In response to news that the Walton Family Foundation awarded $4.3 million to Teach for America to send its ill-trained recruits to the Delta, a reader sent this comment:
What upset me most about this award was that the Mississippi Delta is served by our own Mississippi Teacher Corps, which provides more summer training than TFA and a lot more support during the school year. It also requires that its members take coursework at the University of Mississippi leading to a master’s degree in teaching, while attending classes on weekends. Our school has received recruits from both programs, and I can tell that the MTC corps members are much more grounded in the realities of the environments in which they will be placed than the TFA members. I cannot understand why our legislature was so easily swayed away from our own program, unless megabucks have changed hands.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is there a link to a story here? Someone tweeted at you that they knew that TFA received a grant but didn’t think it was replacing MTC.
I personally wish that TFA would partner with state teaching corps. Funnel great college grads to these programs and work with them to provide as many different perspectives as possible.
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FTFA!
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As an educator in Mississippi, I believe the shift from MTC to TFA is economic — it is cheaper for the legislature (as controlled by the governor) to fund TFA than MTC. Remember, all of these battles being fought nationwide, not just in Mississippi, will ultimately have the effect of severely curtailing public education — the #1 discretionary expenditure in state budgets. Reduce the cost of public education (regardless of quality) and that leaves more money for other areas, even *gasp* tax cuts. I firmly believe that the driving force behind the “reforms” of these various groups — MS Center for Public Policy, Mississippi First, etc. — is to squeeze public education to the point that it is no longer viable. That’s when the payoff comes, when the only education options for parents are charter schools (including virtual) and voucher-supported private schools.
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I commented on this earlier but the megabucks do matter! I have become passionate about this because NC is giving TFA another $5,100,000 to grow the program in the Triad area and southeast area while some experienced teachers are looking for work. I was so upset when I read the original post about MTC. Our noble profession has lost so much respect that now teaching is “just a job” that anyone can do even for just two years. It is sad…very sad!
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They forced a lot of veteran teachers of the Detroit Schools out of work. TFA is nothing more than a union busting machine in many districts. They use them in the EAA in Detroit. There is absolutely no teacher shortage in Michigan. There was absolutely no need for TFA other than as a political vehicle. Watch out. They are not really a service organization.
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And of course remember we do not have teachers’ unions in NC. So it is curious (although I think our legislators just copycat whatever Jeb Bush likes)–like middle schoolers.
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Hi Diane – I am really curious as to where you are getting this data? I am really curious on where you found the analysis that the Mississippi Teacher Corps provides more training during the school year than TFA. I have been looking for research studies that compare the in-service training TFA receives versus other alternative certification programs, and have not found very much. So, I was surprised to see you were able to make such a claim, as I know TFA folks get a lot of in service training both through TFA and a University partnership. Furthermore, is there a qualitative analysis that looks at the perceptions of Mississippi Teaching Corps members versus TFA corps members placed in Mississippi. Thanks so much for all your help!
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This didn’t come from Diane directly. This was actually an earlier post from a reader.
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Also, go to mtc.olemiss.edu if you think misinformation was given.
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Hi Ms. Dee – Yeah that website only provides basic information on the Mississippi Teaching Fellows. I am not claiming one is better than the other, which is why I would like to see how they were actually compared. To claim the training is better one way or the other, there should be an analysis of the types of instruction and supports received by both programs, needing a mixed methods evaluation study which generally isn’t found on websites.
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Nick,
TFA gets five weeks training before they become full-time teachers. Is there another program that offers less than that? The Mississippi info came from a reader in That state.
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I think Nick is trying to find out if the Mississippi teaching program offers more. Perhaps it does, but it would be a comfort if they made it transparent.
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Hi Diane – Yes I am a aware that they get 5 weeks of training from TFA institute, but they generally receive additional training prior to starting with their university partnership – so there is some variation in the amount of training TFA teachers receive prior to entering the classroom. However, my question was not related to the summer training, I was curious to the statement about the in-service training that the corps members from each program receives. I wanted to know how “levels of support” was measured, and whether the differences in teacher attitudes were based on training or selection (as both appear to take out of state participants). If there was a research study done on it, I thought it would have had really interesting implications for teacher training broadly (e.g.,changing teacher attitudes, as it is a common concern in many teacher prep institutions) so I wanted to know how this analysis came about, and if anything could be use din my own work. Thanks so much!
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I am coming from a place where I am curious as to how alternative certification programs are implemented and evaluated, more than anything. So I was just curious if there was a systematic analysis actually conducted to see how it was done for my own edification
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Nick,
“I am coming from a place ”
And where exactly is that place from which you are coming? Are you a “corp” member?
Thanks,
Duane
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Excellent question/comment, Duane!
Notice that Nick didn’t respond.
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I wouldn’t have necessarily expected a response at that time of night. I say give him time.
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Background on who I am: I used to teach in a large urban district, in which I was grade level chair, chair of many committees, and helped write the IB curriculum for the school. Following I went on to get my PhD. I have taught at both traditional teacher preparation programs, and alternative preparation programs (one in which I helped develop). I have been a field instructor and instructional coach in two large urban districts, and am now a consultant, in which i was recently asked to conduct a scan on how teacher preparation programs were evaluated, and thought that this might have produced something interesting that others could use to evaluate their own programs.
Hope that helped.
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MTC offers more according to what I read from the website. Diane is right. TFA provides five weeks of training during the summer. That’s it. The orginal post comes from somone who lives and teaches in Mississippi. The reader also mentioned that her school has members from both, TFA and MTC. She was making a comparison based on what she sees in her school. Some think that TFA and the NC Teaching Fellows are similar, but not so.
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They are being educated at the Univ. of Miss. Don’t you know that students from Ivy League schools are superior to you and deserve special treatment? The people of Mississippi just aren’t good enough.
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They have another agenda and you do not count in it. Destruction of real public education and control of the money and masses is their goal, not helping you get educated and able to think. This is what TFA and the other astroturf groups are all about. They do not want competence or permanence.
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George, this is why I am really annoyed that TFA want to send more corp members to the Mississippi Delta. Thank you for saying this.
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30% of TFA teachers were eligible for Pell Grants in college. I think some commentators here are paint with a large, stereotyping brush.
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Nick, as several commenters have posted, I am making observations based on my personal interactions with both MTC and TFA corps members at my school over the last 8 years. Comparing their websites, the training page for MTC includes the 7-week summer session and the coursework that leads to the MAT after two years, during which the corps members attend classes every other week-end at the University of Mississippi. The training page for TFA states that they have online support and meet several times with a TFA mentor during the course of the school year.
I don’t know where you read into my post that it was based on analysis or research. Do you know of TFA in-service support that includes similar amounts of coursework for its members? How often do they meet face-to-face with their mentors? Is it every other week-end?
If you want to know more about the MTC program, I would suggest you contact them directly. They may have some research that you could use to make your comparisons.
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You mentioned that the program offers “a lot more support” which infers that there was a comparison done. And yes, all TFA regions partner with universities, and I am aware of many regions that offer similar amounts of coursework (I cannot speak to all regions and the amounts of coursework), and meet with mentor teachers both from their university partnership and another mentor with TFA. As such, TFA teachers vary in the amount of in-service training they receive based on region, it would not be on their national homepage. As I mentioned above, I was curious where the analysis came from – if it’s from your personal observations, that is great! I was just curious!
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Looks like a dispute between two 6-year olds. “My education is better than your education.”
Oh really? When did you start taking education seriously?
When I got into a Master’s Program in Education.
With what kind of GRE scores did you get into that Master’s Program?
They don’t require GREs to be taken. But mine were 500.
Really? 500. That’s impressive, but what is really more impressive is that you had 22s on your ACTs and 500s on your SATs. That means you really read a lot, and were truly dedicated to the intellect in high school. And did you go to a highly-selective university?
No. Highly-selective universities require a person to master a foreign language and to take such difficult classes as Calculus. They also did not buy into the grade inflation of the vast majority of American universities. I also could not take challenging classes such as Physics or anything that might put my grade point average in jeopardy. So I kind of missed the point of pushing one’s self in college.
But did you get a broad education, what the ancients referred to as a “liberal education” so that you could be a “liber”, and have a free mind?
Well I took a lot of education classes.
But you did travel extensively and work in other fields before you started to teach?
No. I had a connection, Joe Bob, who helped me get a job in the public schools–one has to have a connection for the low-demand fields like English and Social Studies. (Not like Science and Technology where there are shortages of teacher.) As far a travel, I’ve been to Europe. If I had worked in another field before teaching I would not have shown that I am dedicated to teaching.
So let me get this straight. You went to a second-rate school, not even your State’s flagship institution with its rigorous entry requirements. You got in with shamefully low ACT and SAT scores, Took the easiest classes you could find in order to protect you GPA, while you avoided professors who were known for being demanding. You got into an MEd. program with rubbish GRE scores (well most Ed Schools wont even report their median GRE scores out of sheer embarassment) and now you resent new teachers from Swarthmore, Carleton, Harvey Mudd and Rice University in TFA teaching the students in your community. I guess you really are dedicated to the life of the mind and intellectual rigor.
Shouldn’t you really be objecting on the grounds that the TFA students really don’t stick around, are not long-term devoted to the poor and underprivileged? Isn’t the real problem with TFA is that those candidates could just as easily take the prescribed 15 education courses (and with their academic capabilities probably taken them standing on their heads with one arm tied behind their backs) over 12 months, so there really is no need for TFA? Taking those 15 “education courses” They would have the same credential as you (and could even accept an MEd if they sacrificed their principled commitment to rigorous academic standards). Shouldn’t you really be objecting to TFA because these are folks who were dedicated to rigorous and challenging academic study since they were very young, but now they are taking a shortcut into education?
No, that would make me a hypocrite.
Well at least you are not that.
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TFA is not replacing MTC in the Delta. I am a current member of MTC and I can tell you simply that is not how it works. In fact, MTC is receiving more funding and is having more members supported this year than in previous years. Furthermore, we are sending more teachers to the Delta this year than we did last year.
MTC receives its funding from the MS legislature (which, again, has increased our funding for this year to support more teachers), and the way that we place teachers is entirely independent of anything that TFA does. So if you see the Walton foundation supporting more TFA, this is not coming at the expense of training MTC teachers. I can’t say whether MTC can/would desire corporate funding (that’s above my paygrade), but the claim that TFA is replacing MTC is patently false.
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The Mississippi Teachers Corps and Teach for America are two prestigious programs doing important work and there is room in Mississippi for each to make significant contributions to the education of our youth. The summer training program for the Mississippi Teachers Corps is in full swing as this comment is being posted. This summer’s training will consist of 435 highly organized hours of training, teaching to a summer school clientele, coursework and professional development before our teachers step foot in their classrooms to begin the school year in August. In addition to these formalized hours and experiences additional individual work is done by candidates outside of these hours. We believe that this intensive summer experience makes our Mississippi Teachers Corps teachers as prepared as possible for the opportunities to positively impact the youth of the State.
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Tom,
I’m curious as to how you calculate the 435 hours of “highly organized” training that you say the MTC teachers receive? My understanding is that the summer training lasts for eight weeks and that the teachers have the weekends off. So does that mean they are in training for almost eleven hours a day, five days a week, for eight weeks? Do they eat?
Also, what do you consider training? If a first-year teacher is at summer school but not teaching does that count towards the 435 hours? Because if they have a free period that is not really training, is it?
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Former MTCer. First years are doing SOMETHING (either teaching, observing and writing down observations, attending class, enduring roll plays or meeting with “Team” (veteran) teachers for feedback from 7:45ish to 5:30 pm if I recall correctly. Breakfast and Lunch are eaten on the run while watching kids like you would during a normal school year. There are also mandatory things on Saturdays some of the time. I didn’t eat enough or sleep enough my first year summer (or first semester of teaching either for that matter) so if the number of hours seems unrealistic, it doesn’t mean it isn’t real.
Once the school year starts, you attend class at Ole Miss from 8 am to 5:30 pm about every other Saturday for two years. You also have someone from MTC coming into schools and observing teachers (mostly first years but some second years) on a regular basis. Every time you are observed, you get some sort of feedback. You are even being observed before the school day begins on how well you tell students to pull up their pants and tuck in their shirts etc.
TFA does not require training during the summer for second year teachers but second year MTC teachers are there for the first half of summer training, then they leave the the first years are on their own.
Your second year of MTC, you attend class at Ole Miss again.
While no training program is perfect, I don’t think I could have possibly been trained for more total hours than I was with MTC.
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