Idaho just recently approved Teach for America as a “state sanctioned vehicle for the preparation of teachers in Idaho.”
At first I thought this was an April Fools joke but it isn’t April.
The weakest aspect of TFA claims is its “preparation” of teachers in only five weeks. If that is all it takes, then teaching is not a profession but a job for temps.
Travis Manning, a high school English teacher in Idaho explains why this is a very bad idea.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How can we dismantle TFA?
LikeLike
Greg, I don’t think it’s possible to dismantle TFA.
LikeLike
This group of current TFA teachers and alumni believe that it can be done.
“On July 14, in a summit at the annual Free Minds/Free People education conference in Chicago, a group of alumni and corps members will be the first to do so. The summit, billed as ‘Organizing Resistance Against Teach for America and its Role in Privatization,’ is being organized by a committee of scholars, parents, activists, and current corps members. Its mission is to challenge the organization’s centrality in the corporate-backed, market-driven, testing-oriented movement in urban education.”
http://prospect.org/article/teach-americas-civil-war
LikeLike
One way to get rid of it is refuse to allow it become part of the AmeriCorps program.
LikeLike
The parents of Idaho should be up in arms!!!!
LikeLike
I received an email today from the executive director of Citizens for Pubic Schools and reposted the article she sent on my blog – theindignantteacher.wordpress.com
It discusses at length the movement that’s now underway to get rid of TFA…very interesting stuff!!
LikeLike
Sorry, that’s Citizens for PUBLIC schools, not Pubic. Lmao 🙂
LikeLike
How about instead of Teach for America we rename this group Teach for Corporate Profits.
LikeLike
I’m going to read this article, but I don’t see how it’s possible to get rid of TFA. Why are states paying TFA for recruits when experienced teachers need jobs?
LikeLike
Just read article written by Travis Manning. Now I know why TFA are paid for recruits.
LikeLike
Pressure the feds to not allow it to be part of AmeriCorps is one way.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE and commented:
I wonder if NCTQ will rate TFA as “fairly” as it has other institutions.
LikeLike
Of course it won’t be fair…corporate profits trump everything else.
LikeLike
I have watched this organization grow into a powerhouse. What needs to change is mindset of TFA. I don’t see that happening. How did this organization evolve to what is is now? Will I be able to become a surgeon or lawyer after a few weeks of “training”?
LikeLike
Again, here is what could happen in North Carolina:
1. If we get a raise, we will get a 1% raise. What do you think that will equate to after taxes?
2. Career Status (tenure) is on the line. It could end. That means we will NOT have due process if fired.
3. You will only get paid for having a Master’s degree or doctorate degree if you job title calls for one.
However, North Carolina is budgeting $5,100,000 for more TFA recruits in the Triad area of NC and the southeastern region of NC.
Forgot to mention that the educatioin advisor to our governor is a TFA alum.
LikeLike
It seems reasonable to limit pay increases for more education to jobs that require more education.
LikeLike
Do professors get more with more education? I expect that there’s a bump from master’s to doctorate. Why shouldn’t teachers also get this?
LikeLike
No. At the institution where I teach, a Ph.D. is required. Getting any additional education does nothing directly for salary. All salaries are individually negotiated.
LikeLike
TE often thinks his little world is representative of mainstream America and it’s not. It is neither the same for all professors nor at all colleges.
Community colleges in my area have lane and step salary schedules for professors like public school districts around here have for teachers.
Most colleges would like to have as many doctorates on faculty as possible. However, 75% of the professoriate across America are hired as adjunct professors, because they are cheaper. In many subjects, regional accrediting bodies require professors who are at least one degree ahead of the level of students they are teaching. Many universities employ professors with master’s degrees, though few employ those with just bachelor’s degrees, and they often have lanes and steps recognizing education and experience, too.
Whether or not salaries are negotiated individually varies by college, but generally, yes, the pay is typically higher for faculty who have more education (and experience).
LikeLike
Did I not say at my institution?
What percentage of the faculty at 4 year institutions do not have terminal degrees?
What percentage of four year institutions have AUTOMATIC SPECIFIED salary increases based on the number of graduate credit hours earned or degrees?
LikeLike
I don’t know those numbers but when the nation’s professoriate is comprised of 75% adjuncts, they would be skewed. Adjuncts do get paid based on education in many places and ONLY get increases if they’ve earned higher degrees. Otherwise, unless the university decides to pay higher rates for every adjunct, which is very rare in my experience teaching at seven different colleges, most universities are paying the same exact rate they paid adjuncts over 10 years ago –and one college is paying considerably LESS.
LikeLike
At my institution, at least, adjunct salaries are all individually negotiated and vary greatly based on field rather than degree.
LikeLike
Perhaps I am mistaken, but I was under the impression that to retain a teaching certificate you were required to gain more education? Would that not then justify the pay increases?
If not, then why demand more education?
LikeLike
I think your second question is a very good one.
LikeLike
At the seven colleges where I’ve worked, all adjuncts have been paid the same rate, regardless of their field, with the only differential provided for increased education.
Maybe if they hired someone like David Petraeus they’d pay a lot more, but they’d probably call him a Visiting Professor or some such thing, even though he’s really an adjunct with a hell of a lot of TAs.
LikeLike
Perhaps one difference is that I am at a university which has a number of different schools, including professional schools like medicine and engineering. But even in my school adjuncts who teach for the English department are generally paid less than adjuncts who teach in the economics department, for example.
LikeLike
If you hadn’t mentioned that the governor’s education adviser is a TFA alum, I would’ve been willing to bet that he or she is. One of the primary functions of TFA, in its own words, is to enable corps members to use their 2-year stint as teachers as a springboard into careers in law, finance, public policy, and school administration, where they will function as “education advocates in the community at large.”
Having “advocates for education in the community at large” is not necessarily a good thing. Michelle Rhee, a former TFAer, would no doubt describe herself as an “advocate for education,” as would hedge-fund managers Andy Smarick and Whitney Tilson; billionaire social engineer and mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg; the Walton family; former Indiana supt. of instruction Tony Bennett; former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush and his Foundation for Excellence in Education; and the corporate and legislative members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), both individually and collectively. These “advocates for education” are responsible for the more unseemly aspects of the so-called education reform movement and its blatant, shameless attempts to privatize public education through union busting,standardized testing, corporate-designed and market-driven curriculum, and the funding of charter schools with taxpayer dollars, including private and parochial schools. With friends like that, education doesn’t need enemies.
LikeLike
education (typo above)
LikeLike
As for the TFA and Idaho, like the B-52s so eloquently put it, “you’re living in your own private Idaho”.
LikeLike
It’s not like we’re alone in allowing TFA into the state. TFA operates in 43 different regions scattered throughout over 30 states.
LikeLike
Those regions include other countries, so they’ve definitely taken their show on the road.
But the difference in the US is that, while in most states, TFAers can pursue alternate certification, the TFA program is not considered to be an alternate cert program in itself. I think permitting that is a terrible idea, especially since TFA trainers are typically TFA alums.
LikeLike
I could be “in” with TFA if they actually advocated for teaching as a profession, but as far as I can tell, the only thing TFA advocates for is….TFA itself! You can read about the “ins” and “outs” of TFA at my blog: bltm.com/blog
LikeLike