A newly elected school board in Pittsburgh voted to cancel a contract with Teach for America, reversing the vote of the previous school board, which planned to hire 30 TFA recruits.
The motion passed with six affirmative votes; two opposed and an abstention. The outgoing board previously approved the contract, 6-3.
This was remarkable because it is one of the few times–maybe the first time–that a school board rejected a TFA contract and recognized how controversial it is to hire young inexperienced teachers for the neediest students.
The school board also voted to keep open an elementary school that the previous board had decided to close.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Let’s hear it for the new Pittsburgh School Board!
Good.
Hallelujah!
This is the kind of guts that voters in Los Angeles expected to see when we beat the millionaires. Voters have been a bit disappointed. Way to go, Pittsburgh!!!
Wait for it. I predict the Seattle School Board will also cancel. In over three years in the Puget Sound area, TFA has NEVER met its goals and has less than 20 teachers. Seattle SD has already developed its own teacher program so why the need for TFA? Answer, we don’t
It’s great to know that Pittsburgh School Board has cojones to reject the TFA contract. When other cities recognize that inexperienced Ivy Leaguers do not make better teachers, then and only then will money be put in various college teachers’ prep programs.
LAUSD recieved 700 intern this year , all funded by the Waltons. With 17,0000 laid off and the union boasting it save a few — leaving out the part about hows tgey were forced to become sub losing HMO, stability, paid time off and so on . The veteran subs themselves have had to apply for public assistance and food stamps because they were intentionallly dropped from call system,. Even when requested by teachers who trust them, they arrive to fund the teacher has been trumped and he or she drive over for nothing.
I do feel compelled to mention that TFA interns are not the problem themselves. They have no clue that they are taking these jobs or being used as pawms by well heeled personality disorders. What they figure out fast is they in over their heads and they need assistance.without experienced teachers’ support, mamy would flee. My experiences with these interns tended ti be very positive. I think they cam do a decent job with help, and they are sincere. The interns for TFA have actually revolted from within on several occassions, they have confronted their supervisors and resisted becoming immersed in this mess.,some TFA interns have started a campaign that urges coeds not to take part on the program. I hear the efforts are very successful. This generation is more socially and politically active than any other. They have been maliged as all youth are but these kids are probably going to the reason we will avert an apocalyse. They are the reason I feel,it is worth the work and risk I put in,
“They have no clue that they are taking these jobs….”
That’s called white privilege. Or maybe just elite privilege. Ivy League kids are too smart not to know they’re taking jobs away from veteran teachers. Their privilege allows them to not face that fact.
But anyway, huzzah for Pittsburgh!
Rene,
Join Resist TFA and spread the word to end this cult. Stephanie Rivera at Rutger University started this program and she’ll send the materials on request. Spread the word. I print them and leave the flyers in the libraries & on student bulletin boards. My students spread the info via social networking.
http://studentsresistingtfa.k12newsnetwork.com/resources/
https://www.facebook.com/StudentsUnitedForPublicEducation
All ove it. http://Www.hemlockontherockd.com
Wonderful to hear! An early Christmas present!
Amen!
It sounds like TFAs are the new Americorps. A worthy idea on the surface, but not at the expense of already established teachers or substitutes. Then they are just scabs, crossing an invisible picket line set up by school boards.
Kudos to Pittsburgh for electing an enlightened school board who are not afraid to buck a trend they know will be detrimental to the schools they are supposed to represent.
TFA gets funds from Americorps and from Arne’s Dept of Ed. Our tax dollars are paying off the student loans for wealthy families & breaking the lives of career teachers. DoEd “awarded” TfA in NY a SEED grant of over $8 million for 2013. Sequestration is the gift public schools and universities received from DoEd.
Here’s the link from the MIlken brother’s foundation on 2013 grants http://www.niet.org/
Here’s DoEd SEED grant awards 2013: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-awards-30-million-grants-support-teacher-and-principal-d
Thank you to Diane Ravitch for your irreplaceable support in this and all of our work. This is a victory by and for our people all over the USA. We in Pittsburgh were blessed to be able to pick up on the work so many many people — including formers TFAers — have been doing to show the reality of this organization and its impact on our children and our schools. We wake up energized this morning in Pittsburgh, and need to share our gratitude and this victory with all of you who have helped make it happen, including the wonderful teachers, community members, parents, and students who came together in this battle in Pittsburgh.
I just posted this comment on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette web page with the report on the school board’s action. I hope others will comment there as well. This next period will not be an easy one, and the new board showed courage and resolve which will be challenged many many times in the days and months to come.
My comments: “Thank you to our school board for listening to and taking into account the information and appeals from your constituents. There is a rocky road ahead for public education in Pittsburgh and everywhere today. Working together — parents, teachers, students, and our board — is the only way we can steer our ship through the dangers on behalf of our beautiful and deserving PPS children. They deserve — and need — the kind of community coming together for them that we have seen in the discussion and action on TFA. This teacher thanks you.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2013/12/18/Pittsburgh-board-reverses-on-Teach-for-America-contract/stories/201312180142
Code Red Threat Level Midnight at TFA headquarters in NY today, with concerns that this might be the first indication the gravy train is in danger of going off the rails.
Lord knows what insipid rhetoric is being planned to emanate from The Mission Cafe – no, I’m not kidding, that’s really what it’s called – at corporate HQ.
How many days before Arne flies into Pittsburgh for a photo-op with TfA honchos staged in a charter chain classroom full of silent brown and black children?
Over/under is 13.
Good for the board. So how much outside money will be poured in to the next school board election to ignore the will of citizens?
It’s about time. The TFA GRAVY TRAIN damages.
Let there be 1,2, 3, many. pittsburgh’s: one elected school committee at at time. “debute d’une lutte prolonge” ( literally, “the beginning of a long struggle”). could not be much better news to ease the dreary weather.
I’m on the fence about this. But then I’m on the fence about traditional institutionalized schooling that goes on in our society. I’ve seen so many successes from Waldorf, Montessori, Sudbury and the Unschooling approach to teaching and learning that I question tradition. I question pushing children to learn how to read and write in preschool vs. reading to them and encouraging them to become involved through play and drawing. I think many of us could learn a tremendous amount from studies and experiments done by Piaget. I think many of us could learn a tremendous amount from artisans and farmers. Bringing the arts and crafts, music, animal and animal care within the classroom, making the classroom outdoors!!!! instead of sitting indoors on an especially beautiful day could all go a long way to setting the tone for learning as a life long process. The question to hire TFA or certified teachers is a silly question to even consider. The question should be is this person really tuned in to how children learn, how children see the world around them, and are they flexible enough to allow for deviation from the norm??? Because in the final analysis, teachers hold the proverbial flashlight as their students dig for answers to questions that impel them to go on a mission of searching. Who cares about TFA or certification? I don’t. I want someone whose vocation is teaching. I don’t want someone whose career is teaching. Let the career oriented hire go somewhere else, anywhere else but the classroom.
ah the career vs. vocation question.
It is an interesting one for sure. You raise good points. But I don’t think these conversations can be avoided in a society where labor laws are a real. It would be nice to never have to talk about that type thing and just assume vocation will lead to employment and fruits of the labor that are fair. But I don’t think that’s really how things are. It’s like not wanting to talk about house payments, property tax, what type of heating system you have, etc.
If you want arts, crafts, music, animals, nice days outside, etc., you definitely don’t want TFA. No excuses “discipline” and rote reading and math drills are who they are and what they do.
Teaching is my avocation (i.e., calling); it is not merely what I do for a living wage. That is something you won’t get with TFA (~80% of the time). As a Pittsburgh Public Schools parent and teacher, it really does matter to me, who is in my own children’s classrooms, who is certified or not.
Jackie, I hear what you are saying. Yet a good teacher will do all the things mentioned in your post. The whole issue is that the CCSS will tie all teachers hands so they will not be able to provide their students with the well rounded education you described.
One of the questions about TFAs is if they will be ready. I might point out that no matter how much training you have, your first teaching assignment is a matter of survival. Read Harry Wong. The TFAs will be thrown into the deep end, some will sink and some will swim.
Another question is the sacrifice. If the TFAs are being hired to fill a need – fine. If veteran teachers are being fired, laid off teachers are not called back, and substitute teachers are being ignored – then the TFA program is inherently evil. It’s almost a microcosm of the immigration amnesty issue.
A third issue is a matter of fairness. The rest of us played by the rules, and some upstart has leapfrogged or cut to the front of the line. My suggestion: All newly graduated teachers should sign up for TFA, so you can reserve your spot before someone pushes you aside. Just a thought.
” Who cares about TFA or certification?”
Is talent for anything enough to be good at it?
What’s more likely to produce competent teachers from talented ones, a 5 week or a 5 year training?
Really Jackie? My kids’ schools have arts and crafts, music, a guinea pig in one class room…all run by teachers who have a lifelong passion to guide young minds while teaching them necessary things like phonics and how to break down math concepts. Their threat is the likes of TFA and other corporate reformers who are trying to get rid of all that so test scores can be the main purpose of them being in the classroom. Not sure if you considered the reality of your New Age post.
in my Los Angeles High School in Watts, the two TFA science teachers are failing the majority of their Newcomer English learners in their physics classes. principals, counselors and other teachers are concerned. nothing is being done. one of the teachers is on his way to Med School next fall. lucky for him. too bad for the 30 immigrant students who wasted a semester in his class.
That begs the question – how do we grade? Do we place total value on the test or do we provide the means to allow the student success? And do small successes lead to a larger success.
When my husband taught Living Environment to a Special Ed class who were repeating the course, he tested them using sample Regents exam questions, but he graded them on their effort. If they were goofing off – they failed (a 50 is the lowest grade they can get), but if they were trying their best he passed them with at least a 65. Half the class passed the Regents in January. You decide the better method.
Pittsburgh proud. Yinz on the school board are “reddin ‘ up” those reformers.
Reblogged this on Nathan Merz's PLN and commented:
Finally a school district gets it right.
Charter schools, Value Added Measures, testing, TFA…one by one and all too slowly they fall. And good riddance.