This is one of the most depressing articles I have read lately.
It is a straightforward article about high teacher turnover in charter schools. It begins with quotes from a 24-year-old teacher in YES Prep in Houston, who is just starting his third year in the classroom, and he is already planning to move on.
The principal of his charter school is 28.
The New York Times reporter Motoko Rich points out:
As tens of millions of pupils across the country begin their school year, charter networks are developing what amounts to a youth cult in which teaching for two to five years is seen as acceptable and, at times, even desirable. Teachers in the nation’s traditional public schools have an average of close to 14 years of experience, and public school leaders and policy makers have long made it a priority to reduce teacher turnover.
The growing charter movement, she write, “is pushing to redefine the arc of a teaching career.” Yes, two years in the classroom, and you leave. What kind of a “career” is that? In what school she visited, the principal was 27 years old, and five of the nine teachers were in their first year of teaching.
She also notes that research indicates that teacher turnover is not good for school climate or student achievement, but Teach for America has a different view:
The notion of a foreshortened teaching career was largely introduced by Teach for America, which places high-achieving college graduates into low-income schools for two years. Today, Teach for America places about a third of its recruits in charter schools.
“Strong schools can withstand the turnover of their teachers,” said Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America. “The strongest schools develop their teachers tremendously so they become great in the classroom even in their first and second years.”
Studies have shown that on average, teacher turnover diminishes student achievement. Advocates who argue that teaching should become more like medicine or law say that while programs like Teach for America fill a need in the short term, educational leaders should be focused on improving training and working environments so that teachers will invest in long careers.
“To become a master plumber you have to work for five years,” said Ronald Thorpe, president of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a nonprofit groupthat certifies accomplished teachers. “Shouldn’t we have some kind of analog to that with the people we are entrusting our children to?”
Can you imagine that a “teacher” who graduated college in June is already “a great teacher” by September?
Why do we expect entrants to every other profession to spend years honing their craft but a brand-new teacher, with no experience, can be considered “great” in only one or two years, then leave to do something else?
This is a recipe to destroy the teaching profession.
How can anyone say they are education “reformers” if their goal is to destroy the profession?
What other nation is doing this?
This is not innovative. In fact, it returns us to the early nineteenth century, when the general belief was that “anyone can teach, no training needed.” Teaching then was a job for itinerants, widow ladies, young girls without a high school degree, and anyone who couldn’t do anything else. It took over a century to create a teaching profession, with qualifications and credentials needed before one could be certified to stand in front of a classroom of young children. We are rapidly going backwards.
Wendy is a con artist of the worst sort–a person with connections and no conscience.
Seems like TFA had become entirely about promoting TFA and those ‘graduates’ like Rhee who take the low road to personal power by any means necessary (taping shut the mouths of kids, bashing teachers and principals, trying to cover up a cheating scandal, ad nauseam: whatever it takes to get rich and famous. Oh, but it’s “about the kids.”
Agree…perhaps she is in the throes of dementia…but the TFA kids are set up when they are sent into the inner cities and really have no skills to deal with both discipline and academics…and parents…and corporate administration.
Unfortunately in LA the one seemingly effective 24 year old physics teacher, who will soon move on, is the only TFA kid who is repeatedly reported on by the LA Times.
Can’t wait to see what happens to these ill-trained kids fresh out of college when their feet are held to the fire in the ‘parent trigger’ schools. Austin and Deasy say all these parents are now welcome to give input and these kids must follow the parents input and that of the chosen CEOs…good luck kids, and your experimental students.
“Strong schools withstand turnover”.. This woman is disgusting. Anyone who has worked in a charter knows the turnover rate is surreal. One thing to remember is that the CEO and family NEVER turnover. Why? The school is a cash cow. The schools are chaotic and disorganized because the turnover is so high that no one can remember from one year to the next what was done before. The same mistakes are repeated. It really is the biggest con. Can you imagine attending a high school where virtually all of the teachers have left by the time you reach your senior year? Oh, it’s all about the kids.
I taught for 36 years and think I was always better than I was the previous year. Don’t know that I was ever “great”, but by all appearances I was pretty good. I was still learning more and better methods in my last year and only retired because of the physical toll that teaching took on me. To say that you can become a great teacher in two years is absurd. And yes, kids need stability and the constant turnover leaves the message with them that their needs are not all that important. Veteran teachers understand this. Why the rest of the country hasn’t figured it out remains a mystery, unless of course it all comes down to power and the almighty dollar.
Well said!
I think the fascination with youth in school reform is interesting on a lot of levels. From the business side, younger employees are easier to mold and direct, and they don’t make a lot of demands, so that’s part of the reform business model. That’s true in my field (law) and I’m sure it’s also true in education.
But there’s a cultural thing going on here, too, with this idea that people older than 30 are somehow undesirable. I’m not a teacher, but I can’t help but notice that K-12 teachers are primarily women, and reformers really seem to buy into a particular cultural bias against older women. I mean, I hesitate to even say “older” when we’re talking about women in their 30’s, but that seems to be the cut off for “freshness” and “energy”
It’s weirdly old-fashioned. I thought we were past that, honestly, as a country.
I have 4 kids, 3 are grown, and I would disagree with Ms. Kopp’s preference for younger, less experienced teachers. My kids have had wonderful older teachers. In this district, people seem to still value experience, because I’m not alone in that.
On the other hand, I’m 51 and I really dispute the notion that I’m ready to be put out to pasture in my career, so maybe it just hit home with me personally 🙂
I’ve seen a LOT of this sort of ageism in K-12 hiring–administrators passing up experienced teachers for fresh, young faces. And I suspect that Chiara is right that this ageism is connected with sexism–with a distaste for “pushiness,” for self-assertion, from women. If one wants teachers who will follow orders, who will keep to the script, who will do as they are told, who will submit to training after training without complaint, one hires kids. It’s interesting that this word “training” has come into such common use to describe PD. It’s the same word that we use when we are talking about teaching animals to do tricks. Roll over. Now bark.
I hear from teachers that they are being told A LOT in trainings these days that the training is no place for criticism of what they are being told to do. I have only anecdotal evidence for this, but it seems to have become de rigueur that trainings begin with some sort of statement to the effect that criticisms of what the teachers are going to be told to do will not be tolerated. “Here’s the new Gates Literacy Design Collaborative format for lesson plans. This is the format you are going to be expected to follow. Let’s not waste time during this session complaining about the format. That kind of negativity won’t do us any good. OK. Let’s get started.”
“Let’s get started” and we do not need or want any of your advice or comments.
Exactly what is happening Robert…Exactly…and the younger principals and teachers……less money to pay..
EXACTLY. 23 years of teaching and I’m done. The last year was in a charter school with mostly TFA people. They worked their tails off and were expected to basically devote their lives to the school. I lasted one year and was told I was a “rogue educator” and got out. They definitely were interested in someone who can follow the rules and are grooming those recent graduates to be just like the leaders of the public school/charter school movement. Sad.
The trick is that they have them commit to a 2 year stint in an inner city school thinking they’ll sell their souls for a chance to help the children. If they make it, they think that teaching is like that everywhere. If they leave, they are eternally grateful to the public school god who allowed them to find someplace that allowed them to breathe a little. They go from being a fish out of water to a fish in a tank with an inch of water thinking that they are really valued.
You know, I keep saying this but no one seems to be listening…and that is:
Why are we not looking at the urban public school administrators and managers for their role in allowing the TFA and other privatization players to infiltrate our schools?
Hmm, what was that about critical thinking, Mr. Coleman?
Chiara and Shepherd, thanks for the cogent comments.
Wendy has sadly become a real deterrent to good teaching in her zeal for youth, and wealth.
Repeatedly she and her clones let us know not only that young people are best suited to the inner city classrooms, but also that they are more adept in the technological push (and for-profit goals), at only being COACHES while the students real learning comes through the keyboard.
I’m not as sanguine as you. Ageism, sexism, & for that matter, racism, are PC words– euphemistic words used to good effect in civil rights law. But it was always and only about money, and it still is. Get the people of color, the women, the elderly out of the job market so the pie-slices are bigger for the rest of us. When times are good the pie is bigger & we need a bigger labor force, so we’ll share… Until hard times come again.
“. . . with this idea that people older than 30 are somehow undesirable.”
This is nothing new. In the 60s (and I consider the sixties to have lasted til 1975 when the Viet Nam debacle ended) a young bold generation had a saying “Don’t trust anyone over 30”. That generation, the baby boomers (and I’m one of them being born in 1955), thought they had it all figured out also. Unfortunately they didn’t follow their own advise of “make love not war”, “peace and cooperation” etc. . . and many went the way of “The Establishment”.
I’ve come to figure out that it’s not a matter of age as a harbinger of wisdom but of experiences.
When they want to eradicate the culture, they hire new people; malleable people who recite the new culture. Before u know it, there are no more memories of the past culture, thus leaving automatons to preach the new message.
Never ceases to amaze me how people who have BARELY scratched the surface of a classroom as a teacher think they have some type of authority about what’s good practice IN a classroom.
Also, what is the message they’re sending kids with all this nonsense rhetoric about “grit” and perseverance and sticking with things when they’re surrounding them with 25 year olds who make a 2 year commitment and then take off?
It takes 4 years to get a college degree and be “career ready” according to the current fashion. For goodness sakes. These kids are being told it only takes one year to be EXCELLENT in a career. How does that align with “grit” and “deep knowledge” and the rest of the slogans?
It can’t because they are slogans and propaganda not statements of truth!
No Chiara…Wendy tells them that they only need FIVE WEEKS of training, not one year, to be better than teachers with real university creds and long term teaching experience.
She cheats the TFA kids, the students, the community, and We the People who pay for it all.
I had a conversation with a young family member whose sister was offered a job at a big investment bank after graduation. He said she wasn’t sure she was going to take the job because she thinks she wants to do “some teaching first”. Will she then do some doctoring or engineering next? As a 18 year high school teacher, who can’t imagin doing anything else as my life’s work, take great offense at the audacity that this young person thinks she can just decide to “do a little teaching” then go on and have a serious profession. You know like making tons of money in investments.
Well said, Flolindy!
Quite sad, no!!
No!! in the Spanish sense.
I think this a huge reason we are in this mess.
Many people just don’t value teachers or even teaching.
And the money boys are diving in like sharks.
Question is, what is going to happen to our society and republic if they get away with this carnage of our public schools?
People will always have whatever teachers are left to blame.
How bizarre is this getting? Like a old Twilight Zone episode?
“Question is, what is going to happen to our society and republic if they get away with this carnage of our public schools?”
Like Chile is what it will be. Very high socio-economic segregation with the upper folks getting ever more while the peons fight for the right to live.
In his “The Educated Imagination,” critic Northrup Frye speaks of one of the earliest texts that isn’t simply a record of the amount of grain in a granary. It’s a piece from the dawn of writing, of the historical record, that says that children no longer obey their parents or honor the gods. For as long as there has been civilization, there have been critics convinced that we’re doing a worse job, now, of educating our children than ever before. For even longer, we know, there have been myths about the Golden Age from which we have so tragically fallen.
We tend to look back nostalgically, to romanticize the past. And we don’t judge critically claims that things are worse now than they ever were.
Key to the reform narrative is convincing people that our public schools are worse now than they ever have been. The media parrot uncritically the false claim that our public schools are far, far behind those of other industrial democracies. But if one corrects the data from international comparative tests for the socioeconomic level of the students taking the tests, we find that are students are consistently at the top or near the top.
But the false narrative is working to convince people that our schools are failing, and believing that, it’s then easy for them to believe that we have a problem with our teachers, and that makes them open to all sorts of top-down, authoritarian interference that robs teachers of the autonomy that is the sine qua non for any worker’s doing his or her job well.
Our public schools have long been staffed by highly experienced, capable teachers. Teaching is difficult. It takes a lot of on-the-job learning to become really good at it. I was a really bright, really compassionate first-year teacher. I knew a lot about my subject, and I really cared. And I was TERRIBLE at the job. I just didn’t know enough, and it took years to learn, really learn, what I was doing. And now, in the name of reform, experienced teachers are being driven out. Who would want to teach, or do any job, in a situation in which most autonomy is taken away, in which one is expected to follow scripts, in which one’s experience and expertise is not respected, in which one is subjected to ridiculous evaluation schemes, in which everyone else thinks that he or she knows how to do the job better? These reforms that are being done with the goal of improving teacher quality are having precisely the opposite effect–they are driving good people out of the profession. The job was already difficult enough, god knows.
I do think that there are things we could do to improve teacher quality. We could pay teachers a lot more. We could demand a lot more content expertise. But ANY SYSTEM THAT ATTEMPTS TO STANDARDIZE TEACHERS DOES NOT RECOGNIZE HOW INDIVIDUAL, HOW UNIQUE LEARNING IS, doesn’t recognize that the best teachers are almost always the ones with very particular passions, doesn’t recognize that what happens with the best teachers is that kids get the windfall of those passions. This math teachers is FASCINATED by computers and the theory of computation, that one is fascinated by statistics. This English teachers is CRAZY about Percy Shelley. That one about post-Colonial literature. And kids catch that learning bug from those crazy individuals with their unique passions.
We need more of that.
The great American poet and English professor Theodore Roethke once wrote that he longed for the administrator who would pound the table and say, “What we need is more DISorganization around here!” I know exactly what he meant. The reformers LOVE standardization. They are of a techy mindset. But REAL LEARNING is almost always, as Harold Bloom points out at length in his books Genius and The Canon, peculiar, unique, even strange.
cx: “no longer obey their parents NOR honor the gods.”
You should blog if you are not already. So well put.
Thanks, Suzanne. You are very kind.
“We tend to look back nostalgically, to romanticize the past. And we don’t judge critically claims that things are worse now than they ever were.”
So true, Robert, so true. At the same time we do have a tendency to romanticize the present and the future as in “we’re fighting over there to preserve our freedoms here” and computer individualized instruction (sic) will revolutionize future learning.
You’re so right about the importance of a diverse faculty. We need a big variety of teachers and classroom styles if we want to reach every child. The more teachers think and teach alike, the lower the odds a student will find a teacher who really speaks to him.
The standardizers aren’t taking this into account. A regimented approach works for some kids and some teachers. It wouldn’t have worked well for me, though, either as a student or teacher.
Robert, I always learn from you. Thanks for your insights and educated comments.
So glad you mention Harold Bloom who over 30 years ago predicted some of this education devolution. I used his book, in addition to Heilbroner, in a class on The History of Economics which I taught last term. These two books for decades ago both showed the need for an organized economic system for every society back to biblical times, but also the greed that permeates the thought processes of many economists, particularly post Marx…e.g. Von Mises and the Austrian School, Friedman/Stigler and the Chicago School. No mystery why this privatization push is happening now.
Suggest also reading Joseph Stiglitz on Inequality, and also an older book by Kevin Phillips on The Politics of Rich and Poor. I am a public policy educator so see this education debacle from the perspective of the greater national and world society.
It is always about following in the money, and the money is the power. In this era of high tech, it is even easier to socially manipulate the minds of the un, and under, informed.
cx: But if one corrects the data from international comparative tests for the socioeconomic level of the students taking the tests, we find that OUR students.
I wish one could edit these posts!
Same edit problem..
Some New Teachers want so much to do the very best job but the new set being reeled out tend to think they know it all.
Have been told this at some levels…let us say TFA..
They think that because of their technology knowledge they know more.
They are so wrong in all cases.
The new teachers simply Know More than they Understand!
The old teachers know as much about technology and how to implement it in a classroom BUT… they know WHEN to use it.,
“The new teachers simply Know More than they Understand!”
Great line neander! Also add the young inexperienced administrators to that one or the Broadie ones.
As an almost-50 year old woman just entering this profession (after a career in nonprofit policy orgs and then nearly 15 years as a university professor), I see this attitude in TFA and the reformers and am appalled. Especially because I know that even as a 1st year teacher, I can run rings around any of these TFA 20-somethings — in part because I have a quarter-century more content knowledge, work experience, and life experience, but also because I have perspective, instead of just a sense of entitlement and bravado. I know I’m a newbie with lots to learn, and I think that’s exciting.
Luckily, at my center-city, high-poverty public high school in California, turnover is not high. While I’m older than the vast majority of the faculty, staff and admin, my experience is one of support and respect, collegiality and collaboration. Then again, we have many faculty with 10 or more years teaching at this school, and even longer in the profession. And the union is strong and TFA teachers are considered, at best, as incompetent, naively well-meaning scabs.
We’ve also been posting test score gains for 2 straight years that put us among the most improved in our district and even the state — not that I think that’s a valid way to judge us, but if those are the weapons the reformers choose, we’re taking them on and kicking ass, all without reforming.
*take that! stare, delivered over the top of my middle-aged lady reading glasses*
LOL!
Oh, and I should mention: I plan to stay a public school teacher for a long, long time!
wonderful.
puntiaguda,
Shall we consider you acuminated?
Puntiaguda…you made my day. I am thrilled that there is a California HS that is actually hiring and has strong union backing…..and hired a new teacher who is not a kid. Best wishes in your new career.
I assume you are not in LAUSD where they are so slow to hire back the many long term teachers who were fired in the past few years ostensibly due to budget cuts and where UTLA has seemed rather toothless for some time.
If you ever want to do some off the record sharing, please write to me at
joiningforces4ed@aol.com
Would like to know how it all plays out for you. Am interested in your higher ed subject matter and if that continues to be your HS subject focus. And of course would love to know about your “kicking ass” in test scoring and how this was achieved.
Ellen…a long time, and now ancient, California educator
The vision here is to redefine the teaching profession, trading in the substance, potentially acquired, after years of working the craft of teaching, for something less expensive and considerably more superficial. The ability to discriminate between these two things requires an awareness, and character gained through experience that many of our policy makers don’t have.
The influence of the free market encourages a temp. mentality. Younger, short term teachers cost less in salary, and in benefits, and they also dilute the influence of teacher unions. This is very consistent with the whole business ethos that pervades school reform. The idea of building a community has no value.
Jonathan…you are ‘right on’… and the business model of the corporatists since the early 80s has been to only focus on the next quarterly reports in order to show the shareholders a continuing climb in profits. Schools cannot be run on a corporate business model.
It really cuts the bottom line to trade in older teachers with union protection as to pensions, health benefits, etc., for TFA kids who have none of this. To hell with the students say these free market robber barons.
When you study American history of education back to pre-Constitution, you find that Roger Coram founded the idea of universal education, if only for boys at that time, based on and implemented by, the local committees who met and passed along their ideas to the Founders. Thomas Jefferson got it going in Virginia, but is rolling in his grave at how it all turned out.
I taught in a charter school for 2 years. It was the most horrible experience of my life. (I was a district teacher for many years previous) It is a miracle that any teacher would be willing to work in a charter school for more than a few years. However, this is the goal. Charter schools are all about the “bottom line”. Cheap labor and sweatshop conditions along with a cult like mentality make for an “efficient” workplace.
At the school district where I work, the minute a “regular” public education job pops up we get the charter school teachers who are running for their lives away from those schools to come work with us. They have horror stories to tell about working in charter schools that makes you wonder how they even exist.
The tone of my following comment does not intend to be mean and juvenile, but it may come off as such, so I apologize in advance:
If Wendy Kopp were to have a blocked artery in one of her chambers and had a massive heart attack or if she was diagnosed with a serious growth protruding somewhere on her torso or in one of her vital organs, I wonder if she’d rush to see a specialist who had less than a year training in the medical field and was planning on leaving in 3 years.
I wonder if Ms. Kopp would undergo surgery and seek to find that one year-long trained surgeon who worked for a “very strong hospital” and was bound to become a “great surgeon” in his first year. After all, can’t very strong hospitals withstand the turnover of their doctors?
I wonder if she’d opt for chemotherapy from some twenty-something year old who took a few chemistry courses and did well in them and was now in charge of her therapy. I’m not saying that I would want to see that happen, but it seems like something SHE would love to see happen. It is, as she has expressed, the way she thinks. It appears to be her value system.
Imagine the professional world according to Wendy Kopp . . . .
Fantastic comparison!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
Perfect way to explain the fallacy that new teachers are the best!
You made me laugh out loud….wonderful comment.
Yes, would she want some medical scabs doing her open chest surgery?
Well of course she would.
As long as they were “the best and the brightest”, training and experience do not matter.
😉
Doesn’t anyone listen to Harry Wong anymore? He preaches that the first two years (or more) of teaching is simply survival.
Even beginning teachers with a lot of potential still need to survive those first few years.
Why do you think that so many teachers leave the profession after a couple of years (outside of the TFAers)? They find out just how hard it is to teach!!
We have new teachers in the Buffalo Public Schools who don’t even last a week, let alone a year. Public Education in the inner city is not what they imagined at all. We are talking the show “Surviver” survival.
I want to make sure that people don’t miss this bit from the article to which Dr. Ravitch has linked:
The 27-year-old child “Principal” at this Yes Prep school pops into a classroom. She observes a teacher calling for the kids to do “a celebratory chant.” (This is a widely used technique in charters now–teaching kids to respond like trained seals to other kids’ correct answers.) The child principal corrects the teacher’s instructions. “I have to interrupt,” she says. “It’s two claps and then a sizzle.”
Yeah. That’s a great idea. Undermine the teacher’s authority in front of the kids. Make it clear that the teacher is also just a trained seal and that her training hasn’t been perfected.
I would tell this child principal, in no uncertain terms, “Don’t you ever, every speak to me that way in front of my students again.” And then I would be asked to find another job because, clearly, I would be a bad fit for a trained seal culture.
That 27 year old principal is looking for that Cerebrating the almight A’HA MOMENT…….(New from the CCSS Kings and Queens)
and he/she thinks it is the NEW WAY when in reality teachers have been doing that for years without labeling it as such…
It is common sense. that the older veteran teachers possess much more understanding than any 27 year old….
I truly think it is a business deal…You have to pay the veterans more so kick them out the door…..
The veteran teachers and administrators are no longer respected as in the past…
Yes, Neanderthal..it is all about the Broad/Gates etc. business model to cut the bottom line by getting rid of the highest paid, and instead use the least trained who are willing to work for poverty wages and no perks…and NO UNION contracts.
In their view, teachers are only coaches and do not need professional training…their concept of a dead profession is built on the model of Shumpeter’s creative destruction.
Of course, the trained seal routine works well, very well indeed, if you think that the point of education for the masses–as opposed to the expensive private school education of the children of the oligarchy–is supposed to be primarily about developing habits of unthinking obedience. “Will you be taking your latte on the veranda, Mr. Gates? Mr. Bloomberg? Mr. Broad?”
“Puppets on a String.”….”Trained Seals”….
You are so correct with everyone of your comments…
Remember the Terry G error….The way he ran a school system indicated that he was a fan of the Trained Seals..
Glad he is out of this State..Into another one so I hear…Sad…
My recollection is that when a number of us were active in social reform efforts in the 1960’s and 70’s, one of the slogans was “don’t trust anyone over 30.” Working in and around schools, I hear a number of people in their early or mid 20’s in both district and charter schools who say they plan to teach for a few years and then do something else. It’s not just about charters or TFA.
The National Center for Educational Statistics reported in 2010 that
* 9.1% of public school teachers with 1-3 years of experience left teaching in 2008-2009. If that continued for 5 years, it would mean that about 45% of new teachers left (9 x 5)
Click to access 2010353.pdf
Ingersoll and others estimated that about 46% of teachers left within the first five years. DeCarlo pointed out that this was an approximation and that the true figure probably was 40-50%
http://shankerblog.org/?p=4534
De Carlo also points out that this figure does not account for educators who leave and then return.
However, it seems clear that a very large number of educators are coming into the profession, and then leaving – at least for a time.
So I’d say that this is not confined to TFA or to charters.
“However, it seems clear that a very large number of educators are coming into the profession, and then leaving – at least for a time.”
Yes, but the 40-50 percent is probably a little high since since of the first year teachers are also looking to start families and take a year or two off and come back. They plan on staying in the profession. I wouldn’t consider those as “leaving” but taking a “leave of absence”. Also, in the past those teachers who did leave after a couple of years more likely than not came in with the intent of staying in the profession but for one reason or another couldn’t handle teaching. (Perhaps teaching is a lot harder than most think!)
“So I’d say that this is not confined to TFA or to charters.”
So what makes the TFAers and charter teachers different? Well many TFAers come in with the intent of leaving after two years, however some manage to stay (not very many, only about 15% after five years). And some of the charter teachers are leaving because of the abusive working conditions at some charter schools. They may have come in with the idea of getting a couple of years experience and then moving on to a higher paying public school position and perhaps couldn’t find one.
The difference being the intent upon entering the profession and there is no doubt that the vast majority, 85%, of the TFAers probably didn’t come in with an intent to stay in the profession.
What had been confined to TFA and charters, and is now intentionally infecting the public schools, is the institutional imperative on youth and constant churn among teachers. That’s what makes TFA and it’s evil spawn different.
When I started teaching 16 years ago, there was a palpable preference for experience, unlike now, when public school teaching experience is almost equivalent to having a Scarlet Letter branded on your forehead.
In the ’60’s, the refrain to not trust anyone over thirty was partly based on the fact that an experience and seniority-based system, rather than the current who-raises-the-most-money (just look at who ruled Congress in that era) had given us the Vietnam War and resistance to Civil Rights legislation, which was mistakenly ascribed by youthful opponents to age-related issues, rather than Cold War ideology and economic interests.
Since that time, the Overclass has realized the benefits of inter-generational conflict, as a distraction from the aggressive class warfare it has been waging for almost forty years.
Look no further than the attempts to pit young people against their elders concerning Social Security – the only government fund actually boasting a surplus – so as to cut benefits and eventually privatize the system.
Boy, are we all in a pickle….
Thank you for the reality check. My take also.
Another excellent observation, Michael.
Ah. Wendy Kopp. The Corporate “reformer.”
Wendy Kopp employs a “deliberate strategy” to keep her agenda hidden, and it isn’t one that is public education-friendly. This is a woman, who despite all the anecdotal and empirical evidence on the deleterious effects of high-stakes testing, says that “I have not seen that standardized tests make the profession less attractive.” Kopp uses phrases like “building systems for accountability,” and then adds the zinger that “offering parents the ability to choose their schools is the ultimate form” of accountability. Uh-huh.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Kopp has received big funding from the Broad Foundation, the Arnold Foundation, and the Robertson Foundation (not to mention the Gates and Walton Foundations and a slew of Wall Street firms [Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase] and hedge-funders). The Gates, Broad and Walton Foundations are all tied to “market reforms.” The Broad Foundation is known for its “free market,” “data-driven “ approach to “reform,” the same approach that Wendy Kopp calls “transformational,” a term she repeats as often as a Republican cries for tax cuts for corporations and the already-rich.
The Arnold Foundation is a right-wing organization founded by a hedge-funder who resists accountability and transparency in derivatives markets but calls for them in education. Its executive director, Denis Cabrese was former chief of staff to DIck Armey, the Texas conservative who headed up FreedomWorks (before getting bought out), the group that pulled the Tea Party strings and gets funding from the billionaire arch-conservative Koch brothers. The Robertson Foundation’s philanthropic “vision” is one that is a “businesslike, results-oriented approach that is modeled more closely on private equity investing.” In the area of education “reform” it seeks to encourage “competition by supporting the development of charter schools” and “voucher programs.”
This is the kind of “reform” that Wendy Kopp supports. It’s the kind of “reform” that seeks to privatize American public education.
It’s one that deserves very bit of criticism it gets. And then some.
Her agenda is quite transparent
..It is called “Money Talks”
Thanks democracy for all this info, some of the foundations you mention are new to me, and don’t forget Heartland Institute which wants creationism taught in all public schools and which is an offshoot of Grover Norquist.
Although studies such as one recently by Professor Paul Mohai of the University of Michigan show a strong connection between high levels of air pollution and low scholastic achievement, David and Charlie Koch of Koch Carbon pump “smart ALEC” to lobby for fewer, if any, industry regulations while tethering teachers and public education.
What kind of crack are the Koch Brothers smoking? Their pet coke piles are all over Detroit like low black mountains, blowing into everyone’s lungs. The Koch’s pet coke is a toxic threat that even the Canadians across the Detroit River are complaining about. Boycott Koch. Go on a no-Koch carb diet, America. By the way, isn’t it ironic how all the Billionaire Boy environmental destroyers, along with their handmaids, are in the forefront of education reform. No conscience!
Democracy==wonderful, alive, buried, will surive!!
Diane asks, “Why do we expect entrants to every other profession to spend years honing their craft but a brand-new teacher, with no experience, can be considered “great” in only one or two years, then leave to do something else?”
The “we” are a few VERY CONTROLLING GROUP… “ed reformers” whose last priority is the student. If the priority is profit, profit, profit, this is a good strategy – herein lies the tragedy of the current national education agenda. The “we” SHOULD BE REAL TEACHERS who hone their craft year after year because of their passion for students.
“Can you imagine that a “teacher” who graduated college in June is already “a great teacher” by September?”
NO!, NO! and then a thousand times NO! Absolute poppycock! Not even a plebe, a pledge or a prole by September. They haven’t even been “baptized” yet! They just popped out of the womb of teacherhood.
How can anyone say they are education “reformers” if their goal is to destroy the profession?
They not they’re edudeformers, plain and simple.
“Can you imagine that a “teacher” who graduated college in June is already “a great teacher” by September?”
Oh, Kopp doesn’t believe it either. How long has she been at her job? She’s been doing this since college, has she not?
How long has Jeb Bush been either in government or pushing “reform”? 25 years? Vallas? Byrd-Bennett? How many districts have they parachuted into and then abandoned?
School reform lobbying, running national reform non-profits and managing School Corporations is ITSELF a long-term career. A growing field, based on the numbers of consultants and managers and executives. Other than the money he funneled to charters, Cory Booker paid consultants. None of that money got to the front lines.
These bold new ideas they advocate, where experience doesn’t matter and the race to the bottom high-turnover employee approach that is modeled on Wal Mart , that doesn’t apply to the reformers in the executive ranks, now does it? They seem to stick around for a lifetime.
“Strong schools can withstand the turnover of their teachers,” said Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America. “The strongest schools develop their teachers tremendously so they become great in the classroom even in their first and second years.”
Of course she has to say that because TFA relies on that theory. But this statement rests on the back of teachers who have helped make a school strong. Could she reverse the statement and say “turnover of teachers makes strong schools because they develop their teachers tremendously .” Who is they? Who is the school if the teachers are constantly being turned over? Can she make that statement? If not, then I don’t see how she has a sustainable model unless the “school” is just defined by upper management and teachers just move through like students; which I guess is what is wanted by reformers???
And the feudal system of the early 19th Century is also our destination should we return citizen education to that deplorable level. But that is the “plan” which will succeed if we persist in the lie that instant, excellent teachers manifest out of nowhere and can be replaced like the newest (cheapest) smartphone.
Over the last ten years or so, we have seen a large wave of baby boomer teachers retire after 30+ years of commitment to public service. Many younger teachers seem to have entered the profession for much different reasons. You can run a school with mostly twenty-somethings, but you sure can’t run it as well.
I started my day by mistakenly reading this article. Then I threw up and had to change.
My response as well.
I am very happy about this NYT article. They snuck this little ringer in there– some actual reporting on what charter schools look like on the ground– under the nose of Chas Blow, Bill Keller, et al know-nothing mouthpieces for the status quo. It may look like a pro-charter puff piece at first glance, but all the info is there. Check out the booming comment threads. NYT readers are no dummies, they get it. I’ve lost count of how many times I read the word “appalling.”
Has anyone noticed that TFAers seem to be lowering the graduation rates in South Dakota’s tribal areas?