The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing has raised the standards for those who teach English language learners. No one get will uncertified interns be allowed to teach these students who need well-prepared teachers.
This is a problem for Teach for America because California has a huge number of ELLs.
Will TFA fight the higher standards or will they make sure their corps members are better prepared?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Mamas and the Papas: “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey. . .I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day. I’d be safe and warm if I were in LA. . .California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day”
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In my experience, TFA ‘teachers’ were given provisional certifications in my state, GA. This allowed them to take a minimum number of courses, two a year. I was always surprised that most of them took only online courses, usually with little relevance to acquiring urgent teaching skills for their job. Of course, then they left their jobs at the end of the 2nd year, if that long. TFA in charter schools did not take courses, at all. They felt they were there for their expertise. Huh! Disaster for kids and for them. They needed support for their tearful struggles many times. These TFAtypes are not used to failure. Also, would not generalize their feelings of struggling with students who struggled. Too green, lack of empathy, too inexperienced, too young, too little knowledge of how kids learn and what if they don’t.
US gets what they pay for. Kick out excellent teachers for drive-thru trained TFAtypes?
Could not think of a better way to communicate that kids and teachers matter little. Sad!
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A. Hurley: so much said in such little space!
The single best comment about the effectiveness of the TFA approach that I have ever read.
Thank you.
🙂
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Oops!
H. A. Hurley, not A. Hurley.
My bad. No excuse.
Are you listening, John Merrow?
If not, why not?
“Laughter is poison to the pompous.”
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I am now a retired California teacher. In 1993 we were strongly urged to prepare for certification to teach EL students. It was implied that if we didn’t there may no longer be a teaching position for us as the majority of our students were ELL’s. I took a semester of Spanish, although I had taken it in college,
and a several months long class on effective teaching strategies to use with ELL’s. In August I took the certification test. It was part essay and part multiple choice. I was relieved to learn that I had passed both sections. Those who did not had to retake that portion at a later date.
I am dismayed to read here that TFA interns are teaching ELL’s with so little preparation.
Our students deserve better!
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Based on how TFA reacted the last time their ridiculously insufficient training program was questioned (See 9th Circuit Court decision: http://www.publicadvocates.org/press-releases/ninth-circuit-reaffirms-ruling-that-trainee-teachers-not-intended-as-highly-qualified ), TFA will use its money and clout to fight the new standards rather than adapt to meet ELLs’ needs. How this organization can continue to blatantly disregard laws intended to protect the neediest learners and still claim to be fighting for education justice is beyond me. TFA is in the business of guaranteeing educational inequality.
The next fight we must push is to protect students with special needs. It is unconscionable that uncertified novices are being placed in special education positions. Shame on TFA.
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Katie,
I have met very well-educated, idealistic TFA who told me that they were put in charge of special education classes and found it terrifying. They were not prepared.
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I have had to supervise and support TFA in classes for children with disabilities. Their hearts appeared to be in the right place:like listening to Miss America contestants’ mission to cure cancer or end world hunger. Reality? TFA has to know that such young people are not prepared to pretend to be educated in the difficult situations they are assigned to…inner city, behavioral & academic difficulties, truancy, crime, homelessness, etc. The Peace Corps did a better job placing their volunteers in the world.
TFA teaching SpEd kids is a HUGE PROBLEM. Parents usually know much more, have access to legal counsel, know IDEA,expect knowledgable interventions and accommodations, kids are entitled to everything agreed on the IEP, and kids have had years of struggles and failure. Enough said! TFA – not a clue!
Why are we not hearing TFA outrage from past teachers for being put in the most difficult situations in education ANYWHERE in the world. Seriously! Do they sign a confidentiality agreement with TFA? Lips sealed?
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It is not in the DNA of TFA to have accountability or competence. Their whole existence is based on a scam on the public and students. In reality, I know that is hard to comprehend for them, no one become a professional in 5 weeks. Do you trust having your car repaired by someone with 5 weeks training or to get on an airplane constructed by those with 5 weeks training or in the planes maintenance with the mechanics only having 5 weeks training? Not unless you want to die and that is the equivalence of 5 weeks training to the students that TFA brings to the table without legs. Qualified is not a phrase it must be a fact. A lot depends nationally on the last LAUSD Board of Education race for district 6. If Monica Ratliff is elected we will then have a 4-3 vote the other way and the corporate privatizers have a big problem not just in LAUSD but nationwide as the tables will have been turned on them. Ratliff needs national support and letters of endorsement. The billionaires are doing it, why not us? We are people power, that can trump money in elections as she has proven in the primaries.
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Joanna, dream in L.A. as we do have the best weather and soon with all your help we can lead the way in removing the corporate privatizers. Help us elect a new board member so that we can have a rational 4-7 opposite the destructive vote now. As John Lennon Wrote “IMAGINE.” IT CAN ALL COME TRUE IF YOU TRY.
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