In one of his most brilliant posts, Gary Rubinstein calls Teach for America on the carpet for continual lying. Gary, who is one of TFA’s most illustrious alumni, thinks TFA has many achievements in which it should take pride but he can’t tolerate these big lies.
1. the training for TFA teachers is adequate.
2. High expectations works miracles.
3. TFA produces miracle teachers or schools or districts.
Read his post to see why each of these claims is a lie.
Gary is a fearless myth buster.
TFA should take his good advice.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
PLEASE TAKE THIS POLL FOR MY BOOK “TEACHING IN 2013”. THANK YOU.
DO YOU AGREE WITH STANDARDIZED TESTING FOR CHILDREN?
_______I’M A PARENT AND I DISAGREE
_______I’M A PARENT AND I AGREE
_______I’M A TEACHER AND I AGREE
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Please send your answers to garychatty@aol.com, privately.
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Why wouldn’t a significant number of people believe Lie #2 about expectations when our most recent past president, George W. Bush, mouthed words someone wrote for him about the “soft bigotry of low expectations”? I bumped into those words repeatedly in the Math Wars from certain notoriously anti-progressive folks. These are often people who like to talk about “liberal racism” and act as if they, not progressives, were deeply involved in the civil rights movement in the ’60s. They have been actively creating a Newspeak world in which everything is upside-down, words like “reform” get co-opted to mean in fact “deform,” and the long-time bad guys remake themselves as heroes.
It’s all transparently cynical. TFA is popular with such folks for very good reasons.
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Thank you – the port’s not working. Thank you.
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Try this: http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2013/04/30/the-three-biggest-tfa-lies/
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Odd…. I can’t open the site, because…. it’s been blocked by my school system! LOL Perhaps they worry about the subversion making its way in?
I’ll try again later when I get home. *grin*
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People considering TFA and similar programs would be wise to read this BBC article, as it is just as applicable to Americans and their missions to serve both here and abroad: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22294205
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I can’t open the site either, and I’m home trying to access.
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Christa,
Gary Rubinstein’s post opens for me.
Here is the link.
http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2013/04/30/the-three-biggest-tfa-lies/
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It might be nice if some of the many members of the Education Writers Association whose role should be to explain the reality of schools and education policy would take the time to read beyond executive summaries and claims of miracles. Of course, they would also have to understand both research design and statistics, which in my experience few of them do. They are looking for the “sexy” story, whether it is of the supposed “miracle” or to “expose” those teachers they think are “corrupt” or simply “bad.” Maybe they should listen to those teachers who understand places like TFA from the insid (Gary Rubinstein) or are statistically competenT (Mercedes Schneider).
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I hear and understand many of the issues Gary takes up, but think he’s oversimplifying the underlying issues. I’ve got some questions of my own for anyone who’s willing to take them on: http://collaborationforgood.org/2013/05/02/teaching-and-the-long-haul/
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