Mentor: How to Fix Teach for America

May 4, 2013 //

David Greene mentored many Teach for America teachers. He knows how poorly prepared most of them were for the job of teaching in New York City’s toughest schools. He tried to help them cope.

Here he offers good advice to TFA.

Categories Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching

27 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

M. Schneider says:

May 4, 2013 at 8:09 am

This is a spectacular letter. I could have quoted the entire piece. I’ll restrict it to three:

“Not every college graduate is cut out to teach, regardless of his or her innate intelligence, G.P.A. or previous career success. Only those with specific talents and training become gifted teachers….”

“Corps members should intern for a year under the supervision of a talented mentor teacher, then teach for at least four years, not two. That may discourage some. Good. We want career teachers.”

“Often it is the least orthodox teacher who most engages and excites students. Scripts and rules and models strictly followed cannot replace what the best teachers have: practical wisdom.”

It is nice to see this in writing, and from a former TFAer, at that.

Reply
- David Greene says:
  
  May 4, 2013 at 9:50 am
  
  Thanks M. But I am not a former TFA’er. I mentored corps members because I was a field specialist at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education. They got me because they were getting their masters degree there.
  
  Reply
WordsMatter says:

May 4, 2013 at 9:02 am

Practical wisdom is the unmeasurable secret of the greatest teachers. It can’t be measured. It can’t be packaged. It can’t be scripted or sold. It takes years to perfect. But, in action, it is an art form worthy of the greatest reward, changing and inspiring the life of a child.

Reply
- Harlan Underhill says:
  
  May 4, 2013 at 9:10 am
  
  I think David Greene is right about the value of more training for TFA teachers. Teaching is a wonderful life if the conditions are right and if one has developed one’s craft, like a juggler, or magician. It does take more than five weeks to learn to dance on the point of a pin and turn on a dime, part stand up comic, part fly fisherman enticing the souls to the surface, to be hooked by the idea of idea.
  
  Reply
  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 9:41 am
    
    Harlan,
    
    “. . . part fly fisherman enticing the souls to the surface, to be hooked by the idea of idea.”
    
    Great turn of a phrase!! I’ll have to use that one if you don’t mind.
    
    Duane
  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 9:44 am
    
    Be my guest. The “hook” image is a bit bloody and violent, maybe there’s a better form, like rising to the mayfly of idea, but mayflies are so ephemeral, and ideas are eternal (not concepts). A poetic problem.
  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 11:12 am
    
    Interesting thoughts!
    
    Although I would disagree that “ideas are eternal”. I’m not much of a Platonic idealist. I’m one who sees all thought, words, ideas, concepts as being intimately connected to the “human” realm. And although thoughts, ideas, concepts can appear to transcend time and space they are not just “out there” waiting to be discovered but derive from very mundane human interactions with the surrounding world via language.
  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    May 5, 2013 at 1:00 am
    
    If so, Duane, then what is “knowledge”?
    
    J. H. Underhill
  - teachingeconomist says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 6:56 pm
    
    Duane,
    
    We need to find something poetic to say about chicken livers.
  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    May 5, 2013 at 12:56 pm
    
    Harlan,
    
    “What is knowledge?”
    
    For me one of the all time questions.
    
    Can’t tell you because I don’t know. I have my thoughts, actions and deeds that are all mitigated by my environment, language, personal history which all interact/intertwine with themselves, themselves being thoughts, actions, deeds, environment, language, personal history and many others not mentioned.
    
    One can look at a dictionary definition of knowledge from dictionary.com:
    1. the fact or state of knowing
    2. understanding or information one has learned
    3. all that is known
    and even that leaves a lot to be desired!
  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    May 5, 2013 at 12:57 pm
    
    TE,
    
    Gonna have to chew on the “chicken liver” one for a while!
Al Tate says:

May 4, 2013 at 9:07 am

I have an alternative idea of how to utilize TFA instructors. I come to this idea by trying to leverage the available funding for education. If you look at the assets available there are really only human resources that the big bucks are spent on: teachers, administrators, and students. So how can the money be leveraged to improve education? I would suggest that the structure of the system could be modified to utilize older students to help teach younger students, especially the younger kids trying to learn reading and writing. Create elective classes that take MS/HS kids and let them go to the primary grade classrooms and be assigned say 2-3 first graders to coach. They would sit in the classroom with their kids as the first grade teacher provided instruction. Then the coaches would have some time to work with their assigned kids to give them opportunity to practice the lessons and make sure they understood. The elective coaches class would actually be taught by a TFA Instructor who would manage communication with the primary Teachers and be responsible for grading the coaches. This would be a leadership and responsibility class for the older students, give them a chance to practice their own skills (the best way to really learn a subject is to teach it) and to use their education to do something real rather than just take a test. I have found in my 27 years of teaching tha students are hungry to contribute and do something that will “make a difference.” Grades for the coaches would be given based on their portfolio, no testing required. The TFA instructors would not be thrown into an impossible teaching environment, and the effective teacher pupil ratio in the primary classroom would be lowered. What do you think???

Reply
- David Greene says:
  
  May 4, 2013 at 9:47 am
  
  Dear Al. I love your idea. May I suggest you look at the WISE program I have been associated with for 27 years. (www.wiseservices.org)
  
  In it, HS seniors do a passion driven project the second semester of their Senior year for academic credit. Most would be amazed, but you wouldn’t, of the large number that go back to their elementary schools or schools in poor districts to become teacher aides and do just that. There are actually some WISE students who have created tutoring programs for poor kids to just that end.
  
  As for TFA, the 300 words I was restricted to doesn’t begin to give me the space for my real recommendations as to how to make TFA far more worthwhile….to develop gifted career teachers.
  
  Reply
- patricia says:
  
  May 4, 2013 at 10:35 am
  
  TFA teachers actually cost a district MORE than a first year teacher from the state teacher college. Contrary to popular belief they are not volunteers. They have teaching contracts and belong to the union if they teach in a unionized district.
  Your idea is great, but it won’t lower costs.
  
  Reply
  - David Greene says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 12:31 pm
    
    Patricia, this letter was restricted to 300 words. In a book to be published this summer I address that issue and how I believe that can be resolved.
  - Al Tate says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 2:12 pm
    
    Budget isn’t my focus. I would like to get the best value possible though. Budget driven education is like training troops with video tapes, giving them wooden rifles and spiffy uniforms, and sending them to war. They look nice but are not functional. We need to create the best ed model and then find ways to fund it without destroying its effectiveness.
  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    May 5, 2013 at 1:01 pm
    
    Al Tate,
    
    “We need to create the best ed model. . .” There is no “best ed model” but there are plenty of tried and true effective methods of teaching all tied to the particular time, class, level of students, teacher etc. . . .
Chuck says:

May 4, 2013 at 10:03 am

Don’t count on TFA reflecting and reforming. For one, it would violate their core elitist notion that the combination of the brilliance of their recruits and their cutting edge “preparation” methods surpass what those boorish traditional college teacher programs produce. To that point, this kind of reform makes TFA look kind of redundant and quite expensive. Second, they are more interested in their “reform” agenda and producing more Michelle Rhee’s.

Reply
- David Greene says:
  
  May 4, 2013 at 10:13 am
  
  Believe me Chuck, few are expecting that. All we can do is continue to try to make their hype public and get public opinion to sway. Woudl you suggest we just stay quiet?
  
  Reply
  - Chuck says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 10:34 am
    
    Not at all. Your critique/suggestions are spot on and add considerably to the discourse. But what you suggest is not at all what they are our even remotely want to be. It takes away what makes them most special, and would threaten their identity. The premise of TFA is toxic, and while I’m sure that some TFAers are fine teachers, their toxic treat produces poison fruit.
  - David Greene says:
    
    May 4, 2013 at 5:30 pm
    
    Wendy Kopp’s poisoned apple for the teachers?
Duane Swacker says:

May 4, 2013 at 11:14 am

Well, you know when an old vehicle is on it’s last miles that there just comes a time to junk it. Same for TFA, time for the scrap pile.

Reply
TC says:

May 4, 2013 at 12:01 pm

“A “temp” work force does not improve education or erase the achievement gap. Rather it helps to create havoc in schools desperately trying to gain stability, a key factor in any school’s success.”

Another good point.

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Lehrer says:

May 4, 2013 at 5:31 pm

The local newspaper has an article in it today gushing over the TFA teacher in one of the schools in Windham. The principal is impressed by this young energetic teacher. Nowhere in the article does it state, however, how long this teacher plans on teaching.

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George Buzzetti says:

May 4, 2013 at 8:20 pm

First. TFA does lower the money the district pays for teachers as they come in at the bottom of the scale and replace high time high on the pay scale teachers and they do not last long so there are the benefits of no retirement package and much lower health care costs just for a dose of financial reality. Teaching is an art. Go ask Boeing, Northrup-Grumman and JPL why the believe in the arts and have a $675,000 grant for such. It is because they will go out of business if they do not have employees, including shop people, who cannot think outside of the box. Arts makes that happen. Do the educrats and privatizer corporatizers want to fight with them? Go ahead and try. Boeing’s person even said children need it from when they are born. I agree. I suggest to union members in order to prevent large costs of having a teacher who just does not cut it no matter the attempts to have in the contract that if this is the situation that the district pay them for a year of retraining in another field and after that time is up both go their own ways. This would prevent a lot of headaches and costs all things considered. Even with the best intentions and high intelligence not everyone is cut out for the “Art of Teaching Children.”

Now TFA is a sick joke on humanity and our society. You cannot become a pro in any field in 5 weeks without much practical experience. I guarantee you that no one could do what I have learned in the business and manufacturing of art pieces for 37 years overnight or learn to build airplanes at the highest level including secret projects in 5 weeks. This is really an insane statement and ideological thought. And let us not forget that the Prez. and Duncan are fully with the TFA rip off crowd. They are corporatizer and privatizers in chiefs.

Reply
teachcmb56 says:

May 19, 2013 at 11:06 am

Interesting that The Late Show with David Letterman featured Teach for America teachers. My response to this tribute and David Green’s editorial (“Invitation to a Dialogue-The Art of Teaching” NYTimes) regarding the temporary teaching corps created by Teach for America that leaves too soon:

Letterman’s Top Ten Tribute to Teachers Needs More than Teach for America

Reply
- David Greene says:
  
  May 19, 2013 at 11:30 am
  
  If anyone knows Dave or members of his staff, tell them I’d love to give an alternative response….perhaps with other corps members as well.
  
  Reply