A group of alternative certification programs, the most significant of them being Teach for America, declared their support for the Obama administration’s plan to grade colleges of education by the test scores of the students taught by their graduates. Alternative certification teachers typically do not go to colleges of education, which is why their certification is “alternative.” Their decision to weigh in on this issue, which does not affect them, is no doubt intended to shutter the teacher prep programs where students study education for one or more years. It also is an expression of their support for value-added-measurement (VAM), which does not affect alternatively certified teachers who enter the classroom for only one or two years because they are not in teaching long enough to produce data by which to be evaluated.
The Department of Education’s proposal would make test scores the overriding purpose of education. Courses in child development, cognitive theory, the history and politics of education, psychometrics, and other studies that are usually part of teacher preparation, would be irrelevant as compared to test prep. Test prep is the specialty of the “graduate” schools (like Relay) that prepare charter school teachers, where many TFA teachers teach. The proposal would also discourage teachers from taking assignments in hard-to-staff schools or teaching students with disabilities, where it is harder to raise test scores, as compared to suburban districts and non-disabled students.
The groups represent (at most) 80,000 teachers out of more than 3 million teachers. Their proposal does not affect their own members. It supports junk science.
According to the Education Department plan, programs that train teachers would collect data on items such as the teaching performance of their graduates in the job market and track the exam scores of the graduates’ students—an approach challenged by teachers’ unions and many in the teacher-preparation business.
“This is neither a valid nor reliable way of assessing teacher quality,” Kevin Kumashiro, dean of the University of San Francisco’s School of Education, said in an interview, referring to the regulations. In a National Education Policy Center review last month, he argued that the proposed regulations would, among other things, too narrowly define the role of a teacher.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well, TFA. . . your true colors are showing. You claim to be about “kids” and “improving urban schools,” but you are really about destroying traditional teacher education programs, teachers unions, and public schools as we know them.
Thanks for showing your true intentions.
TFA has gone from being an idealistic students bad idea to being a corporate tool like the Obama education department.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
NO SURPRISE HERE. TFA will do anything and support any effort to increase its power, influence, and control. What better way than to stick it to “the competition.”
Most charters and school systems now provide their own courses for alternative certification. These courses have been approved by the state certification offices. Online fron anywhere courses, too. Quality control – in my observation, NONE! Anybody can ‘teach’ these courses and our children.
The only ones who MUST meet the most stringent requirements are Real Teachers who attend accredited universities, take all required coursework, meet state certification eligibility and take jobs in school systems. School systems can place those new teachers wherever needed. Most likely in high-need areas where the Teacher Bashing begins.
Meanwhile, charters are the Golden Schools, with Golden Teachers, where anything goes. Many charters have the options of hiring non-certified…non-educators…never to take education courses – EVER!
Only Real Teachers from Real Accredited Universities MUST meet the Reformsters’ Accountabilities. Feels Personal! Guess what, it is!!
Of course. I seem to recall that TFA was in financial difficulty around the time of Obama’s election and was strongly supported by Obama/Duncan after assuming office.
Speaking of TfA, did anyone see this godawful piece by Howard Dean at Salon today? http://www.salon.com/2015/02/02/neoliberal_corporate_education_reform_howard_dean_on_teach_for_america_teachers_unions_and_the_politics_of_false_choices/?source=newsletter
At least most of the commenters aren’t buying it.
Why does he make a point of “not for profit” charter schools? If the only thing that matters is test scores he should support for-profits, too.
Once he redefines “public” to mean “publicly-funded” he’s just splitting hairs with these distinctions, particularly as “not for profit” is meaningless without much more information.
Democrats should give it up and embrace privatization. They aren’t going to be able to maintain these increasingly fine lines they’re drawing.
Cuomo has already folded on vouchers, and we didn’t hear a peep out of the “progressive” ed reform community. Didn’t most of them “oppose” vouchers 6 months ago? Where’s the dissenters?
How true. Rhee drew a salary of 6 figures at her non-profit. More, when you add in her speaking fees. Greedy oinking pigs, all of them.
Chiara, if every publicly-funded activity is public, then Boeing is public. So is almost every university.
Well, in the article Dean says that his son is/was a TFA scab in New Orleans, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
Like with all ed reformers, what’s missing from the piece is any advocacy or support for existing public schools.
I think they’re contractually barred from saying anything positive about public schools when they sign on to The Movement.
They’ve disappeared public schools, unless the phrase is prefaced with “failing”.
I don’t mind with Dean, because he’s paid by private parties. He straight out describes himself as a charter school advocate.
I DO mind paying a huge group of state and federal employees to either bash or ignore public schools because they’re members of this “movement”. I don’t think they’re doing their jobs.
Agree, Chiara. Make Broad, Walton, and Gates pay the employees in the departments of ed. Most Americans are very proud of their public schools. If ed. bureaucrats are going to undermine them, they shouldn’t be paid, by taxpayers, to do it.
You go DOCTOR MD Dean! Doctors – no more excuses for cancer deaths ,or Ebola deaths in Africa or anywhere else, for Alzheimer’s and dementia. No more excuses for tuberculosis and don’t give me that “whiny” excuse that the new strains of TB are anti-biotic resistant! No more excuses about deaths related to obesity either . DOCTOR MD Dean don’t blame America’s eating habits and don’t blame McDonalds!!!
It’s YOU DOCTOR MD DEAN – you and all the rest in your whiny profession who make excuses for their failures!!!
Need I go on DOCTOR MD Dean when I see so much death and suffering because you in the medical community come up with all those excuses for your failure!
Now DOCTOR MD Dean – you have to agree with me – right?
Tom
Junk science seems to be the order of the day
in so very many areas of the political spectrum these days.
“Truth”; the first victim…
“junk science”
Diane is being nice calling it “junk science”. If any thing it is a pseudo or false science as once something is proven false in the scientific realm it is rejected. Wilson has proven the invalidity (falseness) of the concepts involved in educational standards and standardized testing. The whole project should have been rejected in 1997.
If they think it is so great, let us treat all of TFA as a teacher prep program and evaluate them that way. Can we close them down? I know, how silly to suggest that. Accountability for me, not thee(TFA).
I guess Professor Kevin K doesn’t believe that teachers are just glorified test preppers and schools should simply be Kaplan Centers.
To loosely quote Seuss in How the Grinch Stole Christmas – “maybe, perhaps they’re a little bit more”.
Ellen T Klock
“Obama administration’s plan to grade colleges of education by the test scores of the students taught by their graduates….”
We shouldn’t even waste our time responding to such an asinine idea! Who are the freaks who concoct such a ridiculous idea! Enough is enough of this insanity of over reaching their power in D.C. There already are different organizations in place that evaluate Schools of Education. They are powerful groups who have very high standards and expectations. A school that goes before them realize the stakes are high and the “Brief” is not taken lightly.
If this plan …”to grade colleges of education by the test scores of the students taught by their graduates” becomes a mandate, it will be time that all the educated to rise up and take a stand against the powers that be. The “Goliath’s,” better not tempt the “Davids.”
It’s oligarch “overreach”. They took our government.
Without a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we live lives of desperation, at the hands of powerful moguls.
The cur sit atop philanthropic pedestals, manipulating their images, the economy, our politicians and us.
Someone from TFA or post-TFA on a committee or foundation or “non-profit” somewhere probably helped write the proposals. Who are we kidding? Same old same old. Move along, nothing here to worry about. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. They are like tapeworms. Until you cut off the head, it keeps growing and destroying everything it can.
Makes sense. After all, TFA’s training program is five weeks of junk or mostly temporary 2-year recruits so why wouldn’t they support more junk.
Junk = Junk
or put another way
junk in and you get junk out
TFA likes junk?
Who ever woulda thunk?
LOL
TFA don’t thunk.
Who ever woulda thunk? TFA don’t need no science for real
They only need junk, it helps them lie and steal!
TFA don’t thunk,
using junk
to sell their bunk
to a clueless Dunc(an)
in a democracy they’ve shrunk.
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
I’m very glad Diane posted this today, as I can’t take back the three minutes of my life reading this absolute horror: http://townsquaredelaware.com/2015/02/02/the-case-for-teach-for-america/ This was written by a 19-20 year old. Sorry kid, what in the world do you know about any of this? It read like someone paid him to write it. The only thing TFA is good at in schools is teaching to the test. That’s all they do, and this drill, test, repeat method is getting old quickly.
Of course TFA would support something as shallow as grading teacher prep programs on test scores. They know nothing else. They have no depth as an organization or in their “teacher” training. TFA is all about image, prestige, and protecting that image with PR attacks and deep-pocketed donors. They are all about subverting the public education system as we know, and use the supposed “best and brightest” as their pawns to do so. Notice how long they waited to “speak up”. Why? Because they could 1) get in the last word and 2) they had a feeling how much furor their words against existing teacher prep programs in would cause, which would result in more responses from real teachers to Congress.
Professor Joel Shatzky wrote the satiric “Option Three” that foretold the conspiracy to end higher level education in the same way that they ended the lower schools, by makingit impossible for the real educators to teach,or to work. He was prescient.
http://jewishcurrents.bigcartel.com/product/option-three-a-novel-about-the-university-byjoel-shatzky
Does federal government believe they can grade education program–and hence department faculties– based on junk science???? Oh wait, in case of that, TFA is the one who will be chopped in the first place.
They sure do. They have 75 pages of elaborate regulations.
I think it’s ridiculous. I don’t know where it stops. Next they’ll rank the teachers of his teachers based on my 6th grader’s test score.
He took a standardized test last week. He’s been taking standardized tests since he was in kindergarten, and this is what he said to me:
” I didn’t finish. I think I went too slow. I didn’t know it was timed!”
Genuinely surprised 🙂 He forgot the tests are timed.
I hope no one gets fired based on that test. I don’t think he knows the entire US economy is riding on his performance 🙂
TFA is not the answer I taught with a few . Many have no idea wha t they are doing and become Vp of Charters Schools. let them go to Charters . they will all fail sooner or later Jus t fell badly for our kiddos that experience this bad teaching. . I hope and pray for better days for our kids in schools
We will also be rating TFAer’s schools on how well their students do on tests also, right? Even if they only teach for 2 years their schools should suffer the wrath of their backing this proposal. I really can imagine their students doing all that well since they tend to teach in impoverished areas (oh wait that would be the poverty effects testing excuse, so they can’t use that one to get out of it).
It has to do something with the brain development if youth and the arrogance factor. They just don’t realize that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”.
Let’s no mix all alternative education in with TFA Many people in alternative certification do go to teacher ed programs, aren’t in TFA and don’t support the crazy DOE proposals. Some alternative education programs are devoted to diversifying the teaching force – Teach Tomorrow in Oakland, for example – and they are very rigorous.