Politico.com reports that “African-American students in Miami-Dade County are more likely than their peers to be assigned rookie teachers – and their teachers are also more likely to be uncertified or unlicensed, according to a study by the National Council on Teacher Quality.” This inequity is a result of “the district’s decision to cluster Teach For America recruits in low-performing, high-poverty schools.”
“The strategy could backfire, the NCTQ concluded, because novice teachers generally struggle to produce strong learning results. And because many TFA teachers leave after two years, the schools must cope with “constant churn, where novice teachers are being placed and then leaving at high rates, creating a cycle of instability at these schools,” the report finds.”
NCTQ “recommends giving high-performing teachers incentives to move to the struggling schools and giving principals more flexibility in assigning staff, so the rookies aren’t automatically placed in the most challenging classrooms.”
For more: http://politico.pro/XxrXTd.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So what is the purpose of TFA, since it’s not needed to address teacher shortages? They struggle to teach effectively, reject mentoring by “old ways” teachers, and then the vast majority exit at or before two years. Let’s call TFA what it is- a scab labor force that is displacing experienced, career committed teachers who cost more and earn pensions.
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TFA is a political move to devalue the teaching profession, to go back to the idea that anyone can teach. Politicians have done this because teachers are “uppity”. They speak out. They are dedicated to the success of their students including those who “can’t learn”. They join unions, demand to be treated with respect, treat each other as family instead of competing and tend to vote for Democrats. In other words they are a danger to the status quo.
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T1C,
“. . . teachers are “uppity”. They speak out.”
Not in my twenty years of teaching have teachers been “uppity” and spoken out. The vast majority are GAGAers* through and through.
*Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process. The members of the GAGA gang are destined to be greeted by the Karmic Gods of Retribution upon their passing from this realm.
Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to go along to get along. The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to two words-Educational Excellence-repeated without pause for eternity.
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Might I suggest that you consider citing scientific studies which proved effectiveness or a lack of effectiveness in relating to the performance of any unique population?
If you want to have your comments taken seriously and to have any impact on public policy formation, this is impossible.
Otherwise, it is simply a ranting.
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Do you have scientific studies that compare the effectiveness of non-TFA novices with
TFA novices?
Logically, novice teachers would not be as proficient as teachers with perhaps five years of experience with a given population category of students, but I suggest that it is not valid to assume that all novices have the same level of effectiveness in the absence of a rigidly conducted scientific study.
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I agree. TFAers are scabs who lack education and experience as professionals. Their main purpose, for the most part, for coming into education, is to erase those expensive Ivy League student loans. After two years, they can leave and search for other employment without the burden of student loans. Bet if they ever stop forgiving loans the enrollment in this program would drastically decrease. Meanwhile, place them where they are needed, they’ll only be there for a while.
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TFAs have no roots, no student teaching, none of the all important methods courses that teach one how to teach. They are not professionals, although some of the good ones realize teaching is what they are supposed to do and go back to school to get their Masters in Education.
All first year teachers have a hard time regardless of whether or not they have an Education degree, but a TFA is like an engineer doing heart surgery whereas a rookie teacher is like a first year medical intern doing it. At least she knows the basics and when she needs help. TFAs don’t even know they need help.
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I would do better than that. I would require a committment of 5 years instead of 2. That way they could be required to take some methods courses during year 2 and, by their third year would know their job fairly well so the schools would get at least two years of decent teaching. By then, as well, they might just be hooked on Education as a profession and would, at minimum, know the ins and outs so they wouldn’t try to go straight into administration or policy making, thinking the knew how to “fix” the schools.
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In Dana Goldstein’s “The Teacher Wars, A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession”—-scheduled to be released by Doubleday September 2, 2014—in chapter 10, Goldstein compares three teacher training programs and the results.
I flagged page 250 where she mentioned one-year teacher residencies where teachers spend one school year working full time in a mentor teacher’s classroom, while studying education at a local graduate school. “Nationwide, urban teacher residencies have an 87 percent retention rate at four years, compared to the loss of nearly half of all new urban teachers over a similar period f time, and two-thirds of Teach for America teachers.
I read an advanced galley proof through Amazon Vine. No one asked me to read the book. I selected it on my own from a list that Amazon Vine provides for their unpaid voluntary reader/reviewers. I have never met or talked to Goldstein. I have never shared e-mails with her.
What Goldstein says on page 251 is also worth mentioning:
“When Thomas Kane, Douglas Staiger, and Robert Gordon studied 150,000 Los Angeles elementary school students, they found no large student achievement differences related to how a child’s teacher entered the classroom, through a traditional college of education, TFA, or some other alternative route, But the study did find that, across the board, first-year teachers struggled and their students generally earned lower test scores than they had the year before.”
And here’s another quote from page 254: “About 85 percent of TFA teachers who stay in the profession (the one third that doesn’t leave in the first four years) however, leave their initial placements to work at more desirable schools, a level of turnover that the researchers described as ‘very problematic’ for those schools most struggling with low achievement.”
Then there’s this from page 266: “We should not forget Martin Haberman’s research showing that long-serving ‘star’ teachers are often from low-income backgrounds, have graduated from non-elite colleges, or are people of faith.”
If Haberman is correct, than TFA’s theory that recruiting high performing university students with high GPA’s is wrong and will lead to poor results.
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LLoyd, Kane is an economist who testified along with Chetty at the Vergara trial. I would be much more inclined to trust this source:
“Teach For America: A Review of the Evidence”
by
Julian Vasquez Heilig, University of Texas at Austin and
Su Jin Jez, California State University, Sacramento
Click to access PB-TeachAmerica-Heilig.pdf
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Lloyd,
Thank you very much for the recommendation. I will check the book out.
I’ve seen exceptions, but Haberman’s claim is correct in my experience. Graduates of selective or highly selective universities that fit the TFA profile will usually have strong content knowledge, but there are three common barriers to long careers in the classroom even when they have earned conventional credentials. In many cases learning has come easy to them and understanding misconceptions or motivating struggling students can be foreign to them. They also may feel they have other career options when the teaching experience is hard and frustrating in their early years, as it is for many, and leave the profession. Even if they develop into good teachers and stay in education, I feel they leave the classroom disproportionately for leadership positions. We had two truly excellent teachers who graduated from the flagship campus of our state system accept administrative positions in other districts this summer after eight years in the classroom.
When we ask our new hires to introduce themselves on the first day of orientation, we request that they share why they chose teaching as a profession. At least a third every year state in some way that they decided to teach because they had struggled as students and wanted to help children the way a special teacher had helped them to be successful as learners.
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Stiles,
You said, “they decided to teach because they had struggled as students and wanted to help children … be successful as learners.”
That sounds like one of the reasons why I eventually went into teaching—the one that kept me going for thirty years.
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TFA teachers may well have strong content knowledge. And, that might work for teaching high school students, esp AP students. There is little to nothing in their background that would give them any understanding of early childhood development, or that would give them an idea of how to deal with students who struggle. If learning was easy for them, they don’t necessarily know how to break it down for those who don’t understand.
I suppose that we could simply put all our students on Kahn Academy type lessons and hire teachers as monitors. That would please some people. But they wouldn’t like the science lessons, I suppose.
Ahhh
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Lloyd, thank you for this. I’m eager to read this when it is released.
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Yep, “Teach For America: A Review of the Evidence,” by Julian Vasquez Heilig, University of Texas at Austin and Su Jin Jez, California State University, Sacramento
Click to access PB-TeachAmerica-Heilig.pdf
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Preparation in teacher education programs does result in differences between the student gains of newly credentialed teachers and students of new TFAers:
“…studies indicate that the students of novice TFA teachers perform significantly less well in reading and mathematics than those of credentialed beginning teachers.”
From the above report, “Teach For America: A Review of the Evidence”
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“…so the rookies aren’t automatically placed in the most challenging classrooms.”
TFA teachers don’t even qualify as “rookies” with five weeks of training. Until they receive the proper training and credentials, they should be banned from classrooms, period.
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The good one that I knew had an excellent, experienced paraprofessional. Another one had a retired veteran teacher as a paraprofessional. That is the only way they can actually function. Somebody has to know what they are doing.
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There are low performing urban schools in southwest Ohio where it is difficult to fill teaching positions. In , schools, the neighborhoods are dangerous. The teachers are not allowed to work late because it is not safe to walk to their cars. Some districts require escorts for the teachers when they have to work in the dark.
After hearing the behaviors that were overlooked among 5th grade and older students in the rest rooms and hallways of Gulen schools, I wonder how any education goes on at all. I not really sure how most people could control a classroom well enough to educate students who don’t wish to be there for academic reasons.
Yet, we demand or try to demand graduation as a requirement for a successful school. I once got through to a CSpan call in show and asked Lamar Alexander to explain the 16 year old dropout option. He couldn’t explain. I have to wonder why there continue to be demands for graduation for those who simply aren’t interested.
Maybe the truth is that we need to really consider the wrap around services from an early age, the students would find a purpose in getting an education.
However, if we continue to have low paying jobs for everyone, how in the world are the students going to be interested in “busting their butts” to get a high school diploma, let alone going into debt for a college degree to simply earn $20/hr for the rest of their lives, if they are lucky? We have a lot to fix other than our schools!!
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Absolutely! Those poor TFA novices should get cushy positions. Veteran surburban teachers should take on challenging urban jobs. Urban teachers should go straight out to pasture.
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Not sure what you are implying, NJ Teacher. I don’t think TFA teachers should get cushy jobs. I was trying to say that it can be dangerous for anyone. I am surprised that people are brave enough to enter some neighborhoods because of the violence outside and on the way to the school. I have no solution. But, more than likely TFA teachers are put where there are vacancies, correct? And, around here, that would be in dangerous urban environments. Most suburban teachers wouldn’t want to change their jobs or drive a distance to work in some neighborhoods. Just recently, there has been an issue in the Dayton, OH Public Schools because they planned to hire an outside pool of substitute teachers rather than employ the local group of retired or not yet hired teachers. The reason they are resorting to this is because certain schools are only able to fill 75% of their need for substitutes. It isn’t easy to get anyone to go into a risky place to teach. I mean, that is just reality. So, maybe that is why they are putting the TFA teachers in those schools. I am not saying it is good. It is definitely not good for the students. But reality sometimes gets in the way of “best practices”. Doesn’t it?
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Sorry Deb,
I wasn’t directing my comments specifically to you. I work in Newark in the types of neighborhoods you describe. As far as I am concerned, TFA should suck up their student loans and go straight to law school. It is tiresome to rub elbows with “the best and the brightest.” My sympathy for their difficulties is minimal.
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Cudos to you for teaching where many won’t venture to go.
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And give them perks and a stipend to go to a lousy school. Include a paraprofessional in every classroom (maybe a TFA in that position), no duty, and a choice of an hour, duty free lunch break in a cafeteria for teachers only, or an extra planning period. Provide extra supply money and extra field trips with no hassles so the students get some great community experiences. Have a contest every year where one or two get an all expenses paid trip to a national professional conference and the system pays for an in-state conference for all the teachers who chose to move. And what good is a school Resource Officer if part of his job is not to walk the teachers to their cars?
It would not be that difficult to make inner city and poor rural schools attractive to experienced teachers if they are treated with respect and essentially run the schools.
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Twinkie1cat: Those are excellent ideas. Higher salary doesn’t take away a lot of the terror or the disrespect. But, these ideas would give respect to the teacher, the school, the profession, and the community. THIS is how the money should be spent … not on ridiculous tests that have predetermined results!!!
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Thank you, Deb. Teachers do not work for the money. They teach because they are teachers and some extra perks would keep more in the profession. Louisiana has treated its teachers so poorly during the Jindal administration (Remember that name, he is clearly going for national office.) that teachers are retiring in droves, so much so that the East Baton Rouge Parish system is recruiting in Pennsylvania, of all places. School started last week. I suspect the only takers will be desperate for employment and will not be able to handle the heat and humidity. Plus hurricanes can be scary!
I taught inner city for most of my 27 years. I never felt endangered, but then the students rarely disrespected me, including in middle school and high school. I was bored with the entitled suburban children and couldn’t trust their hovering parents. Poor parents tend to be grateful if they feel their child is important to the teacher. And poor kids hold the teacher second only to Mama. You just have to show them some love and respect and talk to them like people.
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To me, those positive action item ideas are what is needed to combat the load of garbage and platitudes that come out of the mouths of Michelle Rhee-Johnson, Arne Duncan, Jeb Bush, etc. They don’t want improved education for all. They want dollars for private school owners and investors. It is just like any other business. The workers and product don’t really matter, just the appearance of “efficiency”. To talk to them … is like hitting your head on a brick wall. They don’t listen because they don’t have to. They have the money. We need a public teacher uprising with the demands for the things you suggested and the time to implement and see how the changes work. This hamster wheel we are on via testing and VAM is just a smokescreen for the money makers, not for the educators.
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I was trying to kind of get to this point in the bigger discussion. Sure, there are all kinds of studies and reports and charts and graphs from distinguished professors and data gurus. But, the brass tacks of what to DO to make things better is the real immediate answer. These kids need answers NOW, not later, not after some grand experiment.
How many times do teachers shake their heads and wonder what the administrators are “smoking”? We already know what WON’T work. Yet, we are forced to participate (and modify in secret, writing lesson plans that appear to play the game but actually teaching in a way that WORKS with the children, based on our experience and personalities). We use the tech we are given, which is terribly inadequate at best. We spend our own money on food and even pay for kids’ field trips if they can’t afford to pay (or parents refuse to pay). We buy clothes, backpacks and anonymously donate them to the kids. We are bashed and insulted in the news, by politicians, by some parents, and by reformers. They have no desire to listen. They have no desire to improve the lot in life for the people whose numbers are increasing daily. All they want to do is to insulate themselves from the REAL changes and prevent anyone who disagrees from having a life that is less stressful.
This whole change movement hasn’t been for good … it has been to promote stress, retirement, stop resistance, and pocket money.
Your ideas are concrete, needed approaches to making students feel like they are respected and matter. If someone doesn’t feel respected, that person will shut down.
I was once at a Literacy Conference with a speaker who was representing a KIPP school. He was an imposing author. He was frightening. He didn’t make the teachers feel respected. We kind of shut down and couldn’t wait to leave. But, he was Mr Important and had to be whisked out to go someplace else to spew his control freak ideas.
I am so glad to have retired.
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Unfair? To the students – yes, but to the TFA’ers? No Way! – They aren’t teachers (by vocation) but part-timers!
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Temps
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Long term subs!
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I tried to give the TFA’s the benefit of the doubt, but you & NJ Teacher are probably closer to the truth!
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fch,
Have you worked with any TFA? The one I know best recently completed her two year commitment and left for law school due to her disillusionment with teaching. She was also charged with hiring my replacement.
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No, I have not worked with TFA – I just don’t like to generalize for all – I believe that there are some who do this for all the right reasons – those are the ones who ultimately return to get their masters in education & pursue a career in education – some of them may be “hoodwinked” initially; after all, if they come from a privileged background, they may have been sheltered from reality – I’m sad you have had negative experiences, and I think it’s really unethical that someone with 5 weeks of TFA training is allowed to hire a replacement for a certified, qualified, educated teacher.
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Perhaps my own experiences color my response – I work with individuals who began careers outside education because either they were pushed into higher paying careers by their parents or counseled into other careers. These individuals hated what they were doing, and they decided to change course & complete the requirements to become certified teachers. I have worked with former journalists, engineers, advertising & marketing majors, and even a firefighter! Their university backgrounds are impressive as well! That’s why I don’t like to generalize.
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fch,
I know many career changers who are excellent teachers. I also changed careers, which is why I have so few years in despite my advanced age. I have a problem with TFA who view teaching as a resume builder as they move on to bigger and better things. I also oppose this moving on to other careers in education carp. My esteemed superintendent Cami Anderson did her TFA stint and moved on to upper echelon administrative positions. She barely taught and was never a principal. The havoc she is wreaking on the Newark Public Schools speaks for itself. She has hundreds of parents lined up outside for the third day in a row trying to register their kids under the flawed One Newark plan. Mayor Baraka is requesting that Governor Christie come down and take a look.
Yes, there are some well meaning TFA who do make a commitment to teaching and I respect their contributions.
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So is the corporate rephormy NCTQ trying to legitimize itself by actually saying something valid (something we already knew anyway)?
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No, I think they’re shilling for their folks.
Oooh, I’m from an elite university and you want me to work in that doggy-poo school building. No! No! No! Make the old LIFO, union hacks go there. I want a nice school with good children for my do-good year. Wah! Wah! Wah!
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TAGO Christine!
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Wow, I hadn’t thought of that. Good point Christine!
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This is a typical strawman argument by NCTQ. They clearly think public school teachers are sell-out, so why not push them out of the maintsream so that young&bright college graduates can have teach students of high income family in weathly school districts? Oh wait, TFAers are not certified teachers, and many folks will be gone in 2-3 years. Too bad, redployment won’t make any change in TFAers’ stituation.
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Austin Independent School District (AISD) TX was an early adopter of pay for performance with incentives of up $13,000 for teachers in its REACH program, designed for those who would accept assignments in “hard to staff” schools.
Last I checked, Austin has a serious short-fall in its 2015 budget. This is one the hallmarks of failed pay incentives for teachers to accept assignments in “troubled” schools. the $13,000 bait was not enough.
Researchers in ASID reported the average stipend for teachers in the REACH program actually earned was about $5, 400. Also, teachers who were required to used SLOs (student learning objectives) to document gains in achievement learned how to set expectations with content and tests that would give them a better shot at the incentive money. Schmitt, L. N. T.; Lamb, L. M.; Cornetto, K. M. & Courtemanche, M. (2014, March) AISD REACH Program Update, 2012-2013: Student Learning Objectives Publication 12.83B. Retrieved from http://www.austinisd.org/sites/default/files/dre-reports/DRE_12.83B_AISD_REACH_Program_Update_2012_2013_Student_Learning_Objectives_0.pdf
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DISD is now requiring SLOs. What a joke. Totally game-able.
Mike Broad-Toad Miles waved salaries of $92,000 in front of the school board to cram his ideas through.
Turns out, you have to work at the worst schools for 4 years to even be eligible to apply.
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That makes too much sense to put the best teachers in the most struggling schools. It doesn’t fit the pipeline-to-prison philosophy. Plus richer students’ parents would notice that their little darlings have very young teachers who don’t know what they are doing and would be calling the Superintendent within 24 hours. Poor parents are too busy working 2 or 3 part time minimum wage jobs to go down to the school. Plus they are often afraid of schools because their own experiences are bad. There is a great need for a community organizer or local politician to do something on their behalf.
Don’t think this only happens in Miami-Dade. It’s all over the South especially. A couple years ago in Pointe Coupee Parish in Louisiana, a poor rural system TFAs were sent in and the kids had trouble with the northern teachers’ dialects as did the students with that of the teachers! Before the end of the school year most of the teachers at one school had resigned.
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NCQT can go suck it. Is it now speaking out of both sides of its mouth? Is this to make it cushier for the TFA scabs?
NCQT HATES traditionally trained, Highly Qualified, certified,teachers. And those of you who discuss novice teachers, lets compare a traditionally trained novice teachers against a TFAer. TFAs get 5 weeks of “boot camp” teaching a few summer school kids, and learning how to control kids with reformy/chartery disciplines. I don’t care how brilliant, “brightest and best” they are – teaching is a tough gig when you’re unprepared.
Meanwhile, a traditional route novice teacher has observed, been observed, done clinical teaching for 1 or 2 semesters, led classes, produced curriculum, and perhaps substituted, thus has at least 1.5 to 2 years “experience” in the classroom. Also, the traditionally trained teacher has been instructed in appropriate pedagogy. Does a novice teacher require guidance? Yes, and mentoring for a full school year is required by law.
Novice teachers have no incentive$ to teach other than it is their calling.
There is no reduced rent apartment, no loan forgiveness, no free Masters Degree through TFA for traditional novice teachers. There is no guaranteed job placement, and whatever other perks those TFAs get. Many of those TFAs already came from well-off backgrounds, and certainly their parents could afford their tuition.
I don’t want to cozy up with NCQT. No doubt this is self-serving of NCQT’s mission. Some of the comments above are spot on! Perhaps it is their new mission to put the veteran teachers into the tough neighborhoods and put the TFAs into the best, so the best can teach the best – hey, wait a minute – didn’t Obama and Arne roll out a plan just like this, to force teachers to work where there is the most need? I get it now; nice try NCQT.
Up is down/down is up.
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Donna, you are spot on. What I find amusing is the friendly fire hit on TFA by NCTQ. I guess the TFA sales pitch is just collateral damage in the face of NCTQ’s inadvertent calling out of their substandard performance in the classroom. Now if only NCTQ would start ranting about the rampant corruption in the charter sector……
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The idea that TFA is designed to be a “scab” workforce seems oversold to me. There are millions of public school teachers in the US. How many TFA teachers are there? Would they even register on a pie chart?
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Rheely, Flerp? Churn and revolving door, annually, of TFA wherever Kopp can get them contracted in. It isn’t the TOTALITY of TFAs left “in the system” because we all know, not many of them stay in education TEACHING. The majority of the ones who stay in education are a) working FOR TFA, b) working for charters as admins, principals, c) going to Broad or Supes academies and getting anointed/appointed as Supes (think SCami Anderson in Newark, NJ). So your argument doesn’t hold water. That said, GFY – good for you.
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So what’s the grand total of TFA teachers who have entered the workforce in the last 20 years? I can look it up myself later and post the number unless you don’t think it matters.
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I agree Donna, and I’ll add this: People can disparage legitimate teacher education programs all they want, but anyone who isn’t willing to attain the proper credentials does not have the right to practice this profession (period! No excuses.). It’s amazing to me that TFA circumvents this requirement.
We couldn’t create “Litigate for America” based on the idea that defendants aren’t properly served by public defenders and then get to practice law without the credentials. The last time I checked, CA is the only state where one can even sit for the bar exam without having gone to law school first.
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According to TFA, there have been 33,000 TFA teachers in the organization’s history. That’s likely the highest reasonable estimate, since TFA isn’t likely trying to understate its importance. By my rough count, that is about 0.01% of the public school teachers working today.
TFA may be many things, but if it’s supposed to be a supply of scab labor, it’s been a miserable failure so far.
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It seems to me that TFA teachers are place holders being used as pawns in the scheme to transition “poor performing” schools out of existence by replacing them with for profit entities. By the time the privateers have their money gained from their egg shell game of moving from school to school to owner to owner, no student will be able to be tracked for verification of their success at these holding tanks. It is a crime. Somewhere along the line someone needs to find a way to start a PUBLIC school run by REAL teachers doing the same remedial, beneficial things mentioned by twinkie earlier. The only way to deal with this insanity is to have a tangible workable program. My word.
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Flerp!
You have to take into account that TFA are concentrated in certain areas.
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NJ Teacher, that’s true, good point. Would be interesting to see how the numbers broke out locally.
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That’s an interesting point FLERP! That makes it all the more frustrating like back when somebody like Apple had it on their website that you could donate your used iPad to TFA. I mean really? And that was at a time when I was buying used computers for my classroom with my own money. But oh no, donate your used iPad to TFA, and they’re only about 0.01% of the teaching force.
But I will reiterate my point above: Not even one single TFA person should have the right to practice this profession without legitimate teaching credentials.
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FLERP!
Statistical analysis is not my forte! Maybe we could get the info from TFA. We could pretend to be researching an article.
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Let’s keep our eye on the ball. We know, first off, twe know that students do not benefit fro the TFA arrangement. Second, we know that TFA ‘kids’ are going to be confronted with students who have myriad learning needs that will overwhelm them. Third we know that real teachers will have to help these TFA ‘kids’, as well as cover their own classes. Fourth, we know that the TFA staffed school is going to be in a constant state of crisis. Fifth, we know that schools will save money, or so it would seem, by accepting TFA placements. Finally, who wins? The simple answer is that TFA pulls in enormous sums of money when its ‘kids’ are placed in schools. What a god-awful arrangement. O course, TFA is self delusional and has no shame as they rake in the dough as students, schools and yes, the young TFA ‘kids’ suffer. We cast aspersions at TFA ‘kids’ and no doubt many of them have they have earned their opprobrium; but they, too, are,vicitms, albeit willing, victims of the TFA scam. I shudder to think what it is like for a TFA ‘kid’ to walk into class and attempt to teach. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny. We have lots of victims from the TFA scam and only one winner, who is laughing all the way to the bank,
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I’m seeing a hopeful note here when the leading lights of “ed reformy” bs are pointing fingers at the obvious. I am hoping for a reply from TFA that accurately describes NCTQ as what it is– however obvious it might be to the rest of us.
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It is tragic but even seasoned teachers are becoming “novice” teachers these days because they are not allowed to practice their craft and must constantly change following every new untested methodology and corporate profit making venture that comes down the pike each and every year. A novice teacher wanting to learn from a veteran teacher these days will see someone gritting their teeth and following top-down inane common core directives that go against every fiber of their being…. wasting inordinate amounts of time on paperwork that has no real benefit to the students etc… What will come next when this crashes and burns??? Perhaps Clayton Christenson can tell us since he is such an “expert” at “Disruptive Innovation” or shall we simply call it “The TFA Way”!
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“. . . a veteran teacher these days will see someone gritting their teeth and following top-down inane common core directives that go against every fiber of their being…. ”
Then why the hell aren’t they doing something about that situation??? From my experience most teachers are quite timid, definitely kowtowed into doing what is wrong for the students, and need to grow a spine. Most are GAGAers through and through. See my post above to know what a GAGAer is.
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Duane,
Teachers like me who open their big mouths are punished. Others bear witness and behave accordingly.
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NJT,
I understand as I’ve been hounded out of one district. I’ve learned to not be so strident. I still will bring up the obvious fallacies in logic in faculty meetings but now I try to “educate” the administrators more on a one to one basis by giving them readings, pointing them to education blogs, articles, etc. . . . I speak with teachers one on one, letting them know that they are not alone in their struggles.
I’ve learned to beat the admin to the punch on their own demands.
For example the new principal has made it known that we will here from him if we don’t have the objectives posted. I’ll post them in Spanish on Monday, I’ll let him know that the objectives are posted and then sit his ass down and explain the insanity of posting “objectives” (as there are literally hundreds each day in the teaching and learning process of learning Spanish) as they think should be done.
I leave readings out in the lounges so that others may learn about all the edudeformers’ malpractices.
There are many subtle and subversive things one can do to counteract this crap. Sometimes guerrilla tactics are wiser than direct battle.
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Duane,
You can’t force someone who wasn’t raised to be a fighter, who didn’t grow up in a tougher environment. Sheltered middle or upper middle class white students from homes with literate/college educated parents tend to be spoiled and never had to fight for anything.
Maybe this is why teachers selected for year-long urban residency training programs in a master teacher’s classroom in an urban school with a high ratio of students who live in poverty have an 86-percent retention rate at the end of the fourth year compared to 33 percent of TFA recruits with high GPA’s from the Ivy League.
Most of these urban residency teachers are minorities and/or grew up in a poorer socioeconomic environment below the middle class and they mostly attended state colleges starting in a community college. In the long run, these teachers also tend to be more highly rated by their principals.
Maybe there should be a national teacher program based on this model that completes against TFA, and these urban residency candidates must have been born in poverty and must graduate from average colleges with average GPAs.
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“. . . and must graduate from average colleges with average GPAs.”
I can agree with that thought Lloyd.
Ahh, the bigotry of low expectations!!**
Just think if there wasn’t any “average” there couldn’t be any “low expectations”. (statement meant with a variety of meanings-epistemological, ontological, conceptual, linguistic and many more).
*said with tongue firmly in cheek.
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Without tongue in cheek, I say that a high GPA only means the child was well trained by parents and/or caregivers, etc., to do school work, pay attention, cooperate in class and grow up with a love of reading.
That’s the only difference.
That high GPA doesn’t translate into survival skills in a tough, competitive world. Have you seen the foreign film, “City of God”?
I defy anyone who is white who has a high GPA from a prestigious Ivy League college to survive on the streets depicted in that film that was based on a true story. There are poverty ridden communities like the one in that film in the United States and the numbers who live in those communities is growing at a fast pace.
Maybe this explains the results of a study on suicide: 69% were white and 31% were African American. … Overall, suicide victims tended to live in lower income areas compared to the general population … This effect was predominately due to white suicide victims living in lower income areas of Fulton County than the white population in general ($35,893 v. $51,232). This was not the case for African American suicide victims when compared to the overall African American population of Fulton County ($18,179 v. $17,384).
Maybe growing up in poverty in a tough area as a minority toughens the survivors and those pampered white kids with a false sense of self-esteem just can’t compete so they choose suicide to escape.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2736599/
The study couldn’t explain these results.
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Flerp, I absolutely abhor TFA. I don’t know what the numbers are or the percentages are, and frankly don’t give a fig. I’m not here to create an argument for you to defend,
It shows that the organization has far strayed from its supposed intended mission, and many REAL teachers are overlooked in favor of hiring TFAs, and plenty of veteran, experienced, qualified, certified teachers have been fired and replaced by TFA.
Look to New Orleans, and then tell me day is night and night is day. TFA needs to fold. Too many regulations and laws have been broken and bent in order to allow them in. Too much taxpayer monies have earmarked for TFA, while billionaires continue to fund it. It is a non-profit where its founder drew $400,000 annually. Non-profit my butt.
On the application to teach in Newark, you have to be certified, Highly Qualified, and they want you to have experience in an urban district….unless you are TFA with whom Newark contracted, then, you are golden and serve several purposes. Revolving door labor, non-union, displace veteran teachers, and disappear in a year, or 2, or earlier if you can’t stand the heat.
I know a Princeton alumni – and that group sponsored 2 TFAs this year, paid monies to TFA specifically for them, and at the end of the year, gave each $5,000 cash. “Regular” teachers get none of that. Screw them, right? TFA can bite me.
Scami Anderson wants to fire about 700 teachers, and bring in 250 TFAs. Even 1 TFA is too many in my book. TFA isn’t necessary anymore, if it ever even was.
My anger gets the best of me when discussing TFA. It has done more harm than good, and the privatizers use them to their advantage as scab labor. True that.
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OK, esteemed colleagues, please listen: Wendy Kopp, founder of TFA, still has a seat on the NCTQ Advisory Board, so I think something big is up and I’m inclined to believe it’s more likely to be nefarious than altruistic. It was mentioned recently by Obama, so it’s probably more of a detailed business plan than the rather nebulous description in this report: http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/07/obama-administration-demands-states-achieve-teacher-equity/
I would suggest looking towards possible long-range goals, who the “reformers” aim to target, like career teachers and unions, as well as what public funding cuts and privatized financial gains could be made from such an initiative.
Aiming to transfer experienced career teachers to low-income neighborhoods, with the backing of our neo-liberal president to give the plan teeth, could mean those teachers will be required to work in mostly non-union charter schools, since that’s where many TFAers work right now in a lot of inner cities. Incentivizing or mandating such transfers could be another way of attempting to further reduce the number of career teachers who have high salaries and pensions. If those teachers can be sent to work beyond the reach of union protections, maybe they will lose their seniority in their home districts. Could this be another way to attack LIFO and strip unions of their powers?
Placing TFAers in high income neighborhoods might be just the thing that corporate “reformers” think is needed to propel charter school expansion in the suburbs. After all, many TFAers come from wealthy families in just these kinds of neighborhoods and those residents might not be so opposed to suburban charters if their own kids can be employed there, at least temporarily.
Decentralized school districts, where principals do the hiring, would need to change, so that teachers would have to work wherever they are assigned. I did hear something about a preference for this setup from reformers not long ago, but I can’t recall where..
It may seem far fetched, but I think we need to try to figure out their game plan. What do you think might be some long-term gains that could be made from such an effort? (Think really BIG.)
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Brilliant Cosmic Tinker!
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My god…you make excellent points. I think you’ve cracked the code here: “Coming to an upper middle-class suburban neighborhood near you: ‘Teach’ for America!”
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Thanks. NJ Teacher and LG.
Yeah, I think this might be somewhat of a desperate measure for reformers who are meeting with grass roots resistance in charter saturated urban markets. But they want to expand into the suburbs anyways AND further deprive career teachers of their hard earned earnings, pensions and union won rights. So, it could be intended to be a double whammy against the profession. They might pull of off, in collusion with state and local politicians, when designing their mandated plans, if people are not alert to these possibilities and take action.
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Call Christie! So far he has succeeded in avoiding dishing out the crap we have to eat in urban areas to the suburbs. And what is the reason you may ask? How many of the rich and famous live in Newark, Paterson, Camden? Christie’s kids attend Delbarton a private school featuring small classes and a shorter school year. I am sure Christie would be thrilled to have some lovely TFA candidates gracing the suburbs.
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Cosmic –
I think your analysis may be right on target. Here in Massachusetts, where the Commish of Ed is also president of PARCC (no conflict of interest there, move along, please), I’ve been hearing this kind of argument for at least five years: teachers are serfs and need to serve at the pleasure of the king. No due process, pay for experience or education and certainly no defined benefit pensions (even though we’re not eligible for Social Security). It always takes a while for these ideas to percolate to the surface, but remember, we’re the home of HGSE, Raj Chetty and Checker Finn, as well as Bain Capital. One of our former commissioners, Jim Peyser went on to NewSchools Venture Fund, where he currently “leads NewSchools investment activity in Boston, Newark and Washington, DC.”
For more unsettling details see: http://educationnext.org/author/jpeyser/
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In Providence, RI, there is an arts-oriented community organization called WaterFire. From late spring through the fall, they hold events along the river which runs through downtown Providence in which barges alight with fires float along through the evening. There are also street performances, open air markets and live music. It’s a great time, all sorts of people show up and often an organization sponsors an evening’s events. Well, guess who’s showing up this weekend? Yup:
“Teach for America RI Torch Procession Beginning Memorial Park
The Rhode Island program of Teach for America RI which as been bringing teachers into the state for the past five years. This year’s team of 35 new teachers, will be welcomed to Providence at the August 23rd lighting, participating in a Prometheia torch procession and a recognition ceremony at the Ignite Music Stage at WaterFire on Steeple Street.”
How do they manage to pull this stuff off? Remember the hard won victories of the Providence Student Union against madwoman Gist? How can this happen in the same (very small) city?
Is this what our nation will look like when the plutocracy gains complete control?
http://waterfire.org/?utm_source=WaterFire%20General&utm_campaign=3a77184357-WF_Newsletter_08_22_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ae9412cd1b-3a77184357-56406873
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“Prometheia ”
That wouldn’t be the smart board company would it?
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BTW, Closing the achievement gap has long been a mission of TFA, so they actively sought out placements for their recruits in high poverty schools and advertised it in their marketing materials. Therefore, it just doesn’t make sense that they would suddenly be scapegoating districts for those placements.
So I had to ask if they are changing their mission and why would they do so? [Or maybe it’s the same mission with a different approach –instead of trying to close the achievement gap by subjecting children who are already at a disadvantage to “teachers” who don’t know what they’re doing, try closing the gap by slowing down the learning of affluent kids 🙂 ]
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It is the SOS on a different day. Is TFA encountering difficulties closing the achievement gap? Urban teachers have been working tirelessly for decades. Since the task is too challenging for TFA, they should offer their skills to the more advantaged children in the well heeled districts. It makes perfect sense. Why should TFA have to worry their pretty little heads about the have nots?
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“Or maybe it’s the same mission with a different approach –instead of trying to close the achievement gap by subjecting children who are already at a disadvantage to “teachers” who don’t know what they’re doing, try closing the gap by slowing down the learning of affluent kids 🙂 ”
BINGO!! Cosmic Tinker wins the thread!
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Wait. NCTQ? That can’t be right. NCTQ just got through with bashing colleges of education for inadequacy, on the basis of a poorly designed ‘study’ that primary consisted of reviewing course descriptions and syllabi for current reformy buzzwords. Now TFA is also less than ideal, too? Gee, what a fix we’re in. I’m sure the policy wonks over there will soon (like Pecos Bill) be riding a media storm to rescue us all from the perils of inexperienced TFA recruits and their traditionally prepared, experienced, but ineffective, veteran colleagues. Wonder what miracle solution is just over the rainbow?
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I’m tired of hearing that if “high-performing” teachers are enticed (or through “flexibility” for district administrators) forced into high-needs schools, those schools will magically improve. It’s ridiculous.
Those “high-performing” ratings are probably based on test scores. Test scores are a product of socioeconomic status. While I am sure the vast majority of teachers in well-funded schools are excellent educators, so are their veteran colleagues at high-needs schools. And teachers from well-funded schools are likely to struggle in poorly-funded schools. They may not have the cultural competency that teachers at low-performing schools need to be part of their school community. They may not have the experience networking with community organizations, making do without basic supplies, supporting children experiencing trauma, or supporting the itinerant teachers provided through Teach for America.
Whatever else the NCTQ is selling, they are conflating vastly different work conditions and school communities to create one standard of performance.
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As I suggested previously, I think there is a grand scheme here and the following are some other major components, one around TFA itself and the other regarding higher ed. I will present this in two posts due to the links.
First TFA. It’s highly unusual for that organization to stray from their original model, and yet, they are now piloting two new initiatives. One is continued support for TFAers after they complete their two years, ostensibly to promote retention, but a two year commitment is still all that will be required.
The other pilot program is a year of study in education for TFA candidates in their last year of college, which I think this is the most significant: See “Teach For America to Pilot Yearlong Teacher Training, Retention Efforts”
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2014/03/tfa_to_pilot_yearlong_training.html
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The changes at TFA might be part of a much bigger picture related to draconian reforms to higher education that are being planned, both for colleges in general, as well as for teacher education in particular (remember that teachers take major coursework in BOTH general ed/Liberal Arts and teacher ed).
Reforming higher education is an Obama initiative, but others have been working on it very actively, too, including SBAC, in order to standardize higher ed. See: “Higher Ed isn’t as far behind on Common Core as you think”
http://hechingerreport.org/content/higher-ed-isnt-far-behind-common-core-think_16982/
NCTQ abhors most of teacher ed, as do many for-profit online colleges. What those colleges can’t stand most is that each state has its own requirements for teacher preparation and certification. It would be a lot easier and cheaper for them if state requirements for teacher ed and certification were standardized.
The same is true for TFA, which has to deal with a lot of different state teacher prep and certification requirements. What if the TFA pilot of one year of undergrad training in education, followed by mentoring the first five years of teaching, are the planned models for standardizing teacher ed? Remember, these are the folks who deny the value of master’s degrees for teachers and don’t want to pay teachers extra money for them.
This one year model would be a very serious limitation on the preparation of teachers, since so many programs currently involve students in education course work, many observation hours and clinical experiences starting in their first year of college. This would cram all that into their last year of college, ostensibly when they are also doing student teaching.
If standardization in higher ed and teacher ed isn’t scary, I don’t know what is. That is, except for those whose eyes glimmer with dollar signs from seeing more new markets in education for profiteering, i.e., Common Core National College Standards, Common Core National Teacher Standards, standardized curriculum, instructional materials and textbooks, standardized testing required for passing college courses and to graduate.
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I became certified in one state and then moved to a neighboring state where I had to repeat the certification process. The differences in certification requirements between these states included a different version of the praxis test in my area of study and a provisional certificate license. The processes in both states were quite manageable, although I cannot speak for other states.
Using the differences in various state certification processes as an excuse for standardization is a cop-out. Next they’re going to be calling for the standardizing of salaries across the country, regardless of the cost of living.
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Cosmic –
As we used to say in the ’60’s: just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you. We teachers in K-12 have been feeling the paranoia for a while now. Now they’re going to the next level. Your insight makes a lot of $en$e.
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There are many administrators of non-profit colleges with online courses in teacher education who would enthusiastically embrace standardization as well, primarily for economic reasons. Then software programs can be used for teaching and professors can be eliminated or reduced to the role of graders of qualitative assignments. (This has already happened at some colleges and “grader” is literally the job title.)
A lot of states and school districts currently require mentoring for new teachers, so that’s nothing new. This initiative is not about increasing the quality of teacher ed, since it would be dramatically reduced from preparation spread out across 4 years to just one year of prep (i.e., fewer courses and less field experience) plus 5 years of on the job training. This is all about $$$$$ –for everyone except teachers.
Hechinger did not post my comment on this article, which was not at all supportive of this horrendous initiative. Others should try to post there as well.
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Well, now I see that my comment is suddenly there. Try posting at Hetchinger now, too.
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