Levi Cavener wrote this article about why young college graduates with only five weeks of training are not qualified to teach students with disabilities.
Levi B Cavener is a Special Education teacher at Vallivue High School, Caldwell, Idaho.
He wrote it after attending a local school board meeting, where a TFA representative claimed that TFA recruits are well prepared to teach students with high needs:
“At a December 10, 2013, Vallivue School Board meeting I listened to Nicole Brisbane, Idaho’s TFA point person, pitch her product. (The J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, a heavy donor to the district, called the board members to see if they would meet with Ms. Brisbane.) During the presentation, board members inquired about TFA’s ability to provide staffing for “hard-to-fill” positions, particularly special education. Brisbane was clear: TFA can provide “highly qualified” special education instructors.”
In Idaho, one foundation calls the shots for education: the Albertson Foundation. This foundation promotes privatization, charters, online learning, and TFA.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You could have saved yourself some typing by cutting out the last three words of your headline.
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As a former resident of Idaho and a graduate of University of Idaho (in education, no less), I have expressed my concern about TFA in Idaho, and will continue. While in Boise over Christmas I wrote to the local paper expressing my concern. How ANYONE can say that TFA “interns” are capable of handling special ed assignments is mind-boggling! If I were a parent of such a student and a TFA intern was assigned to my child’s class, I would be outraged. I hope Idaho parents get real info about TFA and the whole reform movement.
While I hesitate to use the term “child abuse,” the thoughtless suggestion that TFA can provide “highly qualified” instructors to teach SpecED students is cruel and vicious. It is institutionalized low expectations without the cover of fancy slogans.
TFA should abandon their steely determination to follow their Marixst maxims:
“The secret of life is honest and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
¿?
Groucho, of course. There’s another Marx besides Chico and Harpo?
😎
How about Gummo and Zeppo??
As a history major, with 15+ credits in education at the undergraduate level, and a masters in curriculum and instruction, I still don’t consider myself qualified to teach students with special needs. But there I am…
Thanks Diane for including my piece about Idaho in your national conversation. I write for http://www.idahospromise.org – a site dedicated to making sure every student in Idaho receives a world-class education. Come check us out and like us on Facebook!
Diane, I am fearful that the privatizers are honing in on IDEA. I am fearful that the plan is to water down the legal rights of students with disabilities. Explicit in IDEA is that the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a contract between the child & the school to provide an appropriate, free, individualized education. The corporate reformers do not like that all decisions for SPED children are determined at the school level by an IEP team. Particularly, since IDEA maintains that cost cannot be a reason for failing to provide what is written into the IEP.
Thomas B. Fordham put out a white paper last week that made the false claim that IDEA is broken that needs fixing ( a familiar refrain) because it “is stuck in 1975”.
Does IDEA need revisions? Of course, no one denies that regualar, thoughtful & wise changes are needed. However, the claims that IDEA is stuck in the 1970’s is a false narrative that could catch on in the national media and drive changes to IDEA that will set back the rights of children with disabilities for several generations.
Here’s the link with the false information about IDEA & my comment on the THomas B. Fordham site:
http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/financing-the-education-of-high-need-students-0
“Federal policy is responsible for much of this failure. Even though the education world has changed around it—as have technology, mobility, fiscal conditions, demographics, and so much more—it remains essentially stuck where it was in 1975 when the first major national law in this realm (now known as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act or IDEA) was passed.”
This is wrong. Take some time and read the many iterations of IDEA over the past 40 years. You’ll find that significant changes have increased mandates for districts to provide equal access and more inclusion for children in their schools & communities. Prior to 1975 and PL94-142, now IDEA, children with disabilities were denied access to any public education. Their families either kept them hidden in private institutions or in public institutions like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_sYn8DnlH4 Long after the Willobrook scandal children with disabilities remained isolated and excluded.
Thanks to changes in IDEA, children with disabilities now are living in their communities, working, and going to college. IDEA mandates that any decisions made by the IEP team cannot be precluded by the cost of those services. That is explicit in the law.
If your actual argument is that special education decisions should be made based on the cost, say it. Or, if you think an administrator or appointed executive should unilaterally override IEP decisions because they are too expensive say it up front and out loud. But don’t insult the special education community by hiding behind your false claim that special education is stuck in the 1970’s or is ‘broken’ because that assumption is untrue.
I have a former student who joined TFA after graduation from college.
She graduated from my alma mater with a double major in Econ. and Psychology.
Somehow she in considered highly qualified to teach math.
Oh, the things that are OK for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.
Please, Ang, you know that economists (and especially economist/pundits) are qualified to do *everything*. In fact, next time I need surgery, I’m going to see if Thomas Friedman is available to perform it.
Lol
Be careful, Ang. He can probably cite statistics that will argue that the surgery is not cost effective.
The DEFORMERS don’t care about other people’s children. They care about their pocketbooks and perks.
Campaign padding too. In Georgia, the DEFORMERS are being funded handsomely by TFA, Students First, etc
I taught children with significant disabilities right out of college. I had a degree in psychology. The school was private; public schools did not typically teach children like the ones I taught. I was totally unprepared and unqualified; I did not belong in any classroom other than as a supervised volunteer. I don’t laugh about the unprofessional things I did (a la Rhee); I am haunted by them. I am sure there are some people who have a natural flare for some aspect of teaching, but it is too complex to let amateurs play at it. I learned an incredible amount from my private school time and went back to school to learn more. Even then it took me years of teaching to feel half way competent and I was always in learning mode. I still am even though the chances of teaching again are slim to none.
2old2tch: comments like yours are why I keep coming back to this blog.
If only even one self-styled “education reformer” had just a small amount of the painful honesty and unsparing self-reflection you demonstrated—
Hope springs eternal. However, for them I’m not holding my breath.
But for all you genuine educators, teachers and TAs and all the rest:
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” [Mother Teresa]
The best to y’all in 2014.
😎
Appreciate you, 2 old!
As the parent of an LD student, my experience is that the LD certification of a teacher is not a guarantee that the teacher will understand the student’s brain. I do not support the privatization movement and substitution of experienced teachers with TFAs. But when the unions argue that areas with vacancies can’t offer higher salaries to fill those jobs, they are not helping students. Watching the teachers in autism wings of schools, etc., I perceived that work to be far more demanding that “regular” classroom work. Would the Gulen charters have made such inroads if there wasn’t such a shortage of math and science teachers? TFA itself initially was filling physics classrooms with people that at least had taken a physics course, instead of some of the gym teachers that were standing in front of those physics classrooms who may have never even taken the course. Things were not perfect before nclb.rttt.
Your post makes no sense except to bash qualified teachers. TFA “teachers” couldn’t begin to handle kids with autism–I am talking REAL autism, not Asperger or any mild form thereof. Furthermore, those classes typically have many teacher assistants to help teachers with the severe problems these students have. They are very high maintenance and require one-on-one help from the assistants. Most of them will never be able to function in the real world. One has to employ a life skills approach to these students rather than an academic one.
You CANNOT offer “more” money to hire sped teachers for autism without subjecting those people to charges of favoritism by administrators. Quit blaming the unions for the reality of office politics which plays into hiring decisions.
I should have added “function independently in the real world.”
In the good old days, autistic kids, which back then were rare, were institutionalized.
My post stated that I do not support using TFAs for this.
What would the unions do to solve the shortages in these areas if they held all the power?
What shortages? Can you be unaware of how many highly qualified teachers have been laid off in the past couple (few? several? many?) years because of things like school closings and increased class sizes. Chicago alone lost about 3,000 teachers just in 2013. I don’t know for sure that the situation in Idaho is the same, but I strongly suspect it is. In any case, maybe some of those 3,000 from Chicago would be willing to come to Idaho.
Here, here! Truer words were never spoken. Bravo!
No gym teacher would be allowed to teach Physics.
But they’re allowed to teach history all the time. Didn’t you know that history is “easy to teach?” (sarcasm!).
And anyone can be a librarian. You just have to read a story and check out books.
My heart goes out to you Chris, but as a general education teacher I can only say that your child is not being served in my classroom the way s/he should be. I am asked to run three different classrooms in one. Six times a day. Well, let’s be honest. I can’t.
“He who does everything does nothing”
There are plenty of special ed teachers. What is lacking is the desire to fully staff these positions and that is not a union issue. Under a “free market” business model, our IEP kids would be considered unprofitable unless the extra cost is matched by additional revenue. Most parents could not afford it. Come to our state (Ohio) – there plenty of unemployed math, science, and special ed teachers serving lattes at Starbucks.
Shortage of math / science teachers is a myth.
( with the possible exception of rural, remote locations)
Agreed it is a myth. Here in Idaho, there are qualified teachers. Sometimes administrators do not want to pay for expertise. They look at the bottom line and want to do things on the cheap. Not all do. Actually there are some very good ones who come to administration with years of teaching experience. It’s usually the ones with a few years of “classroom-related” experience who think they are CEO’s that like to cut corners on teaching. Yep…business model at work!
As a special education teacher, I can tell you that I do not need more money than my fellow educators in a school building to do my job well. Teaching, especially teaching students with special needs is a team effort…always. What I do need, however, are working conditions that allow me to actually meet my students’ needs. There are no special education shortages in most places, but there is high-turnover. And that high-turnover is what you get when teachers are not supported working with students who have intense needs. Give me small classes w/extra adult supports, ample resources, a stable staff in my school, wrap-around services, and do not tie my progress with these students to any standardized measure. Fix the working conditions and you will fix any manufactured shortages.
Katie Osgood: how refreshing to hear a voice of reality and good sense.
I am sure I speak for many when I write that your efforts on behalf of some of the most vulnerable are much appreciated. In this new year, please don’t forget to show yourself a little of that same compassion.
Take care.
Most respectfully, courtesy of your local neighborhood KrazyTA.
😎
I, too, work as a special education teacher. Thanks for saying what you did. At my school, students are severely and profoundly disabled, many are non-verbal, unable to walk, talk, or take care of themselves in any way.
It’s madness to hold these students to standards such as the Common Core, expect them to take tests such as NYSAA, and to gauge our progress with them on a par with those that work with general education students.
Yes, it is a team effort. It’s also a very emotionally and physically draining job to work with these populations, when the support is not there. I have seen extreme turnover among staff in the seven years that I’ve been in this school. As you said, fix the working conditions, and there will not be any shortages at schools such as ours.
I’m not qualified to teach children with special needs. Had 3 children with varying degrees of autism in my class last year, and 2 others in the process of being evaluated and identified. I am a general ed teacher in first grade in a district that uses a ‘full-inclusion’ model of teaching special needs students. We no longer have a learning center where students may spend part of the day in small groups with differentiated instruction tailored to their specific IEP goals and part of the day in the classroom.
My training? A series of power point presentations.
Special Educators in my school and district are now called Case Managers. They file mounds of paperwork. They fill out forms. And they ‘train’ paraprofessionals.
They train ‘para-professionals’ to come into my general education classroom to ‘service’ the children with IEP’s (individual education plans). I am supposed to collaborate, co-plan, and co-teach with the ‘case manager’ and this new layer of help – the paraprofessional.
I don’t know what training the ‘paraprofessional’ has, but my experience is this:
-my lessons are interrupted when they enter the class
-they are frequently absent and a substitute paraprofessional arrives and interrupts the class or lesson
-attrition is a problem – same problem as above – with substitutes
-because of inexperience and knowledge of the culture of my class, they often change set norms and routines. Example – I have a routine for using classroom materials – like whiteboards and markers – that has been practiced and is efficient. Their lack of knowledge of this simple routine disrupts my lesson because the student they are working with is confused by their use of materials which is different than mine. Children like routine, and special-need children with autism really like routine.
I feel for these paraprofessionals. Many of them are really passionate about helping children and want to do a good job. Sadly, most of the ones I have experience with are ill-prepared.
The waste of human capital is criminal. The ill-prepared are put with the kids.
The well-prepared and trained Special Educator becomes a manager.
I saw a commercial last night for Subaru where people could give to three charities of choice. One was Make a Wish and another was TFA. Can you even imagine that TFA is characterized as a charity like Make a Wish. Insane
In its 2011 annual report, TFA reported that its assets totaled over $350 million. According to CharityNavigator.org, 76.5% of contributions to TFA come in the form of government grants, exceeding by far the millions lavished on it by the Broad, Walton, and Gates foundations. School districts hiring TFA interns not only pay those interns a salary, but also pay TFA an annual fee of $3000 to $5000, ostensibly to offset TFA’s recruiting expenses.
This is a well-funded, ever-growing operation that has its hand out to anyone and everyone passing by.
Yes.
And it seems to me to border on a scam for TFA to solicit money from shoppers. IMHO they are not in the same category as Make a Wish, etc.)
(J Crew collects donations for them, too)
How can this be legal? It is a total scam.
Wendy Kopp is a wealthy woman, thanks to TFA, and lives in an exclusive neighborhood in Manhattan.
How TFA can be characterized as a “charity” and placed in the same category as a Make a Wish Foundation, IS insane……
Subaru is currently offering $250 to several organizations, including TFA if you buy one in the next few weeks. Makes me ashamed to own one.
I’m a parent who advocates for children with dyslexia which effects 1 in 5 of students to varying degrees. Reading struggles and dyslexia is an area where I feel like I could shed even more light on this subject.
The quality of reading instruction around the country has been deteriorating since the 1950’s. This has been due to the move away from phonics and toward whole language reading instruction. Beginning in the 1980’s teachers in universities around the country were not taught any systematic phonics. At that time there was also a push for more reading at an earlier age which is still in effect. For 60% of the population merely brushing up against reading can be enough but for 40% extra help is needed.
Parents can also read Peg Tyre’s book The Good School for the chapter on reading to better understand these national trends.
So many children are struggling readers today because they simply needed more guidance, more time to learn to read and better qualified instructors. Sadly, because of political reasons one of the most commonly used methods to try to remedy reading struggles comes in the form of something called Reading Recovery or LLi. Both of these have been proven to be near worthless to dyslexic students yet they are the most widely used method to help struggling readers.
For the general public, overall, reading instruction (in most but not all states) has already been in a place of trouble because of the national switch to Whole Language. While there has been a recent trend to re-introduce phonics back into the curriculum it is not the same, the phonics now given is called “incidental phonics” and it is still not enough to help a significant portion of the population learn to read.
The 20% population with dyslexia needs even more highly trained teachers, more time to learn to read, more patience and more resources. To think that any TFA course could teach what it can take years to learn to do well is ludicrous. Qualified Orton Gillingham tutors often command $90.00 per hour with waiting lists in the area I live in. This is how desperate, knowledgeable parents of dyslexic children are to have their children helped with a truly proven methodology.
Parent advocacy groups in my state (OH) have begun to make changes within their public school districts and educate the educators about this learning difference (I refuse to use the word disability because given the right kind of instruction a dyslexic child can learn to read). Slowly, because of parents, public school districts are making changes.
It is not lost on me that the ALEC laws mostly use reading as the Achilles heel of public schooling to be able to “prove” the need to close public schools based on test scores. Still, charter schools will NEVER be able to surpass public schooling in this area because of the simple fact that teaching reading well is much harder than it may seem at first glance (a fact Bill Gates and cronies do not care to understand).
TFA, the privatization of schools into charter schools and any attempts to dismantle public schooling (despite flaws in the areas of writing IEP’s and offering accommodations) is a huge step backward for any parent concerned about dyslexia or other learning differences.
What do you think about Wilson language program and Rick Lavoie?
Wilson (an Orton Gillingham based method) is one of the methodologies that parent dyslexia groups have had success with getting placed into some public school districts in OH. Any move in the right direction by districts, which this is, is a good thing in my opinion.
The problem with a classroom approach (like Wilson) vs. one on one (which a student would get with a qualified Orton Gillingham tutor) is when a child needs extra handholding, more instruction before understanding a concept before moving on to the next concept (similar to math in this way) or an even more broken down approach a classroom based method will still not be enough. It’s a start but it just won’t cover everyone.
Understanding how some brains best respond to learning language can be complicated. This is why highly trained special education teachers are so valuable. There is simply no replacing extensive and necessary training and experience in this field.
Dr. Steven Dykstra is one of the national authorities to pay attention to on this subject.
Rick Lavoie’s ideas appear to me to be geared toward adolescents with special needs and communicating techniques in order to get the best results. Sorry I don’t have enough information to say more at this time.
I will say that as a parent I have personally turned over many rocks to find what works best for my children so any path seems worth looking into, watch for positive results to gauge effectiveness and share what you learn with others.
I took a course from RIck at Manhattanville – he was great. I still have his F.A.T. City tape. He was my first intro to special ed.
Michelle – my son also has dyslexia. His resource teacher in elementary school did not believe that dyslexia existed. She told me my son would never learn to read. He went through Reading Recovery and broke his reading teacher’s heart. One day he would remember, the next day it would be all gone. I did an experimental program with him at the local speech center called Fast Forward which tried to reprogram his brain. We also took him to an Irwin specialist and had special tinted glasses made to help him focus. The school wanted to place him in special ed, I fought to keep him main streamed with a teachers aide. He was a sweet child who all the teachers loved.
I went to the Gow School over one summer and was taught the Orton Gillingham technique. My school district actually paid my way. It was amazing. During the practical part of the course I worked with student volunteers. One student advanced several months in just one week (she was not dyslexic). I brought my son to participate as well. I wanted to work with him at home, but he refused to let me. (Which was the reason why he wasn’t home schooled). Eventually, in middle school, he learned to read using ear-obics and the Wilson method.
Dyslexia is a reality which the public schools need to recognize. Being dyslexic doesn’t mean you are subpar, it just means you need a different approach. Like you said, 40% of the population need some extra help to learn how to read. Orton Gillingham is a comprehensive system which would help these children, not just dyslexic kids. It took me six weeks of full school days to be certified to teach that technique and I was an experienced teacher.
I can’t imagine learning enough to teach special ed in just five weeks.
My comment: This once again proves Will Rogers famous saying: Best government money can buy.
Albertson Foundation. Any relation to a giant grocery store that went out of business a couple of years ago? Smells fishy. Dunno why. Is it because they support the produts delivered by The Fishy Accounting(TFA)?
Ken, the JA and Kathryn Albertson foundation is a highly active nonprofit in Idaho founded by an endowment from, you guessed it, the founder of the Albertson store chain. The foundation likes to promote “reform” innovations like swapping teachers for laptops and swapping real teachers for TFAers. I have been told they are also active at the national level, but my attention has mostly been focused on them here in Idaho.
If a college grad can become not only a teacher but a special education teacher in five weeks, I want an accredited medical school to provide me with a medical license in 5 weeks and with 1 week fellowships in pediatrics, pediatric psychiatry, pediatric nephrology, pediatric pulmonary, pediatric oncology, pediatric urology and a PhD in pediatric neuropsychology…catch my drift. TFA is insultingly absurd and any foundation or company (Are you listening J. Crew, Subaru and FedEx?) perpetuating these “fake” teachers should be boycotted.
In OK, our wise State Department has approved and started Special Education Boot Camps. After two weeks of training in the summer, ANYONE can get a special education alternative certification.
Glad to read comments by 7th Grade Teacher in a Texas T1 PS, 2old2tch, Michelle LaRowe & Chris–“The LD certification of a teacher isn’t a guarantee that teacher will understand a student’s brain.” You have that right, Chris. In Illinois, for example, one can teach LD students by taking the Characteristics of LD/Teaching LD class and Survey of Exceptional Children. And–as to what Michelle said (and as a retired speducator, who taught EC through Grade 8 over the years, which included both self-contained classes and LD resource, there is absolutely NO way a speducator can do a good to great job without continually going back to school for further certifications–one CANNOT teach dyslexic students successfully w/o Orton-Gillingham training and Wilson training, as well. As 2old2tch says, when I first started teaching in other areas of sped (my MS is in Developmental Disabilities, but was called something else back when I started in 1974), I took additional course work both after school and during summers. I had Orton-Gillingham training twice (because it had been 15-20 since I took it originally, and needed to brush up). I also joined every sped. organization I could, going to workshops, conferences and conventions, where one could go to many lectures/workshops to learn new techniques, to hear parent AND student panels, and to learn about areas related to sped (LD and the juvenile justice system, for example). Teachers–REAL teachers–learn from their students and parents of their students and, as such, can find areas in which they are lacking in knowledge to best serve their students. Therefore, they go back to school, work closely with parents, perfect their students’ IEPs, and keep up-to-date on professional developments and techniques. There is so much more involved in TRULY teaching in special education–so much more specialization and education required.
Therefore, it is laughable (no, actually, it is beyond sad–it is a tragedy and a travesty)
to think that a newly minted college graduate from a completely different field of study
(economics? journalism? political science?) could even remotely be considered “highly qualified,” let alone “qualified.”
Thank you Levi, for your post–keep on fighting this in your community. And thanks to
Michelle and Chris for their advocacy and involvement–it’s important that other parents read this post and their comments, then do the same, for it is Parent Power that will protect real educational opportunities (not testing & TFA!) for our special ed. students.
It was my understanding that TFA was similar to Americorps. In that case, a better use of these new college grads would be as teacher assistants and not as replacements for actual teachers. They could still be helpful, and even decide if teaching would be a good career choice. In this way they could be mentored by a certified teacher. While they are helping teachers, they could attend workshops to hone their skills. Oh my, this is sounding amazingly similar to student teaching. Why would we want to use a system that already works? Better to implement an unthought out plan instead.
In a small defense of TFA, it was not uncommon in the past to hire subject specialists to teach in areas which lacked certified teachers. My mom was a music major from Eastman who was hired for General Music while she went back to school to be certified. My daughter graduated with a degree in Math and was hired for a year to teach in Buffalo, but wasn’t reinstated because she refused to get certification credits. However, she had weekly departmental math meetings with the other new teachers to help her with any issues. She wasn’t left to sink or swim (she claims she was treading water the whole time).
Reblogged this on Teach For America: Truth of Crime.
what is TFA?