EduShyster writes a personal letter to Teach for America.
Please, she says, we know you are excellent.
We know you are beyond excellent.
We know that there is no one more excellent than you. Please, we get it. Enough.
But consider what all this self-praise does:
“Every time you toot the horn of triumph, alerting us to the good news that your new teachers are better than our new teachers, even though the evidence is indisputable that all new teachers struggle, or that your handful of alumni teachers are better than our experienced teachers, you hammer the nail in a little deeper. You fan the illusion that temporary teachers who jet in from elsewhere are just as good, are in fact more excellent, than real teachers who are in it for the long haul.”
And one more thing:
“The idea that we could replace our entire teaching force with TFA-style excellence is a fantasy, of course. There are more than 3 million teachers in the country and fewer than 6,000 new TFA corps members each year. And yet the steady drum beat, the constant horn tooting, hat raising and praise singing, creates the illusion that such a thing is not just possible but a worthy goal.
“So please stop, Teach for America. I get it. We get it. The question is do you get it?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This post assumes that the organization sincerely believes they can do better than experienced teachers.
That is irrelevant. They get the funding and promotion they do from the big money folks on Wall Street because they can do it CHEAPER and indirectly weaken unions in the process.
The actual consequences in terms of kids learning is inconsequential to the money people.
TFA is the TempAgency for teachers. In the older days, there were many TempAgencies for offices and they were all staffed by women – therefore temps were called Girl Friday. Probably, because they worked mostly on Fridays. Anyway, TFA will function like this TempAgency when filling all the predicted vacancies after Gates/Duncan/Obama/Rhee/Peaeson/Walton and many more get through destroying public education with their know-nothing lack of care toward children.
If their 6000 TFA will not fill the slots, then the ReFormers will come up with a $ scheme to entice the best and brightest. No doubt!
It’s interesting . . . I have never seen any TFA teacher keep a position for more than two years. I have seldom seen a teacher from an accredited college or university leave after two years. Granted, it happens, but nowhere near the 100 percent rate of TFA’ers.
Wendy Kopp is very clear that developing career teachers, or even temporary teachers, is not what TFA is really about.
It’s real purpose is to identify, groom and promote “leaders” – along the likes of Michelle Rhee, John White and others – who will implement the Overclass’ project to privatize the schools and monetize the kids.
That they do so with such insufferable arrogance, condescension and deceptiveness is just part of what makes them such a special feature of so-called education reform.
And the Kopp trained “leaders” are so awesome at lying… See here. I suppose they learn from the best
On one hand I can see how having energetic bright people is a good idea. On the other hand I can’t see how having arrogant quitters provides value or helps build a school district.
Somehow they missed the message that leadership does not set one apart from those whom you would lead. I believe TFA attracts students who have been high achievers in school, excelled, gotten into top tier schools and then realized they are part of a whole (or don’t realize) and are surrounding themselves with others to protect themselves from “common folks” (who deserve the “common core,” or something like that). I remember having this same type notion in the mid 90s that because I had graduated from a top tier school I somehow automatically deserved a position of leadership. A year or two out in the work force (I did end up with some leadership and then an internship), but I was humbled right away. I realized I had to earn my stripes right in there with everyone else. I might have had an excellent (and expensive) undergraduate education, but that did not entitle me automatically to more money and power than anyone who achieved differently than I did earlier on in their own educations. From what I have read, Wendy Kopp found herself without a job and not wanting to take the time to enroll in a traditional teacher training program, and so created TFA (with connections and fueled by her research for her senior project). Because there has been a shake-up in where women go to school (over the last 40 years or so–my undergraduate school did not admit women until the 1970s)and what they do when they get out (challenging traditional roles for women and thus challenging the institutions that trained them in those previously female dominated jobs like teaching) there had been a shift in high achieving students going to schools and studying subjects other than traditional education degree programs and then wondering what they should do when they got out (particularly if they did not have connections in the business or banking world, or were not interested in law or medicine). I used to feel like I was silly because after I graduated from a top tier school, I re-enrolled in a university I never would have considered a challenging place for me the first time around and took 3 years worth of undergraduate and graduate courses so I could become certified to teach. I borrowed money to do this. The more I read about TFA (and I did attend one of their information sessions at my undergraduate institution my senior year, but decided not to apply), the more I am glad I took the more laborious, cumbersome road. People who do not allow themselves to be among those who achieve differently, will only learn to fluff their own feathers. I even got teased (by buddies) for having gone to a top tier school because being a leader who saw self as set apart from everyone else was so not a part of my teacher training—and that just might be the piece that the TFA crowd is missing. So all they know how to do is fluff their own feathers (when it comes to stepping out of one’s skin and examining being part of the whole–good deeds and good teaching aside).
Anyway, here I am tooting my own horn for not being part of the horn-tooters (there is nothing glamorous about being a school teacher in debt–nevertheless, I think it probably was the right thing and I’m glad that’s the route I went, even though I am still paying the loans back).
Leaders cannot see themselves as set apart, or entitled. It doesn’t work. That’s what we’re seeing. They toot that horn because they don’t know what else to say. All they know how to do is promote themselves, while offering a cheaper product and a short-term solution.
I would think that professors and colleges for teacher education programs would be rising up against TFA more loudly, since TFA undermines their profession as well. The reason these people are taking jobs for two years and quitting is because there isn’t enough money in it for them and their “superior” knowledge. Never mind that they could not have pedagogy that is sufficient. Never mind that students need to have stability in their lives. There is so much more to teaching than simply spewing out information. Where are they when the “teacher evaluation” kicks in? They don’t suffer the consequences of not measuring up because they aren’t there long enough to have students show AYP or to be evalutated on an ongoing basis. It is like “hit and run” driving. It is very obvious that the intent is to break teacher unions, lower salaries, and relegate teaching to the level of a non-profession.
I don’t deny that schools need to embrace the changes that are necessary to forge ahead into the 21st Century. It seems that TFA has plans to get rid of teacher prep programs by relegating them as unnecessary. They seem to look down their noses at those of us who entered the profession with noble goals that weren’t based upon earning huge incomes. We are deemed as unintelligent, lazy, uncaring “thieves” of public tax dollars. We are insulted and disrespected. And, it seems to be most often perpetuated by those who refuse to accept scientific thought and who want to rewrite history.
Not to mention that, by constantly hiring TFA temps and replacing these temps with other TFA temps, nobody builds up enough time for tenure, nor do they acrue enough service to earn retirement.
Bingo!
Also, institutional memory in a building or district is eroded, making it even harder to understand what is happening, let alone resist.
@ Alan. Yes! That is the definite downside to “choice”–it detracts from building up community, traditions etc over time. That’s precisely why vouchers don’t make sense to me from a business perspective. We don’t start over every year to where a dollar per head amount makes sense in as much as it would follow a kid. Schools are built up over time. Maybe many need some real tweaking but taking away the ability to build on what is already there resembles abandoning homes that need repairs and running off to a trailer park, only to keep running from trailer park to trailer park. All homes need constant upkeep. You don’t walk away from a home just for that reason. We are entering the trailer park era of education (no offense to anyone who lives in an actual trailer park).
One thing for sure you do not become and expert in 5 weeks in anything. I would like to see them learn in 5 weeks to build a high performance blue printed motor that will run for more than 5 seconds. Or how about flying in a plane built by people with 5 weeks training? Or drive a brand new Rolls Royce, McLaren, Veryon, Ferrari, Laborghani or Mercedes or Porsche built with people with only 5 weeks training much less a Chevy Volt or something. Do you really want to do that? Would you put your life at risk with that? If you would then you would risk your children and their future. Now let’s get real. That is a fantasy for a good movie not reality. For reality how about CHECKING OUT ADMINISTRATORS. As guess who causes more damage. I told the superintendent, Deasy, and the General Counsel, Holmquist, today that they should be put in jail for their breaking the child abuse laws in the California Penal Codes 11163-11174.3 for those of you who would like to take a look and see if it applies where you are in California. Now here is an interesting discussion on stopping fraud in schools. We can stop many birds with one stone.