A friend shared this post by a young member of Teach for America.
This young teacher wants to teach social studies, for which he or she feels adequate, but will be expected to teach math, for which he or she feels inadequate.
What comes through as you read the post is a sense of sheer terror.
The teacher-to-be knows that 11 days of training is not enough.
What is distressing is to realize that this ill-trained teacher might be sent to a district that is laying off experienced teachers to make room for inexperienced corps members of TFA.
You can’t read this without feeling terribly sorry for this youngster who has been told that she or he will change the world, but is being thrown into a tough classroom without the skills, knowledge or training to feel prepared.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amazing how optimistic this person gets at the end of the post. Inadequate training is OK since ‘everyone’ is feeling the same way.
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Gary,
As the teacher in this post, I do NOT think the training is ok. I think that having the feelings I am having is what is ok. TFA was making me feel inadequate for feeling the way that I feel. After honestly talking to others, I learned that others shared the same feelings as me, and that reaffirmed my feeling- which allowed me to be more upbeat.
I don’t think it is right, but sharing the feelings and letting others out there know that maybe, just maybe, what we are feeling and thinking doesn’t make us crazy, but maybe, it makes us more sane.
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Here TFA claims their members have a greater impact on student achievement than new teachers. http://www.teachforamerica.org/our-mission/investing-in-leaders
Aren’t their members quasi-new teachers? She says rigorous studies prove this. I don’t believe it.
Here TFA says their former members turned education leaders are fueling a REVOLUTION in American education – http://www.teachforamerica.org/our-mission/fueling-long-term-impact
I am not sure I would want to boast about Michelle Rhee, John White and Mark Stermberg right now.
Also, from my readings it appears TFA doesn’t support or value staying in the teaching profession. If you have they wonder when you will be moving out and into a leadership position, as though that is somehow more valuable and noble.
They may need to start changing their narrative soon, but will they really mean it or will it be just a ploy to manipulate the public? All of their PR is very self-serving and not really about educating children.
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TFA won’t be changing their narrative–they don’t truly value teaching as anything more than an entry level gig. the goal is to flood the ed profession with barely-trained TFA recruits in positions in public policy and ed admin–and they are very successful at it.
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If readers haven’t read this you should..Looking past the spin: Teach for America by
Barbara Miner, 2010
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml
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You can’t help but feel sympathy for young people being sold a bill of goods. They are idealistic and think they can change the world. They are shocked when they realize all that teaching demands, and like us, they are made to feel that everything is their fault. A least seasoned teachers can put this meme in perspective, but TFA encourages this belief, and the TFA recruits are nailed to its mythology.
I often think that those who leave the classroom sometimes harbor resentment for the teachers in the classroom because they saw them succeed, where they, themselves, felt like failures. Can this explain one reason why many ex-TFA speak against teachers, and become disillustioned with the state of the classroom, while at the same time, feeling defensive about their own perfromance? Do they transfer their own failures on to the profession as a whole, and see it as a failure? I don’t know.
I take a lot of student teachers, especially from the Brown University’s MAT program. they have some experience teaching a course during the summer, and an entire year of course work, still they struggle in the classroom. We all did. After their semester of student teaching, being mentored and guided by the university and by their mentor teacher, they have experience enough and feedback enough, to work on their strengths and weaknesses. Are they ready for a classroom on their own? I hope that whatever school they land in, that they will have a mentor teacher, but I don’t count on it. Still they are in the early learning stages and need support and feedback. They are very bright students and are very eager and ready to apply all their class knowledge, but teaching has a long apprenticeship. At least they have enough preparation to see what teaching and entails, and time to development a modicum a confidence. TFA does a disservice to its recruits by not giving them this opportunity.
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Do they transfer their own failures on to the profession as a whole, and see it as a failure? I don’t know.
Interesting reflection and quite plausibe. They were not very good at teaching themselves, but they are slick and verbally persuasive to the general public…they have all the buzz phrases mastered. They decide the profession was beneath them anyway and magically become self-appointed leadesr. Since they don’t understand how much time it takes to become a successful educator and they never were one themselves, it hardly seems appropriate for them to be in a position to judge and make policy…..not very visionary of Ms. Rhee, Mr. Sternberg or Mr. White. However, they seem to travel in packs stroking each others’ egos.
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When you mention that TFAers think that the profession is beneath them, could that be because they feel defensive about their own weakness as teachers? These are kids that have always succeeded by dint of their hard work, they aren’t use to failing, especially when their program tells them that failure is their fault. “Yes, if you are a good teacher you can beat poverty!”–this is the nonsense they are exposed to.
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The comments from others are interesting too…obviously this person is not alone in his/her questioning of the situation. I especially liked…
I was an elementary teacher before I retired, but even I learned that there is a difference between teaching social studies and teaching math while I was a student! The disservice that TFA does to its trainees…and to the students they will teach…is monumental. The idea that one can “become a teacher” in a few weeks is insane.
I understand that there are problems with traditional university paths to becoming an educator, but it would be better, I think, to fix the problems that exist rather than just throw out the process and go to an alternate like TFA. It’s the same mind-set that says if a public school is “failing” we close it instead of fix it.
Candidate Obama said in 2007, “”Don’t label a school as failing one day and then throw your hands up and walk away from it the next.”
Wasn’t it Diane who wrote about the Finnish school administrator who answered, when asked what they do with teachers who are struggling, “We help them.” When asked what they do if the teachers still struggle after being helped, he answered, “We help them some more.”
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I hope,that in the coming years, there will be enough veteran teachers left to help out rookies, be they TFA or others. One question I have had for awhile is this: in Connecticut, an under certified teacher can teach under a temporary license called a Durational Shortage Area Permit, but only if there are no certified applicants for the position. I began my carreer as a Latin teacher this way a dozen years ago. How then, can CT schools get away with dismissing certified teachers and replacing them with TFA?
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because TFA recruits are categorized as “highly qualified”. amazing, eh?
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I met a TFA teacher in New Orleans who had been assigned special needs students but did not know what dyslexia was. I can imagine the teacher’s fear and frustration but I can also imagine that student thinking they were a failure with no future in school.
For every inadequately trained TFA teacher, there are students who pay for that lack of training the rest of their lives.
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I was still learning after 11 years of teaching and right up to my retirement after almost 40 years. What an injustice to both teachers and students.
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What I would like to know comes from combining a question Carol Burris wrote in another post and this TFA poster. TFA training comes in summer school, teaching students typically remedial classes or students who have failed a basic class- math, history, english etc. If there is the wholesale weeding out of teachers with the projected holes filled in with TFAers, when will they ever get exposed to higher levels classes or classes in the areas that they are suppose to teach? Ms. Burris’s query about physic teacher replacements is answered by the real TFAer who is doing TFA training in social studies but will actually be teaching physics and chemistry in the fall. A TFA institute really thought that was good experience- they really do believe then that it is just the same.
No one would say that teaching soccer kicks and teaching butterfly stroke are the same but it is okay to say that for academic subjects. What a lie and the lying liars who tell them- these are not uneducated people running the training. They are the ‘best of the best’ as TFAers from past institutes. How moronic and how disheartening to realize that they have a pedigreed degree but they have no ability to actually think through and problem solve. Who would hire people like that- it makes me question the value of the brand name. Who honestly would hire a TFA trainer outside of education? Their value and their job should be based on how successful their TFA trainees are at actually teaching their subject.
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After reading the shared post, I’m shocked that TFA treats their corps members this way! I am also doing an alternative Teaching Fellowship in an urban city, and my experience has been the complete opposite. I’m constantly surrounded by veteran teachers who want to help me become a better teacher. Sure with Graduate classes, Fellow sessions (where we practice role playing in the classroom/learning classroom management), and my field experience (student teaching) make for a very long days (8-12 hour days depending on my schedule), but I can confidently say every day I feel like I am becoming a better teacher. However, I suppose having 2 months of putting in those hours with one month dedicated to student teaching as opposed to 11 days makes a big difference.
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From the article below:
Peter Downs, president of the elected school board, summarizes TFA’s role in one word: “privatization.” He says that the mayor, not the district, first invited TFA to St. Louis, in line with reforms such as for-profit charters and the privatization of services in curriculum development, teacher recruitment, maintenance, and food service. As part of its contract with TFA, the district pays $2,000 a year to TFA for each of its recruits. (The elected board has no power because the state took over the St. Louis schools; the mayoral appointee to the new three-person board is a former regional staff person for Teach for America.)
So a TFA recruit will cost more than a student who graduated from a college with an education degree and who wants to pursue teaching as a profession.
So why would a school district choose the TFA route other than the hype?
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml
Please read if you have time….well researched, well written.
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I noticed that someone on the TFA blog recommended that the writer seek out the most veteran teachers and ask them to be their mentor. Logically most veteran teachers have the significant knowledge and proven skills to help new teachers, and thereby help the students. Yet TFA thinks that they can train someone quickly and then have them be the superheros of the schools. It is so misleading to these young people.
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Wow! My heart goes out to Cassidy. She is clearly motivated to become an excellent teacher, and I fear that she will burn out in the first few months. At least she recognizes where she needs help. I hope she gets it. But when I read the comments that followed her blog, I realized that her experience (education in one subject area, but assigned to a very different one) is not that unusual with TFA. The skill set and planning for Social Studies and Math are SO different! I’ll offer one tiny suggestion–a book called “Content Matters” by Stephanie McConachie and Anthony Petrosky (Jossey Bass pub.). I have no connection to the book, but it has separate sections for History, Math, Science, and English classrooms. What I have read in my content area (History) is excellent. The book points out how literacy is different in each area. Good luck, Cassidy.
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When I was in TFA, at Institute they assigned me an elementary science student teaching position, while my actual school placement was secondary English. I remember objecting strongly and that others in my boat did as well. It’s sad to see this practice has not changed.
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This is even worse than I could have ever imagined. 11 days training! When I worked at A&P – back in the day, the training for most positions was 1-2 weeks depending on the position and skills necessary. It was for about 6-8 hours per day for 10 days.
These recruits must be phenomenal. I pray for them, their students, and the medical and psychological health care professionals they will encounter during the year.
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This is interesting to read:
Controversies and Cults: Teach for America
http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2012/07/controversies-and-cults-teach-for.html
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As explained in Controversies and Cults: Teach for America, this does have the characteristics of a cult. It no doubt is one of the behavior modification programs based on the research of Pavlov or Skinner from the descriptions and comments. These programs usually require teachers to show fidelity to the “scripted” lesson plans and method. This is not teaching but training that borders on brainwashing in my opinion. I speak from my experience in a workshop thirty-three years ago. Scary stuff!
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Why are inexperienced teachers being sent to an at-risk school anyway? In my opinion, the at- risk schools should be getting the most highly qualified teachers. These experienced teachers should be paid extra by the state to go to those schools, because they are the hardest positions to work. They could go for periods of 2-4 year and receive increased merit pay for the rest of their career based on their success. Inexperienced teachers should be placed in low- risk jobs for a minimum of 2-3 years just to get a hold on teaching. When kids tend to raise themselves, behavior management is nearly impossible, and there is no way an inexperienced teacher can be successful unless they have had excellent modeling in that environment.
The problem with what ”should” be happening is that veterans want comfortable positions, and truthfully, they are much easier, because parents make kids accountable in those places. Politicians and businessmen with the ”privatization” model as the ideal approach probably don’t really think about who they should be recruiting for at- risk students. Their kids aren’t there. They owe teachers who stick in these positions long-term by choice a lot more gratitude, because this is probably the only sense of stability many of them receive. The problem for these kids – an unstable environment – is not helped at all by teacher inexperience.
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I love your suggestion…it makes so much sense! I am a TFA Alum who has stuck with teaching in a Title I school for over a decade because I love my job. And sometimes, many times, I think to myself that my paycheck should reflect the fact that I almost never receive a child on grade level, yet am judged by their test scores as if they all came to me with good parents and on grade level.
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Great article that all should read. I found it on Katie’s blog (linked above); this one is written by Rachel Levy. Excerpt and challenge to TFA:
It’s time to stop allowing achievement and privilege to masquerade as competence, dedication, and skill. It’s time for the grown-ups who promote TFA to acknowledge that the quality teaching that we all agree is so valuable comes from experience. It’s time to stop letting TFA stand in the way of the committed, skilled, and experienced teachers our kids so desperately need.
And what do you say, Ivy grads, if we accept that you are talented with much to offer America’s school children, would you accept that teaching is a profession? In other words, talent matters, but is worthless without practice. Would you still teach for America if it wasn’t in Teach For America?
http://allthingsedu.blogspot.com/2011/05/teach-for-america-from-service-group-to.html
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