Jersey Jazzman points out what has become apparent: Teach for America is not really about teaching. It is about training the leaders who will take power in the education system.
Some work for Senators and members of Congress. Some are embedded in state and city school systems at the highest levels. Some have ascended to six-figure positions in education before the tender age of 30, doubling what classroom teachers make.
Almost every day brings another announcement of a TFA appointment to a high-level position. In Louisiana, the TFA director of charter schools in New Orleans was elected to the State Board, where she votes on contracts for–guess what–TFA.
In Dallas, a TFA alum is in charge of human resources. In Louisiana, a TFA alum of 27 was put in charge of teacher evaluation. In New York, the Governor selected a TFA alum as Deputy Secretary of Education. In Indiana, the state superintendent’s offices hosts 11 graduates of TFA. In Colorado, a TFA alum was elected to the state senate, where he wrote “reform” legislation that bases 50% of teachers’ evaluation on test scores. Two TFA alums are state commissioners of education, serving the nation’s most reactionary governors.
Another TFA alum is running for state board of education in Nevada. A reader wrote to comment:
The reason I am writing is in regards to the District 3 State Board of Education race in Nevada. We are left with absolutely no choice. On one hand is Ed Klapproth who describes himself as “a Jeffersonian constitutionalist,a Calvin Coolidge-Goldwater-Ronald Reagan Republican. I believe that local government in conjunction with the local community is best in dealing with local problems like those we face in education.” If elected he will “Promote school choice,school vouchers,private schools, home schooling and more charter schools.Let teachers teach (no more teaching for tests). Merit and bonus pay for outstanding teachers.” The only positive thing he says is to let teachers teach. The rest of his thoughts are scary.
On the other hand is Allison Serafin. She is not much older than me, but a Teach for America alum who is now the special consultant for the Superintendent. A Superintendent who in a mere two years has destroyed the morale of the teachers and the long standing good relationship that used to exist between the Union and the District. According to her website “During her time with Teach For America, she taught 6th and 7th grade English and Social Studies, where nearly 100% of her students achieved passing scores on state assessments. However, much like the way her passion for serving others expanded, so did her role as an educator. Over her 10-year career, she taught students, recruited teachers, coached teachers, led national video and social media campaigns, and served as a school director.” If she was such a successful teacher why did she leave the classroom? If she taught in Nevada she has let her license expire, because I can’t even locate it on the Nevada Department of Education license directory. How can she feel that with 10 years or less of teaching experience with no teaching degree that she could possibly understand the needs of teachers?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, an entire education system to be led by deceptive, arrogant, condescending opportunists: meet the Best and Brightest, leading us all, as in Vietnam, to another catastrophe that is all too predictable.
The only question now: How much will it cost to repair it all?
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Is there any way to verify these scores? This sounds too good to be true and probably is. With a boast like this I would have held onto to the score sheets. Perhaps her school/school district can provide them. Was she even truly licensed or did she get a temp/provisional certificate?
If she was so great in the classroom, why did she leave? And if she was so great, like fellow Taker Michelle Rhee why hasn’t given workshops on how to boost test scores? Unless of course, it’s an empty boast. One that is all too common with these mid-20’s geniuses. Next time- no ribbon or trophy for you!
sp. 2 sentence – 2d paragraph fellow TFA’er Michelle Rhee
Freudian slip.
Here’s some background on Serafon’s teaching career:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/11/yet-another-tfa-alum-puffs-up-her-resume.html
“It may well be that Serafin was a good teacher (although, if she were, why did she stop after only three years?). But it’s incomplete at best for her to make claims about her students’ successes without acknowledging that she has never taught in a neighborhood school that has to take all comers. Her scant teaching experience was in selective schools and not representative of the work public school teachers do every day in meeting the needs of all students.”
Many, many teachers leave the classroom, whether TFA grads or not, yet remain in the field, passionate about working toward an equitable, high-quality education and toward improved conditions for teachers. Why is this suspicious? It is necessary to have people with a love for and a dedication to public schools in positions outside of the classroom. This was my story, and I got my credential the old-fashioned way.
This is the end game and why public education is being privatized.
Ed Klapproth, if elected he will “Promote school choice, school vouchers, private schools, home schooling and more charter schools.”
The answer is: Home schooling. Yeah, look how much we’ll save if parents would just take the responsibility for their children and just educate them at home. Yup! That’s the answer. That’s the end-game. How could we have overlooked this?
There are 3,300.000 public school teachers in the United States. Teach For America has placed 28,050 in the history of the organization. How is it that such a small number of inexperienced young people have had such an impact on public schools in the United States?
^ It’s because the entire TFA organization is funded by billionaires who view it as a means of privatizing the public education system. That’s why TFAers have a mysterious tendency to float to the top of lists for things like school boards, administrative positions, and other theatres of power. There’s a lot of money behind them, and it’s typically from the same people who are working against all things in the public sector across the country.
Why does TFA have $300 million in assets? Have you looked at the board of directors?
In one year, this small organization got $50 million from the US Department of Education; $49.5 million from the Walton Foundation; $100 million from four foundations led by Broad Foundation.
Why? You are an economist. What do you think?
Not to mention the whole idea is that the TFA’ers are the “elite” from “elite colleges,” making them the de-facto royalty these days.
Jennifer- you give them way too much credit. The one’s I worked with in DC- well- those who didn’t quit before October, Thanksgiving, or Christmas; well they were really nice and idealistic. But maybe it’s my age, cynicism, and DC/NY/NJ upbringing, but I wasn’t impressed with the new elite. They might be book smart but they have no street smarts or common sense. A by-product no doubt of NCLB. Too bad they were left behind.
I agree. That’s why I used quotation marks around “elite.” I was valedictorian from a fairly large university (public, and not “elite), but I had a devil of a time finding a job because I couldn’t coach a sport.
It is certainly a real problem for K-12 education that the ability to coach a sport determines who is hired to teach an academic class.
Money would not seem to be the explanation for influence, after all the NEA and AFT have spent more than 300 million on political causes in the last five years.
TE,
Do you have a source for this information. Please let us know.
Thanks,
Duane
I was going to ask the same. If this is the case- we need to demand an audit and seek an investigation. Boy did they flush that money away if this is the case. What the heck did we get for that money? More beat downs?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303644004577520841038165770.html
Obviously the unions can’t match the billionaires who are electing rightwing governors and legislatures to take away the jobs of working people, especially teachers.
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303644004577520841038165770.html
Of course this person doesn’t. He or she isn’t interested in facts, just propaganda for the “movement.”
So forget the money aspect. Bullies and noise makers get all the attention. That is their modus operandi. Think of the celebrity educators like Rhee who have sprung forth from this organization and the influence she has been able to peddle.You also have some lazy journalists and news organizations who have sung their praise believing their propaganda and spin, without really looking into or investigating them. You also have the unions: the NEA and AFT who have capitulated to this new ‘unionism’ and love their Arne Duncan photo ops. Lastly, it doesn’t hurt that @ArneDuncan gushes over the organization like a schoolboy with a crush …. Does that answer your question?
Perhaps it goes part of the way, but what role do the millions of public school teachers have in this story?
The WSJ article opens in the following way: “What do the American Ireland Fund, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network have in common?
All have received some of the more than $330 million that America’s two largest teachers unions spent in the past five years on outside causes, political campaigns, lobbying and issue education.”
I wouldn’t consider the WSJ as being fair and unbiased.It’s the same as claiming that FOX news is fair and balanced.They are a conservative paper promoting conservative agendas.
The editorial page of the WSJ is often a little nutty, but the reporting is typically very solid.
TE,
Thanks for the link. From the article “The federation added that unions make their contributions public, “unlike big corporations that are able to secretly spend millions on their extreme agenda.” Unions must publicly detail and categorize all expenses annually under rules put in place by President George W. Bush.”
So unions have to make their contributions public but corporations don’t. Is that fair/just? Why aren’t all entities and/or corporations required to “detail and categorize all expenses annually”?
So that the playing field will never be level as some people, through corporations, can secretly fund their pet projects. Money talks and walks. But if one doesn’t have any one can’t play. Something is totally wrong with that picture.
Duane
Exactly, plus spending on ” outside causes, political campaigns, lobbying and issue education” does not equate with spending “more than 300 million on political causes…”
Because TFA temps are creating an obscene scenario where they are displacing highly experienced career educators. These temps are destabilizing public education….which is obviously their goal!
I doubt all TFA teachers have the same goal, but in any case they amount to less than 1% (much less unless all of them have remained in teaching) of all teachers. Even if they replaced the most experienced 1% of career educators, how can that small change so disrupt a system that was otherwise stable and effective?
Why are you still posting here with your anti-teacher comments? Every single post you put here reeks of talking points from the liars in the “reform” movement.
TFA teachers are not spread through the entire teaching population. They can reek real havoc in a community that serves low income neighborhoods often filling positions that were once held by teachers from those communities.
A am flattered that you have read all my posts, but I would hardly classify them as anti-teacher. In a comment just above this, for example, I sympathized with Jennifer Baker in her difficulty finding a job as a teacher despite her outstanding academic record.
Agree a bit more, and then maybe you will be viewed as playing devil’s advocate.
While your candidate’s 10-year career looks thin, we can top you in Minneapolis. We’ve got Josh Reimnitz, a TFA alum running for Minneapolis school board who’s 26 and calls himself an ‘educator’ because he taught for 2 years in Atlanta elementary school now closed because of massive test cheating scandal the very years he was there. He’s not implicated but cites his ability to increase kids’ education based on those flawed/phoney/discredited test scores. At a candidate forum, he cites his student body presidency at North Dakota State U as evidence that he has financial experience. And now the clincher: he’s endorsed by all kinds of Democrats, including Minneapolis Mayor and DNC Vice Chair, R.T. Rybak, who calls Josh a “fresh voice”. The “rephormers” must be rolling in hilarity at our stupidity and gullibility. Cue the Trojan Horse.
Even more insulting is his 5 month residency. I hope that the voters of Minneapolis see this for what it is and shut him down.
Isn’t the so-called research for “value-added” models based on TFA’s experience?
No, there are many studies of value-added. They look at many different cities and typical teachers.
Both VAM (I originally typed BAM which is what VAM does to teacher morale) and TFA are vacuous educational deforms that have no basis in empiricism or logical thought.
As a veteran teacher, I have a beef with TFA. Over the years I have personally worked along side quite a few TFA members who have openly admitted to me that they are only planning on teaching for 2 or 3 years. After this mandatory time they moved on to law or medical school. Why should any career teacher want to help these folks when they won’t be around in a year or two? Many, (but but not all) TFA members are simply slumming in inner city schools to pad their resumes until they can find a “real job” or move on to making big bucks in the ed-deform movement.
I’ve also worked with TFA members in my school. One member went so far as to explain to me that in addition to the obvious resume padding another goal of TFA was to put members into their future communities to challenge the education status quo. These former members would be able to work for the “right” Board members, run for office and vote the right way to “fix” education. The reason she gave for this activism was “because we all know public schools are failing.”
I’ve also thought it very convenient that TFA gives many of these so called “elite” graduates a career in education without having to really teach. They can earn substantial salaries and be a “policy leader” not a “lowly” teacher. It gives these bright young people another career avenue if they didn’t want to go into medicine, law or finance.
TFA is the equivalent of the Chilean “Chicago Boys” – the “best and brightest” of Chile’s “elite” students who were brought to the U.S. to study at UChicago with Milton Friedman in order to take his ideas back to Chile to implement “shock therapy” to force Chile out of its economic model which the majority of the citizens were happy with and which was working well for most. The result was widespread devastating poverty, while a few at the top reaped enormous profits. The same thing is happening here – education is only one front in the assault.
Here is the World Bank’s view of Chile: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/chile/overview
Some one should do a report on Teacher’s Rights in the US. Here’s State’s report on Human Rights in Chile:
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/wha/154498.htm
Yeah, the World Bank. Now there’s a credible source. Not like they had anything to do with the problem in the first place.
Dienne,
Where do you want to get your numbers?
Has anybody at all filed a lawsuit challenging the very existence of TFA as a violation of students’ civil rights? If not there should be lawsuits galore.
TFA knows that classroom teachers have very little say about education policy in most cases. The real power lies with the administration and state education officials.That’s why they go after those jobs instead of remaining in teaching.The wealthy know there is a lot of money avaible and the easiest way to tap it is to have friends in policy making positions.Their goal isn’t to improve education but to extract all of the wealth they can get their hands on.