Why did Matt Kramer step down as co-director of Teach for Anerica? He was making $400,000 a year. On the other hand, he had never taught.
Gary Rubinstein, TFA 1991, is one of the closest watchers of the organization. He makes some educated guesses. He predicts that the other co-director won’t be around long.
He wouldn’t be surprised if Wendy Kopp returns to salvage the organization, which pulls in a cool $300 million a year.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I do not know if it would qualify as a question for common core…..a math problem. How many people from TFA are working in classrooms….and how much of the 300 million dollars does not have anything to do with their salaries? If I know those two things, then I will be able to figure out how much per teacher that amounts to, using skills I learned decades ago, or maybe some sort of technologically advanced item.
They rely on government dole outs, private philanthropist dole outs, lavish/lush money raising galas, gifts from Princeton (that I personally know of), Harvard, Yale, etc….and the best and brightest get salaries paid from taxpayer dollars, the finders’ fees are paid from taxpayers dollars….so I guess all that “fund raising” and government gifting goes to the very large salaries of TFA’s many administrators across the nation. Must be so.
Also, it benefits Wendy Kopp’s husband via sending TFA to his charter school chain. Also it benefits those in TFA who are salaried who then decide to open a charter school (chain or not). Also, it must be going to Relay GSE or some other bogus certification program, masters program, and whatever the “perks” of being TFA are.
I know some of it goes to lobbying for more monies.
But, Rheely, its about the children right?
Is it not time for TFA to close? Hasn’t TFA done enough harm to children?
I have not read Gary’s blog much, nor do I know much about him. From this post, and scanning some others, he seems skeptical yet hopeful for the TFA organization. I posted the following on his blog:
TFA, with a few key changes, would be good in concept. Who knows if they can ever make those kinds of changes though. More likely they will march on… through the wrong side of history.
It would be interesting to see a concise analysis of the few changes that would make TFA a force for good instead of greed. First they would need to be willing to implement a leadership that considers new ideas; not small tweaks, but a few big ideas. Obvious changes necessary for transforming TFA into something good would be (1) a change in the recruitment process — instead of recruiting students with “high academic resumes,” recruit students who would actually be good teachers, and want to stay in the profession. Another obvious change would be (2) lengthening the training time from 6 weeks (or whatever it is now) to a year or so. Then we’d need to (3) examine the teacher training methods. In a phrase: less behaviorism, more empathy and constructivism.
How likely…?
Sorry if you’ve already discussed this, I didn’t follow your blog until now.
One nitpick about the article (I agree with pretty much everything else), You wrote:
“I suppose if I overheard a teacher in the lounge saying something like “I don’t assign homework anymore. I used to, but they never did it, so why waste time with that?” I’d think that that teacher’s students suffer from his low expectations. ”
I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion at all, because I understand how unimportant and ineffective homework really is, and how much it intrudes on family time and student lives. And if homework is not very effective or even a good idea in the first place, the teacher might be all the wiser to spend time on things that are more worth a teacher’s limited time. Book suggestion: The Homework Myth by Alfie Kohn.
Homework topic is definitely debatable. I would have never earned my bachelor’s degree in pure mathematics without self study at home and homework. Some courses, with limited time, required reading at home – where quality discussions occurred in class. Also, even something like band. Students should be expected to practice at home as time in school is limited. And with this huge data-driven society, who knows if band and arts will be around.
To each his own – that’s the beauty in this field – but if my son/daughter came home with no homework, I’d definitely be questioning the true rigor and college prep. of the courses they were enrolled in. 😀
However, I do see that in some courses homework would literally be unnecessary and busywork.
“I would have never earned my bachelor’s degree in pure mathematics without self study at home and homework.”
Are you talking about homework in college? That’s different than K-12. Different stage of development, much less classtime.
It seems like the best and brightest are catching on to the fact that they are pawns in a political game. Maybe the word is getting out that teaching is really hard, even if it’s only a two year commitment. Their numbers are down. May TFA shrivel and die a “reformer’s” death like so many other bad ideas in this misguided movement.
I agree that if TFA would shrivel and die that it would be for the best. Their contempt for teachers and genuine educational reform, which has to begin with working with the poeple who are actually trying to teach children, is appalling.
Let Wendy Kopp go to work for her hubby’s charter chain, or the fertilizer business, as Michelle Rhee has done. Then they can both really sling the shit.
One of the most off-putting parts of the Obama Administrations ed policy and practice is how clubby it is- you really get the feeling it’s this small group of “movement” people who are well-connected and get extraordinary access and influence.
It seems so far from what “public schools” are supposed to be about. I find it really alienating so I get a kick out of how Rubinstein refuses to defer to the “leaders” and the Best and Brightest nonsense and continues to treat them as one would ordinary people.
Florida put up $44 MILLION this year to help TFA supported charters attract recruits. They had to open the “bonus” program to all teachers, but its main purpose is to give $10K to each new TFA recruit with a SAT or ACT score in the top 20% of scores. The governor vetoed a raise for fire fighters, but he was happy to keep this charter school welfare program in the budget.
300 million
but not enough money to give public schools
and
the MANY governmental items that need attention.
Arne Duncan’s new post?
Or, maybe Arne will join former TFA executives at a non-profit that solicits donations for school supplies, using the pleas of teachers?
He could manage their future 3 network, primetime, hour-long T.V. programs.