Veteran journalist Bob Braun reports that Cami Anderson–the Christie administration’s state-appointed superintendent in Newark (and a graduate of Teach for America)–may lay off 700 Newark teachers and replace many or most of them with TFA.
He writes:
“The state administration of the Newark Public Schools (NPS) is expected to lay off hundreds of experienced city teachers and replace many with new hires, including more than 300 members of Teach for America (TFA). The report comes from union sources but is supported both by the latest version of the state’s “One Newark” plan and by the Walton Family Foundation website. The foundation is expected to subsidize the hiring of the new teachers.
“The NPS has not responded to requests for information or confirmation or denial of previous reports that Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of Newark schools, will ask outgoing state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf to waive seniority rights of hundreds of Newark teachers. This would permit their firing without resort to the detenuring process. Members of the Newark school board, however, confirmed Anderson’s plans to “right-size” the teaching staff.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
700 teachers, plus their friends and families, would make a significant media event.
Christie does not need any more bad publicity. But, do call Steve Kornacki….MSNBC journalist. He is currently scrutinizing New Jersey shenanigans. You might even get on Steve’s show in the Chris Christie’s Greatest Bullying Moments segment.
The proof is in the pudding…
Check out Gary Rubentstein’s analysis
of a high-profile TFA experiment—the
Oprah-produced reality TV series,
BLACKBOARD WARS, which profiled
Steve Barr’s attempt to turn around
a failing New Orleans school, by
taking it over and replacing veteran
teachers with TFA Corps Members,
22 year-olds just out of college
who have had just five weeks of training:
http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2013/03/04/bad-o-pr-ah/
Gary Rubenstein—a ex-TFA and
now TFA apostate—first posts two clips of
the unfortunate TFA Corps Member
Ms. Cobb bombing out as a teacher,
followed by Gary’s analysis:
GARY RUBENSTEIN:
“Now I know that Ms. Cobb is not
representative of all 6,000 2012 TFA
corps members, but still I have to wonder
if her problems are a result of bad training,
bad recruitment, or both. I’d say that she
seems to have potential as a teacher so it
really isn’t a recruitment problem, but
something that TFA should take the blame
for with their training. I’ll bet that Ms. Cobb
taught for about 12 hours over the summer
and never had to deal with a ‘real’ class.
“It is interesting to me that in the show
they don’t seem to reveal that she is in
Teach For America. I think it is quite a
relevant detail since TFAers are
supposed to be the ‘saviors’ of the kids
in New Orleans who, despite limited
training, make big gains with their high
expectations. It would have been a good
comparison to see how other new
teachers who have had more traditional
training would be doing in the same s
ituation.
“I also wonder how TFA feels about this series.
I’m sure they don’t want it to be widely known
that Ms. Cobb is a TFAer since she is probably
worse than the ‘average’ corps member. This
should be required watching for new corps
members who will easily see that ‘high
expectations’ does not go very far when
you have no idea how to control a classroom.”
Jack!!! This is excellent! I wonder how/why this was allowed to be filmed. It would seem that TFA officiate would step in and say “Cameras off please…”
I disagree (respectfully) with your comment that “Ms. Cobb is not representative of all 6,000 2012 TFA corps members…” From everything I have heard and read, I think she could be the poster child for “The Real TFA!”
I agree that she has potential as a teacher, and could be helped to get over that sense of “appreciate me now, for all that I do,” If it weren’t so strongly indoctrinated into the TFA ethos. That just may be an uphill battle not worth fighting when you could easily (albeit more expensively) hire a first year teacher from an actual accredited university.
To be clear, it was Gary Rubenstein
who made the comment that “Ms.
is not representative of all 6,000
2012 TFA Corps Members.” It was
not my comment.
However, I agree with you that
with just five weeks training, the
Ms. Cobb’s would be the rule and
not the exception.
Sorry about …
So much of what is going on in the “sale” of our children is an outrage that you could and should say it regarding so many of your posts but I just can’t help it with this one… THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! I know more and more of the public is waking to the attack on public education but we have to wake this sleeping giant of public outrage, public letter writing, public banding together in local fight-back groups and public voting at the polls.
I urge you to look into the changes over the past 5 years or so at the Dever Elementary School in Boston. This is a perfect example of an inner-city school which let go of all of its teachers and its principal several years ago when it was labeled a “turnaround” school by the city. Every year since, the administration has had the right to let go of any teachers they chose and hire new (part of the “turnaround” status deal). Now, the Dever is being taken over by the state of Massachusetts because it has failed to make adequate gains. Perhaps the teachers are not the problem?
So this is why Hite and Green (the Cami Anderson and Chris Cerf of Philadelphia) want to impose a contract on the teachers of Philadelphia that takes away tenure and seniority. Clearly it has nothing to do with learning outcomes.
For teachers who persist in shopping at Walmart, this is your wake up call. Soon your morning greeting won’t be “good morning, class”, it will be “welcome to Walmart”!
Oh, and don’t expect Senator Booker to come to your aid – this was his plan all along, after which he got out of Dodge.
And lastly, MSNBC coming to the rescue? Not likely. Outside of Ed, who has recently become a shill for the pipeline, the rest of the crew are elitists who think it is more relevant to waste their viewers time on analyzing Republican attacks against Hillary two years before the election, than reporting on the systematic destruction of our public schools. And Maddow will never criticize her school buddy, Cory Booker. Maybe we can enlist David Sirota and Ruth Coniff to help out.
I was a bit disturbed that NJEA had Booker as the keynote speaker at the state legislative conference last weekend, however during the segment where he answered questions from the house, Booker was publicly asked to explain his charter school shenanigans in Newark. It appeared he has been slowly changing his mind about charters and advocating for assisting the public schools, at least that seemed to be his message. Do I believe he’s changed his tune? Hmm…
(I did cringe when he used the word “grit” two times. Thank goodness there was no alcohol at the conference, and we weren’t playing the corporate reform drinking game because I’m a two-drink wonder and would most certainly end up on YouTube. :-P)
Cory Booker can’t be trusted and will change his spots and his speech depending on his surroundings. He is a neoliberal through and through.
Agreed, however…he has the kind of personality that wants to please. He is extremely popular among NJ democrats and many in the masses. He needs to be carefully watched and continually exposed for any double-speak.
I believe his want to be loved and accepted will always color his loyalties–just who does he care about more, the big politico machine or the people? We’ll see.
Booker is a sell-out. Hey, maybe Obama will step in to fight for “middle class” jobs. You know he is a champion of fighting for Middle class jobs…yeah right.
When TFA first started they had some cache of organizing volunteers to do some good. How, amid the current controversy, does TFA recruit participants? What freshly minted college grad would knowingly sign up to be a SCAB? Seriously, has the number or profile of TFA recruits been impacted by the battles over Race to the Top and CCSS?
A former TFA intern talks about the recruiting process: http://tinyurl.com/n9a7okf
more input from former TFAers: http://reconsideringtfa.wordpress.com/testimonials/
This goes against every principle of building a teaching staff. Schools need a teaching corps with a variety of experience. Putting TFA in and veterans out is like allowing teenagers to run our cities and towns. (No offense to teenagers.) Even lawyers and bankers understand the value and expertise of “senior partners,” but when it comes to education, the rich and powerful seem to think experience doesn’t matter as much as cheap and unorganized labor. Time to storm the castle.
And after TFA, the next move, no teachers in the classroom, just computers run by an off-shore company —now we are talking efficiency.
The reform movement has been itching for a test case city where they can pull this off. They will throw every resource they can at it to “prove” that veteran teachers are a liability and need to be eliminated. It has been tried, unsuccessfully, in many other localities but has, up until now, been beaten back.
Clearly the reformers are banking on the fact that with bully Christie’s support, Cerf’s willingness to salt the Earth before he leaves, and Anderson’s singleminded objective to appease her masters and completely ignore the citizens of Newark, they may well have the perfect storm city here.
Perfect storm or no perfect storm, they cannot get away with this without a fight. We will fight, and they will be exposed.
I’m on the front lines with you, LG. Maybe this mass firing of teachers will be a catalyst and wake the sleeping giant of our nations’s teachers from being passive victims of the reform movement to zealous fighters protecting their beloved profession from utter destruction. That’s my hope, anyway. And I’m sad that the NEA and AFT aren’t leading the way and providing the resources and organizing we need to fight this war before it is already over and public schools and public school teachers no longer exist.
Actually, the NJEA has been on the front lines working constantly to fight bad legislation. There are obvious strategies to be played, and I do believe the union (cannot speak for AFT) has been fighting an uphill battle in the public eye, by no fault of its own. The strength of a teachers union (at least here in NJ) may be diminished, but it isn’t completely gone. I have some confidence in our new leadership.
It’s sad that our unions seem to be laying down to this onslaught on our teaching profession. Clearly, they are not doing what our dues are supposed to protect. Our legal rights and due process are being trampled and where is our union?Union power when you really need it, not happening.
No union system is perfect, and with the public perception drinking the anti-union kool-aid, we cannot afford to allow members to sit by and complain about their unions. We need members to get involved at the local, county and state level. We need the members to roll up their sleeves and “get in there” for the betterment of our students and members.
I refuse to believe that the unions are doing NOTHING for members. Go to your union website and click on the legislative action news. For all of what you may call “trampling,” you might see that government relations lobbyists are working towards improvements in the horrid laws that have been forced on unions–laws crafted by corporate sympathizers that are able to find voice by the will of public support for “punishing” union members for having rights that the average worker is losing day after day. The reality is that unions have fewer and fewer allies. Union members who decide to place blame on their organizations and/or refuse to get involved are not doing themselves any favors by adding their own names to the anti-union rhetoric.
In NJ, we endured a drastic change in our pension/benefit system that weakened our negotiating power, with intense union protest. I was there among the 10,000 state union members who marched on Trenton in June of 2011. There should have been more protesters especially from my union, but so many union members were too busy to give up their time to attend. Where were the rest of the union members? Like the animals on the farm who didn’t want to help the little hen grind the wheat and make the bread, they complain that they now cannot eat the bread because they are paying far too much of their salary toward the compensation called benefits. Where were they when we were asked to write the letters, call legislators, and attend rallies?
The NJEA is still lobbying to help shape changes in the radical legislation that a government under Christie has foisted upon us. Standing up with our hands on our hips and announcing that we will “just take our marbles and go home if we don’t get what we want” will give us zero power, and our union leadership knows this. The processes that shape change are far more intricate now than they were in the heyday of unions. If you want this power back, as a member, you need to take responsibility as a member to change the public’s perception of unions. Until then, your complaints only weaken the union’s position.
I cannot speak to how the AFT is going about their business as I am not a member, but I am duly unimpressed with the AFT actions in NY/NJ as an outside observer. Newark’s acceptance of the contract last year, a contract that allowed for merit pay, was a sign of a broken system where members and their union were not on the same page. But the union’s power was lessened when NJ allowed state control over the district back in the mid-1990s. The current situation didn’t just appear out if nowhere–where were the members all in the last 19 years? Chicago seems to understand how to do it right even if it means upsetting the leadership to do it. However, the NJEA is working toward improving the current situation. Whether a person believes that some poor decisions on behalf of the NJEA were mistakes based in incompetence or a willingness to “roll-over,” the member’s job is not just to pay dues and hope for the best–it is to get involved to help enact the changes you wish to see. I highly doubt any union will tell you that it does not need your help.
I have been on the front lines for the past 20 years, as a building rep in NYC (AFT) and in Florida (AFT/NEA combined). Florida is a right to work state and that is used as an excuse to prevent the union from doing anything remotely akin to an “action” for fear of massive fines and imprisonment.
The last strike here in Florida, in the late 70s, resulted in teachers statewide losing their seniority on the pay scale so we are reduced to silly things like “wear red day” or “picketing the BOE after hours: honk if you support teachers!”. None of these actions has much of an effect other than to appease the rank and file somewhat.
I find it harder to recruit new members every year because the first question is always “We are already the lowest paid teachers in the land. What, exactly, do my high membership fees provide me that I don’t already have?”
It’s hard to explain any benefits since we lost tenure and are all at-will employees now, have VAM based upon test scores (50% of our score), lose our teaching credential after 2 years of poor evaluations, are about to lose pensions for new hires, see and hear Randi Weingarten and Dennis Van Roekel spouting the joys of CCSS and VAM while kissing Bill Gates and Arne Duncan, etc. etc.
In Mexico the teachers shut down the national legislature, the capital city, and most of the country over a few minor changes to the profession. In Australia and the United Kingdom teachers go on massive, countrywide strikes to protest threats to the profession. In the USA we wear red shirts for one day and pay a lobbyist to kiss up to legislators who are being given millions from reformer lobbyists to ignore our lobbyists and to produce the most egregious legislation possible.
We have lost the national battle. We talked last week about maybe it’s time to let the current unions die out (as indicated by the shameful UAW loss in TN and the Seattle contract disaster) to see what new things we can create that will actually be able to fight for us and protect our interests like happened in Chicago and Newark. You are 2 outliers; the rest of the country is silent, helpless, hopeless, and frustrated with lack of leadership and lack of action.
The triangulation strategy embraced by Weingarten and Van Roekel of agreeing with the reformers and accepting their hideous reforms in order to earn a seat at the table so we could be heard is an abject failure and has not resulted in one iota of protections, rollbacks, or the slightest beneficial changes to NCLB, RTTT, VAM, school grades, ALEC, high-stakes testing, or CCSS.
It has ensured both Dennis and Randi huge salaries and jobs with the international union when they move on and they’ve attended some fabulous DC parties and got to be on TV a lot. They haven’t actually done anything useful for the rank and file but hey, you can’t have everything, right?
The decline in public support for unions is precisely the reason we should be working toward betterment of our associations in general as members. If we do not, who will?
It seems that NJ’s NEA affiliate does not outwardly express the NEA viewpoints as perhaps it should–but maybe that is a good thing. The NJEA, while affiliated, does not even provide us access to NEA Today, a magazine I used to get regularly as a dues paying member of the PSEA back in the day. I don’t know much about Van Roekel’s positioning as told by my state association–only what I read from other outlets. It’s almost as if my union has divorced from him. We all know that is not the case since legal national affiliation is a requirement for the state union, but it appears that the NJEA operates on its own on many issues.
In regard to what has happened in NYC, I am outraged, but I was never a UFT or AFT member so I had absolutely no way to play a role that could make any difference except as an outside supporter of those members.
My concen is for those who believe that the union has done wrong by them but who have done nothing to get involved. Without members supporting their unions, said members may as well start giving their pay checks back.
Anonymous “union sources” are cited throughout this post–I know I don’t have Mr. Braun’s 50 years of journalism experience, but anonymous sources are supposed to be a last resort, and anyone with any journalism background knows that they’re to be used sparingly; this piece is built on a foundation of anonymous sourcing and poor research.
For one, he shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how TFA works. He claims that his source says that 300 of these 700 new vacancies (completely unconfirmed, which he briefly mentions) will be filled by TFA corps members and then quotes the Walton Foundation website saying “that they will support the recruitment, training and support of nearly 370 Newark area teachers over the next two years.” Given how TFA operates, the math can be easily done. Current CMs in TFAs NJ region: ~210 (this includes not just Newark, but Passaic, Orange, Elizabeth, and other towns and cities). That means if the Walton Foundation supports “recruitment, training and support” for just one year, they are already accounting for ~200 of the 370 that have prompted Mr. Braun’s hysterics. If we add one more year to that hypothetical timeline, that means the support and training of one additional cohort (~100 CMs) and the recruitment of the following cohort (~100). In reality, it’s more like ~400 total over two years. Note that this is without the net gain of a single TFA “slot.” There is no flood of 300 new TFA recruits ready to storm the gates, no almost-doubling of the incoming corps size. Translation of the quote Mr. Braun has pulled from the Walton Foundation website: The Walton Foundation will be donating to TFA to support its existing operations in NJ.
My conclusion? Ignorance of how exactly TFA works either on the part of Mr. Braun or on the part of his “union sources.” Another possibility, given Mr. Braun’s position as the Baraka campaign’s (barely) unofficial spokesperson, is that he’s taking an opportunity to score some easy points for his candidate.
Anthony, let’s watch and see what happens. The proof is in the pudding.
Look over the horizon. We can’t wait to see what is going to happen. We must take steps before they happen. Please read this article. Long, but important. There is a bigger agenda. We must use our last threads of law…local control, states rights, and privacy.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hoge/anita104.htm
Bob Braun: It is true anonymous sources are cited, although not throughout. I guess you think that is an innovation in journalism. In any event, you’d have to be working in Newark to understand why, but I will give you an example–five principals were suspended for publicly speaking about the impact of the “One Newark” plan. More to the point, I offered the spokesman for the Newark schools the opportunity to confirm or deny my story. As is obvious from my story, he didn’t deny it and, where I’m from, a failure to deny is significant. I admit he sent an e-mail in which he said I was “a bit off” about the issue of replacement. He wrote: “While declining enrollment will eventually force us to cut our total number of teaching positions, we still face shortages in certain hard-to-staff subject areas, like bilingual and special education. this is a fact. We will need to hire new teachers who are qualified to teach these subject areas regardless of whether we have to eventually lay off any teachers. As far as the ATF (TFA) reference, they have been extremely helpful in addressing this hard to staff positions.” You may see it differently, but I hardly see that as a denial–and not from far away Illinois but here in Newark. He didn’t say there wouldn’t be replacements, but that the newly hired teachers would be hired for areas of shortage. I suppose one could argue about whether artificially caused shortages are, in fact, shortages. I guess we will have to wait further confirmation (or denial). As for my “position” as the Baraka campaign’s “(barely) unofficial spokesperson,” you should read me more regularly and you will find I have called out Mr. Baraka for his naivete about dealing with charters and other issues of privatization. I have not endorsed him, and will not endorse him (I won’t endorse anyone), but I have said his defeat would be read as the voters’ acceptance of the policies of state superintendent Cami Anderson, a former TFA executive, and Chris Christie, a governor who said publicly the people of Newark have no say in how their schools are operated. I suggest you review the sort of people who are financing his rival’s campaign.
People from Newark might want to look at some docs that were released from the planning of the EAA in Detroit- released only as a result of an FOIA demand.
The Broad people interviewed national charter schools to bring them into Detroit. One of the requirements for some of the charters is “human capital” which is defined as “proxy for TFA”
The correspondence btwn Broad and the EAA (state of Michigan) hires begins at p. 37 in the linked doc dump if you’re interested.
It might give you some sense of how these takeovers are structured and negotiated between the foundations and the state actors, and what to expect next:
Click to access LiptonPt2.pdf
Just wanted to mention that this could be done transparently. The people who are putting this together made a deliberate decision to limit information that is given to the public.
There are laws that mandate the absolute minimum on transparency, but there is absolutely nothing stopping the managers in Newark from voluntarily releasing these plans.
If they were committed to community involvement they would do that. They are creating the fear and uncertainty around this. They are responsible for it. For them to turn around and blame unions or politics or special interests is an excuse. They’re in charge of this, and all they have to do to allay some of these fears is be completely honest and up-front about what they’re planning. They made a decision not to do that.
She knows what she’s planning with these teachers and schools. The decisions have been made. She could release it all tomorrow. She’s choosing not to do that.
Walking away from teaching 2 years ago was the best thing I ever did. Now I’m going to have to find a way to walk away from this country before we turn into Brazil: filthy rich citizens and dirt poor citizens, with no middle class.
Also, I’m sure you’re all aware of this, but this isn’t the perception of TFA outside ed circles. I went to law school with a TFA’er. We sat together in contracts. We got along great. Her whole story was one of going into Chicago schools where no one else wanted to teach. Her undergrad was at U of M and her father (since deceased) was a prominent judge on the ct of appeals here. I didn’t question this at all at the time, and I don’t think people outside ed question it either. I just assumed Chicago had a teacher shortage.
I switched to teaching at 50 because I was told there was a teacher shortage. This turned out not to be quite the case, especially because of the recession and school budget cuts.
I imagine demand for TFA teachers comes from the fact that they are probably less expensive and somewhat more attractive to school districts for other reasons (think, “non union” or “expendable”).
And compliant.
The US DOE continues to push charters. It’s hilarious to read the DOE website, because it is as if there are two school systems in the US- one in DC and one in TN. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the country.
They really may as well just get on the charter/TFA payroll at this point. I don’t know why we’re paying them for this advocacy on behalf of TFA leaders and charter schools.
http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/progress/2014/02/washington-d-c-charters-district-schools-collaborate-around-college-and-career-ready-standards/
From The Reformish Lexicon:
teacher. Pimply adolescent from tony private school given five weeks of training prior to spending two years doing Great Grates with dark-skinned children before moving on to his or her real job in investment banking. Archaic usage: Whiny union member with ersatz degree from an education “school,” responsible for failure. See failure.
failure. What U.S. public schools did before they were replaced by virtual charters run by the grifter brothers, cousins, and golfing buddies of the members of The Party to Which You Are Not Invited.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The Walton family foundation in its war on public education strikes again. Do you really want a Wal-Mart corporate mindset teaching your kids?
DON’T WORRY: The TFA failure rate (called “turnover”) is so high, there is only a 50/50 chance the TFA teacher will be there by the second year and less than 10% chance they will be there after five years. (Source: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/upload/2008/12/survivor_the_tfa_edition_1/TFA-initial.JPG)
So after this taxpayer-funded experiment predictably ends up needing a fix, the most qualified candidates will ultimately be needed. Consider this a sabbatical, I guess.
By the way, I teach with plenty of TFA people (in NYC, they are called Teaching Fellows), and some are great teachers, some not.
Why are the states are spending so much on testing and teacher evaluations yet still aren’t able to identify and remove the so-called ineffective teachers? Aha – because the real reason is to lower morale for older, more expensive teachers while increasing private profits.
Please sign this petition going around:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-tfa-in-newark-public
Sorry! I had to update the petition:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-tfa-in-newark-public-1?source=c.em.cp&r_by=4671321
TFA? That sounds kind of expensive. How come they can’t outsource it to an Indian call center and use skype or something? It’s like, let’s spend money on a bunch of gold plated TFA like a drunken sailor. Who’s in charge here anyway?
Really need to know:
Do TFAers have teaching certificates given by the state? If not, how is it that they can be alone in a classroom with students? It took me several required courses over the years to get my license and couple of student loans. How come my district won’t pay for my tuition? I hear that is one of the benefits of TFA.
I have no idea why the union and the civil rights lawyers aren’t talking out and doing something. How does that non educator Cerf get to do this with the swipe of a pen on his way out to private industry and the destruction of public school education. How in the world do you replace certified teachers with Teacher for America students. Would this happen in the rich areas of New Jersey or on the Upper East Side of New York City who are complaining that the snow removal team didn’t happen fast enough for them. they didn’t care when poor people under their beloved Bloomberg were stuck in the snow but of course they are special. Special people get a great education in poor communities get the back of the rich people hands. Where is Ms. Randi W. when she is needed, who is she having a photo op with now? I didn’t hear her say anything. I guess the media wind is not turning in her direction to speak. If I sound angry it is because I am. Like Wisconsin when the door cracks open the billionaires will kick it in and within three years there will be no public schools of merit anymore the remaining schools wont even be on life support.
So much of this reform is unbelievable to me or maybe I just don’t understand how it works. The Walton Foundation, among many other corporations get a hefty tax deduction for donating to TFA who claims to be a nonprofit organization yet they aren’t. Then the TFA corp members often teach in charter schools who are funded by vouchers which take funds away from public schools that are supposed to be funded by tax money. Instead that money goes to charter schools who also make profits. And we wonder why there are problems in Washington, problems in education and problems in America.
All I can is that this is truly frightening–and do we remain powerless?
Reblogged this on Front Line Teachers and commented:
This could set a really bad precedent for education in this country!
On Feb. 27 the city of Hartford CT’s board of education agreed to pay $650,000 to TFA for more teachers that the city apparently needs. In her letter to the editor published by the Hartford Courant on Feb. 27 TFA-Connecticut’s Tamara Smith writes, in part, that TFA teachers are “more likely to stay for the first two years than any other source of teachers.” She fails to mention the almost $6,000 TFA recruits receive at the end of their two-year commitment. Why leave that out? If the amount is so insignificant then why pay it to TFA recruits at all?