A reader in North Carolina writes about the legislature’s decision to kill the NC Teaching Fellows program while spending millions more to hire TFA recruits with five weeks of training:
“My daughter is in the last cohort of the NC Teaching Fellows. I am really scared for her and her associates. I told her to teach her required 4 years in NC then leave the state. I am seriously considering doing the same. It is a sad state of affairs when ill-trained college graduates are recruited to teach in public schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ok, where will you go? This madness is spreading. All but four states or so have signed up for CCSS. Some version of these ALEC inspired reforms are being passed or at least discussed everywhere. I’ve been teaching for 12 years. The biggest shock to me was nothing in the classroom as I went through a traditional teacher training program. In other words, I have a degree in education and passed all state certification requirements. The biggest shocker was that I actually entered politics. That is one place where we are failing as a profession. We are certainly educators, and I do not mean do diminish that aspect, but we have also entered into the politic game. We must engage (unions perhaps?) in the political process. As I was told by my local legislator (I’m in Louisiana) “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Yes, we were broadsided by the reforms of a year ago, but when teachers started to vocalize our displeasure, the legislators began to listen. This legislative session saw a “reverse parent trigger” law passed, attempts to delay VAM evaluation plan (for further study), increase in funding for teacher pay (hush money? Maybe.), bottom line is we’ve seen pushback from the legislative branch toward the Governor’s plans. (Jindal will, without a doubt run for a national office as he is term limited…thank God! Vote for the weasel at your own risk.) sorry if my comment seems off topic. You can ignore me…I’m a teacher right? We are used to it here in Louisiana.
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Not off topic in my view. However, I am often accused of dragging in the larger political scene to this blog which is supposed to be about education. I don’t see the education problems as being solvable without attention to the current political problems in Washington. Real teacher outrage and activism would go a long way toward beginning to get people’s attention. The BAT phonathon was a start, but will be ignored. As Gandhi discovered so long ago, finding the RIGHT law to disobey in a mass movement is crucial to getting the law changed. For him it was the salt tax. He walked to the sea, and picked up some salt, and was put in jail for possessing salt without paying the salt tax. What could the British do? What that pressure point is in this country I do not know, BUT as long as teachers despise the tea party, and in general disalign themselves from conservatives, they will fight alone and be destroyed. Cookie’s disgust with tea partiers is an excellent example of why teachers are flying with only one engine. Think about it. Is there any common ground you can offer to conservatives? Any whatsoever? Or will you wait until the privatizers have completely wiped you out? I didn’t used to believe that was the aim, but I think it is now. The two charters with which I have personal contact are WORKING. Vouchers would not be abused by the parents who want them for parochial schools. What can you Ravitchistas offer?
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It’s all part of corporate reform, but so unlike any business model they would follow.
Invest in; untrained teachers, untested standards, unproven charters, unfunded technology and training, unproven assessments, unreliable evaluation methods for teachers and schools. Who would support this type of methodology unless the intended impact is creating chaos and failure? The general public won’t have the patience to follow the dots to see how American schools arrived at the chaos and the creators of this chaos will be the self-appointed solution.
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Some would argue that the creation of chaos by policies all across the current administration is the plan so that in the ensuing disorder a strong man, a dictator can seize power. If so, then the chaos in the schools would simply be a part of the larger plan. Do you think the President really has that in mind?
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More attention needs to be paid to this strategy of deliberate chaos. While ALEC can show that it does not always have a direct connection to the agendas currently being wielded, indirect links and influence are often discovered.
The late Paul Weyrich, co-founder of ALEC, helped Eric Heubeck write the manifesto for the New Traditionalist Movement in 2001. If such a manifesto were written by individuals outside the U.S. trying to influence U.S. policies and institutions, it would be considered terrorism, which is what it is — domestic terrorism.
Here are some excerpts:
“This essay is based on the belief that the truth of an idea is not the primary reason for its acceptance. Far more important is the energy and dedication of the idea’s promoters—in other words, the individuals composing a social or political movement…”
“There will be three main stages in the unfolding of this movement. The first stage will be devoted to the development of a highly motivated elite able to coordinate future activities. The second stage will be devoted to the development of institutions designed to make an impact on the wider elite and a relatively small minority of the masses. The third stage will involve changing the overall character of American popular culture…”
“Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own institutions…”
“We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a moment’s rest. We will endeavor to prove that the Left does not deserve to hold sway over the heart and mind of a single American. We will offer constant reminders that there is an alternative, there is a better way. When people have had enough of the sickness and decay of today’s American culture, they will be embraced by and welcomed into the New Traditionalist movement. The rejection of the existing society by the people will thus be accomplished by pushing them and pulling them simultaneously.”
“We must create a countervailing force that is just as adept as the Left at intimidating people and institutions that are used as tools of left-wing activism but are not ideologically committed, such as Hollywood celebrities, multinational corporations, and university administrators. We must be feared, so that they will think twice before opening their mouths…”
“We will be results-oriented rather than good intentions-oriented. Making a good-faith effort and being ideologically sound will be less important than advancing the goals of the movement…”
“We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime. We will take advantage of every available opportunity to spread the idea that there is something fundamentally wrong with the existing state of affairs. … contribute to a vague sense of uneasiness and dissatisfaction with existing society. … We need to break down before we can build up. We must first clear away the flotsam of a decayed culture.”
“We need more people with fire in the belly, and we need a message that attracts those kinds of people…We must reframe this struggle as a moral struggle, as a transcendent struggle, as a struggle between good and evil. And we must be prepared to explain why this is so. We must provide the evidence needed to prove this using images and simple terms…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Integration_of_Theory_and_Practice
If we could be flies on the wall of the backroom meetings and deals being made in the decision-making circles, this is the language we would hear and the strategies being put forward.
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“…then leave the state.”
And go where? Is Finland hiring?
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The Fellows aren’t much different than the TFAs. It’s a very similar, fast tracked, go and teach uncertified while working on a teaching certification, program. These Fellows are not teachers that have gone through a 4 year Bachelor’s program from a college or university. Great legislature is squashing them. However, they are probably just making a monopoly for TFA.
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FALSE! When Fellows graduate they are FULLY LICENSED to teach in the state of NC. Please do not believe this reader’s comment. NC Teaching Fellows MUST complete an education program. Please do your research b4 posting comments like this. The FELLOWS program began in 1986. It is extremely different from TFA. One becomes a member of TFA after becoming a college graduate. NC Teaching Fellows apply during the senior year of high school. How do I know? I know because my daughter is an outstanding NC Teaching Fellow! Please readers do not get the two programs confused with each other. Read and research!
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Visit http://www.teachingfellows.org for the TRUTH! Again, TFA is not the same. Do the research!
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Many of our best teachers and administrators have come out of the NC TeachingFellows programs. There is no comparison to TFA. A high school senior who goes through the application process is in a very competitive situation. This is all before they start their college studies in education. These students are leaders in their high schools before they enter universities.
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Completely inaccurate info on nc teaching fellows. Please fact check before posting…this is highly misleading.
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See ms. Dees post for correct info.
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Yup! You got it!
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Educator, you might be thinking of the Charlotte Teaching Fellows program which is, in fact, very similar to TFA.
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NCTF was established in 1986 (when I was in 8th grade) on Jim Martin’s watch; but my guess is that it was set into motion under Hunt (because he left office the first time in 1985). Raleigh seems to want to scrap anything done by Democrats from that era. However, I wish they would scrap what was done by the most recent Democrats (signing up for Race to the Top) and focus energy on renewing NCTF so that the 5 million dollars they are giving TFA could stay in our state.
All I can say is, there is no way these guys are going to win further elections. How could they? Even my dental hygienist was telling me today how silly this charter movement seems. They will cook their own goose. This is political muscle flexing, I think.
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and of course we know the retention rates of TFA versus those of Teaching Fellows: http://nyti.ms/rfyOQh Of course this is just a stark reminder that the people passing these laws and budgets DO NOT want what we want: good schools for all kids. They don’t want that.
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What everybody who is ANBODY wants is not effective schools. They merely want to exploit new territory:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/06/26/goldman-sachs-gets-into-public-education/
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Here is why NCTFP is the better choice: http://bit.ly/XeTZRK
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S E-S: As a nuclear engineer told me recently– “where there’s confusion there’s profit.” Which helps explain the Chaos Theory pushed by the privateers and their political enablers.
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