I received the following comment from a TFA advocate, in response to a blog about the outspoken and brilliant Camika Royal:
In my experience with TFA, which stretches across over a decade, at local and at national levels, Dr. Royal is not the exception, but a shining example of the kind of person who joins, then runs (she was on staff for a number of years) TFA and who then moves on to contribute in thoughtful ways to education. Granted, she is exceptionally incisive, but the difference between her and many other TFA alumni is one of degree, not of kind.
Whatever it may look like from the outside, TFA is one of the most self-critical organizations I have ever seen, always questioning its own presumptions and seeking ways to more effectively serve students and schools. If you disagree with its premise, that’s fair. If you say that a number of its young teachers are arrogant, you’re right. But they are not the majority, and they don’t reflect the ethos of the organization. To be critical of TFA is merited, but the wholesale TFA bashing that has become a sport on this blog and elsewhere is simple-minded scapegoating that distracts from the real issues, which are much more nuanced than the good guy/bad guy scenario that appeals to lazy thinkers. More importantly, it is a missed opportunity. Whether you agree with its mission or not, TFA is an efficient and well-run educational organization, which is why it thrives even in difficult times. That’s a rare animal in our world, and we ought to be asking not how we can take it down, but what we can learn from it to apply to our own efforts.
This was my response to the comment:
TFA would be regarded in a positive light if it did the following things:
Diane Ravitch's blog 
brava, Dr. Ravitch.
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Diane you’re on point.
Charter schools and non charter schools in New Orleans which uses exclusively Teach for America teachers ranks 69th out of 70 of school districts in the state of Louisiana on state mandated test, that is FACT not bashing or a sport. It is a sad commentary.
It makes no sense and neither is it sound practice to place inexperience and untrained teachers in classrooms across America. Bad idea that has stymied the academic development of thousands of children while using well intentioned young people.
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Thank you!
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TFA “thrives” because it has virtually unlimited funding from billionaires who want to destroy teachers’ unions. End of story.
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i don’t blame the TfA candidates–they have good intentions, and see TfA as the Peace Corps of domestic public service. while many TfAers use the experience as resume fodder for grad school or law school, some wind up as teachers, and many leave the classroom richer for the experience.
the problem is with those who run the operation, and their motivations. they market themselves as progressives, but their agenda is union-busting and de-professionalizing teaching as a profession. they see no problem with privatizing public schools, and reducing teaching to scripted “telling.” as Dr. Ravitch points out, there is also mass denial of the impact of poverty on schooling, which may have a more insidious impact on kids than everything else.
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She also forgot to mention how much money this “non-profit” organization is making not only from government grants but from Wal-Mart and other private mega-corporations through “donations”.
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I seem to recall you giving a speech to an audience filled with TFA awhile ago and receiving a standing O 🙂 It was obvious that the majority agreed with you. I wonder how many TFA recruits follow the anti-public school teacher agenda as a way of climbing up the ladder??
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The speech was in Houston, and the sponsors were KIPP and TFA. The audience included a very large contingent of public school teachers in Houston who are not TFA. And yes, I did get a standing ovation. I hope some of the applause came from TFA.
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“TFA is an efficient and well-run educational organization, which is why it thrives even in difficult times. That’s a rare animal in our world, and we ought to be asking not how we can take it down, but what we can learn from it to apply to our own efforts.”
Maybe there are non-profits out there that can run their organization better, based on ideas that TFA uses. They would not be the first non-profit to think that. But that doesn’t mean TFA knows anything at all about how to make public schools better.
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If you had assets of $300 million; if you charged $2,000-5,000 for each trainee you placed; if you got $50 million from the US Department of Education and $49 million from the Walton Foundation, and millions more from other foundations and corporations….well, what lessons could you teach the public schools?
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Maybe the TFA model should be applied more broadly. If education and experience don’t matter in the field of education, they certainly shouldn’t matter in any other profession or trade. Let’s all put on our thinking caps and generate ideas: Perform Surgery for America, Practice Law for America, Manage a Large Financial Institution for America…
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In many cities, TFA are nothing more than scabs.
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The word is getting out . . . . .
At my daughter’s graduation from Reed College I was told by some brilliant young graduates that they had considered TFA but learned of its false premises and harmful effects. I’ve also heard some college students here in Arizona change their minds about applying. Thank you Diane and other bloggers for spreading the truth.
The TFA advocate wrote, ” If you say that a number of its young teachers are arrogant, you’re right. But they are not the majority,” That’s changing. The word is getting out. The good intentioned are getting skeptical. Only the arrogant TFAers will be left.
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In further response to the TFA advocate.
The college students who spoke to me were going beyond, “the simple-minded scapegoating that distracts from the real issues, the good guy/bad guy scenario” and the so called “lazy thinking”.
That’s why they chose to reject TFA!
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I hesitate to say this because I don’t like to make the comparison lightly, but TFA seems to me to share a border with Hitler Youth.
1) EXCLUSIVITY: TFA presents itself as an exclusive club whose members are an elite, the best and brightest. Hitler Youth were told that they were racially pure, the height of human evolution.
2) IDEALIZATION: TFA presents its mission in ideal terms. The goal is to transform education. They are going to change the world. Hitler Youth presented their purpose as a higher one: triumph of the will, purity. When Hitler came to power,his first order of business was to make sweeping changes to the education system making it easier to indoctrinate and control a whole nation.
3) YOUTH CULT: TFA is a youth cult organization that recruits people when they are young and inexperienced, using their ideals and self interest to create a sense of loyalty to the organization. Hitler required all aryan youth to participate in Hitler Youth. The best way to have someone for life is to gain control of them when they are young.
4) RELATIONSHIPS: TFA love bombs its members through events and team building, creating a sense of family within TFA that can supplant the school family that they might otherwise create at work. Hitler Youth was a required organization and all social interactions became intrinsically linked to the organization. As Hitler suggested, “Youth must be led by youth,”
5) ISOLATION: TFA suggests that very young, inexperienced college graduates are the antidote to educational decline which comes from a “status quo”. Hitler Youth were told that they were an elite, youth movement and separate from their parents and community. In both cases, youth was idealized and experience was actively diminished.
6) DOCTINE OVER PERSONS: TFA prescribes to the idea that the ends justify the means. They are counseled to work relentlessly toward their goal, often working unsustainable hours. They are actively encouraged to make “use” of other members of the school community to further their objectives. Having established experienced teachers in place as less than, it becomes perfectly acceptable to go into school systems and supplant those experienced teachers who have been laid off due to budget cuts. Hitler Youth were trained to a notion of physical purity and strength. Military training, “violently active, dominating, brutal youth…indifferent to pain, without weakness and tenderness”, to be loyal to the organization over community. They could be relied upon to turn in their own parents if it furthered the cause of the community and/or their own career growth.
7) A TRIP TO THE NURSERY:TFA becomes provides training for a cadre of insiders who will promoted into positions of authority in policy positions. Once members gain entry, they hire from within the organization. It has been noted by members within in NY State BoE, that it’s hard to move up if you aren’t TFA or Broad today. “Hitler Youth played a major role in ensuring a steady flow of ideologically correct recruits to positions within the Third Reich.” In both cases, they can be relied upon to advance the cause that put them in power.
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You were absolutely correct in your hesitation to comment. In the future let such sound instincts guide you away from making such ill-conceived, malicious, fear mongering suppositions in a public forum. Unless you have direct experience with TFA, your words are primarily speculative, and your argument is riddled with false analogies and faulty conclusions. Learn to think critically; there is little that can be valued more highly than a mind that can function independently.
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Of course, one can have valid criticism of an organization without being a member. In fact, it might be preferred in this case since self interest is woven so tightly into the interests of the organization. But is it fear mongering or is it a rational response to an organization that manipulates members with idealistic rhetoric while preparing them to accomplish highly cynical ends, that uses members to replace proven teachers who cost more, that sends green members into schools of 60 student classrooms, that pumps up its brand with flattering notions that members are an elite, intellectually superior group charged with the task of saving children from those inferior public school teachers, that hides or rationalizes statistics that suggests that TFA isn’t quite the panacea is pretends to be, that requires unsustainable levels of commitment that can only be maintained for temporary periods of time, which is A-okay, because there’s a light at the end of the TFA tunnel… the promise of a quick rise away from the fray after they help to undermine teacher protections and middle class career paths for those actual public school graduates… I mean after they “save” two classes of children and THEN become policy makers and edupreneurs where they can hobnob with power and influence. Go team.
As to my inability to think critically or independently, if you are going to accuse me of logical fallacy, do it with evidence and support rather that ad hominem attack that prove nothing but lazy thinking or inability to address the comments on their merit. If you DO have something to say of merit, I will be SLANTing as I read it. Although, perhaps you will forgive me if I only track your words. I assure you that even though you can’t see it, I will be nodding as I am required to (even when I am in disagreement).
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sorry.. #7 should read:
7) A TRIP TO THE NURSERY:TFA provides training for a cadre of insiders who will promoted into policy positions. Once TFA members gain entry, they hire from within the organization. It has been noted by members within in NY State BoE, that it’s hard to move up if you aren’t TFA or Broad today. “Hitler Youth played a major role in ensuring a steady flow of ideologically correct recruits to positions within the Third Reich.” In both cases, members can be relied upon to advance the cause that put them in power.
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Dear Concerned Teacher,
This is a fascinating comparison you make. I’m trying to research the politics of the organization as a graduate student. Could you suggest sources that you used or recommend I read to understand deeper this analysis of Hitler youth? Thanks!
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Look up the history of the East German STASI, their secret police. No one could infiltrate them because of their selection process. They took bright young children from their families, raised them communally, guaranteed an amoral upbringing, and dedicated them to the sole purpose of collecting intelligence for the government. They did not care who the government was or what it did, they existed only to collect information for it. We could not infiltrate this group because we could not act in accordance to the social mores of their society. They just knew we did not belong around them and could pick up from our constraints in action that we were not members of their “community.”
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My interest was in mind control techniques in destructive groups. Hitler Youth is only one of these. You could look at some of the materials that I link below in a comment to someone who thought I was trying to slander TFA. Any of those books and that link would be a very good start to identifying the features of thought control.
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Having lived in Germany, debriefed old Nazi’s in charge of East German Intelligence, and read original source documents in German, I can’t fault your analysis. Gangs also use similar Psychological approaches in recruiting members and creating an alternate sociological setting for them to function. They have a sense of meaning and belonging, a belief they can change the world. They don’t think about whether or not that change is a positive one.
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I need help and some information here. If a TFA teacher is hired by a school district, doesn’t that person join the union?
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In right-to-work states, union membership is optional.
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Notice the use of the terms “simple minded”, “lazy thinker” from the TFAer ?
Wow, didn’t take much to get to name calling, did it?
Usually the sign of a weak point, yes?
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Not to mention using a comparison to the Hitler Youth and STASI.
Just for fun I substituted the letters “NYU” into a concerned teacher’s post wherever he had TFA. It seemed to work at least as well applied to New York University (or most any other college or university) as Teach for America.
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Entire groups of people can be turned to the purposes of another through mind control techniques, whole countries, in fact. Because education is the best way to inoculate people against being recruited into organizations and relationships that exhibit these features, it is my feeling that everyone should be taught the features of mind control that characterize destructive groups or relationships. When you read about the techniques that characterize thought reform, it becomes much clearer and easier to identify in your own organizations or relationships. I am sure that my remarks would be considered an effort to insult or slander TFA, but I assure you, that is NOT my intention. I mean very specifically to note that TFA does exhibit many of those features, and that’s from the outside. Someone in the organization who is privy to more than I, would probably be able to see other elements of mind control at work. The fact that TFA has good intentions (or shall we say HAD, since it would be hard to argue that taking the jobs of teachers in a middle class school system to undermine tenure and decrease salary and benefit costs is hardly a good intention) does not keep it from being a destructive or toxic organization. Any organization or group of two or more people, no matter how lofty their goals, can develop these features over time. So, please do not assume effort to slander, but effort to cast a light into the dark corners. Better yet, do some of your own research into the techniques of mind control and consider for yourself whether these are in evidence and to what degree in the TFA structure. A great, very quick site that gives an overview is http://www.cultclinic.org/qa1.html
You might also read up on these techniques in other situations:
Captive Minds, Captive Hearts, Tobias and Lalich
R.J. Lipton’s Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism
Combatting Mind Control, Steven Hassan
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But do you agree that most of the attributes you talk about for TFA would also apply to any highly selective college or university?
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I should also add that I did not think you were specifically trying to slander TFA, but I do think your concerns extend far far beyond that small organization. Organized religion would surely be at the top of your list of institutions using mind control techniques.
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When you begin to read about destructive groups, you find that they may be religious, political, marketing, ethnic or racial, gender based, gang related. A marriage or a family can take on these characteristics. In terms of religion, you could have two churchs from the same religion and one exhibits destructive characteristics and the other does not. The features are the key. btw, I commented in a new comment regarding Ivy Leagues schools because I didn’t see the reply button in this thread. I did respond
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churches I’m sloppy editor in comments.
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Teach for America Inc. is a marketing organization and its primary focus is not public education or supportive of career teachers. It thrives in difficult times because inexperienced recruits are hired in Districts at below the level of most teachers, and what a district would spend for a regular highly qualified career teacher. It is an opportunity for a district to save money on them. Our students deserve an equitable education from a highly qualified fully credentialed teacher. I agree with the response and would like to add the following:
TFA Inc. (Organization) undermines the career educator and the profession. Students are not provided stability, particularly for our neediest students. Career educators are invested in the profession and (are) not interchangeable parts. TFA Inc. is a vehicle for union busting (reduced cost teachers) Invest in teachers and public education. Districts should grow their own teachers. Fight to take away this temporary service from Districts. The data and statistics should be thoroughly investigated. Bring back laid-off experienced teachers.
Diane Brown diamel@aol.com
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Dear TeachingEconomist, Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I do have a question about the notion of the Ivy League Franchise. I’m not sure that all the elements are there and I never have thought of it that way before, but perhaps you could call them destructive. Surely, the members of that inner group preference themselves for professional advancement, helping each other up the ladder, guaranteeing the continued predominance of their brand. I always considered that more self interest than manipulation, more institutionalized class barriers to equal access.
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I did not see being “destructive” as one of the seven ways TFA and the Hitler Youth are alike.
Based on the seven similarities you did list, it seems to me that many organizations and institutions border on the Hitler Youth. Certainly the Catholic Church and all other religious groups satisfy the seven conditions you list as points of similarity with the Hitler Youth. Magnet public schools with competitive enrollment also have much in common with the Hitler Youth on your account, though not as much as the very competitive admission universities. I would not think to limit it to the ivy league schools, but include other universities like NYU and Stanford as well as colleges like Williams and Reed.
The colleges and universities are 1) elitest, limiting admission to a tiny fraction of students 2) present their goals in idealized terms, saying they will be educated after graduation, 3) recruit even younger than TFA, 4) build relationships with orientation events, core classes and other experiences unique to the student experience at their institutions and often encouraging them to sleep in the same buildings and eat together, 5) suggest that upon graduation they will have the tools to do great things in the world, 6) make them work at an unsustainable pace, and 7) point to a community of alumni that are available to help the students further their careers.
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Destructive groups are on a continuum. Some are worse than others and any group can have destructive elements. If the criteria that is used to manipulate behavior was so different from that of normal interaction, people would rarely fall victim to it. It is through the natural human need for connection, community, recognition, purpose and value that people are manipulated. That is why education and awareness is so critical.
I want to share my concerns about TFA, but don’t base your opinion about destructive groups on my comments. There’s a lot more to it than you could get from what I’ve written. Click on the link, http://www.cultclinic.org/qa1.html read Lifton’s 8 Criteria of Thought Reform. Read Captive Minds, Captive Hearts or some other book about destructive groups; there are plenty of them. Even if you decide that TFA is an entirely benign group doing good work in America, it’s well worth being informed.
As to my concerns: my view of TFA has evolved over time. I used to think it was just another VISTA, a pleasant experience and a nice resume item for young undergrads who wanted a year or two of service before going into other fields. Benign. Now, I think something else.
First, TFA is NOT a “small” organization, but growing one that is getting an unprecedented flow of dollars into it from very powerful interests. TFA youth come in to schools with the notion that they are there to fix a broken system and that they are more accountable to TFA principles than to local leadership which is tainted by the faint odor of the “status quo.” “Gatekeepers” (those with access to resources) are cultivated for their potential use, but experience and expertise is downgraded. Within a few years, those who stay in education leapfrog into policy positions, with members being virtually guaranteed positions of leadership. Suddenly, shortly upon entering the field, TFA alums are making decisions that impact one of our most critical resources. Because they have insufficient practical experience, they have to rely on the talking points of their organization and confidence in their ability to wing it. More and more policy level advancement at the state level is closing down to any but TFA (and Broad) members. It is safe to say that public education paid for by tax dollars is undergoing regime change orchestrated by corporate partners whose funds underwrite them. There seems to be a policy of disruptive innovation, using a chaotic time to transfer resources from one stakeholder to another with no oversight. It should come as no surprise, then, that much of what is promoted looks alarmingly expedient and potentially harmful to the communities being served.
TFA has morphed from a small do-good organization into one that seeks its own gain, and the gain of its funding partners. It manipulates its young members and grooms them to participate in the ethically suspect takeover of public resources. I think it demonstrates some of the characteristics of destructive groups. TFA is partnered with a larger reform movement that is actively tearing down the infrastructure of public education for the purposes of personal gain. We need to ask better questions. Is destructive innovation good for children? Are there ideas that are being floated and supported by edreformers that we should be more critical of? The economic conditions in the world and in this country are ripe for disaster capitalism and demagoguery. Are we reforming public education for the benefit of its citizens or are we looking at the first wave of a land grab that will undermine public education for generations to come? Even if their goals are above reproach, is a shadow leadership composed of members of a private organization good for democracy? Education needs reform. It probably needs it periodically. But, isn’t it time to acknowledge that the reform movement has a toxic underbelly?
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I guess the question about size depends on perception. In 2011 TFA had its largest incoming group of 5,066. I am having a hard time finding figures, but in 2000 there were 580,000 new hires in schools and 2,870,000 continuing teachers.
You did not comment on my higher ed post. The parallels are I think convincing that elite higher education in the US (and i suspect abroad) has the same things in common with the Hitler Youth as TFA.
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1) A measure of how small TFA is should include answers to questions like: How many TFA grads are in positions of significant influence at state and federal level? How many years (on average) these influential TFA grads have in the field prior to being placed in positions of influence? What percentage of TFA grads who stay in education are in influential positions compared to the regular population? Michelle Rhee is certainly not the only influential TFA grad, but she is its poster child. She had 3 years of teaching experience before she opened her own non profit to train teachers. She was offered the position of chancellor of the DC schools with a total of 3 years of teaching and 10 years in her own non profit. She had never been a principal of school or a department head before she was offered the entire DC public schools. Her career is full of documented mismanagement and misrepresentation. Yet she continues to rise.
2) Elite higher education does share a common border with Hitler Youth. It isn’t surprising to note that the children of wealth and influence are deliberately separated out and taught differently than middle and working class children… that they are raised in entitlement and become our leaders… that our wealthiest individuals are separate from other human beings and detached from the consequences of their actions. Society rewards the sociopath with riches and influence.
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Than, you for the latest comment, I think I understand your point now. TFA, NYU, and Brandise University all share a border with the Hitler Youth
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I think you would be better served by trying to really understand the elements that characterize destructive groups and then deciding for yourself if TFA exhibits some destructive qualities rather than play straw man with me.
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Still, Teaching Economist, I didn’t notice any response to the argument that
1)enormous sums of money are being thrown at TFA (hint: they may be valuable to someone’s bottom line)
2) TFA members getting into policy positions after 2 or 3 years of teaching (why waste time getting expertise. Be an impatient optimist)
3) State Ed policy positions becoming increasingly closed to people who don’t have TFA or Broad credentials (according to someone I know who is highly placed in a State BoE)
4) public education going through a corporate funded regime change (Walton/Broad/Gates)
5) TFA being associated with a broader movement that is being used to dismantle and take over public schools (coincidentially lining pockets)
6) TFA participating in expedient policy (such as 60 students in a class in Detroit)
7) the complex connections between TFA leadership and other interested parties in the edreform movement. One might follow the money (Murdoch/Klein/Rhee)
But, if you’re still having trouble following the argument, let’s just quit. Sometimes humor makes the better point.
http://edushyster.com/?p=606#more-606 or this: http://edushyster.com/?p=541
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“broader” movement. Get it 😉
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My posts have been all about your comparison of TFA to the Hitler Youth. Your seven points of similarity are so broad that almost any organization would, in your words, “share a border with the Hitler Youth”.
My argument had nothing to do with a straw man, it was a reductio. Saying Brandise University shares a border with the Hitler Youth should demonstrate to the readers that your method of analysis is not enlightening.
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Oh, I see. We’re playing who’s got a scathing intellect. I guess that means you mostly read your own comments, then? I don’t suppose you managed to read the part in which I note that wealth uses the exclusivity of private education to raise its children as a breed apart. Well, never mind. I’ll give you reductio: As the Nazis rose to power, universities stayed neutral, as did filmmakers, journalists, bureaucrats and politicians. They would never make use of a rising political movement to advance themselves. And in this fine country, wealth never games the system or buys candidates or movie stars, or CNN either. And no one ever uses a political movement to advance themselves at the expense of a more vulnerable group. What was it you just said? Classism isn’t fascism? Possibly…. although it can sure look it at those common borders.
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Diane, you probably know all this and you follow Jon Pelto, as do I, who keeps you current on Bridgeport, CT. But I just had to let you know that there are others here who see behind the scenes of TFA and other groups that see public schools as needing a big dose of privatization. Here in Bridgeport we have Excel Bridgeport, a TFA-run advocacy group. They are backing mayoral appointment of Bridgeport’s BOE, a ballot question on Nov. 6. So your blogs helping to explain TFA’s power are very helpful. Bridgeport just held a special election to return to an elected BOE ordered by the Connecticut Supreme Court. Why, because business-backed groups that included TFA leadership convinced the Governor’s new education commissioner to take over our BOE July 2011. This came after several of the then-elected BOE voted to quit. The quitters were urged to do so by Bridgeport’s powerful Democratic Mayor, also the author now of the ballot question for November 2012. So the fact that only just over 5 percent of Bridgeport voters turned out for the hurriedly-scheduled special BOE election is further fodder for some to say that Bridgeport citizens just don’t care enough about the schools or who populates the BOE. Three of the four elected Sept. 4, were mayor backed and were from that one-year appointed wonder board. At least they lived in Bridgeport and were our tax payers. You know Bridgeport’s unelected BOE hired Paul Vallas as superintendent. This newly-elected BOE will meet in a couple of days and is unlikely to immediately remove Vallas, as the school year of course is in progress and the Democratic Party helped elect most of BOE. So what is likely to happen 60 days from now? Many of us are going to try to defeat the change to a mayor-appointed board, but it may be impossible to do so because here is what the voters are going to be asked to vote up or down: “Shall the City of Bridgeport approve and adopt the Charter changes as recommended by the Charter Revision Commission and approved by the City Council including education governance reform.” (The Charter, like a constitution, is long and has been revised in many ways beyond the question of the mayor appointing futures BOEs.) The vague language of the ballot question sheds light on none of the details. We have a big problem and so far no well-led or well-funded opposition group to the Charter. Since NYC has mayoral control of schools, likely many in Bridgeport who see Bloomberg as a good Mayor may want Bridgeport to follow this example, whether they know anything about NY schools under Bloomberg or not.
gail
(retired/ CT certified English & SS & formerly teacher in Stamford Public Schools)
Gail Janensch
203.856.4360
gailj2@optonline.net
Bridgeport, CT 06604
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I am a retired teacher, currently teaching part time at a university. I teach students in the semester before student teaching. We have discussed TFA. One student has a friend who is working for TFA. She has a college degree, and will get a Masters’ in education as a part of her participation in TFA. One of the classes she teaches has 47 students in it. Help me understand that. She hates it, but will get her MA for free, for agreeing to teach for 2 years. So I guess that isn’t really ‘free’. She is giving up two years of her life.
We will continue to discuss this in class, so they know what they are up against.
If TFA is truly about doing what is best for students, why does a class of 47 students even exist?
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1. Recognize that five weeks of training is not adequate to make a “great” teacher.
Diane, I get the point you’re making with #1, but I got to thinking: affluent families regularly send their children to private schools where teachers often do not have undergraduate education degrees. Many of my friends teach in independent schools, are excellent teachers, though few are certified. The “Haves” don’t seem to have a problem with this.
Naturally, it’s highly unlikely that five weeks makes a great anything, but even four years of ed school is no assurance either…or a year-long MIT program…or the assortment of online degrees available now. Setting aside the questionable rigor of most ed schools, I find this whole certification business (and I use the word “business” intentionally) a bit suspect.
As a teacher for fifteen years, my greatest learning occurred on the job in my own classroom with mentors and peers. I wanted to learn, was open to feedback, and was determined. As a principal of an “urban” secondary public school, it’s been no different. I’m blessed with an incredible mentor who fills the vacuum left by my vacuous administrative program and am also blessed with generous colleagues with whom I can share my practice.
We’re in a people profession, so I look for those characteristics–a desire to learn, openness to feedback, determination–in our new hires because the program they attended rarely tells me anything. I’m not enamored with any program, TFA or otherwise; it’s the people I’m enamored with and who are making the difference at our school.
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I don’t believe in four years of ed school. I believe in four years of a subject-matter liberal arts degree, plus one year of professional preparation.
In the best private schools, most teachers have many years of experience.
TFA makes a mistake by claiming that its first-year teachers with only five weeks training are superior to veterans.
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Oh gosh, where does TFA claim that? I thought TFA claimed that its first-year teachers understand that the organization largely operates in low-income areas, where students need more support than their peers in the suburbs. The majority of TFA teachers stay in the classroom after their commitment and eventually become veteran teachers (http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/10/04/kappan_donaldson.html).
By and large, teachers struggle their first year, whether they come from a traditional credentialing program, or go a non-traditional route (TFA, lateral entry, etc). TFA recruits top students, at top universities, and educates them about the unique contexts of working with underserved populations. Many of these students come into TFA with aspirations of going to law school or med school, but end up “catching the teaching bug.” Nothing wrong with that in my book.
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Absolutely not true…they are now scabs taking the jobs of laid off teachers. Most think they are way to smart to be a lowly teacher. You are extremely misinformed.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml
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For some reason, I can’t reply directly to your comment, but @Linda:
That seems like a gross generalization at best. What about in states where there aren’t teachers unions, are they just scabs there? And “most think they are way to (sic) smart to be a lowly teacher” seems like a pretty unfair statement–I’ve worked with a lot of TFAers, and I can tell you, it isn’t just some ego trip. Whether misguided or not, I strongly believe that members of this organization, at least at the ground level, care primarily about student achievement.
I can see the precedent for calling into question the practices of the organization. I can certainly see how five weeks of training would seem insufficient. It’s the assertion that TFAers “do it for their resumes” or “do it for their egos” that I find offensive. Having spoken with many TFAers, I can state with certainty that these are people that simply want their students to succeed (as any teacher should).
There are certainly grounds for debate surrounding the practices of the organization, but you’ve framed your argument poorly. Can’t we do better than generalizing about the “type of person” this organization attracts?
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Of course, there are some really great TFA people who sincerely want to make a difference for poor children (especially if they are unaware of how TFA helps to undermine the work place protections that those children would be happy to have once they cease to be children). And, it is no surprise at all that every TFAn (Teach for American) that you meet wants to help the children right in front of them succeed. You might have to be a monster if you felt otherwise.
However, let’s not be naive.The practices of an organization are NOT separate from the kinds of people it attracts. You catch the fish that likes your bait. TFA brands itself as an exclusive, elite agency of social change that’s harder to get into than Harvard. It is well known that TFA credentials open doors to leadership and policy making positions that might otherwise require a proven record and a longer trajectory. think it is a fair observation to note that TFA is attractive to resume padders and wannabe policy wonks who (rightly) see membership as a fast track to positions of authority, influence, status and money.
What’s unfair is that while TFA branding sells itself as a solution in education, its primarily does wonderful things for the careers of TFAns. Reviews are mixed as to the positive impact it has on children, and I don’t see it doing anything good at all for the teaching profession As for the coherent, enlightened educational policy that presumably arises from all those extraordinary TFA leaders in positions of influence with their shared mission of educational reform, what good has come from that? TFA has been around for 23 years. The only coherent policy I see is data idolatry and aggressive efforts bring public education to market.
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