Mitchell Robinson, who teaches teachers at Michigan State University, recently told Teach for America that they would not be allowed to recruit in his education program. Here he describes his conversation with the recruiters who wanted to know his problem with TFA.
One of my students was contacted by a Teach For America recruiting representative, and asked if she was interested in getting involved with the organization. She sent me the note, and I replied that TFA was not welcome in my teacher preparation classes (á la Mark Naison!). I received a reply asking for a meeting, to discuss my “problems with TFA.”
And so I met with the two TFA recruiters, both of whom had taught for three years as TFA corps members and then moved into leadership/management roles with the organization. The discussion went just about as well as I thought it would.
They asked how they could work more effectively with traditional teacher education programs, and I asked them how they justified sending out recruits with five weeks of “training” into some of the more challenging classrooms in our state.
When I suggested that TFA was contributing to the displacement of veteran teachers in Chicago, Detroit and other urban centers, looks of shock and disbelief registered on their faces. They said that was not their goal.
When I asked one of them to explain TFA’s goal, she said it was to improve education in urban schools. I asked her to list the factors contributing to the “problems” in those schools and explain what TFA was doing about those problems. She didn’t answer.
He tried to explain his objections. They didn’t understand. There was a failure to communicate.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you Mitchell! This was amazing to read ^0^
This is an epic story. Love it!!
What an education professor *should* say about TFA:
“The fact that teachers who receive a traditional bachelor’s of education are, at best, modestly more successful than TFA teachers with only 5 weeks training ought to result in every teacher’s college in the USA being closed and all professors of education fired”
Only slight hyperbole.
The difference is that teachers from traditional bachelor’s of education programs go into teaching to teach. Most are not looking to pad their resume on the backs of inner city kids and then push for a management-leader position within the corporate education system. New teachers are not particularly effective for the first few years. TFA teachers are not willing to stick it out long enough to become excellent teachers. Becoming a master teacher takes time.
Define “successful”.
Why would TFA bother with traditional teaching programs?
That’s not what their usual MO is. When did that change?
I mean, why would they bother recruiting students who are in traditional programs? Is this a new thing for TFA?
I was wondering that too. Maybe the recruiters were low on their numbers and so were thinking outside the box. ?
I watched a teacher work with struggling students by helping them to memorize the material that would be on the test. Did they do better? Yes. Did they learn more? NO.
None so deaf as those that will not hear. None so blind as those that will not see.” [Matthew Henry]
If I may be permitted to quote the Chairman against the Chairman: “Only slight hyperbole.”
😎
The elitist arrogance of these two recruits questioning the moral decisions of a college professor further demonstrates the utter chaos created by reform.
I would have asked them first off…”How long were you a teacher?” Then I would have asked, “If you ask a veteran teacher how long it took them in the classroom before they really started to have an understanding of teaching, how many years do you think they will say it takes?” I then would ask them how many veteran teachers did they ask questions to while they were “learning to teach”? Let us clearly establish some of the basic problems with TFA and I am just getting started!
I imagine quite a few education professors are hostile to TFA, given all of the studies showing that TFA teachers outperform, or at least do no worse than, people taught by those same education professors. I wouldn’t expect education professors to like TFA any more than General Motors likes Honda for making such good cars.
Oh, snap! Great point!
Huh? Most Hondas run for more than two years.
Source?
“. . . TFA teachers outperform, or at least do no worse . . . ”
Ha, ha, ha, ah, ha, ha, ha!!
That’s a good one so early in the morning!! Like to wake and bake do ya!?!?!?!?!?
Show us the studies. You seem to believe anyone can teach, no special qualifications. Try staffing schools from that premise.
I found one study on TFA “effectiveness”, not credible, treating math only, more teachers in middle than high school. More pr than substance.
Conclusion equivalent to saying no college course work in math makes a difference in test scores, no graduate degrees in math make a difference in math scores, no indication that teaching experience matters in math scores. No indications that TFA teachers make a difference in math scores because too many variables are flopping around. Reviewer said, just put a warm body in a airplane and tell them to fly.
(A) The few “studies” I’ve seen are dubious at best, often funded by sources friendly to TfA
(B) “Performance” is usually defined solely as test scores, which in some ways stands to reason, because all TfA “teachers” are trained to do is “teach” to the test. But most parents, along with most citizens of a democratic republic, consider test scores a poor measure of student or teacher success. Traditionally trained teachers are more likely to understand pedagogy, child development, psychology, etc. which really help kids to understand the material and succeed in life.
(C) These “studies” usually compare first or second year TfAers with first or second year traditionally trained teachers. Pretty much everyone acknowledges that the first year or two of teaching are really hard and no one really “performs” well those years. The difference is, as pointed out above, that traditionally trained teachers are much more likely to stick it out for the long haul and become good teachers over time, whereas TfAers are more likely to use their year or two of teaching as a stepping stone to administration or school “reform” leadership (or law school, or a sweet position at a hedge fund, or….).
I can imagine someone here who sticks his head in the sand has a great hostility to teaching profession including professor who dares to smack down the favorite TFA core. The only things they outperform experienced teachers? Ignorance, naivete, inexperience, and administrative ineptitude. These all account for dismal record of failing performance in the classroom.
Dienne: what you said.
And it would be rare for TFA or any self-styled “education reform” organization to admit that “student achievement” equals anything but test scores.
And what most commenters have said about TFA willingness to be self-critical and objective.
From the blog of Gary Rubinstein, a guest posting of 2/22/2014, “Guest Post Series. Part One: How Interning for TFA Convinced me of its Injustice”:
[start quote]
It is now my senior year of college. The woman who had been my manager has moved to another department within TFA, and on August 1st I got my first recruiting email from my Bryn Mawr’s new lead recruiter. She has sent me some of the most worrisome and disturbing emails I have ever received. TFA has responded to the valid, well-articulated articles by former corps members critiquing TFA that went viral several months ago by telling me their words aren’t valid because they weren’t in the right “corps member mindset.” TFA has tried to convince me to support their efforts by buying a shirt from J. Crew. TFA has tried to convince me to apply to the program by bribing me with a holiday gift. I have not responded to these emails.
The decision to not apply to TFA was very conscious–its effects on school policy and environment are well known: TFA teachers are by and large less successful than their traditionally certified colleagues; TFA teachers by and large do not stay in the classroom past their two year commitment; TFA’s 5 weeks of training can never match the slow, deliberate introduction to the art of teaching undergraduates and graduates pursuing traditional certification have access to.
It is in writing this article that I hope to bring voice, agency, and power to my decision to not apply to Teach for America. It is in writing this article that I hope to show other interns, affiliates, and potential corps members just how horribly TFA treats its interns, and just how dirty, upsetting, and shocking the underbelly of the beast is. It is in writing this article that I hope to expose TFA for what it is, from the intern’s perspective–a bully, a monolith, and a cult. It was my experience as intern with TFA, directly entangled with a new Goliath, that convinced me, not just of its injustice, but of its intentional evil.
[end quote]
Link: http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2014/02/22/guest-post-series-part-one-how-interning-for-tfa-convinced-me-of-its-injustice/
Of course, some will apply a Rheeality Distortion Field to themselves when reading the above, but for the rest of us—caring as we do about such silly 20th century notions as decency, logic, facts and honesty—the following excerpt from the above says it all:
“TFA has responded to the valid, well-articulated articles by former corps members critiquing TFA that went viral several months ago by telling me their words aren’t valid because they weren’t in the right ‘corps member mindset.’”
The right corps member mindset. Wow and double wow…
So I guess there won’t be any major changes in TFA thinking anytime soon. Although the TFA propensity to err over and over again was presaged long ago in one of their bedrock Marxist axioms:
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.” [Groucho—who else?]
Excepting, of course, all that $tudent $ucce$$ one accrues in the ed biz after fleeing, er, leaving the classroom after one’s mandatory sentence of 2 years or so, er, after departing with grace from the best job you ever used to have and will never willingly return to.
So although TFA holds one of the copyrights to the Potemkin Village Plan for $tudent $ucce$$, I think I am allowed to modify, say, 15% of one of its Marxian adages, so here goes:
“TFA is a parked taxi with the meter running.”
😎
And what does separation from an ed biz job pay these days? Google Howard Blume, LATIMES, 10-21-14:
“(The district on Monday also updated details of Deasy’s separation agreement. He’ll receive about $61,000 for unused vacation days in addition to about $70,000 in severance to be available as needed through year’s end.)”
😳
It’s all for the kids today. It’s all for the kids tomorrow. It’s all for the kids forever.
😡
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.” [Groucho—who else?]
Good one.
So you think that we should turn K-12 education over to 5-week wonders who will spend 2-3 years in the classroom at most before they “graduate” to running them. Seriously?
The TFA shills above really show their contempt for both veteran teachers, and the teaching profession… nay, they don’t actually believe it to be a profession. To them, teaching is on a par with fast food, office temping, retail store sales… I remember asking one of them if you would want to treated by a doctor or represented by a lawyer with just five weeks training, she responded, “Yeah, but those are different from teaching; those are REAL professions.”
Also, I suspect that the shilling above is part of a paid, coordinated PR effort. I remember talking to a former TFA who now opposes the organization, and he was blown away with how, whenever his or someone else’s anti-TFA article appears, or an anti-TFA comments below an article appear somewhere on the net, there’s this immediate boilerplate response. It’s always the same comments and arguments are almost verbatim with what is above.
Here’s a good article to read:
http://oyemundo.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/i-am-im-asking-you-to-quit/
TFA shows contempt for experience. Once upon a time, experience was viewed as the road to wisdom. Is this no longer true?
Ousted L.A. Supe John Deasy is a big TFA supporter—and teachers-with-experience hater—just like his billionaire backers such as Eli Broad.
Indeed, Deasy and Broad believe that a teacher’s years of experience are as relevant to his being paid or retained… as his/her height. A teacher’s years of experience are well… like his/her height… those years of hard work should mean nothing, so we should ignore this in making any personnel or salary decisions.
Go to Deasy’s interview last month (Sepember 2014) with Tavis Smiley:
—————————–
Dr. John Deasy, LAUSD Superintendent | Interviews | Tavis Smiley | PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/john-deasy-2/
The quote is at —
03:52 – 04:29
(the CAPITALS and () parentheticals are mine, Jack)
—————————————————–
JOHN DEASY:
“As far as Last-In–and-First-Out, I don’t support that in any fashion whatsoever… uhhmm… in the notion that when you have to make decisions to lay off faculty because of budget cuts—and we know here in California, we’ve been through a horrific situation, uhhh… in terms of lack of money for public education—the decision has to be made solely on the day the person is hired. Well, why don’t we use teacher HEIGHT? I mean, THAT’S objective… uhmm, you can easily determine the highest, the tallest teacher. You wouldn’t do that either. So why (base it on) some day (i.e. start day on the job)?
“You want to be able to make a decision on the contributions teachers make…”
—————————————————–
At this point in the interview, Deasy then deviously dishes out some disinformation and misdirection as he gushes about how wonderful some teachers and their “contribution” is, and and that “honoring” those good teachers’ contribution is the only and real reason he’s out to gut all teachers’ job protections in backing the Vergara decision.
Gee, how nice of him.
Why MUST those evil teacher unions get in his way when all Deasy wants to do is “honor” teachers? What’s WRONG with them? They’re all just corrupt, defenders of a failed status quo putting their own adult self-interest ahead of the children that they’re failing to teach!
Thank God we have John Deasy to take them on!
Deasy fails to mention that it’s NOT just “BAD” teachers’ job protections he’s after, but “ALL” teachers’ job protections.
I was in an audience when Deasy gave a speech at Occidental College a couple years ago, and he said a teacher’s career should not last more than five years, before that teacher moves on to their “real” career. Deasy and his ilk view the veteran teacher—10 years or more—with undisguised contempt, seeing them as lazy, overpaid, and basically worthless. If you went to an LAUSD teacher jail, it looks like an AARP meeting, as the Deasy-ite principals were given a directive to doctor up and trump up false charges against as many veterans as possible—to lower the line of item of salary in the budget, not improve teacher quality. If the Vergara decision stands, they’ll all be instantly fired.
The truth is that Deasy—and more specifically, the moneyed forces backing him—wants to de-professionalize teaching, to make it more like a low-level service job like office temping, fast food, retail, etc., than a profession like law, medicine, engineering, etc. Of course this as being done…
1) to lessen the tax burden on business and ramp up their bottom line profits and the price of their shareholders’ stock;
AND
2) to make education a more profitable industry for privatization—where teachers can be more like Walmart workers with no job protections, little pay, etc.
That’s why Teach For America, and TNTP, and all similar groups get millions and millions of dollars of corporate backing. This fits right in with the long-term plan of the Billionaire Boys Club—Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton family, etc.—to destroy the teaching profession, and privatize public education… taking it from the public commons where it is accountable and transparent to the public via democratically-elected school boards, and put it under the control of private interests who are NOT accountable to the public, not transparent to the public, and who don’t educate all the public—i.e. the most costly and difficult kids to educate… Special Ed, English Language Learners, kids in high poverty, homeless, foster care, etc.
Anyway, getting back to the above quote, Deasy says that a teacher’s length of service should be totally ignored when making personnel or compensation decisions.
THE REASON: basing such decisions on a teacher’s number of years of services is the same as basing it on a teacher’s number of inches in his height.
Really, John? Seriously? You’re in your mid-fifties now, and it’s possible you may soon or eventually need open-heart surgery (or some other high-risk surgery.) Would you prefer to be operated on by a surgeon who’s done it…
2 times before he operates on you?
20 times before he operates on you?
200 times before he operates on you?
2,000 times before he operates on you?
According to you, John, judging that surgeon on the prior number of times he’s successfully performed open-heart surgery is like judging him on the number of inches of his height.
What an asinine analogy. Let’s compare it even further.
INCHES OF HEIGHT: a teacher—or his supervising administrator(s)—has NO control over that, as it is decided in the womb.
YEARS OF TEACHING IN THE CLASSROOM: being able to survive this is totally dependent on the teacher’s innate abilities, persistence, drive to work hard, and his determination to perform the countless and highly-demanding requirements of the job… and survive administrator evalutions, and prove himself / herself over and over to an administrator that they deserve to be on the job—even AFTER being granted tenure.
Bad teachers can and do get justly pushed out all the time… without actually going thru the technical process of termination or “being fired.”. The same goes for high-paid teachers who are unjustly fired, in order to save money.
What must a teacher do during that say, his first year of teaching, or 2 years, or 5, 10, 20, 30, etc., to remain on the job? What are some of the requirements that he must perform, or else, if he fails to do so, will get written up and eventually fired?
Well, let’s examine that.
Principals and other administrators come through our classes all the ding-dong day, folllowed by criticisms, e-mails and / or “conference memos” which demand and get immediate action.
Parents can be equally demanding, as evidenced during the scheduled parent-teacher conferences during the school year, and those unscheduled conferences resulting from a problem the parent demands that the teacher MUST address.
The students’ results on quarterly assessments—and annual standardized tests—in Language and Math are scrutinized to a fair-thee-well.
Accompanying these analyses are demands to address the needs of those students who are falling behind., and administrative monitoring as to whether we as teachers have done so. (And this is apart from the annual or bi-annual “Stull” evaluation that teachers go through)
Here’s more of what a teacher does:
— detailed report cards;
— lesson planning or all subjects (with a detailed lesson plan book with precisely stated objectives, methodology, etc— present and visible at all times);
— endless, constant grading & gradebook record-keeping that would tax any accountant;
— meticulously decorated and designed walls and bulletin boards ( with graded & finished student work corresponding to California Standards posted both in the classroom and in the hallway, and which must be changed regularly);
— mandated classroom environment with required centers (library, listening center, etc.); constant photocopying / prep for the upcoming lessons);
— I.E.P meetings for certain children with issues (with detailed documentation, writing, pre-planning, and execution of the I.E.P. plan itself);
— after-school “homework” clubs / tutoring that most teachers offer (unpaid and off-the-clock mind you);
— the grading of students’ writing (a very labor-intensive job by itself ) followed by individual one-on-one writing conferences with each student; regular after-school teacher meetings;
— intervening in and counseling regarding bullying, fights, or the often toxic dynamics of cliques; grade-level meetings;
— meetings of the entire faculty;
— after-school professional development meetings;
— the newly-mandated prep for the standardized tests;
— constant intervention with misbehaving children involving phone calls / meetings with parents; home visits;
— unpaid and emotionally-draining social work for children from distressed, impoverished homes with often-horrific personal situations;
— constant organizing and cleaning of the classroom itself;
— planning and executing of on-going projects;
— purchasing out-of-pocket supplies;
— the focused, on-your-feet performance of directed instruction itself; attending to children with special needs; and on and on…
That’s only a PARTIAL list of what we are required to do.
Now according to Deasy, the length of time that a teacher has performed these and other demands SHOULD MEAN NOTHING when making decisions in:
paying that teacher (salary schedule);
or
not firing/continuing to hire that teacher.
Why? Well, because Deasy says that judging by the years on the job doing all this is the same as judging that teacher by the inches of that teachers’ height.
The unbelievable demands they constantly have to meet, and the challenging and trying circumstances in which they work mean nothing to this man—or again, more specifically, the moneyed forces backing him.
Since this man apparently has little credible education background, I guess he has to claim that experience makes no difference. In spite of his assertions, I doubt that a truly experienced administrator would have made the boneheaded decisions he did.
The TFA recruiters are a good example of Jamie Vollmer’s epiphany of something being perfectly balanced: equal parts ignorance and arrogance.
“Negative Positive Feedback”
TFA’s a feedback loop
For problems in the school
The more they get from TFA troop
The more the problem rules
Mercedes Schneider knocked it out of the park
again with her perusing the on-line chats that TFA
folks have with one another:
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/what-teach-for-america-says-when-it-talks-to-itself/
There’s little said about how to best educate children,
or to improve the educations of children. Much of it
is alll about angling for six-figure jobs post-TFA…
either in the lucrative world of “corporate
educatin reform” or in private sector of
Wall Street, etc.
The thing that really jumped out was their
attack on Mark Naison’s article where he says
TFA is no longer welcome in his classroom.
When one TFA chats and belitles Mark
for being upset that Mark’s students
“didn’t make the cut”, that TFA-er means
that Mark is upset that his former students
are being passed over for teaching jobs
in favor of TFA’s.
———————————————–
TFA chatting on-line:
“All I hear from this article is “WAAAHHHHHH”.
He would rather have the bottom third of
Flalafel State College teaching in these schools,
than (TFA) Yale graduates, just because (TFA’s)
choose to go a different route in life after a
couple years in TFA. Oh yeah, and because
his students didnt [sic] make the cut, (get
hired, while TFA teachers were, ) he
is now butt hurt over it.”
——————————————-
Wow… just wow.
However, it’s nice to see this refreshing
honesty (BELOW) from one TFA person who
chimes in about his experiences during TFA’s
their Summer Institute.
He clearly sees through all that is TFA,
but will stick it out because if he quits, there
will be a “stigma” on him that will negatively
impact his post-TFA future.. Note how
he debunks TFA’s “more successful or
as successful as veteran teachers claim”…
it’s all a test prep scame
———————————————–
Another TFA chatting on-line:
“There’s a lot of truth in (Naison’s) article. I’m in the midst of my summer training for TFA now, and the vast majority of my (fellow TFA institute Corp Members-in-training) co-workers don’t REALLY care about these kids. It is a stepping stone, and a guaranteed job, by and large. I also have developed a tremendous amount of animosity towards the organization as a result of what I’ve seen in these past few weeks. This organization is NOT in it for the kids… it’s in it for the ‘Corps Members’ and their experiences.
“They have us teaching summer school after only have ONE WEEK of formal training. These kids are getting REAL grades in subjects that many of the teachers have no prior knowledge of. I, for one, typically learn the subject I’m going to teach the night before the lesson plan is due. It’s disgusting that these kids are used as our guinea pigs. Even the way their success is measured is a damn scam.
“They are given the final exam on the first day and given 30 minutes to complete it. For the remainder of summer school, we are then forced to teach our objectives to this specific test, and it is given again on the last day of classes.”
—————————————————
Here’s where he blows the whistle on TFA’s claims of the growth their teachers get….
and what that “growth” really means.
————————————————–
“It’s disgusting that these kids (public school children taught TFA institute teachers-in-training) are used as our guinea pigs. Even the way their success is measured is a damn scam.
“They are given the final exam on the first day and given 30 minutes to complete it. For the remainder of summer school, we are then forced to teach our objectives to this specific test, and it is given again on the last day of classes.
“(Public school children taught TFA institute teachers-in-training) are given 2 hours at this point to complete it after having been taught essentially identical questions the entire summer. The questions we give on the final is the EXACT SAME as the ones given on that 1st day too. It’s real easy to say that ‘little __________ made a 48 point gain in his subject’ when you have those particular conditions. The shit is sickening.
“I joined to try and do some genuine good, but this organization is no different than many of the private for-profit organizations. At least they’re honest with their intentions. I would leave after seeing this, but there’s too much of a social stigma attached for my professional ambitions to do it (i.e. quit TFA). smh.”
“He would rather have the bottom third of Flalafel State College teaching in these schools, than (TFA) Yale graduates,”
“TFA Falafsophy on Public Teachers”
We’re headed toward a falafel fate
With morons teaching schools
The bottom third from Falafel State
We Yalies know they’re fools
As a proud graduate of Falafel State College, I take umbrage at these slights. Who do those Yalies think they are?
(Someone doesn’t like my long “meandering” posts.
Sorry… but if you don’t like it, don’t read it.)
Two summers ago, Gary Rubenstein wrote his annual article
critiquing the methods and goals of the TFA Institute that was
currently in session. As Gary indicates, he has been
called a “bully” for doing this in the past, with TFA
officials discouraging CM’s from posting or even
reading Gary’s blog:
http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2013/06/22/those-teachers-are-failures/
The conversation includes a story of how TFA students—
most of them from privileged backgrounds—drive around
the poor neighborhoods like those seen on “THE WIRE”,
and observe the people the same way that tourists on the
Disneyland Jungle Cruise would observe the animatronic
animals and robot natives on display.
One thing that Gary found offensive was that the TFA
instructor on this “jungle cruise” commented
while observing the poor kids:
“Everyone you see was once someone’s student.’…
And those teachers (who once taught them) are failures.”
Wow! This set people off, as evidenced by the
COMMENTS section, which I’m excerpting here.
Maggie Peterson said that the TFA teacher who
said this “espouses what is, in my opinion,
a common TFA trope, that a real, caring, belief that your
students CAN do better makes them actually DO better.
———————————
MAGGIE PETERSON:
“Even in TFA policy actions, standards are touted not as
a goal for student achievement, but as some magic tool
for attaining high student achievement. The idea that
students will achieve, or move out of the cycle of poverty
solely because of caring teachers and teachers who hold
students to high standards is also a belief that there is
little else to be learned about the doing of teaching.”
——————————–
Carol Corbett Burris blasts away
———————————
CAROL CORBETT BURRIS:
“I am appalled to learn that TFA would
roll through any community pointing
out human beings as though they were tour guides
pointing out sites. It is an insult to the community,
perpetuates ‘us and them’ thinking, and reveals a
practice more suited for a cult than a teacher
preparation program.”
“When my husband was a teacher in Brooklyn,
on a few occasions he had students who
came to class less than 20% of the time and who did
no schoolwork, say to him ‘You failed me, Mister.’
I guess they heard the conversation on the TFA tour.”
———————————
Karyn chimed in, adding that her “drive-arounds”
included a photographic “scavenger hunt”:
———————————
KARYN:
“Coming from a non-TFA background, and
having certification, as well as being significantly
older than other teachers at my school, I found
myself quietly contemplating (TFA’s) many strange and
silly practices which were considered professional
development.”
“We too, drove around the impoverished area of our
school and had a scavenger hunt to identify various
things and take pictures. I found this odd and
insulting to the ‘native’ inhabitants of the area,
who looked strangely on groups of more affluent
white people stopping to take photos and jumping
back in there cars.”
———————————
Mike Fiorello vents thusly,
———————————
MIKE FIORELLO:
“What TFA should be saying during
those drive-arounds – where, presumably, the
windows are rolled-up and the doors locked tight while
they observe neighborhood residents as if they were
specimens – is that ‘everyone you see is an elected
official’s constituent, a citizen and human being, and
has been failed. And those officials and the people
who bankroll them are failures.’
“But TFA can’t say that, because to do so would
call into question its agenda and funding. So
instead, we get misdirection and scapegoating of
teachers, followed by attempts to remove the
statement when they were called on it.”
“This is an organization whose arrogance,
condescension, class antagonism and dishonesty
are in its DNA.”
——————————–
However, all of this pales in comparison the post
from a TFA teacher-in-training by the name of
“Lida Mery”, and her description of the TFA
Institute and her reasons for quitting today
typing away as she stares at her packed suitcase.
One week shy of completion of the five-week
institute, she today left the program in disgust, and
posted her story (it’s the 14th comment down
on the comments list):
http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2013/06/22/those-teachers-are-failures/
Here’s the text:
(NOTE: the first sentence is a little confusing, as one
might think that Lida is “teaching”—
i.e. one of the teachers—at the TFA institute;
on the contrary Lida is indicating that he is a
student/trainee where part of the training is
includes “teaching” a summer school class of
actual students)
– – – – – – – – –
LIDA MERY:
“Mr. Rubinstein,
“I am currently a 2013 CM teaching summer
school at institute. I wanted to express how
much I appreciate your blog since you bring
critical insight into the workings of TFA that
are troublesome and/or need improvement.
“I am a non-traditional student (albeit only a few
years older than most CM’s). For a long time, I
had thought that teaching was that one elusive
career for me and I applied to TFA so I can make
that a reality. I did not apply under a pretense
like most CM’s who just want to embellish their
resume. I actually wanted to teach and make
a difference.
“In my hometown in FL, many teachers are being
laid off. This is where TFA comes in…many
teachers are being laid off, yet Miami Dade county
is hiring inexperienced college grads through their
TFA contract. It is wrong, I admit, but I went ahead
and subscribed to the unfair and unethical system.
“I was accepted into TFA and quit my job (my
permanent, full-benefits job that I was good at)
so as to attend induction and institute. In the
meantime, I spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars
on certification exam materials, review, supplies for
institute, professional dress, etc….over $1500.
“It seemed to me induction was a major time-waster.
Days ran from 8 AM to 8 PM and ALL discussions
dealt with race and class diversity. You had a bunch
of 22 year-old white, mid- to upper-class college grads
who were compelled to contemplate on their privileged
upbringing. I desperately wanted to start my teacher
training, but I was told to be patient.
“That is what institute is for after all. I paid my $500
ticket to institute and there I was.
“Yet, instead of actual teacher training, all we had
were grueling, exhausting, boot camp days where
the focus was on making us feel and act like fifth
graders. More race and class discussions followed
during the first week, followed by think pair share
partner discussions, silly games and then more
silly games.
“It was worse than a typical college atmosphere…
for non-traditional students it seemed unbearable.
“Nobody… none of the 22 year-olds EVER questioned
anything. Not because they were afraid of repercussions,
but because TFA is a cult and they were acting like
cult members. If anyone said ‘jump,’ they would promptly
follow. Not a day went by when we did not have big circle
hugs, chants, and motivational bits aimed at brainwashing
us even more than we were.
“Every day TFA used strategic behavioral techniques in
order to advance their brainwashing of CM’s. School
would end at 1 PM, but redundant lessons would run
until 5 PM, and before we could go back to the dorms,
the school director would extend our schedule by 20
minutes, during which time we would sit by the door
while little ‘Hot Wheels’ cars would be given to
‘outstanding’ CM’s.
“Then 10 more minutes of shout-outs aimed at
motivating us to get through institute.
“The sheer exhaustion was not really necessary. The
endless, redundant sessions on race and class did
not make us better teachers… I wanted to be lectured
on teaching, I wanted actual experience in teaching, rather
than little intimidating signs held up by our faculty advisor
or corps member advisor on how to ‘behavior narrate.’
“Yet all that was provided was game after game after
silly game.
“Our day would begin in our advisor’s room where we
would play little games, silly writes, draw pictures… etc. …
honestly I wanted to learn how to teach, I wanted to
prepare for my upcoming lesson, yet there I was having
to draw a silly picture so that TFA could teach us how
important it was for us to make teaching fun.
“They wanted us to start off the day for our students with
the same irrelevant fun stuff. Whereas I wanted to start
off the day by asking a critical question or journal entry
about the last lesson’s theme, I was strongly advised to
have fun kinesthetic activities for my students…that had
nothing to do with the concepts we were learning.
“But, yet again, no one questioned ANYTHING, not the
time-wasters, the schedule, the fact that we only had
4 hours of sleep max on many days even though we
were not really learning how to teach properly. I can
see why the brainwashing was effective.
“In essence, TFA stripped CM’s of choice, time, and
decision-making processes during institute so CM’s
became engrossed in the cult….the main line of
thinking was: ‘Well, if I can get through this, I can get
through my sole two years as a teacher.’
“TFA loves to talk about differentiated instruction,
they love to suggest kinesthetic and visual activities
for our students, yet when it comes to them practicing
differentiated instruction, they are lacking. The two
non-traditional members in my school group were
the only ones feeling hopelessly misunderstood during
sessions. We would question things, we would roll our
eyes at big circle hugs and chants and we would resent
the fifth race and class discussion at 4 PM in the
afternoon or the miniature car shout out at the end
of the day that would prolong our day by a considerable
amount.
“The typical CM’s thought we were crazy. Why would
we question things? Why would we not participate in
the 30 minute teacher stare contest at 5 PM on a
Friday (even though we had more important things
to do like grading, reading and planning)?
“Most of our corps member advisors were clones.
They were racially diverse but nevertheless they were
clones in their demeanor, personality, approach,
philosophy. We were supposed to be clones of each
other. About 90% of my fellow CM’s, though there
was some racial diversity, were in fact individuals
with privileged backgrounds.
“I only met a handful of education majors that wanted
to stay in teaching for the long run. Most saw TFA
as an adventure.
“Their first job out of college and an exciting one at
that! I am quitting TFA and the reason is not because
I am exhausted, not because I do not think I can be a
good teacher. My summer school students respect me
and actually listen to me (which can be a hard feat in a
Title I school). My lessons are engaging and focused.
“The reason why I am quitting TFA is because I cannot
and will not be part of a cult. I feel like I am treated
as a fifth grader and no importance is given to my
individuality, my suggestions, or needs. Even though
I executed my lessons much better than my fellow CM’s,
“I am quitting because TFA has made teaching horrible
in my eyes. They have denigrated the one profession
that I thought would be my long-lasting career.
“Even though I know I can be a good teacher, TFA has
left a sour taste in my mouth through its propaganda
and cult-like atmosphere. TFA has ruined teaching for
me. I don’t know how to get ‘it’ back. I am
disillusioned.
“While I used to love to give presentations at my prior
job, I have now come to loathe even speaking in front
of a group because TFA has made everything so
mechanical and lackluster. I no longer have any
passion for teaching. I do not enjoy it any longer.
“I feel that TFA, through its brainwashing methods, has
stripped me of my passion for teaching and my dreams.”
“I am certain that this would not have happened had I
gone through a serious, traditional teaching program.
“As I am writing this, I am looking at my one
suitcase neatly arranged and sitting my dorm
room floor. Early in the morning, I will be flying
back home. Yet, because of all the stigma
associated with quitting, I barely had any guts
to tell anyone, not even my closest friends here.
“Ethically, I also cannot bear to know that
traditionally-trained, veteran teachers are out of
jobs in my hometown and people like myself
(with no training or experience in education)
are next in line for their jobs.
“I have lost over $2,000 so far….I spent so much
on supplies, printer as I arrived at institute, I lost
my job, my dreams and my passion.
“All in 4 weeks of TFA-ness.
“Lida Mery”
Diane attempted to have a substantive discussion with Wendy Kopp.; Ms. Lopp was only spoke in generalities, while Diane had ‘hard’ answers. What the TFA kids are saying about the deficiencies in their training and their post TFA job expectations gives the lie to Kopp’s pretty words. Kopp’s approach to discussion is to rely on charisma and ‘pat’ phrases. Does anyone hold Kopp to answering specifically about TFA? Kopp is no better than Michelle Rhee Johnsron, who runs like hell from any ‘debate’ with Diane. The reformers, from their billionaire backer to program executives, to Duncan and Gates, themselves are incapable of ‘head–to-head’ discussions with anyone who opposes their pedagogy. They can run, but they can’t hide. Bit by bit, their empire is imploding, as parents and teachers force the key issues and charter schools continue to close.
In answering your question, how does Wendy Kopp under hard questions? …
… try David Cohen’s recounting of his attempt to challenge Ms. Kopp during a radio show Q & A:
http://accomplishedcaliforniateachers.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/tfa-founder-kopp-dodges-questions-with-read-my-book/
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DAVID COHEN:
“I put in a call myself, and was on the air in the final eight or nine minutes of the program if you care to listen to the audio online.
“Paraphrasing myself from memory here, I tried to make the point that TFA corps members are generally sent to low-performing schools that suffer from a lack of stability. There, more experienced teachers devote a great amount of time and effort to help train and support their new, TFA colleagues, even though TFA is not really dedicated to the idea that their corps members should remain in teaching as a long-term career. (I’m not arguing that they’re against that idea, but their vision is about seeing their alumni distributed throughout the education and political system).
“I expressed my concern that the TFA model does not concern itself in promoting stability in the schools that need it most. I passed along what I have read and heard about TFA teachers being under intense pressure to generate great results, to the point that they make a fetish of “achievement” data.
“To me, it looks like a recipe to produce a younger, cheaper, and more compliant teaching force, while logic, models from other professions, and any international schools comparison would suggest that we need to cultivate a stable, experienced, professional cadre of career teachers.
“Wendy Kopp’s reply came in two parts:
“One: ‘Read my book.’
“Two: it’s unfortunate that the education reform debate has resulted in people resisting innovation.
“If either of those parts of her reply really answers my questions about TFA, I fail to see it. Her book may or may not answer my question, but she had the microphone and the time to make the case to me and the listeners (how many of whom do you think have read the book?). Instead, she ducked the question.
“The suggestion that my comment was about resisting innovation was just a nicer version of ‘if you disagree with us then you support the status quo.’ ”
And for utter hilarity and an incisive look at how vacuous Ms. Kopp really is, you can’t find better than the “DAILY HOWLER’s”
analysis of Wendy Kopp’s non-answers during an appearance on The Charlie Rose Show on PBS:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071508.html
This piece is about halfway down the page.
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
(Sorry if this excerpt is long… but the entire piece is a classic… from mid-2008… I can’t believe this piece is not more well-known.
George Bernard Shaw said of the exiled dissident Leon Trotsky’s ferocious essays attacking Soviet Premier Josef Stalin? (this is from memory)
G.B. Shaw: “Trotsky doesn’t merely use his pen to cut off the head of Comrade Stalin; he could not resist the opportunity to pick it up, turn it sideways, and show, to one and all, that it had no brains inside.”
Keep that in mind as you read this… NOTE: it also includes one of the earliest attempts to debunk Michelle Rhee… brief though it is, it’s one of the first time someone went after Rhee “on record.”)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
– – – – – – – – –
“DAILY HOWLER: TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2008
“PART 4—WORST ANSWERS EVER (from Wendy Kopp):
DAILY HOWLER: “… But Kopp still hadn’t said what was wrong with our current schools—and she hadn’t named specific ways in which we can ‘solve the problem.’ To his credit, Rose already seemed a tiny bit antsy. That’s when he asked his obvious question in its most perfect form:
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ROSE (continuing directly): “OK. You’ve given a lot of thought to this. We talk about it a lot, this program and other programs. Here’s what I want to know: What do we need to do to make better schools?”
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DAILY HOWLER: “That was the world’s most obvious question—and Kopp was supposed to be a world leader when it comes to the plight of the schools. What do we need to do to make better schools? Try though he might, Rose wouldn’t be able to get his guest to answer that question this night.
“He asked the question again and again; he never came close to getting real answers. For example, here’s the way Kopp meandered about in response to that most perfect form of this question. See if you can find an answer to Rose’s question in this mind-minded statement:
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KOPP (continuing directly): “Yes. You know, let me come at that by sharing the two things that I— You know, when I talk to the dozens and dozens, the hundreds of Teach for America alumni who have worked for two years or more themselves in this context, and many of whom who have obtained incredible success with kids and you say,
“What have you learned? What is the essence of what they learned?
And I think I would say two things.
“First of all, they come out of this equally believing that we can solve the problem, that it is absolutely possible for kids who face all of the extra challenges that they face in low-income communities to excel on an absolute scale. I think their deep belief in that is actually part of the ultimate solution.
“If we had a country that believed that it was possible for kids in low-income communities, predominantly kids of color, to excel academically, I think we’d be making different choices.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Inspiring! But what sorts of ‘different choices’ would we make if we believed low-income kids could excel? At this point, Rose took Kopp briefly off-track, lobbing her this softball:
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ROSE (continuing directly): “There is the hope right there, that these Teach for America young men and women see things that say it’s not hopeless. What is it that they see that makes them believe?”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Uh-oh! At this point, Kopp went off on her ramble about the young teacher in the Bronx who had (allegedly) produced four or five years growth in her fourth-grade students in just two years time. (That’s in reading and math.) This was very pleasing stuff. But Rose, recovering, now asked Kopp to tell him how this teacher had done this. Once again, becoming a tiny bit peeved, he asked a form of his obvious question:
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ROSE: “I continue my inquiry then. Is it because—something about the teaching? Something about the teachers?”
KOPP: “OK, so here’s the other piece of it. We know it’s possible, but what does it take?”
ROSE: “Right!”
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DAILY HOWLER: “That’s right, Wendy! What the fark does it take? Rose had been asking for some time now. And now, at long last, in this response, Kopp began to make it clear that she wouldn’t really offer an answer:
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KOPP (continuing directly): “The thing about our alums is that they come out of this rejecting silver-bullet theories. As a country, we’re still looking for the silver bullets, like maybe we could give every kid a computer or just change the curriculum.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Trust us—Kopp rejects ‘silver-bullet theories.’ She also rejects ‘easy answers’—and she says there are no ‘magic solutions.’ As a matter of fact, she made this point any number of times in the course of Rose’s unfortunate program.
“But Rose still wanted his question answered:
” ‘What can we do to produce better schools?’
“And as Kopp replied to his next attempt, we began to see how thoroughly empty her understanding actually is. With apologies, we’ll post her full response. By now, though, it was perfectly clear. Kopp wasn’t going to answer:
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ROSE (continuing directly): “We do so many things well. Why can’t we do education as good as it ought to be?”
KOPP: “But we’re looking for an easy answer. What they come out of this just deeply knowing at their very cores is that there is no easy answer. There’s nothing elusive about it either. That’s the good news. There’s no magic to this. It’s about just doing everything well. And so they see it as a teacher— You know, when we look at what our most successful teachers are doing, they’re operating like the most successful leaders in any context. You know, they are like [that young teacher in the Bronx].”
“She stepped back from what seemed like a hopeless situation, maybe, and said, OK, by the end of this year my kids are going to—you know, they’re going to make two years of progress in a year`s time. She set a vision of where her kids were going to be at the end of this that was inspiring. She invested the kids in working harder than they had ever worked before to meet that goal. Then she was so purposeful. If you go into her classroom, you saw someone on a mission to move her kids forward, not going through the motions of a lesson plan.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “There is no magic to this, Kopp insisted, just in case Rose wanted easy answers. But by now, we were looking for ANY answer at all—and Kopp didn’t seem to have one. How had that teacher produced so much (alleged) success?
“People, she’d had ‘a vision!’ And not only that—her vision ‘was inspiring!’ She simply told her students they were going to make two years growth! Then, she got them to work very hard. Beyond that, she was purposeful—on a mission to move her kids forward! She didn’t just go through the motions!
” ‘There is no magic to this,’ Kopp said. ‘It’s about doing everything well!’
“Can we talk? At this point, Kopp’s inspirational non-answer answers began resembling the work of a dissolute college sophomore who forgot to study for the exam.
“Poor Charlie! He still wanted to know what that (allegedly) successful Bronx teacher had actually done in her actual classroom.
“Implicit in this was an obvious question: Did that teacher do various things that other teachers can copy? Can her (alleged) miracle practices by replicated elsewhere? But alas! Poor Charlie! Doomed not to learn!
“What follows is pure “Music Man” blather. It’s “Up With People”—“you gotta believe!” It’s pure, unfettered bull-roar. I want to know “What did she do?”
“Charlie asked.
“With apologies, here’s the full ‘answer:’
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ROSE (continuing directly): “You’re describing—I have no quarrel with what you’re saying. You’re describing the results—how one person achieved results. I really want to know, what did she do? She cared. That’s a start. She was passionate.
KOPP: “I guess what I’m trying to describe is there is no magic. It’s not like she found a magic curriculum. She operated—what she did was— You know, we’ve come to deeply believe that excellent teaching is leadership. She came in. She set an ambitious vision. She said, You know what, guys? We’re going to make two years of progress in one year`s time.”
ROSE: “Goal setting is one thing.”
KOPP: “She then developed personal relationships with the kids. She got them tracking their own progress. She got them invested in that goal, so that they were working with her. They were on a mission themselves to make that kind of academic progress. Then she was just completely purposeful. You know, thinking constantly, Where are my kids now versus where they need to be? She was completely goal-oriented in her instruction and then completely relentless. Whatever it took.
“She was doing so much to go above and beyond, to meet whatever the obstacles—overcome whatever obstacles were in her way. I guess at the teacher level—I mean, when I reflect on our history—this is maybe the better way to come at this. When I think about that first corps back in 1990, 500 committed idealistic people who went out across the country and started teaching with the same kind of commitment and idealism as the people we’re bringing in today, those folks, to make a generalization, but hit a wall and I think most of them would say that survival became the mantra of that corps.
“What happened then was a small fraction of them rose above that and realized, We can change this context, and they realized what [this teacher in the Bronx] now was doing. I mean, they realized—they figured out how to rise above mediocrity and figured out how to get their kids really on a mission to effect, you know—move them forward much more than would typically be expected in a year’s time.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “I STILL want to know, what did she do?
“Rose had said. ‘There is no magic,’ Kopp replied. ‘It’s not like she found a magic curriculum.’ And then, she invented a long, winding answer—a reply she almost surely made up.
“Does Wendy Kopp have the slightest idea what went on in that Bronx teacher’s classroom? At the start of this interview, Kopp had described the young teacher in question as ‘a woman whom I just talked with…Actually, she told me the story of her first couple of weeks as a teacher, as a fourth grade teacher.’
“But now, Kopp told a story which made it sound like she had observed this teacher quite closely. On and on she went with her portrait—a portrait of a classroom she had quite likely never observed.
“Does Kopp really know what went on in that class? Indeed, does she know if those miracle gains really happened? Or is this story pure stock—propaganda? Was Kopp just bull-sh*tting again?
“Luckily, Kopp changed the subject at this point—and Rose was allowed to stop asking his obvious question. So what was the answer to Rose’s question—perhaps the most obvious question on earth?
“How had Wendy Kopp’s TFA teachers managed to get such (alleged) great results with their low-income kids? How had they made struggling, low-income schools better?
“It was simple! According to Kopp, ‘They figured out how to rise above mediocrity and figured out how to get their kids really on a mission to effect, you know—move them forward much more than would typically be expected in a year’s time.’
“But what exactly did they ‘figure out,’ some part of Rose still wanted to ask. But by now, he knew he had to stop. Simply put, Kopp couldn’t tell him.
“In our view, it would hard to overstate the emptiness of those rambling answers by Kopp—answers a disingenuous college sophomore could have dreamed up, given three hours’ notice.
“What’s the secret of TFA’s (alleged) success—the success that doesn’t show up in the studies?
“Simple! You tell the kids they’re going to succeed, then you make them work very hard. You form a vision, and after that, you just do everything well!
“Whatever it takes!
“In fact, people who care about low-income children should be disgusted with answers like these—answers from a Tinkerbell who has never set foot in the classroom herself, except on brief fund-raising jaunts. Just for the record, intelligent people come up with ideas when they spend time in our low-income schools.”
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JACK:
After quoting Jason Kamras’ better answer to these questions, DAILY HOWLER returns to Wendy Kopp. He then commences with one of the earliest recorded attempts to debunk the Michelle Rhee myth. I’m an ed policy junkie, and this is mid-2008. Very few folks outside of Washington, D.C. were critical of what turned into the whole Michelle Rhee phenomenon.
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DAILY HOWLER: “Kopp had virtually nothing to say to Rose’s basic, obvious questions. ‘It’s all about doing everything well?’ Sorry: That’s just not an answer. A college kid with three hours’ notice could come up with blather like that.
“And don’t worry! The horror of the worst interview ever continued long after the point we have reached—long after it became quite clear that Kopp had nothing to offer.
“Soon, this ‘most influential person’ was peddling the pleasing tale about the miracle gains Michelle Rhee (allegedly) produced (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/13/08)—claims Rhee simply couldn’t support when push came to shove last year.
“And Kopp kept peddling her murky line about the need for great leadership. But then, there seems to be nothing Kopp won’t say in support of her world-saving system. Soon, this slightly cult-like figure was even offering this:
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KOPP: “We believe that our only hope for addressing a problem that is this massive and this systemic in nature is to channel the energy of our country`s future leadership against it.
“And that is the mission of Teach for America.”
ROSE: “Not just having them buy into the idea, but having them inside the classroom.”
KOPP: “Well, we believe—so the big idea of Teach for America is to say,
” ‘OK, we`re going to go out and recruit not just a few but many of our future leaders, and get them to commit just two years, initially, to teach in our highest poverty communities, knowing that there’s an incredibly important immediate impact of that, and some incredibly important long-term impacts.
” ‘In the immediate term, we know that the kids growing up today—the only hope for kids, you know, who are in today’s school system is to meet enough teachers who are willing to go so far above and beyond traditional expectations to meet their extra needs and put them on a level playing field, teachers like [that young teacher in the Bronx]. We need every one of them, even if they`re just committing two years.’ ”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Sounds great! Except, as the studies make perfectly clear, the vast bulk of TFA teachers do not produce ‘an incredibly important immediate impact’ among those they teach. In terms of measured classroom achievement, they haven’t gone ‘so far above and beyond traditional expectations to…put [low-income students] on a level playing field’—as Kopp said, without any proof, that young Bronx teacher had done.
“Unfortunately, the studies make it perfectly clear that Kopp’s tales come straight out of Peter Pan. It’s the type of palaver that works in settings like this, as described by Jodi Wilgoren in the New York Times, eight years ago:
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“WILGOREN (11/12/00): Though she has never had a classroom of her own, Ms. Kopp does visit her teachers frequently, sometimes just to watch, more often with potential donors in tow, eager to impress. On a sunny morning last spring, she took two money men to the South Bronx, touring KIPP Academy, the program’s best-known success story, and Intermediate School 145, where 16 of the 111 teachers last year were Teach for America members or alumni.
[…]
“Standing in the back of classrooms for, maybe, six minutes each, it is impossible to assess the teachers’ success. One young woman has her students listening to an audiotape of a story, preparing for a test. Another is conducting an Oprah-style interview, pretending the youngsters are characters in the book they have read. A third shows how sound waves from a radio make grains of salt dance.
[…]
“Heading back downtown, as the barbed-wire fences of Harlem whiz past the livery-cab window, Ms. Kopp makes the hard sell to one of the wealthy donors.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “In settings like that, pleasing bull-roar works nicely. It shouldn’t work on Charlie Rose.
“Let us offer a few basic clues about perhaps the worst interview ever:
“Kopp told pleasing tales of miracle cures. Rose accepted these tales on faith.
“The studies suggest that these tales are bunk. Rose didn’t mention the studies.
“When Rose kept asking the world’s simplest question, Kopp showed no sign of being able to answer.
“Kopp kept suggesting that ‘TFA changes the world.’ The studies show plainly: It doesn’t.
“In some ways, this awful interview was the real miracle. Has anyone ever spent nineteen years at any task and emerged with so little insight? Jason Kamras has been in our schools—and it shows. By contrast, Kopp has been riding around in limos, hitting corporate types for money while telling uplifting, fake tales.
“It’s a shame that Rose played along with Kopp during this session, perhaps the worst interview ever broadcast. Unless you don’t care about low-income children, that is; unless you only care about the funks that sometimes afflict fine young ladies like Kopp.
“Luckily, Kopp now makes a very nice income, and she’s feted by the know-nothing upper-end world—the people who let her tell her fine stories. Tomorrow, we’ll offer a few final thoughts—about Kopp and about those three lists.”
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JACK: It’s interesting to note that after this total debacle on CHARLIE ROSE, Ms. Kopp has not allowed herself—or her backers have not allowed her—to be on many forums where she had to think on her feet and answer hard questions.
Props to Jack for his stupendous piece of work, It is painful to read Jack’s posting. Cohen made a valiant, futile attempt to evoke a meaningful response. Charlie Rose and his ‘hard-hitting’ interview was a friggin’ disgrace.
Kopp has an empty koph. Yet, she keeps telling the same empty tales – her narrative – and not only gets away with it, but brings in truck loads of money. We can howl in disbelief, bang our heads against the wall in frustration; it seems to make no difference.
Mohammed Ali once said of an opponent (my memory deserts me re which fighter): “You can run but you can’t hide”. Eventually she will be stalked and caught, unable to get off the ropes. I await that day with a smile on my face,
Here’s more (an earlier installment from the one posted above) from DAILY HOWLER about Wendy Kopp at:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071008.shtml
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DAILY HOWLER: ” (Rose asked Kopp) “What do we need to do to make better schools?” The question was sensible—obvious, even. In Part 4 (POSTED AB0VE, Jack) of this series, we’ll look at the remarkable answers Kopp gave to this obvious question—to a question Rose had to ask again and again and again.
“For today, we’ll only say this: You’d certainly think a person like Kopp would have a lot to say to that question. But Kopp seemed to have very little to say—so little that this session struck us as perhaps the worst interview ever. Kopp seemed to have virtually nothing to say about the topic on which she’s considered an expert. And as she fumbled, flailed and killed time, her interviewer failed to challenge her in the most obvious ways.
“What do the studies say about the success of Teach for America?
“Like most people who interview Kopp, Rose seemed to know that he mustn’t ask. But then, Kopp has long been a darling of upscale elites—and under our broken-souled modern regimes, such darlings get this sort of treatment.
“For ourselves, our fascination with this interview began about half-way in. We turned on the TV—and there was Kopp! Within moments, she was explaining what her program’s alumni have learned about low-income schools. Why do our low-income schools struggle so? The public thinks one thing, Kopp explained. Her program’s alumni think another.
“What is wrong with our low-income schools?
“Kopp described a Gallup poll which asked the two groups to answer that question. Shown a list of twenty answers, respondents were asked to pick three:
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KOPP (7/1/08): “There’s a Gallup Poll, actually, that asks the public why we have low educational outcomes in low-income communities and gives the public 20 options. And the top three answers the public gives are number one, lack of student motivation; number two, lack of parental involvement; and number three, home-life issues.
“So we ask our teachers at the end of their two years the same exact question with the same 20 options. Their answers could not be more different: teacher quality; principal quality; and expectations for kids—academic expectations for kids. So, you know, it’s fascinating, right? Because our people, after two years of working with the kids and the families, come out of this knowing it’s not lack of student motivation. It’s not lack of parental involvement. It’s actually us. We can solve this problem. I think that’s the fundamental difference.
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DAILY HOWLER: “Why do our low-income schools struggle so? The public picked three reasons off Gallup’s list—and TFA alumni picked three others. But as we watched, we were struck by a single word in Kopp’s statement. The word we were struck by was this word: Knowing. TFA alumni ‘come out of this KNOWING’ what’s causing the problem, Kopp told Rose.
“Fascinating! After spending two years in low-income schools, Kopp’s teachers ‘KNOW’ what the problem is. They know it isn’t lack of student motivation. They ‘know’ it isn’t parental involvement—or, presumably, ‘home-life issues.’ Kopp didn’t say they ‘believe’ these things; she stressed the fact that they ‘come out KNOWING.’
“What do our low-income schools struggle so? Because the question is so important, let’s scan those two lists again:
“What the public thinks is the problem:
— 1) Lack of student motivation
— 2) Lack of parental involvement
— 3) “Home-life issues”
“What TFA alumni think is the problem:
— 1) Teacher quality
— 2) Principal quality
— 3) Academic expectations for kids
“The public thinks one thing; the alums think another. But according to the confident Kopp, the alumni “know” they’re right.
“We were very struck by that statement. We ourselves spent more than a decade in low-income schools; our answer to that important question would be different from both those groups. (If we had to make a choice, we’d tilt toward the public’s list, much more strongly.)
“Why do our low-income schools suffer so?
“We wouldn’t say we know the answer. But if we had to list three reasons, we would go with these:
“What we think is the problem:
— 1) Low-income kids are way “behind” on the day they first enter school. (See THE DAILY HOWLER, 11/29/06.)
— 2) At those schools, instructional programs and materials are designed for a different population. (See THE DAILY HOWLER, 9/1/05.)
— 3) For forty years, the Roses, the Kopps and the Time magazines have churned an unhelpful discussion.
“Our basic idea of what is wrong would differ from both those groups. But we were so struck by Kopp’s confident tone that we went back and watched the whole program—and we’re not sure we’ve ever seen an interview quite that awful. Rose rolled over and died throughout, refusing to challenge Kopp’s claims and statistics—and ignoring the studies which suggest that her program hasn’t been the huge big deal described in that fawning Time profile.
“Kopp, meanwhile, was stunningly bad. After nineteen years as an education guru, you’d think she’d have something to say to Rose’s question. Once again, here it is, the most obvious question on earth:
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ROSE: “Here’s what I want to know: What do we need to do to make better schools?”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Rose asked that question again and again. Kopp seemed expert at one thing—she seemed expert at refusing to answer.
“We’re not sure we’ve ever seen an interview as bad as this. How broken are our intellectual elites? Rose rolled over—refused to perform. Kopp seemed like a Music Man.”
This just in from Curmudgucation:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/10/google-hearts-tfa-in-worst-way.html
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“A company spokesperson tells BI writer Aaron Taube that the tech giant (Google) loves people from TFA because the program ‘requires new graduates to think on their feet and achieve success in a challenging new environment…’ Google in fact has a partnership with TFA that allows Googlers to defer a job offer until they’ve served their two years with TFA.
“How liberating it must be to walk into that classroom knowing that your real job is already waiting for you.”
More from Curmudgucation:
at:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/10/google-hearts-tfa-in-worst-way.html
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“McWilliams says that all of this (TFA teaching) experience will help him with managing people, although he is not in charge of anyone yet, and I am wondering why the heck not?? He was a 2012 grad, which means he finished his two years about four months ago, or at least triple the time he needed to become an awesometastic teacher-ish guy. If it takes five weeks to make a teacher, surely Google can turn him into a Leader of Men in four months!
” ‘At Teach for America, you’re not only learning how to teach someone else, you’re also learning what factors help someone learn the best,’ McWilliams says.
CURMUDGUCATION:
“Oh, for the love of God!! You know what else you might just accidentally do occasionally at Teach for America– you might take your head out of your own rectal cavity and TEACH SOME CHILDREN!!
“Or did you think that all those children in your classroom were just gathered together so that you could have an educational experience to better prepare you for your real career.
“Do you think those children got up every morning and thought, ‘Boy, I just hope that today I can help Mr. McWilliams become the best Googler in the whole world! I just want him to be really succesful!’
“Is that what you think was going on??”
One more tidbit from Curmudgucation:
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“Sigh. It is McWilliams who has the last word in the article.
” ‘I think the Teach for America experience is really applicable in any place that requires you to be smart and creative,’ he says.
“Because, yes, that’s what TFA is apparently supposed to do– provide college grads with an experience that they can apply to their real jobs later. Those children are just your own personal ladder to success.
“I often discuss TFA as if it is dismissive of teaching as a profession, that it belittles the whole idea of teaching. But this is actually worse, because teaching isn’t even on the radar in this article. It’s just one more life experience for a college grad who’s just passing through, unable to see the children for all the visions of Googlebucks.
“Sorry, Onion. Real life has passed you up. “
Rich postings, Jack! The Rose interview amazes me because I’ve never seen a journalist ask the right questions about education over and over. What do our schools need? Kopp can’t say. She does say TFA is breeding leaders. Unwise leaders –because, almost by definition, twentysomethings with minimal experience cannot be wise. So the case is pretty clear: Kopp doesn’t know how to teach or fix schools yet she somehow knows how to make good education leaders. In fact she’s foisting on our schools jejune leaders whose heads are filled with misconceptions. She is a menace.
Ponderosa, Kopp never taught. She is an entrepreneur.
Here’s DAILY HOWLER’s debunking of Michelle Rhee from July 2008 (ahead of the curve on this), that is contained within his critique of Charlie Rose’s interview with Wendy Kopp.
NOTE: This was back during the days when Rhee had just been busted on her claim that she had moved her inner-city Baltimore students from the 13th percentile to the 90th percentile in just two years. That’s the educational equivalent of the moon landing, or splitting the atom. When I tell veteran teachers this anecdote—some with little or no knowledge of Rhee—they burst out laughing, “She actually claimed that?”
Rhee was so arrogant and ignorant that she had no idea how ridiculous this lie was. However, it was this lie that played a big part in Rhee being appointed Chancellor of Washington, D.C. Schools (they had to create that title “Chancellor” for Rhee, since, because she lacked degree in administration, she could not technically be referred to as “Superintendent Rhee.”) Since she achieved this 13th-to-90th-percentile miracle herself (she didn’t), she was being hired to replicate it system-wide in D.C.
Replicate WHAT exactly? What did Rhee do to achieve this? We still don’t know… BECAUSE IT NEVER FREAKIN’ HAPPENED!
DAILY HOWLER references this in the segment at:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071108.shtml
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DAILY HOWLER: “Charlie Rose was pleased as punch to have Wendy Kopp at his table. Soon, he’d be struggling with his guest, unsuccessfully trying to get her to answer the world’s most obvious question (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/10/08). But for now, his britches were bursting with pride. He was about to conduct a session of roughly forty minutes—an interview which may have been the worst ever seen on the planet (to watch the interview, click here).
“But first, this introduction:
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ROSE (7/1/08): “We continue this evening our series on education in America. Joining me now is Wendy Kopp. She based her senior thesis at Princeton on the idea of a national corps of teachers. Modeled on the Peace Corps, it would recruit the nation’s brightest young people to teach in the neediest schools. Nearly 20 years later, Teach for America has become a household name. It is one of the nation`s leading employers of recent college graduates. In April [actually May], Time magazine named her one of the world`s most influential people. I am pleased to have her here at this table.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “ ‘Kopp’s idea is working,’ Time had said in its profile—’and as a result, more kids are learning.’ To help us think this claim is true, despite the studies which suggest that it isn’t, Kopp soon did a typical thing. Fairly quickly, she turned to the anecdotes.
“Is Kopp’s idea really ‘working?’ Is it true that ‘more kids are learning?’
“You’d think we’d want a real answer to that—if we care about low-income children. But anecdotes are wonderfully pleasing—and, as propaganda, they’re powerful. For forty years, our nation’s elites have offered tales about vast progress in low-income schools. And so, as Rose pursued the world’s most obvious question (‘What do we need to do to make better schools?’), Kopp began offering some standard old chestnuts. You’ve heard these tales a million times. Most often, they aren’t really true. Nor are they especially relevant.
“What makes TFA’s young teachers think they can succeed in low-income schools? When Rose asked that perfectly sensible question, Kopp began telling a story:
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KOPP (7/1/08): “I think about a woman whom I just talked with named [name withheld], who is just finishing her second year as a Teach for America corps member here in the Bronx. She taught fourth graders. And she actually—actually, she told me the story of her first couple of weeks as a teacher, as a fourth grade teacher, starting to read individually with her kids so that she could get a sense of where they were. She talked about the shock of reading with the first kid and realizing that this fourth grader was reading on a first grade level.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “A common, dismaying experience. But don’t worry! Despite the studies which seem to suggest that Teach for America is working few miracles, Kopp—like Music Men world-wide—now told an inspiring tale:
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KOPP (continuing directly): “And she said, ‘I should have known.’ You can`t get into Teach for America without knowing all the statistics, because that’s what we’re out there on college campuses sharing. Still, when you see real kids, who clearly have so much potential—once you meet them, you just know—who are so far behind—she just resolved at that moment. She tells the story of reading with all of her kids and realizing they’re so far behind, just collectively so far behind. And she tells the story of resolving that she had to change this.
“She actually taught the same kids for two years. In those two years, her kids collectively made four years of progress on average in reading and math. She saw through her own personal experience—you know, her kids are now on grade level. They’re where they should be. She also did a lot to get them into very good middle schools so that they can continue on a different academic trajectory. But it’s seeing evidence that this is possible, like real hard-core evidence from working with kids, that leads to the conviction.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “It’s seeing those kinds of results, that hard-core evidence—that’s what convinces her teachers, Kopp said. For people who care about what’s true, this interview had hit its first hurdle.
“You see, people have always had stories like this one, over the course of the past forty years—starting in the 1960s, when mainstream society finally decided it wanted low-income urban kids to succeed in the classroom. Right from the start, there were always tales of gigantic success in the classroom—and quite a few of those pleasing tales turned out to be fake, bogus, phony.
“Despite that history, it’s very easy to go on TV and repeat ‘the story’ that someone just told you—someone you ‘just talked with’—especially if you’re dealing with an upper-class Manhattan journalist who isn’t going to challenge a thing you tell him the whole bloomin’ night.
“Did a young teacher in the Bronx really produce that educational miracle?
“Did it really happen the way Kopp described?
“According to Kopp, a roomful of kids had come into fourth grade reading on the first-grade level. (By the way: By conventional parlance, that put them three years behind, not two.) But presto! Two years later, they went to middle school reading on grade level—having made four years progress in just two years’ time! (By conventional parlance, they would have to have made five years progress. By conventional parlance, a child should be reading on sixth grade level at the start of sixth grade.)
“Minor quibbles to the side, Kopp was repeating an inspiring story—an inspiring story someone had told her. It’s easy to do this—but was it true? Did that progress really occur? We don’t have the slightest idea. Based on the way Kopp described her contact with this teacher, we’d guess that she doesn’t know either.
“In fairness, there was no way that Rose could determine if this uplifting tale was true—though he should have mentioned the studies which suggest that, if the story is true, it is not the norm in the TFA program. But soon, Kopp was telling another fine tale.
“And this time, Rose should have said: Stop!
“You see, this second tale, which served well for years, had recently hit some embarrassments. It involves Michelle Rhee, a close associate of Kopp, the new chancellor of DC’s public schools. For years, Rhee had told an uplifting tale of her own heroics, as she moved up the non-profit ladder. And omigod!
“Speaking with Rose last week, Kopp offered Rhee’s story again:
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KOPP: “Take the Michelle Rhee, the chancellor in New York—sorry, in Washington D.C. She would be the first to say, and she’s said many times, that the reason she’s—she operates so relentlessly and with such urgency is because of her teaching experience in Baltimore, where she took a class of kids who were at the 13th percentile against the national norm—she taught the same kids for two years. They were at the 90th percentile at the end of those two years.
“She knows from her own personal experience —and no one could ever shake her conviction, because she knows from working with kids and families that we don’t have these problems because the kids can’t do the work or because the families don’t care, all the reasons that most people in America think we have the problem. But clearly because we as adults haven’t given them the opportunities they deserve.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “We’re sorry, but careful people should doubt that tale. As you may recall, Rhee had told this story for a decade, with all its very detailed data, using it to build her mystique until, last year, she stood in line to be the DC chancellor. And omigod! A total shock!
“Asked to back up her inspiring claims, she couldn’t produce the data! Needless to say, the data exist from her three years of teaching—but the Baltimore City Schools, for murky reasons, somehow just couldn’t produce them! Anyone with any sense would know what this awkward mess probably meant—but last week, Kopp was still reciting Rhee’s story, right down to that granular detail.
” ‘She took a class of kids who were at the 13th percentile,’ Kopp enthused, seeming to give us precise bits of data. Such detail suggests that a story is true—that the data have been carefully studied.
“Sorry—that’s not the case here at all. But Kopp rattled on all the same.
“Last year, Rhee couldn’t back up her claims—and she began to roll back her story in ways which frankly, didn’t make too much sense. Ideally, Rose would have known about that—and he should have asked Kopp about it. After all, very few viewers would have supposed that Kopp was still telling a broken-down tale—a story that melted just one year ago. A story that detailed just sounds like it’s true. But Rhee’s story may be pure propaganda.
“Meanwhile: Did that teacher in the Bronx produce four/five years growth in two years time? Produce that kind of remarkable growth for a whole classroom of children? In reading and math?
“We don’t have the slightest idea, though we’re slow to believe such tales. But here’s what Rose should have done when Kopp began telling these stories:
“First: He should have asked her, directly and firmly, if she can actually back up these claims. For starters, has she seen the data from this young teacher’s classroom?
“If Kopp’s story is true, this teacher has produced a major miracle. Has Kopp made any attempt to learn how she did it? To confirm that the growth really happened? To state the obvious, it actually matters if these claims are true—unless those low-income kids we love are mere props to justify salaries. In 2005—the most recent year for which data are available—Kopp’s salary at TFA was $250,736. Six other TFA executives received salaries ranging from $125,000 to $202,000. Data from Guidestar.org.
“Second: Rose should have noted an obvious point: On the grand scale, it doesn’t matter if one or two teachers—or three or four—are able to produce magical outcomes. (Though it matters greatly to the children involved.) In most fields, there will be a handful of talented people who can out-perform the field—though not perhaps to the extent we hear described in these typical anecdotes.
“Even if Kopp’s ‘Bronx tale’ is true, you can’t build a system from random brilliance. And by the way: Kopp’s organization is very large—and it’s extremely expensive. Her annual budget is $120 million; TFA has sent 3700 teachers into schools this year. To us, that overhead seems astounding. To justify that expense—and to justify Kopp’s societal influence—you have to show general results, not one or two brilliant teachers.
“For these reasons, Rose he should have asked Kopp the obvious question: What do actual studies show about the success of TFA? The anecdotes are very pleasing—though we can’t be sure that they’re actually true.
“But how does TFA do in general? No, it doesn’t really ‘matter’ if one or two teachers achieve great results; we’re trying to change a nationwide culture of educational under-achievement. Kopp spends a large amount of money putting TFA’s recruits in the field; if they can’t perform better than regular teachers, that money is basically being wasted. And our attention is being misdirected if we’re granting world-class “influence” to a person who can’t produce real results.
“Wendy Kopp told a few pleasing tales—familiar tales we’re slow to believe. But how does her program perform on the whole?
“Inexcusably, Rose didn’t ask.”
Below is PART 3 of DAILY HOWLER’s dissection of Charlie Rose’s interview with Wendy Kopp—this one dealing with the studies actually say about the success of Teach for America—or lack thereof:
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DAILY HOWLER:
“ENJOY EACH THRILLING INSTALLMENT: Charlie Rose had Wendy Kopp at his table—and the pair may have staged the worst interview ever. Why not read each thrilling installment:
“PART 1: Charlie Rose rolled over and died. Kopp seemed like a Music Man. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/10/08.
“PART 2: Kopp told Rose some pleasing tales. But were the pleasing tales accurate? See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/11/08.
“Today, in part 3, Rose avoids the studies:
“PART 3—AVOIDING THE STUDIES:
DAILY HOWLER: “Teach for America isn’t GM—but it’s no minor enterprise either. A lot of money is involved in the enterprise—and a lot of unfortunate ‘influence.’ Just last month, Sam Dillon profiled TFA founder Wendy Kopp in the New York Times. He offered this overview of the program:
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DILLON (6/19/08): “Ms. Kopp has built her group into a powerhouse, with an annual budget of $120 million, a national staff of 835, and partnerships with Goldman Sachs, Google and other blue-chip names. This spring, she presided over its most successful campus recruiting campaign, and made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
“Kopp herself received a salary of $250,736 in 2005, the last year for which such data are available—though this fact is almost never mentioned in profiles or interviews (including Dillon’s.) Six other TFA executives received salaries ranging from $125,000 to $202,000 in 2006.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Whatever! For that $120 million annual outlay, Kopp and her staff of more than 800 recruited roughly 3700 teachers this past year—teachers whose salaries are paid by the school systems which employ them. In short, Teach for America spends roughly $32,000 per teacher just to send its young hires to their schools. That strikes us as an astounding amount, though we’re willing to see our reaction challenged. And of course, you might not mind burning through that kind of money—if the program in question really worked.”
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[For the record: TFA had recently flunked an exam from federal auditors. “What they found was shocking,” CBS News reported. Details below:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teach-for-america-gets-schooled/
Good stuff here.
Watch TFA’s then-national leader, and future Tennessee State Education Supe Kevin Huffman—Michelle Rhee’s ex-hubby btw—go hommina, hommina, hommina… to the financial malfeasance questions asked of him in this video expose by CBS News’ Sharyl Attkinson. It didn’t stop the rise in Kev’s career in the least, however. I’m guessing that nobody played this video during Kev’s confirmation hearings in Tennessee… JACK]
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DAILY HOWLER: “So TFA is no minor enterprise when it comes to money. More important is Dillon’s note concerning the program’s ‘influence’—its glowing reputation among corporate and journalistic elites. As Dillon noted, TIME Magazine recently listed Kopp as one of the world’s most influential people. The ranking is utterly silly, of course, but TFA is relentlessly pimped by major media players—for example, by Charlie Rose on his July 1 program. TIME, the New York Times, Charlie Rose: One after the other, big media players praise TFA to the skies, suggesting that Kopp’s 19-year-old program provides a solution to the problem of low-income educational failure.
“You might not mind seeing TFA treated that way—if the program actually worked.
“But does this program actually work? Therein lies the rub.
“Media outlets tend to avoid this question, along with rude talk about Kopp’s pleasing salary. Most specifically, they tend to avoid discussing the academic studies of TFA—studies which show that the program is something less than the miracle cure Kopp so plainly suggests.
“In last Friday’s post, we saw Kopp recite two pleasing stories for Rose—stories suggesting that TFA teachers frequently produce miracle cures. Kopp is always happy to recite these tales, and upper-end journalists—like Rose; like TIME Magazine—seem to know that the stories mustn’t be challenged. Indeed, when Rose posed the world’s most obvious question, Kopp suggested that miracle cures occur in TFA quite routinely. In this exchange, we meet the kind of pleasing deception Kopp seems to enjoy tossing off:
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ROSE (7/1/08): “OK. You’ve given a lot of thought to this. We talk about it a lot, this program and other programs. Here’s what I want to know: What do we need to do to make better schools?”
KOPP: “Yes. You know, let me come at that by sharing the two things that I— You know, when I talk to the dozens and dozens, the hundreds of Teach for America alumni who have worked for two years or more themselves in this context, and many of whom who have obtained incredible success with kids, and you say,
” ‘What have you learned? What is the essence of what they learned?’
“And I think I would say two things.
“First of all, they come out of this equally believing that we can solve the problem, that it is absolutely possible for kids who face all of the extra challenges that they face in low-income communities to excel on an absolute scale.”
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DAILY HOWER: ” “Many” of TFA’s alumni ‘have obtained incredible success with kids,’ Kopp said—perhaps knowing how imprecise the word ‘many’ is, and how useful it can therefore be to a propagandist. ‘Many’ such teachers have helped low-incomes kids ‘excel on an absolute scale,’ she seemed to suggest. And seconds later, she began to tell a pleasing tale. A young teacher in the Bronx brought fourth-graders reading on first-grade level up to grade level just in just two years time! Why do TFA teachers believe so strongly in the program?
” ‘It`s seeing evidence that this is possible, like real hard-core evidence from working with kids,’ Kopp said as she finished her tale.
“These are the stories Kopp enjoys telling. Unfortunately, the studies, such as they are, suggest that these stories are hokum.
“Is it true? Are Kopp’s familiar miracle tales just a big pile of bunk? Do the studies suggest that such miracle cures are few and far between—if they occur at all?
“You’d never think so from reading TIME—or from reading Dillon’s recent profile. To his credit, Dillon did note that some ‘prominent academics’ are less than thrilled with Teach for America. Since the mid-1990s, such academics ‘have argued that Teach for America’s two-year assignment ensures that recruits leave just as they are learning to teach,’ Dillon wrote—and he quoted two academics expressing this skeptical outlook. ‘Such critiques once damaged fund-raising,’ he oddly said. But he never mentioned the academic studies, such as they are, which have tended to support the skepticism voiced in such complaints.
“Meanwhile, TIME simply treated its readers like fools. Unveiling Kopp as a major world leader, TIME slickly cherry-picked this:
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TIME (5/12/08): “In 1990, Kopp, then 23, raised $2.5 million to get her teaching corps started. From that beginning came Teach for America, a nationwide organization that today boasts more than 5,000 member teachers, who work in communities all over the country and reach 440,000 kids. Some 12,000 veterans of Teach for America have continued their teaching careers, often providing leadership for troubled schools in their own communities. A 2005 study showed that 75 percent of school principals consider Teach for America teachers more effective than other teachers, and a 2004 study showed Teach for America students do better than other kids in math.
“Deranged or not, Kopp’s idea is working—and as a result, more kids are learning.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “According to TIME, two studies show ‘Kopp’s idea is working.’ It made for a pleasing tale. But sadly, the claim is a hoax.
“What is true about those studies? About the studies TIME chose to avoid?
“First, TIME seems to have misstated the finding of that 2005 survey of principals.
“According to a 2005 press release by Teach for America, the survey—which was paid for by Teach for America— found ‘that 75 percent of principals questioned rated Teach For America corps members’ training as better than that of other beginning teachers with whom they have worked’ (our emphasis). Such opinions, voiced as part of a TFA-funded survey, say nothing about how much gets learned in TFA-taught classrooms.
“But if TIME overstated that 2005 survey, its presentation of that second study—the ‘2004 study’—was an act of bald deception. This was an actual academic study of actual student achievement, not a survey of principals’ (stated) opinions. TIME’s cherry-picked account of the study’s findings will be familiar to those who understand the way the modern press corps massages, invents and cherry-picks facts to pimp its favorite people and causes.
“That 2004 study was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research (MPR); for the its full text, just click here:
Click to access teach.pdf
DAILY HOWLER: “The findings: In reading, TFA teachers did no better than other teachers in the schools studied. Repeat: In reading instruction, no difference.
“In math, TFA teachers performed somewhat better than other teachers—but note how tiny the achievement gains were, as compared with the glorious claims Kopp imposed on Rose.
“What did that MPR study find?
“Again, in reading instruction, no difference. In math, students taught by TFA teachers progressed from the 14th percentile nationally to the 17th percentile in the school year studied; among other teachers, students began and ended at the 15th percentile.
“That gain is not nothing, but it’s dwarfed by the tales of ‘incredible success’ Kopp kept throwing in Rose’s face on his unfortunate program.
“For example, Kopp told Rose that students taught by Michelle Rhee had ‘progressed from the 13th percentile to the 90th percentile in two years of instruction.’
“Did that really happen in Rhee’s classroom?
“We think it’s extremely unlikely, for reasons we’ve explained in the past. But the study to which TIME refers shows nothing like that sort of achievement—and yet, this study was the evidence cited by TIME to show ‘Kopp’s idea is working.’
“In other industries, people get sued—can end up in jail—for this type of blatant dissembling. In modern American pseudo-journalism, that’s the way our corporate elites pimp their darlings forward.
“Yes, TIME massaged the results of that MPR study.
“But please note: Others studies had shown results that were even less favorable to Teach for America—so TIME skipped them altogether! The “Teach for America” entry at Wikipedia does a decent job reviewing two such studies (along with the 2004 MPR study).
“But just to give you a quick review, Stanford researchers found this, in 2005:
” ‘Controlling for teacher experience, degrees, and student characteristics, uncertified TFA recruits are less effective than certified teachers, and perform about as well as other uncertified teachers.’
“A 2002 study by Arizona State researchers was even less flattering. Its title:
” ‘The Effectiveness of “Teach for America” and Other Under-certified Teachers on Student Academic Achievement: A Case of Harmful Public Policy.’
http://hub.mspnet.org/index.cfm/9399
DAILY HOWLER: “But so what? In best pseudo-journalistic style, TIME simply ignored these studies, just as it ignored the part of the MPR study which showed no advantage in reading.
“This brings us back to Charlie Rose, one of the nation’s best-known broadcast journalists. Rose’s program appears on PBS, the gold standard in American broadcast journalism.
“Tomorrow, in part 4 of this series, we’ll give Rose his (very limited) due. To his credit, Rose asked Kopp a very good question at the start of his unfortunate program. And when Kopp gave him a series of the world’s worst answers, he asked his question again and again—until he finally gave up.
“But what did Rose refuse to do, through forty minutes of propaganda and blatant dissembling?
“As Kopp told tales of her teachers’ ‘incredible success,’ Charlie Rose never said the following words: But what do the studies show us? As with so many other upper-end journalists, Rose avoided the studies completely. He let Kopp rattle her fanciful tales—and avoided the actual evidence.
“Surely, Rose understands a basic fact: We don’t learn the truth about a program like this by letting its founder—its chief benefactor—recite pleasing stories about it. And surely, Rose knows that real studies exist—studies which basically give the lie to Kopp’s self-serving bull-roar. Speaking frankly, Kopp’s presentation on Charlie Rose can’t be squared with the current studies. But for the past forty years, people like Kopp have routinely lied about the lives of low-income kids—and people like Rose have politely sat by as Music Men tell them their tales.”
TOMORROW—PART 4: Worst answers ever!
DAILY HOWLER: “ABOUT THAT FEDERAL AUDIT: As noted, TFA’s current annual budget is $120 million (its operating budget is $75 million); ten percent comes from the federal government. On Friday, the CBS Evening News reported a recent federal audit.
“Here’s part of what Sharyl Attkisson said:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teach-for-america-gets-schooled/
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ATTKISSON (7/11/08): “The Department of Education Inspector General examined a small slice of the group’s federal funding. What they found was shocking.
“In all, Teach for America failed to account for half the money audited. Time and time again, the audit said there were no basic records or receipts: None for a $123,878 training expense; none for a $342,428 bill.
“Teach for America vice president Kevin Huffman chalks it up to poor record keeping.
” ‘We’re confident, we’re confident that we spent the money on the training of new teachers,’ Huffman said. […]
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DAILY HOWLER: “They should have kept records on a tab for more than a quarter million dollars for food and lodging ($277,262) and $26,812 for teacher certification—but didn’t. Auditors say there was no documentation that any teachers actually attended and completed the class, or that there even was a class.
“For ourselves, we’re prepared to assume that there actually was such a class. Though we wouldn’t bet 12 million on it.
“For the fuller report, just click here”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teach-for-america-gets-schooled/
DAILY HOWLER: “(Attkisson’s broadcast can be seen at that link.) For ourselves, we don’t know enough about accounting to judge this matter. It may be that this sort of thing is fairly routine. At any rate, the federales want their money back.”
My first certification required 1.5 years of student teaching. This was, I believe, to avoid being chewed up and spit out. My second certificate required me to student teach again, after 17 years of experience. Both practicums informed my practice significantly. There is no possible way that five weeks of training amounts to any kind of quality teacher training, but it can be the seed for a narrative being mistaken for action…long term action that is absent from the experience base of the narrator.
And finally, here’s “PART 5 – EPILOG” in
DAILY HOWLER’s series on Wendy Kopp
and her appearance on Charlie Rose:
(“DAILY HOWLER” is Baltimore public school
teacher Bob Somersby, by the way)
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071608.shtml
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EPILOG—BIGGEST PROBLEM —
DAILY HOWLER: “There comes a time when you have to demand that the nonsense stop. At moments like this, Wendy Kopp comes off like a cult leader:
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DILLON (6/19/08): “Ms. Kopp describes Teach for America as a social movement to improve education for the poor.
” ‘We have the potential to end educational inequity,’ she said in an interview at her headquarters in the garment district of Manhattan. ‘I truly believe that.’
“And she has big ambitions; she is urging alumni to run for public office, aiming to see 100 elected by 2010.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Does Teach for America ‘have the potential to end educational inequity?’ Kopp said she truly believes it does—and she thinks her program’s alumni should now start running for office.
“People are free to believe what they like, but after nineteen years in the field, the studies provide no current basis for such grandiosity. Let’s review some basic ideas from this past week’s series:
— Academic studies don’t show big differences in classroom achievement between TFA teachers and other teachers.
— After 19 years, miracles haven’t occurred. It’s time to stop saying they have.
— For these reasons, Kopp’s anecdotes are unrepresentative, even if true. And there’s no evidence they’re true in the first place.
— There’s no sign that Kopp has any idea how to ‘fix’ low-income schools.
DAILY HOWLER: “Once these basics are understood, the Charlie Rose program of July 1 starts resembling an act of consumer fraud. You can’t display pictures of Cadillacs if you’re actually selling Schwinns. In the business world, people who misrepresent their product to the extent Kopp does will sometimes end up in large trouble.
“And Rose’s performance was inexcusable. You can’t let a CEO come on your show and rattle off unsupportable anecdotes about the transformative brilliance of her program. You can’t ignore a raft of studies which contradict the portrait being aired. But Wendy Kopp is a Manhattan darling—and her claims routinely get treated this way. Rose failed to serve viewers—and the public at large—when he rolled over for Kopp.
“The biggest problem with this show will be discussed at the end of this post.
“First, let’s run through a few basic topics.
“The problems kids face: At the start of the interview, Kopp listed three ‘extra challenges’ faced by (some) low-income kids. We said we found her list somewhat selective.
“Once again, here’s what she said:
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KOPP (7/1/08): “You know, kids who are growing up in low-income communities just face extra challenges. First of all, even before they show up at the schoolhouse door, you know, anything from lack of adequate nutrition to lack of adequate health care and access to high-quality pre-school programs. So they’re facing extra challenges.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Some kids do face some or all of those challenges. But Kopp is being a bit polite here—in our view, at the expense of low-income children.
“Who knows? Maybe it all depends on what the meaning of ‘pre-school program’ is. But as Paul Tough explained in his 2006 New York Times magazine piece, many kids from low-income, low-literacy backgrounds are disadvantaged by the relatively low literacy they encounter in the home (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 12/4/06). This doesn’t mean they don’t come from a loving home (though some kids don’t). But loving parents from low-literacy backgrounds can’t pass on what they don’t have—what they may not understand.
“In one part of his report, the scribe gave a little Tough talk:
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TOUGH (11/26/06): “Researchers began peering deep into American homes, studying up close the interactions between parents and children. The first scholars to emerge with a specific culprit in hand were Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, child psychologists at the University of Kansas, who in 1995 published the results of an intensive research project on language acquisition…
“They found, first, that vocabulary growth differed sharply by [social] class and that the gap between the classes opened early. By age 3, children whose parents were professionals had vocabularies of about 1,100 words, and children whose parents were on welfare had vocabularies of about 525 words. The children’s I.Q.’s correlated closely to their vocabularies. The average I.Q. among the professional children was 117, and the welfare children had an average I.Q. of 79.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Such circumstances help explain why deserving children may be far ‘behind’ on the day they enter kindergarten—or, perhaps, on the day they begin a ‘high-quality pre-school program.’ If we listed the reasons why deserving, low-income kids often struggle, we’d be inclined to start right here. After that, we’d start looking for ways to address this problem.
“How is William Raspberry’s program doing? For a refresher, just click here.
“About those infernal lists: On Charlie Rose, Kopp was quickly bragging and boasting about her young charges’ superior insights. Good lord, those kids are sharp! As we noted last week, this is their list of the reasons ‘why we have low educational outcomes in low-income communities,’ to use Kopp’s language:
“What TFA alumni think is the problem:
— 1) Teacher quality
— 2) Principal quality
— 3) Academic expectations for kids
“In our view, that’s a somewhat odd list. We’re not even sure what it means.
“What does it mean when we list ‘teacher quality’ as the number-one reason for “low educational outcomes in low-income schools?”
“Does it mean this: If you switched the faculties between two schools (low-scoring inner-city; high-scoring suburban), the low-income school would now get the high test scores? Everyone knows that wouldn’t happen—so what exactly does this list mean?
“We can all imagine superior teachers who could magically transform struggling classrooms; indeed, Kopp seem to imagine such teachers every time she goes on TV. But academic studies don’t seem to have found them in high numbers inside TFA. In our view, it’s time to stop pretending they exist in the types of numbers that would be needed to address the problem we face.
“Can we talk: Why does Kopp present a selective list? We don’t know, but we’ll offer a guess. Consider this passage from her session with Rose. She discusses what would happen if people thought low-income kids and their parents were the cause of the problem:
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KOPP: “I do think there’s a shared understanding at some level that we need to improve public education. I guess the question is whether we truly believe as a country that we can in fact solve the problem.”
ROSE: “Why would we think we couldn’t?”
KOPP: “I guess I wonder whether we do. I mean, when we think about the Gallup poll that we talked about earlier, and we realize that in general, you know, our—the public believes we have the problem because of, because the kids lack motivation and the families don’t care.
“At some level, if that’s what you believe, you think,
” ‘Well, what can we do? What will different policies and practices and priorities of the country do when the problem is with kids and families and communities?’
“I think through our work, we just have seen so clearly, over and over, in every kind of community across the country that actually, no, when kids and families are given the opportunities they deserve, you know, they do very, very well.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “As we’ve noted, the academic studies don’t seem to show that low-income kids ‘do very, very well’ whenever they’re super-lucky enough to encounter Kopp’s program. The next time Kopp says such things on TV, we hope she’ll be asked to speak further.
“But please note: In the highlighted passage, Kopp says she fears that society will simply throw up its hands if it comes to believe that ‘the problem is with kids and families and communities.’
“Does this help explain the way she parcels out explanations?
“When we (DAILY HOWLER and his fellow teachers, JACK) taught here in Baltimore, we didn’t find that our students lacked motivation (though some students do); we didn’t find that their parents didn’t care (though some parents don’t).
“But that doesn’t mean that children from low-literacy backgrounds are just like children from the professional classes. Through no ‘fault’ of their own—through no ‘fault’ of their parents—low-income kids are often far ‘behind’ by their early years. Kopp’s polite talk and magical thinking can’t make that critical fact go away. Though it might make her listeners feel very high-minded.
” ‘Magical thinking’: It was odd to see Kopp spend so much time telling Rose that there are no ‘easy answers” or ‘silver bullets’—that there is ‘no magic to this.’
“Why odd?
“Because it’s hard to recall when someone has seemed so devoted to magical thinking! In Kopp World, the magic seems to be Kopp herself—Kopp herself, and her magical acolytes. Just sign them up, and the magic begins! In this passage, Kopp rejects the work of districts which haven’t made use of such magic:
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KOPP: “Ultimately, we see our districts making marginal progress, you know, a percentage or two in terms of looking at student outcome data, progress in some places. Yet that`s not the kind of—when you think about kids moving from the 32nd percentile against the national norm to the 33rd percentile against the national norm, that’s not progress that’s transformative for kids.”
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DAILY HOWLER: “Kopp isn’t happy with that marginal progress—and she shouldn’t be.
“But uh-oh! When TIME magazine recently sanctified Kopp, it cited that 2004 study by Mathematic Policy Research as its evidence that ‘Kopp’s idea is working.’ But what did that MPR study find?
“It found that TFA made no difference when it came to reading—and that TFA teachers had moved their kids from the 14th percentile to the 17th percentile in math.
“BTD! Big transformative deal!
“The biggest problem: This may have been the worst interview ever. Kopp’s non-answer answers were bad beyond bad—and Rose completely failed to perform. But the biggest problem with this show involves two words: ‘most influential.’
“Has anyone ever pimped ‘easy answers’ in the ridiculous way Kopp does? She seems to know nothing about low-income classrooms—unsurprising, since she’s never taught. She keeps making grandiose claims for her program—claims the studies don’t seem to support.
“But so what?
“Ever since the 1960s, our elites have favored pleasing, non-answer answers to the problem of low-income schools. They’ve always loved the Music Men who come along with their magic solutions. This new Music Man is especially helpful, since her program can be used to take silly shots at teachers unions, which simply aren’t the cause of this problem. But whatever! Manhattan elites have settled on Kopp. She provides the latest version of the pleasing, high-minded tale.
“Our elites have tended toward this sort of thing since (soon after) Day One. They’ve always loved the pleasing tale in which our finest children, from our finest schools, solve this nagging problem with ease. That helps explain a tragicomical fact: Our finest children have been solving this problem for the bulk of the last forty years! Kopp’s just the latest pseudo-influential—the latest Music Man.
“The problem lies in Kopp’s ‘most influential’ status. As long as we pretend she knows what to do, others won’t bother to search.”