Gary Rubinstein told me a year or so ago that the corporate reform movement was living on borrowed time.
He believes that its ideas are so destructive and ill-conceived that it is certain to implode as failure after failure drags it down and as the public realizes that its public schools are being ruined.
In this post, he tries to figure out how Teach for America might salvage its reputation as the ship goes down. He explores his own hope that the original idea of TFA—recruiting top college graduates to teach–might survive.
He suggests that there are two different TFA legacies: One is the privatization/testing group (Rhee, John White, etc.), and the other consists of realists who have joined the education profession or found other ways to be constructive. He looks to the latter group as a saving remnant when the great ship Corporate Reform founders, as it inevitably must.
I find it hard to share Gary’s sunny optimism. I agree with him that corporate reform is a disaster and that it will collapse and die, weighted down by its failures and its inability to achieve its goals. But TFA has benefited so handsomely from the “reforms” and has produced so many of the leaders, that it is hard to see how the one good idea that launched TFA gets disassociated.
But I would like to believe. Is Gary right? Will he be the one who helped save TFA?
Until this affects TFA monetarily, not much will change. Just check their website. Despite studies to the contrary they still boast that their teachers are more effective than the other kind or the words they use are “new teachers”. Aren’t TFA teachers also new?
Why should TFA come in to a district or city where teachers are being laid off? I thought they were originally to fill a need or shortage.
Also, they boast how their alums are in leadership position and these leaders are key to an educational REVOLUTION in our country. I would distance myself from Rhee, White, Sternberg, etc.
I don’t think they care because they do not value the teaching profession. You are supposed to do it for two years, become an expert and then do something truly important.
They may change their verbiage a bit, but it is only for pr purposes. Here are a few links that take a look at TFA that will never appear on their website:
Teach for America: a review of the evidence:
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/teach-for-america
http://allthingsedu.blogspot.com/2011/05/teach-for-america-from-service-group-to.html
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml
We always talk about how we need to promote the “unsung heroes” of society whether they are teachers, firefighters, or coaches for example (well, everyone minus Romney). Why not give the unsung heroes of TFA a chance to step out of the shadow of the Michelle Rhee types before condemning the entire organization?
I am all for that! The organization, however, should demonstrate humility and be more in step with reality, as so many of its members are. Why does the organization boast that its first-year teachers are better than veterans when the first-year teachers are just learning to teach.
And truly, Tony, I don’t understand why TFA is doing constant fund-raising in connection with Mentos, Chase Bank, and other entities when they received $200 million in grants and gifts last year. Do you understand it?
The interaction between non-profits and their (for profit) donors is a fascinating dynamic that I’m interested in learning more about. Until we examine the link between non-profit organizations and the way capital flows in our uniquely American economic system, we can’t really fault an organization for being a successful fundraiser (if they keep their values, which may or may not be debatable in this case). When is the last time TFA has boasted that its first-years are better than veterans? I’m pretty sure they agree that’s patently false in most cases.
Tony,
Tony,
Their claim is right there on their website:
Corps Member Impact
Teach For America corps members help their students achieve academic gains equal to or larger than teachers from other preparation programs, according to the most recent and rigorous studies on teacher effectiveness.
Alumni Impact
Teach For America has nearly 24,000 alumni, including some of the most influential and effective advocates in the effort to expand educational opportunity. More founders and top leaders of entrepreneurial education organizations started their careers with Teach For America than anywhere else.
What the Research Says
Statewide Studies of Teacher Effectiveness
Teach For America is among the most effective sources of new teachers in low-income communities, according to studies about the impact of different teacher-preparation programs in Louisiana (PDF), North Carolina, and Tennessee. Each of these statewide studies, conducted between 2009 and 2012, found that corps members often help their students achieve academic gains at rates equal to or larger than those for students of more veteran teachers.
http://www.teachforamerica.org/our-mission/investing-in-leaders
http://www.teachforamerica.org/our-organization/research
They are very good at promoting themselves.
But read this and it does not match their propaganda:
Teach For America (TFA) aims to address teacher shortages by sending graduates from elite colleges, most of whom do not have a background in education, to teach in low-income rural and urban schools for a two-year commitment. The impact of these graduates is hotly debated by those who, on the one hand, see this as a way to improve the supply of teachers by enticing some of America‘s top students into teaching and those who, on the other hand, see the program as a harmful dalliance into the lives of low-income students who most need highly trained and highly skilled teachers. This policy brief offers a comprehensive overview of research on the TFA program.
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/teach-for-america
You’re right. The wording isn’t totally false (this is “often” true in some cases), but it is certainly misleading at best. Looking at the way data is presented isn’t totally forthright either. Thanks for pointing that out.
Something which defines TFA for me is hubris. The idea that TFA, which has been so destructive, can also be a force for constructive change strikes me as idealistic, and perhaps even too invested in the notion that this corps of teachers is uniquely gifted and best suited to…end the ed deform movement? Well, enlightened former corps members like Gary are a major asset. And I greatly enjoy his smart blog.
But ultimately TFA is a product of a culture which believes that your typically certified teacher is too mediocre to be truly great; only those from elite schools (branded as “the best and the brightest”) can really be transformational. This reminds me of Chris Hayes’ thesis on elites — we believe there are those who are just so incredibly smart, with such fancy degrees, that they should control institutions. and there are others who don’t have the ivy credentials. If the non-ivied don’t get to participate, it’s well and good, since we live in a magical meritocracy where only “the best and brightest” get to participate. Of course, a lot of those elite leaders in the banking industry brought on the 2008 crisis, no? Who’s the best and brightest, now?
Chris Hayes’ thesis on elites: http://www.pointofinquiry.org/chris_hayes_twilight_of_the_elites/
Time for a moratorium on the term “best and brightest.” They should be called , “the well-branded and indoctrinated.” Indoctrinated enough to believe that those who invested in the proper training, with actual experience, who come from the actual communities (like the Bronx, the Appalachia, etc) are the real hopes. Who don’t reject that poverty matters, and only fools believe there are miracle workers who can make hunger, disease, and violence disappear with a few tricks up Lemov’s sleeve.
Mohttp://teachlikeachampion.wiley.com/
“Will he be the one who helped save TFA?” Is the wrong question to ask under any circumstances. What we need to save is the public school system, the supposedly egalitarian, free education system that aim at creating, empowering and supporting students who will be the citizens of tomorrow. If we indeed want to save the public system and ensure children as thinking, moral, creative and active people, it will be essential not to save TFA but rather to euthanize it.
It is somewhat naive to assume that the “reforms will “collapse and die, weighted down by its failures and its inability to achieve its goals” mainly since lofty goals are one sign of a system that is ‘failing by design’. TFA is therefore deign to create failing schools occupied by obedient uninformed, ignorant students who will become a ‘bewildered herd’ rather then active citizens. As Professor Chomsky observed: “But educated the right way: Limit their perspectives and understanding, discourage free and independent thought, and train them for obedience”
It is design to de-professionalized the teaching profession, the dismemberment of unions and middle class with it, and to keep the criminal class – the oligarchs – in charge of the public money only to loot it for profit. TFA is a fraud in the best tradition of corporatism: divide and conquer, or the exploiting one segment of the population – young people who graduated college and are in need of a job, career and ideologically ready to work for free for a just cause – against the professional teachers who have the audacity to ask for livable wage and health benefits. TFA are scabs as used by brutal sadistic oligarch for many years in the road to destroy organized labor and reasonable standards of living.
Crony capitalism existence as pointed out by Naomi Klein is based on creating disasters, just like the “reformers” need a constant disaster in order to justify more involvement of unaccountable tyrannies – like corporations – in the public sphere taking over democracy. Professor Chomsky pointed out regarding the nature of the system: ” “Failure of Design” is class-based. For the designers, it has been a stunning success, as revealed by the astonishing concentration of wealth in the top 1 percent, in fact the top 0.1 percent, while the majority has been reduced to virtual stagnation or decline.”
TFA is an abomination of our public democratic professional education system that has to be annihilated if we are truly interested in saving whatever left of public education.
De-professionalism of the teaching profession is the epitome of education “reform.”
The mantra “it’s about the children” is a smoke screen to divert attention away from the primary effort to remove experienced, qualified educators from the classroom to make way for all the other aspects of “transformation.”
Reformers have capitalized (no pun intended) on the damage that our public education system has brought upon itself with many years of moving more and more towards an administrative, top-down structure of hierarchical control that almost instantly upon promotion from classroom to ivory tower often “necessitated” suppression of any innovative albeit practical ideas that might interfere with the new administrator’s new duty of supporting the status quo and eerily similar “business model” in central office. But we complain about the corporate takeover? Are we blind?
Can’t we see the forest for the trees? After three years of my participation in this “discussion” I still see little to no understanding (by administrators and policymakers) of the primary importance that the highly qualified classroom teacher plays in this on-going debacle.
Charters, vouchers, virtual schools, standardized testing, common standards/curriculum. . . are all not designed as ends in and of themselves but as the MEANS to end the need for certified educators thereby bringing down the last wall of defense that allowed the teacher to walk into the classroom and still TEACH critical thinking skills and the importance of independent thought, research, and questioning.
I am perpetually frustrated and infuriated that even those in the upper echelons of education administration who see the writing on the wall of reform are not FIGHTING for our teachers. They file lawsuits and lobby against the peripheral objectives of the reformers but obediently plan for the coming total destruction of professionalism through value-added models of teacher “effectiveness,” high stakes standardized testing (another weapon in the arsenal), “common core” stds/curriculum (designed to replace teacher created lesson plans with scripts) and blended learning models – all of which will virtually deal the final blow.
If there ever was a RED FLAG, it’s TFA. TFA means no certification or qualifications. TFA means no tenure or job security. TFA means no need for collective bargaining, pension benefits, equitable pay structures. TFA removes individualzed learning opportunities for the children but MOST IMPORTANTLY removes the need for experienced teachers who will be replaced with the script.
TFA would NEVER HAVE BEEN NEEDED if certified teachers had been offered appropriate incentives for teaching in schools with the greatest challenges. If they had been given the necessary training. We understand that in professional football but not in the teaching PROFESSION.
it appears that many of those now fighting TFA were actually complicit in the creation of TFA. It’s hard to shut the door when the car is submerged.
Now is the time to support our TEACHERS if we want what is best for our children. We have to support and retain our professional organizations and unions as they struggle with new priorities and the necessity for internal organizational changes. We have to support our TEACHERS as they speak out against the ravages of standardized testing and standardized curriculum. We have to bring our TEACHERS to the forefront of this conversation because they are the experts who struggle every single day to provide opportunities for EVERY SINGLE CHILD who walks into their classrooms with an opportunity to learn and to think so they can be productive citizens regardless of their desire or ability to go to college.
Join the conversation and be a part of Save Our Schools People’s Convention in Washington, D.C. August 2-5 http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org
Great response, Lee.
Lee,
Thank you, an excellent response. TFA is most certainly being used to deprofessionalize teaching. But I also want speak more on how TFA promotes the exploitation of workers. I have heard many naive TFA members say things like “who else would come into a school and work so hard?” having no idea about the decades long struggle to end that type of teacher exploitation.
Meanwhile, no new money is being given to struggling schools, in fact in many districts they are losing money, and teachers everywhere are being told to “do more with less”. As teachers lose those hard-won rights, TFA serves as a poster child for reformers. We don’t have to fix poverty, we don’t have to invest in schools, we have exploited labor instead!
Lastly, I have lost hope that TFA can be saved. When I debate with TFA members about the organization and the very real criticisms, it feels like I’m arguing with a set of talking points. Their answers are so robotic, and as so many former TFAers are now leading the Corporate Ed reform movement, we see the same adherence to a script there. This made me dig deeper into the psychological effects of how the program is set up. TFA novices are basically broken, during the summer bootcamp of Institute, then are pliable and ready for indoctrination for the next two years. (Although, I don’t actually think the comparison completely apt, there are some unsettling similarities to a cult: http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2012/07/controversies-and-cults-teach-for.html )
TFA scares me because of the power they have. And I think the only way to stop them is to fight back, expose their lies, and ultimately, shut the program down.
PS–See you at Save Our Schools in August!
TFA baffles me. The more I know, the scarier it seems.
Having spent 42 years as an inner city public school teacher, administrator, PTA president, parent and writer, I could not disagree more with the above.
There are some terrific teachers, and some awful ones. There are some unions that have pushed hard for valuable options (we found great allies, for example, in Cincinnati, where the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers helped play a leading role in creating small schools within buildings that, as part of other efforts, eliminated the graduation gap between white and African American student students).
http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2011/06/what-did-cincinnati-public-schools-do-close-high-school-graduation-gap
Then there are unions that have opposed creating new options within a district.
TFA met a need…and still meets a need. Not perfectly. Not always. Teacher unions have been deeply involved in setting salary schedules. But I’m not sure I’d suggest using money as an incentive to teach low income students.
I want teachers who really want to work with those kids, and who make progress in attendance, graduation, test and other measures. IN Cincinnati, the union wisely proposed incentives to reward educators in schools that produced progress.
So why are TFA members coming to cities and schools where teachers have been laid off? There isn’t a shortage and people are losing their jobs.
Your last paragraph….I know many, many teachers that fit your description and they are all public school teachers with degrees, experience, dedication and commitment. We are tired of the us. vs. them mentality as though charter school teachers and teach for awhile elites are more effective than the lowly unionized public school teacher who spend their lives perfecting their craft. We don’t slum for a while and then more on to our real career; it is our passion.
Funny you should mention Cincinnati Public Schools; it’s my neck of the woods. My friend’s son goes to one of the new high schools-within-a-school and for what it’s worth, I can say it’s been very good for him.
But I think it is worth pointing out that CPS could be used as an extremely strong example of your complaint that urban school districts sometimes use magnet schools to isolate white and middle-class kids from their less-privilged peers (e.g., Fairmount German School, Clark Montessori, and the School for the Creative and Performing Arts).
Also, TFA has not yet set foot in Cincinnati, though it is scheduled to arrive next fall:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120227/NEWS0102/302270141/Teach-America-coming-Cincinnati
Something tells me they will not be assigned to any of the schools I listed in the parens, however.
Barbara,
Have teachers been laid off or have there been hiring freezes in your area? If so and there are no shortages, why do they need TFA?
Additionally, TFA gets the same salary as a first year teacher who earned a four year education degree and the district, city or town must pay a $2,000 to $3,000 fee PER member. So it costs more to hire a Teach for a while recruit.
Linda, yes there are staff cutbacks at Cincinnati Public. According to this article, CPS plans to cut 10% of its teaching staff:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120418/NEWS/304180091/CPS-cuts-10-percent-teaching-staff
Here is some more information from the school district’s main office:
So why don’t they keep their teachers and not cut back? If they can afford TFA, they can afford to keep these teachers and tell TFA no thanks. If this happens, then TFA are nothing more than scabs.
Lee’s comments and insight are right on the money.
This is particularly good: “TFA would NEVER HAVE BEEN NEEDED if certified teachers had been offered appropriate incentives for teaching in schools with the greatest challenges. If they had been given the necessary training.”
Remember the days when today’s most challenged schools were not in that position? I taught for 39 years and can recall when each one of our high schools was revered, respected, and seen pretty much as an equal to all the others in the state. Then came school choice and charter schools and the disparities grew and grew.
That is why they fire real teachers and get TFA. They can’t teach but they are less of a hassle. They don’t know their rights. They don’t generally intend to teach as a career. Some don’t even take out disability insurance and probably would not get health insurance if colleagues did not insist. Plus, 22 year olds are less likely than mature adults to get sick or injured on the job. And a lot of real teachers have advanced degrees, experience and certifications so they get paid more.
A school administrator in New Orleans reportedly freaked out when a real teacher went on assault leave because a student molested her. A TFA could probably be convinced there was nothing to be done. Actually the school tried to do that with the real teacher in that they talked her out of pressing charges on the boy. After all, it would have gone on the school report card!
Whistleblower sues Rhee, alleges ErasureGate cover-up
The plaintiff in the case, Bruno Mpoy– a former teacher at a school flagged for high erasure rates– alleges that his principal instructed teachers to alter scores on the DC standardized test. When he brought this to Michelle Rhee’s attention, Rhee allegedly responded by firing him. Rhee has been less than forthright in her previous comments about the scandal—attacking a USA Today investigation as “lacking in integrity”, and stonewalling reporters.
Shades of the Atlanta cheating scandal! Teachers do not erase unless they are instructed to by their supervisors.
I have been around a number of TFAs, at least 30, and have only been impressed with one. And her I have not seen in the classroom. But she fills in for the pastor at my church and talks about her children in her sermons. I saw a fervor for and an understanding beyond the level of some real teachers, even special ed teachers, who, if we are good, are extremely fervorous. And she teaches students with autism. Has to be the most difficult and dangerous type of special ed. She says she has a good paraprofessional, but she is a little bitty thing and has intermediates so some of the kids are big enough to hurt her, which is part of being special ed but not something newbies understand or are prepared for.
I think what it is is that she is a natural, that she has the gift and that this is what she is supposed to do even though her original intent was to be a minister. I am encouraging her to get her Masters in Severe Disabilities and become family for real. She has the art, but her science is based on instinct. She is going to be a normal teacher this year as she has completed the 2 years with TFA. Her friend is going into her second year with TFA. She got her test scores but had hassles with the principal for teaching while white. The principal is one who was involved in the cheating scandal in Atlanta and she is leaving. So I am watching to see how she does now. I hope she is a teacher too, but that is rare among TFAs. However, she is also shy and that seems to be rare with them too. They tend to be know-it-alls even when they know absolutely nothing.
But she is the exception rather than the rule. All the others have been conceited, ignorant or both. They might be able to crank out the test scores, but that does not mean they know how to teach, and if they are using scripted lessons, which seem to go along with being a TFA in regular elementary education, that is what they do.
I think TFA is irredeemable for all the reasons I point to in my article:
http://jacobinmag.com/winter-2012/teach-for-america/