I guess. What other explanation could there be?
I do like your goals and aspirations for the fellows, a Master Teacher by 2014- a bit lofty and definitely cocky. Not achievable in one year. No way. There is no “magic formula”.
Sorry for the digression. Now for my response to this Disneyesque description of teaching magic that these fellows and Marcus, I guess can provide to our children.
I hope the training has changed since Summer 2007 when I had a ‘fellow’ teach, or attempt to teach. She was a disaster. To say she was ill prepared was an understatement. She refused to take any suggestions from me or the students. (They eventually rebelled during one of her observations).
She refused to meet any of the members of her school’s teaching or security staff who were at the school where she was placed that summer. She said she would wait until September to meet the teachers and mumbled that she probably wouldn’t need to call the security staff since she felt she would have excellent classroom management skills.(Never mind that the classroom was in the basement, the students represented three neighborhood crews and they outweighed her by about seventy pounds.) No, she was quit capable and competent. At this point I gave up on her. She knew it all and there was nothing anyone could do to change her mind.
I guess everything was too intense for her. She never reported to school. Until they closed this school down- she was absent. Truant. A no show- and that was probably the smartest thing she has ever done.
Anyway, the description Theresa Laperche gives of the fellows program is
strikingly familiar.
My department head carries the title of master teacher. She is working on a second masters degree and has taught for over 20 years. My mentor teacher has been teaching over 10 years. I am starting my 5th year of teaching and not a day goes by when I dont seek their counsel. I am a product of a local alternative prep program. These folks that set it up are current teachers and have degrees in education. The director has her PhD and she assigns you a mentor who works with you throughout your first year along with your campus assigned mentor. The program is short (3 months) but these folks make sure you dont flounder that crucial first year. We take classes at night and are mentored very thouroughly. And after that first year they still hold alumni meets to see how we are doing and work with the local union to solve issues regarding our districts. In all the time I was in prep I never heard them say that teaching had a magic formula. They always said to seek the experienced teachers at our campus and to foster our education and professional development. I feel lucky to be an educator. And one thing for sure is I have learned a lot in 5 years. And by no means do I consider myself a master teacher.Especially not after my first year. I am sure that will happen a long time from now when I gather something called…what was that word again? Oh yes. I believe it is experience!!
Wow, ready to go day 1? Really? I was a fellow and have worked alongside some amazing teachers, fellows, veterans, and folks from degree programs. I would say that true champion teachers are reflective practitioners who realize that a book or any amount of training, much less five weeks, is never enough to make them ‘ready to go day 1′. You are always growing and learning as a teacher and if you are done learning after five weeks, you are not set out for teaching.
Where did Marcus go? Is he not willing to defend his stance? First we had the crazy $5 gift card lady and now this. The Rheeject is running a circus.
Once again a technique that sounds like it came from special education. A special educator or psychologist named Marc Gold had a technique for teaching skills and routines to special needs kids, especially older ones called TRY ANOTHER WAY. This was repeated until the kid got it right. It was popular in the late 1970s.
I notice there is no last name to this comment nor is there a link. Makes me disregard the comment.
What a joke, “magic formula,” you are clueless. This was a very accurate representation of these programs and they must be stopped.
Thanks Theresa. I teach in Providence, and I can’t imagine any school allowing teachers to treat kids this way. I know in my high school these tactics would never be sanctioned. Good Luck with your MAT.
And to think that the Great Reformer Adamowski advocates alternative routes of certification in CT. Unbelievable!
Could you imagine this: “Nurse Like a Champion” or “Doctor Like a Champion” and a program that asks us to pay $6000 so that they can train us to be master doctors and nurses in 5 weeks?? I wonder if that would fly. The New Doctor Project…sounds catchy…and absolutely no medical experience in order to get in! What say you?
That’s a good one okaikor!!
okaikor – Thank goodness we can joke about these programs. For now. Forever I hope. I love the $6,000 payment. What a scam. Have to give it to Rhee. Seems more like a bribe to become a teacher.
Unfortunately in DC, the TNTP can certify teachers for standard teaching licenses. Again, it sure sounds like a bribe to me. But hey. I’m a cynic.
I want to make clear that the 6,000 is for the licensure coursework a fellow takes to GET their license. It isn’t simply forking over 6,000 to get a paper.
Strangely enough that is what a lot of the for-profit private colleges do. They train medical assistants, nurses and other professionals in a short term program that licenses them quickly in return for a lot of federal money. An experienced nurse at a local hospital says that they can be a problem because they have techniques, but no grounding, no background. They know what to do but not why to do it nor any way to judge what they are doing. These schools are now under scrutiny by the federal government for high default rates on student loans and using a majority of the money they receive for marketing and paying recruiters instead of for teachers. Sound familiar?
Well, let’s let that just graduated high school student do this. By the sounds of it, they could. Think of just the lack of life’s experiences let alone the maturity that one should have when entering a classroom of students like Theresa was ‘teaching”. Just cruel to her and to the students involved. Our deformers think this kind of teacher training is going to close the achievement gap? Goodness, they are drinking too much kool-aide. Theresa, I’m so glad you saw the light and left the program. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s hard to believe this is a program that is still surviving.
And it could and will happen. In the charter schools just authorized to get state money in the voucher program in Louisiana, the teachers do not have to have a college education. John White said that they want to have as view regulations on them as possible. Oh, but they have 4 years in which to screw up the kids before they can lose their funding. So we could see 18 year olds teaching, we 17 year olds. Or maybe 21 year olds considering how NCLB has held back so many students and left 16 year olds in middle school for not passing the tests.
The line about teacher training was snuck in under an unrelated topic in the 1000 page bill, by the way. The legislators only had the bill for two weeks before Bobby Jindal’s thugs pushed it up as the first agenda for the legislative session.
SLANT is used by Match and by Relay. These techniques come out of the charters. Lemov is a big wheel in Uncommon charters. Read about more techniques here
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/some-scary-training-for-teachers/2012/07/25/gJQAzXyJAX_blog.html
These include telling teachers to ‘pounce like a cat’ on misbehavior and to be a “bad ass”. Relay is now training NYC teaching fellows and pushing out schools of Ed. Theresa, good luck to you and don’t give up on being a teacher because of this experience.
I was part of the Orleans Parish Teaching Fellows program, which I later found out was part of the New Teachers Project, in 2004. At that time is was not an alternate certification program but one that was intended to attract CERTIFIED teachers to the Orleans Parish schools. We came from all over America. They did not put us through any militaristic crap but did give us a week of professional development. By the end of the year, however, something happened to the Teaching Fellows contract and then, of course in the fall, Katrina came and that opened the flood gates to the charters and Teach for America.
I always find it interesting that only urban inner city children are subjected to miliartaristic education. They are also forced to wear uniforms. The message, I wonder if it has gotten to the children yet seems to be “There is something wrong with you because you are poor. You don’t know how to dress. You don’t know how to act. You are too stupid to learn like normal children, so you have to be taught differently from richer children and have conformity and discipline drilled into your little heads”.
I have thought about doing a charter school that was uniform free, flexible, and catered to children who were special needs, GBLT, or had other issues of non-conformity such as pregnant and parenting, homelessness, foster care or other things that make staying in school difficult. I wonder if Louisiana would give me vouchers for Rainbow Academy.
It was obvious that these folks (charter ilk, etc.) didn’t trust the kids but I have to say, it’s also obvious they don’t trust their teachers. What a dismal situation. But, it does make sense if you’re a kazillionaire, everyone else is not to be trusted or they’d be kazillionaires too. People who “want” to be poor or middle-class are really the Other and have to be molded into a pliant serf so that they can better serve the corporation. It has always killed me that the issue of class is verboten in the US, it’s becoming more and more clear that the rich guys consider themselves the masters of the universe and if you don’t have the $$$ to join that club, well, welcome to regimentation! It’s what you and your children deserve.
I worked for the TFA program last summer as a supervising teacher (basically a baby-sitter for the TFA candidates who aren’t allowed to be in a classroom by themselves without a certified teacher). The writer discribes the regimentation of this program to a tee.
What’s sad is that the children in the summer are the ones needing the most help. Instead, they are placed in a classroom with people who have no experience teaching or working with children. Although I was expected to sit in the back and simply observe, I had to get involved several times when the inexperience of these candidates resulted in violent confrontations with the students.
TFA would never fly in the suburbs where my child attends school. The parents would never stand for it! What is it about accepting sickeningly inexperienced and unprepared teachers that makes it ok for the children of the poor?
Originally, I thought these alternative programs were designed to place teachers in hard to place areas. NYC had a hiring freeze for outside applicants for the past two years, except for (you guessed it) TFA applicants. Why are principals hiring TFA applicants when there is a plethora of more qualified, certified applicants? Taxpayers should be demanding why our money is going to finance a system that may have had some reason for existing in the past, but is now not needed and more disheartening, is negatively impacting the lives of hundreds of low income students while lining the pockets of a select few adults.
Hi Theresa,
There is a group in Providence called the Coalition to Defend Public Education that is fighting against the corporate reform juggernaut in Rhode Island. We meet Tuesdays at 7 at Libertalia, 280 Broadway. You can also connect with us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/181039958599137/352456004790864/?ref=notif¬if_t=group_activity
We need new teachers to become activists!
Thank you for this post. We wrote up a post today about the StudentsFirst letter that landed in our mailbox. It was celebrating the legislators who had signed on to the propaganda in Missouri and we countered some of it with this teacher’s letter.
You can see it is truly a bipartisan effort.
http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2012/08/who-is-studentsfirst-backing-in-mo.html?spref=fb
Teach for America, A Failed Experiment in Education
As an educator, it is truly unsettling that society has become so frustrated with the failure of school systems such as the District of Columbia Public Schools to educate its urban youth that society has brought into the concept that youthful exuberance and a five week Teach for America training program usurps a quality education from a formal School of Education from an university. What is even more unsettling is that trained experienced educators are being replaced by these Teach for America neophytes.
To cite from a passage from ”The Bee Eater” by Richard Whitmire, the author states from page 2;
“That October day, Rhee, fresh from a sheltered academic life at Cornell University and beginning a two – year commitment with Teach for America, was fighting for control over her class of thirty-six second graders. And also was fighting for her dignity. For Rhee, the daughter of a physician who grew up in a placid neighborhood in Toledo raised to always be the best at what she did, this was her first flirtation with failure. And this was no transient failure. On some days that school year, when Michelle would wake up and realize it was another school day, her stomach churned and her body broke out in hives”.
To continue from page 3 the author states in reference to Michelle Rhee:
“I had my rolled-up lesson plan about the marshmallows, which was now no good, and I smacked the bee and then flipped it into my hand – and at it.”
As an experienced educator with three different Master’s Degrees in Education, these two passages are proof as to why the Teach for America program is a disservice to education. What is even more unsettling is that this was a class of second graders. The developmental years, pre-k to third grade is the most important years of a child’s academic experience. If a Teach for America teachers do not have the classroom management skills to control a group of second graders, how will these Teach for America teachers manage middle or high school students? By bribery? As stated by Rhee, from page 2, “I had brought in marshmallows for the kids to eat. This was my big bribe.”
A former colleague, a first year Teach for America teacher had a closet full of candy she used to bribe her students. I told her that a true professional teacher trained in classroom management skills does not need candy to control a class. One day, someone broke into the closet and took all of the candy. Can you imagine how her day went without her candy to bribe her students? She was in tears by the end of the day.
It takes at least three years to begin to understand how to teach. Many Teach for America teachers don’t last three years. As inner city school systems continue to replace experienced teachers to save money with the Teach for America teachers, the students who need these experienced teachers the most are deprived of their education. Test scores in the District of Columbia have remained stagnant since the Michelle Rhee experience. Kaya Henderson is no better. Fortunately for the District of Columbia Public Schools, they were granted a waiver for NCLB.
I’m not sure how I missed Theresa’s post about TNTP Academy. I participated in a TNTP pre-service training program this past summer and quit after I could not stomach what we were being asked to do to children in the summer school program. I managed to finish up the summer session so that my students would not lose a teacher midstream, but left after Week 4 of the five-week training program.
The overwhelming majority of our training focused on learning how to control children using Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion Techniques. The program administrators had an unhealthy devotion to Doug Lemov, which contributed to a cult-like atmosphere. At the beginning of our training, we received rubber bracelets inscribed with the letters “WWLD” (What Would Lemov Do?). Some Teaching Fellows actually wore them. Our coaches spoke giddily of how they had actually met Doug Lemov at one if his training workshops. He truly held celebrity status. Teaching Fellows spent hours upon hours practicing the Lemovian techniques with each other, and then later being assessed by our 25-year-old (read: inexperienced) coaches on how effectively we used the techniques during pretend teaching sessions.
Of course, we were also assessed on how well we applied the techniques in our classrooms with real students. Having any sort of problem in the classroom? Doug Lemov has a technique for that! Regardless of what difficulties we were facing, we were always ALWAYS directed back to a Teach Like a Champion technique, and never anything else. We were trained to apply the techniques indiscriminately, regardless of the child’s age, personal circumstances, or other situational factors. About half the students in my class had special learning needs or emotional/behavioral difficulties (of course, I was never told what their specific disabilities were, nor was I advised on how to provide appropriate accommodations to meet their needs). Some of my students were neglected at home and came to school feeling distressed or angry. Yet all were expected to respond equally well to techniques like 100% (i.e., a magical Lemovian technique designed to elicit 100% compliance from 100% of students 100% of the time), Strong Voice (which involves squaring up, standing still, and quiet power–whatever that means), Threshold (which involves shaking the teacher’s hand firmly upon entering the classroom, while giving eye contact and confidently saying good morning), and No Opt Out (i.e., a student who gives an incorrect response is asked to give the correct response after hearing a classmate’s correct response). I could bark commands for my students to “track me” and to “SLANT”—and some of them would follow along—but once I had their attention, I was unsure of what to do with them. Although we were armed with plenty of Teach Like a Champion techniques, at no point did we learn how to…well…teach.
As Theresa mentioned, the saddest part of the situation was that real children were suffering so that I could be “trained.” These were real-life first-grade children whose promotion to second grade depended on their summer school performance. Yet I had received no training in pedagogical techniques and had very little understanding of what first graders were supposed to know. I was given a list of very general “teaching points” and told to refer to the internet to design lessons that aligned with those points. There was no curriculum and no books for my language arts students to use in class or take home. To top it off, our rigid daily agenda allotted only 1 hour and 15 minutes for language arts instruction, which is the subject I taught. During these 75 minutes, I was supposed to give a “Do Now” for reading, teach a full reading lesson including phonics, vocabulary, and content, give a reading “Exit Ticket,” give a “Do Now” for writing, teach a full writing lesson, and give a writing “Exit Ticket.” I promise this is not an exaggeration. The Exit Tickets were made up by me (I am definitely not qualified to design assessment tools, nor were we trained to do so), and students’ scores on these three-item daily assessments partly determined whether they passed or failed summer school. I informed my coach—a 3-year “veteran” teacher, charter school founding member, and graduate of TNTP’s Master Teacher program—that I was struggling with this timeframe. Her response was to help me practice rushing my students through activities during a personal coaching session. Even if it meant delivering incomplete lessons, adherence to the Lemovian “Do Now” and “Exit Ticket” techniques was imperative. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with many of Lemov’s techniques. I have no doubt that many of them are useful under the right circumstances. However, I’m sure that even Doug Lemov did not intend his book to be used as a comprehensive teacher preparation program.
Another point worth mentioning: The power structures within the TNTP teacher training program are very rigid and very visible, adding to the organization’s cult-like vibe. The managers are clearly controlling the behavior of the coaches and instructors, who in turn are controlling the behavior of the Teaching Fellows, who in turn are supposed to control their students. No one working for TNTP deviates from “the script.” They all tow the party line very faithfully, adhering to TNTP rhetoric even when doing so doesn’t really make sense. Everyone working for TNTP also uses the same set of buzzwords and phrases, further strengthening the appearance of a united front. Overall, the vibe is really eerie.
I was so exhausted by the long days of pre-service training that it took me a while to form a rational judgment about what I was taking part in. Once I “woke up,” I was shocked by what I was being trained to do. Treating compliance and submission to authority as a primary goal for any child—and especially for poor children—is wrong and violates the purpose of public education. At the end of the day, I could not go forward with a career change into teaching. I saw how charter schools in that particular school district were being run and knew that there was no way I could work there and maintain my sanity. Many of the charters were being run by former TFAers, many under the age of 30. Everything is about test prep and test scores. And why on earth did TNTP bring a fresh crop of untrained teachers into the city while the district was handing out pink slips to fully credentialed teachers? This point in history is just a really inhospitable time for members of the teaching profession.
Just one big happy family of ….Collectivists.
Wow! Finally found an experience just like mine. 8 days was enough for me. Never heard the word Pedagogy once; just control techniques. Common core? “Familiarize yourself.” I too will pursue the MAT.
Thank you for posting this, I think you just saved me a lot of time and probably money.
Your comments are so negative. You accuse the Teaching Fellowship Organization of racism (without actually saying it). If you are going to have such strong opinions, have the guts to say what you mean. You act like you didn’t know that you were going to have to student teach for summer classes. You were well aware of it when you signed up for the training and, if you weren’t, then you don’t have enough intelligence to be a teacher. When they warned you that it was going to be intensive and hands-on, did you think it was going to be like high school ? Why would you think that you were going to come out an expert teacher after 5 weeks? Do you know what “Baptism by Fire” means and how much you learn by jumping in there and doing the best you can, even if you falter? The fact that you dropped out after just 8 days shows that you are a quitter. How can you comment on the experience when you didn’t have the tenacity to stick it out? You blame the fellowship program for not helping those kids in high-needs schools, but the reality is that you are part of the problem. You gave up on those students after 8 days. So I hope you find a position in a nice suburban school, if not, you better reconsider your career goal.
The goal of our education system is NOT to facilitate the (upward) social mobility of the poor and middle class. Our education system has always served the interests of industry and government (in that order). That said, I am amazed that some of the experienced teachers who have posted comments here are not acknowledging this fact. Read about The Law of 1642, The Law of 1647, the common schools movement, and Horace Mann. It is clear that education first served to ensure compliance by citizens of the “New World”. Horace Mann found a way to implement public education efficiently for the sake of ushering in the industrial age under the guise of educational reform (he studied and based his model on the Prussian system – which was established to maintain a rigid stratification of social classes). Today, the system has become so efficient and effective in maintaining the status quo, that even those who work within the profession are deluded about the true nature of the education system. The added wrinkle today is that the institution itself has become part of the foundation of our economic system. Like the penal system, criminal justice system, and the military, there are many corporations that profit from the inherent flaws in our public education system (Pearon, ETS, Kaplan, The Apollo Group etc).
In my (marginally expert) opinion, neither traditional accredited teacher education programs or accredited MAT programs are any better than TNTP (and similar alternative certification programs). Each path/model has its pros and cons. How institutions (or alt cert programs) implement the model adds uncertainty to the outcome, as well as the individuals who choose the path, and the schools where they start their careers. Being a college professor, I have personally mentored students who have chosen all of the aforementioned routes to becoming a K-12 educator. I know students who performed well in traditional teacher education programs for several years, only to find that they hated teaching when they started their (unpaid) internship. Maybe the student committed to becoming a teacher too early and later found that their interests changed. It could have been lousy chemistry between the student, the placement coordinator, the host school, and the in-service teacher. Either way, earning a BA/BS in early childhood, elementary, or secondary teaching does not ensure quality of the outcome. In truth, I find that many students remain in the teacher education program only because they have already committed 3 (or 4) years to becoming a teacher and they cannot afford to switch to another major.
Most MAT programs are merely cash cows. From talking to friends who have gone through various MAT programs, washing out is difficult because these programs are solely intended to generate revenue. Low completion rates aren’t attractive to potential students, so participants are given a lot of latitude (in terms of attendance and grades). Given what I’ve read here, it appears that candidates are much more likely to wash-out of TNTP due to the rigor (or rigidity…depending on your perspective).
I don’t know much about Lemov or his “Teach Like a Champion” how-to/self-help book (lol). However, it sounds very much like the programmed instruction that I have delivered in manufacturing organizations (but modified for K-12 of course). In academe, there are countless elitists who profess to have all the answers (or maybe a lot of questions) regarding the problems with our education system. Aside from the critical pedagogy folks like Paolo Friere, they fail to acknowledge that the system is doing what it was designed to do. What really is a master teacher? Is it someone who can effectively manage a class using non-Skinnerian techniques? Is it someone who does an excellent job of helping their students earn high scores on standardized tests? Is it the tenured teached with national board certification who spends 10 years teaching middle-class kids in the suburbs or the 25 year veteran teaching in the inner-city (who is a staunch supporter of the teacher’s union)?
At the end of the day, we are all perpetuating a system that stratifies people by race, gender, class, and ability for the benefit of those who control the wealth and resources in this country.
Btw…please excuse my typos (if there are any). I didn’t spell check this post….
While I understand the concerns of this and comparable programs, let’s be honest and note that most new teachers are not mature (Note: by mature, I do not mean senior, just at least 6-10 years work experience) and do not have experience. Do we really think a 22 year old with a degree in education is ready to deal with 14 year old with bullets in their house and not enough to eat? The reality is we are asking over simplistic questions and getting comparable answers.
Perhaps alternative teaching programs are a great solution for people who have masters degrees in other fields, college or community teaching experience, youth experience and maturity. We do underestimate the ability in our culture for a mid career switcher to be able to use transferable skills (ex: training is teaching).
PS: A mid career person is not in their twenties-unless they graduated college in their teens.
We also know professionally that for a mature professional, less training is required to switch fields. That being said, not all mid-career professionals have what it takes to be teachers. It’s also hard to not be a bit formulaic in a class of 30 kids with questionable skills to give attention, and sit still. That answer, of course, to that one is to have smaller classes. In leu of that, you may have to be more rigid, regardless of how you feel about rigidity on an idealistic level.
There does need to be a faster track for people qualified to teach college, or those who are experts in their areas and have youth experience. However, all of these programs have taken too many people who lack maturity to lead. No 22 year old needs an accelerated path. For someone in their early-mid twenties, that is called grad school. But if you have a PHD or a professional degree/high level 60+ credit masters? Really, you shouldn’t need another 30 credit masters. An accelerated program should be a good match for the right people. I think the real question here is: “Are the right people being chosen?” TFA has their primary recruiting efforts placed on fresh college grads. That won’t be successful often. If you are taking a fresh college grad that will, with rare exception, take more formal training. (Before all the 22 year olds rail, please talk to me when you are 30 and tell me you are not better equipped then when you were 22).
However, even the most traditional route spits out 22 year old kids totally lacking the maturity they need to address the needs of our highest need youth. I don’t think people should be teaching anything without masters degrees (or at least a decade of field experience)–period. If you can’t teach a college freshman without a higher degree of education, why can you teach a high school senior? I do think more mature professionals and exceptionally educated people have better capabilities to handle complicated situations.
There are also people teaching subjects that have no business teaching them. I have taught in an MAT program. The grads all needed to go back and learn their field. And if you think our 22 year old coming out of a BA or BS certified are prepared? They get one term of student teaching. They often have a very similar experience to what the woman described above–often with the actual “teacher” completely check out as if they have been granted vacation. The success of traditional teaching programs often rely on the chance of a strong teaching “teacher” paired with the student teacher.
Bottom line. Teaching should be (and is) an honor and a privilege. There should be a path for people who have “done their time” in their fields. and meet a high level of qualifications There should not be a short cut for recent grads who don’t want to get a masters. And we need to do better in our teacher preparation. Teaching should be something we all have to fight our way into (similar to the way you have to fight to get a professorship– not that that system is perfect either–don’t get me started).
But our teachers should be exceptional professionals, proficient and passionate in their fields, experienced in youth development, who realize that summers “off” are for professional development, and that work does not end when the bell rings. Now how do we get there? We have the people, and they want to teach (ask the colleges how many applications they get?) but they are not going to take a 50% pay cut and wait 10 years to get back up to a decent standard of living. Alternative teaching programs should focus on adult mid career professionals who have a background with teaching, training and youth that signals likely success in a shortened route. We will have better schools with these people recruited into teaching.
But if you think our traditional route is spitting out success and will magically make good teachers prepared for the changes we need? Take a tour of our urban or rural low income schools…. It is easy to blame it on administration, budgets, but the reality is, it’s all of the above. It is complicated and requires we started asking complicated questions and exploring complex solutions. More experienced, qualified people will help. How do we get there?
I think the first sign that this is a scam is that they actually charge you to enroll so they make $25 per application I wouldn’t be surprised they upped the applicants just to make money
I just wanted to say thank you to all who have contributed to this thread. I was recently offered the position with the TEACH Charlotte Fellows run by TNTP. I have been trying to research the organization because there is very little detail disclosed up front outside of the schedule and requirements. This thread has been very helpful and has lead me to the decision to work for another year then pursue a degree in education. While I don’t necessarily see enough evidence to call in to question the organizations motives, I agree that the exclusion of anyone with and educational background and dedication to one book, focused solely on a militant technique is plenty of information to help me realize that this is not the route I want to take to becoming and teaching and making an impact on children’s lives (not just their test scores).
When I told my friend (A high-needs public school teacher for almost 8 years now) about the potential position with the program, she immediately voiced some skepticism and asked me how many of those teachers were actually effective and how many stay in their positions long-term. I’ve yet to see anything suggesting that this organization is having an overall, long-lasting positive impact and I’m thankful I read this thread and was given the information I needed to avoid making an unwise decision.
Good luck to all of you in your continued research to bring truth to the actual effectiveness and potential consequences of programs modeled like TNTP and TFA. For me its time to get to work and pursue formal educational training before I step into the classroom.