In a post recently, this blog broke the news that Teach for America was retrenching, laying off staff, eliminating the diversity department, and cutting high-level administrators.
The reason: recruitments are down. The leadership says they suffer from competition with an improved economy, and why teach when you can land a high paying job in the private sector? The fact is that TFA is getting a lot of criticism, especially from its alumni. A number of them have gone public, complaining that they were unprepared for their assignments or that they saw TFA as a union-busting corporation.
TFA appeals to youthful idealism, but what is idealistic about union-busting? What is idealistic about offering to teach needy children when you are ill-prepared? Can you “save” them when you don’t know what you are doing?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
One can be stupid for lots of reasons, and being idealistic is definitely one of them.
The Teaching Fellows programs, which put new teachers with 4 weeks of summer training into inner city classrooms, should face similar scrutiny.
I came into teaching in New York City via the Teaching Fellows, so I can speak from experience, concerned citizen, when I agree with you on this….
I would only differ by saying that, notwithstanding the intentions of the NYC DOE, among the many Teaching Fellows I’ve known or worked with, virtually all of them came into teaching with the intention of staying and making it a career, unlike TFA, which is officially a temp agency (as well as training academy for ed reform cadre), and unofficially a union-busting outfit.
My experience is similar to Michael Fiorillo – -I’ve met many teachers who came in as NYC Teaching Fellows with the intent of being career teachers and all are still in the system.
Of course, we don’t know how many leave.
At least with teaching fellows the intent seems to be pure.
Mike,
The other plus with the NYC Teaching Fellows is that they don’t exist to make millions for the powerful organization behind them. The executive is not paid nearly $500,000
Bummer.
Teach for America … little more than camp counselors without the pine trees on their shirts.
Imagine for a moment the instant promotion of butchers to surgeons … or deck builders to bridge engineers. Imagine Cub Scout troop leaders as military generals … or menu makers as the next classic authors.
There’s something so odd about teaching … and it’s seldom mentioned. Everyone thinks they can teach. Everyone.
II’m certain that five week preparation period offered by the Teach for America leadership is gonna arm those greenhorn teachers to the max. However, I’am certain of much more.
Here’s the real ugly underbelly of Teach for America … and the ill-prepared idealists they let loose on lots of youngsters: the schools that take them on are almost always the poorest of the poor … because authentic teachers will not take on that challenge without proper compensation. These are the children most in need of real teachers … with real preparation … ready to change lives and manage all that such an effort entails.
Please don’t dismiss the compensation issue. The public needs to understand that the same rewards that motivate others in varied professions also applies to teachers. They are not undisguised priests or ministers. They’re family men and women with all of life’s aspirations and obligations. If society wants the best-of-the-best in the most challenging circumstances, then this society should do what is done all across the world of work … pay the deserving salaries.
To foist these ill-prepared teachers on the most disadvantaged children seems like an over-costly outrage in order to soothe some young idealist’s commitment to mankind. These young learners need our most seasoned professionals … even if the cost exceeds the usual. There is no greater long term cost to a society than a child ill-educated for the complexities of this intricate world.
Teach for America is yet another “feel good” folly that’s become so voguey among those smugly satisfied with easy imagery rather than hard reality.
Denis Ian
“There’s something so odd about teaching … and it’s seldom mentioned. Everyone thinks they can teach. Everyone.”
It doesn’t seem odd to me because anyone who thinks they can teach – can!
They just can’t do it very well and they certainly cannot sustain their efforts for very long. Teaching is one of the few professions where one can try it with little training (see substitute teachers) and feel as if they are engaging children in meaningful instruction. There are no set pedagogical standards, no universally accepted best practices that we all agree on. Try substituting for your dentist one day, or an automotive engineer, or a code writer, or trial lawyer – all without training. Yet anyone willing, can get by teaching a lesson or two and feel reasonably confident that it really isn’t that difficult. And this reality is one of the biggest problems we face in terms of public perception regarding our profession. It really isn’t that professional from a standpoint of accepted practices and standards – something few of us want to admit. In the beginning we are pretty much winging it and eventually over the years we find that sweet spot that works – that sweet spot among different classes – that sweet spot for each individual student – that sweet spot in the curriculum that – that sweet spot in the endless battle with the hearts and minds of pre-teens and adolescents. In the long run, teaching ends up being much more of an art than a science. And after all, anyone can be an artist. Not all of us can produce a masterpiece.
Rage,
Your comment, “Teaching is one of the few professions where one can try it with little training (see substitute teachers) and feel as if they are engaging children in meaningful instruction.” reminded me of one of the truest things I’ve ever heard about this profession. It was told to me my first year teaching (in very stern tones) by an experienced colleague who was critical of something I was doing “good enough” when I could have done better. He said, “Teaching is a job that is very easy to do poorly and nearly impossible to do well.”
Thanks for saying it better than I could. Love that quote; it should be discussed in every teacher prep program. First years must understand that teaching badly is way too easy – and the checks keep coming. My father was a teacher and he instilled the idea that it takes five years to develop a program. After 36+ years I have come to realize that “program” was the operative word, and that five years was just a start.
Not only to foist these ill-prepared teachers onto our most disadvantaged children, but to methodically force out any experienced veteran educators by callously labeling them as “bad” and pushing them out of teaching altogether…
Denis, Your comments were so well done. I could not agree with you more. The deformers and many people underestimate what we teachers do. I love the saying, “Come on in! The water feels fine!!!” Let them all come into our classrooms…Let them do what we do day in and day out. They will see that we all deserve a crown. We have all fought the good fight! Thanks again, Denis, for your wonderful comments. Your comments brightened my day!
I believe TFA that a big part of their problem is economic success. I doubt very much that the top graduates of good universities were forgoing high salaries in exciting careers so they could give back for a few years. The people signing up for TFA were most likely those who were not top contenders for the few great jobs available, but also not rich enough not to have student loans to pay off.
With an expanding economy, there are just fewer people in that boat, and nothing TFA can do will fix that problem, because everybody knows this job is a dead-end, economically.
“The leadership says they suffer from competition with an improved economy, and why teach when you can land a high paying job in the private sector?”
The kids who willingly go to the slaughter have been brainwashed on campus, and further brainwashed during “summer camp” where they “teach” for 5 weeks to pre-kinders and kinders in summer care programs at Kipp related charter schools, where they are also kept up all night and force fed the TFA hype and religion. They are unprepared in droves, and now everyone knows it. Meanwhile, in a ANY economy, it was a way to get your loans paid off, get TFA on your resume, make TFA connections on Wall Street, get a jiffy-lube masters degree, housing assistance, and possibly – if one didn’t go on to Wall Street or law school – run a charter school at 24 years old with a salary commensurate with what TFA pays its admins (but not its teachers). Oh, and back in the day, I think it got you a halo as well because the public didn’t know about all the perks and the ultimate agenda.
TFA is a punchline to a off-color racist joke. The white elite coming to save the poor, while putting their neighborhoods into upheaval and perpetuating poverty. There is a special place reserved in hell for Wendy Kopp and her Kipp-y husband, and every other cling-on and cog in the TFA wheel. I don’t hate a lot of things in this life, but with all my heart and soul, I hate TFA and everything it stands for.
Well, gee, they can always get jobs as “illuminators” at Puff-Daddy’s school!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-jameson-brewer/teach-for-america-lies-da_b_9195600.html
Ya know, it used to be on this blog that a post about TFA, especially one about its woes would have drawn at least 60-70 responses with upwards of a hundred.
Perhaps the lack of response is an indication of the loss of clout that TFA is having. (But the final nail still isn’t in the coffin.)