Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote recently about Teach for America’s changing focus. Founded in 1990 to recruit college graduates to teach in urban and rural schools for a minimum of two years, TFA made bold claims about the success of its teachers in closing achievement gaps and raising test scores. For many years, they attracted hundreds of millions from corporate sponsors, foundations like Walton, Broad Gates, based on their certainty that their young teachers were better than experienced teachers.
Messenger wrote that teachers were leaving the profession because of demanding parents and school politics.
He thought that might explain why TFA was headed in a new direction.
He wrote:
It’s also a reason why a nonprofit organization that has been providing teachers to several area school districts is changing its focus with a bit of a twist that at first seems disconnected from the problem. Despite the teacher shortage, New York-based Teach for America is no longer providing teachers to the St. Louis Public Schools and other districts. Instead, it will work on training school leaders, like principals, administrators and school board members.
It’s a change that to some degree comes from a place of failure. Teach for America was founded in 1990 as an education reform organization, to try to boost academic achievement of students in urban settings and reduce the learning gap between white and Black students. But the numbers haven’t budged much after 20 years of training young teachers who make a two-year commitment to come to places like St. Louis and teach in public or charter schools.
“As a whole, student achievement is not growing the way we intended it to,” says Elizabeth Bleier, the interim executive director of Teach for America in St. Louis. Bleier came to St. Louis from Chicago. She taught in the St. Louis Public Schools for a few years, and then worked at charter school KIPP in the city for a few more, before going to work at TFA.
With 600 similar alumni in St. Louis, TFA plans to help mentor those teachers and former teachers. This week it announced its latest class of Aspiring School Leaders Fellowship, in which 15 existing public school or charter educators, many of them people of color, will be trained and mentored for a year while earning a principal certification through St. Louis University.
In turning the focus to training principals and other school leaders, Bleier says the goal is to improve school cultures so that teacher retention eventually improves. “There is a lot of teacher and principal turnover in St. Louis,” she says. “When there is a strong school leader, teachers are happier and stay longer. We want our people to be able to go into the schools and have an influence.”
It’s a demonstration of hubris on the part of TFA to believe that they can ”train” TFA teachers to be principals.
How will a staff of teachers, ranging in age from their early 20s to their early 60s react to the announcement that their new principal is 24-25 years old, with two years of teaching experience? It is hard to imagine that the insertion of a young, inexperienced TFA principal would raise morale and stop the exodus of teachers. It seems likely that they would prefer a veteran whom they can turn to for help with teaching problems.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
NYC, with fanfare, trumpeted the same idea 25 years ago, “plucking” new teachers into a Principal Academy, and on to a school. while the program was carefully designed you can’t teach maturity, you can’t teach “soft skills,” potential leadership is difficult to assess, the best leadership training I participated in was the military… many studies of why school leaders leave .. probably should not have been selected … he, effective coaches have an effective school leadership track record
“effective coaches have an effective school leadership track record”
Horse manure!
I agree! Horse manure! TFA was, is, and will forever be a ridiculous idea. The gall! I know those young kids working for TFA thought they were doing something noble, my cousin’s child was one of them, but TFA is insidious.
During his first two terms, many of the candidates for Bloomberg’s Principal Academy were MBAs. No educational experience, at all. It was during his last term that he started looking at and “plucking” from (apt term) the newer teachers.
One of those “recruits” was the unit coordinator at our school. She’d taught for two years and then applied for and got the UC spot. That job can be challenging in that you’re still union, but acting as a go between with administration. And when admin sends an order that’s against the rules of the contract (of which there were many under Big Mike)…things can get dicey.
But she was good at it. An excellent communicator. So admin approached her about moving “up” to the Assistant Principal position…which required a thorough indoctrination at the Principal Academy.
This was a friendly, intelligent, compassionate human being who really was “all about the kids”. After a month on the admin job; she left and returned to the teaching ranks. Told me that one of the first things she was told at the Principal Academy was never to maintain eye contact with the teachers. No fraternizing, familiarity, empathy. All business. When doing observations; spend more time listening to the lesson/checking the boxes on the computer than watching. You are a manager and the teacher is your subordinate.
All of this was completely contrary to both her nature and all that she’d experienced as “effective” in her short term as an educator.
I worked a decade as an Assistant Manager in the corporate world in my 30s. Know the drill well. It works, to a degree, in the office setting (though to lose compassion is where it falls short). But teaching is different for a very obvious and crucial reason: there are kids and teens involved. Lots of them. A principal needs to understand and pay serious attention to that fact. Watching is key. Giving practical and knowledgeable advice and resources is key. Experience and empathy play a huge roll in an administrator’s effectiveness in an educational setting.
OOPS: I meant “MBAs”…not “MFAs”. Big difference, there. Sorry.
Gitapik – you nailed it.
Those who would be the most effective as administrators reject the whole administrator model that is being rammed down their throats since it is contrary to their own experiences and belief systems.
There is so much wrong with this method of “training” administrators – it makes me tired. So much misplaced confidence.
Anyone can avoid eye-contact and check boxes. Teaching is an art. Modeling that art for new teachers (by the admin in a classroom) would do more good than checking boxes and catching them fitting or not fitting into the checklist.
But alas that admin probably couldn’t model the art well…. and they get paid more to check boxes.
What a joke!
TFA gets more foul every damn day.
and that line: “It’s a demonstration of hubris on the part of TFA to believe that they can ”train” TFA teachers to be principals ” says so much to those of us who saw the entire idea of TFA first invade and then start so much of the rot now eating away at our district’s poorest schools.
Yes, hubris indeed. “Arrogance” and “conceit” were the words that came to my mind. Perhaps TFA could instead train wealthy do-gooders and legislators to stay the hell out of the classroom, and let teachers teach.
Bad student behavior is what drives most teachers and principals out of the profession.
The new teacher in the room next door to me is being pulverized by the students, like many new teachers in the past. The new principal is on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the deluge of misbehavior that he has to deal with combined with the pressure from above not to suspend or expel. Our system of progressive consequences has been dismantled and replaced with politically-palatable PBIS, which turns out to be vaporware. Combine this with Internet fueled pranks and cyberbullying and it’s chaos. This is in a suburban, middle class, mostly white middle school. Something tells me it’s not any better in St. Louis or the Bronx.
Classroom management is the most important issue in whether a teacher stays or leaves. And it is never talked about in many schools. Everything is blamed on the teacher. Not the school culture or the school’s internal systems.
And it is never talked about in many schools. Everything is blamed on the teacher.
TRUTH!!!
And the teacher never gets any support, and parents who think that their kids are angels run everything, and it never gets REALLY dealt with in Ed School, either. In teacher “training” programs (sit up, roll over, good boy), people share some idiotic platitudes about discipline, and that’s it. NOTHING REAL THAT WORKS.
I’m sorry. There have to be actual consequences. I could go on and on about why what administrators typically do about behavioral issues doesn’t work, but the other teachers here already know what I would say. It’s a huge problem and almost entirely unaddressed.
Amen, Bob!
Our school started PBIS when my son was in K and daughter in 2nd grade (2009). The behavior problems in the school increased dramatically every year and even the veteran teachers were on the verge of breakdowns. By the time my son got to MS, it was like walking into a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. The crazy kids were running the asylum. This garbage doesn’t work, yet they keep on trying to put lipstick on that pig!
Ponderosa– I see I’m out of the loop entirely on the whizbang digital toys in current use, had to google these terms.
“PBIS”… “an Implementation framework for maximizing the selection and use of evidence-based prevention and intervention practices along a multi-tiered continuum that supports the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral competence of all students.”
Why not for all adults? I could use one of those in my pocket.
“Vaporware”… “software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available to buy, either because it is only a concept or because it is still being written or designed.”
OR… because it vaporized [as in, “This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds.”]
What does the acronym PBIS stand for?
PBIS stands for “Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.” It makes sense at the elementary level to teach children positive behaviors – rather than punishing for things they don’t understand are not appropriate. In my neck of the woods at the elem. level – a student who benefits from PBIS would first receive some extra support from the teacher to reinforce appropriate behavior. If this isn’t enough, a guidance counselor or school social worker could be involved with the intervention. I would estimate about 5 or 6 students out of 120 in a grade level typically need that level of intervention for behaviors each year.
Thank you.
And technically PBIS involves collecting “data” about the intervention and behavior in a data system – which I adamantly disagree with.
On my experience, consequences, though necessary, have to be administered too often to some students to keep the process from being an intrusion. You bring a student into compliance with behavioral expectations, then a few days or weeks pass, and the behavior returns. Something has to create permanent buy-in from the student, or you are going nowhere.
If you do not have a good alternative, your class becomes the last stop. Not a good situation.
Harry Wong warned us – the first five years of teaching is simply survival.
In the Buffalo Public Schools some new teachers lasted a day, some lasted a week or a month, and some even made it through the year. The ones who came back for a second go around had the potential to become true teachers.
And yet, we continue to move people out. The model is that those who cannot step immediately into the teaching shoes are doomed to everlasting failure. What balderdash.
Teachers need certain things for success:
Students who want to learn
Parents and communities that support learning
Time to promote learning
Stability of job and policy
Vast personal knowledge
Dedication and an interest in the matters to be learned
Exposure to ideas about technique
Communication with peers and experts regarding the profession
Administration that allows for unique approaches to learning without coddling incompetence
Respect and understanding
Teachers do not need:
Political leaders that create a scarcity of resources on purpose
Community leaders that seek to undermine the sanctity of learning
Administration that does not respect the idea that the teacher has an ownership of the subject
Well said!
“politically-palatable PBIS”
You misspelled B-PISS.
The problem with typical Codes of Conduct is that they provide vague guidelines – allow for limitless misbehavior. When students have no limits, relentless mis-behaviors should surprise no one.
A creatively structured demerit system is easy to implement and provides teachers and administrators with the one thing disruptive students need the most: A concrete limit on their behaviors!
50 demerits = 5 day suspension
100 demerits = 40 day expulsion
0 – 49 demerits = No punitive measures
“PBIS”?
You misspelled B-PISS!
Hmmm, have no clue as to how or why that got posted twice.
Backed by dark money, TFA intends to infiltrate the administration and impose their amateur business concepts to public education. It is easier to blow up public schools from the inside out from a position of authority. Any state with sound certification laws should not hire anyone from TFA. Any community that values public education should stick with legitimate administrators with a firm background in educational administration. TFA is a political entity, not an educational organization. It presupposes that markets will solve all our problems even though this model has repeatedly failed. TFA is Trojan Horse whose goal is to dismantle public education. The only product they produce is disruption and failure.
That is entirely correct. TFA does not exist to raise test scores. Never did. It exists to turn education from a profession into a churn and burn, temp gig, cheapening the quality of public education and making it possible for Wall Street to raid pensions. A TFA principal will be the same as a Broadie principal: harmful.
TFA is enormously successful as a financial institution. A few years ago, it had $300 million in assets. Probably more by now.
Oh, just perfect retired teacher. Thank you.
TFA teachers didn’t bring about positive change in the long runs…… so… I know – let’s let them lead teachers instead.
Sounds about right – as far as the critical thinking ability regarding education – from those with influence.
“long run”
Exactly –they do more harm as leaders than as teachers, because they never stuck around long enough in the classroom to gain wisdom.
Why would an experienced teacher want to be “led” by a principal who taught for 2 years?
In my opinion a principal should have at least 10 years experience in a school setting and 5 of those should be regular education classroom teaching. We’ve had principals with 20+ years who have never taught in a regular ed, academic, classroom – who really don’t get it. Schools can be siloed. Different departments pitted against each other. If a principal came from an area that is anti-classroom teacher – they can carry that as part of their overall leadership strategy.
If they have not been responsible for meeting goals, teaching the ridiculous amount of canned curriculum we are responsible for, assessing children when all 20 children are in one room (different from assessing in small group and 1:1)….all while being responsible for responding to parents and maintaining a healthy class environment – then they do not have the experience to lead classroom teachers.
The leadership piece is huge and it’s getting harder to find qualified principals. It’s a hard job to do well. TFA does not have a good solution.
Brachteach: true, every word. Admin that comes from a lack of teaching experience is often woefully incompetent. I would add that admin should come from inside the school itself. Teachers who understand the dynamic in a school make the most seamless transitions from one year to the next.
However, there’s the five year rule. The first couple of years they are so attuned to the teachers needs, but by the fifth year they are entrenched in the dynamics of outside forces and not so teacher friendly.
Some of my favorite administrators went back to the classroom rather than compromise their principles. For those select few I would have done anything (and for a couple of them I did – another story) they asked without complaint.
Diane: why would a teacher who feels successful ever want to be an administration person? What possible reason could exist for a truly successful teacher to desire this promotion?
More money?
But TFA years are like dog years, doncha know?
You have to multiply them by 7.
Cue Strauss “Also Sprach Zarathustra”/ “2001” monolith theme…
Teach-Fer-A-minutes — Training Teach-Fer-A-minutes. Become An Adminimawhile!
In our future: Trainers-Fer-A-minute
Maybe I misused “vaporware” a bit. What I meant is that it’s a vague concept without many concrete pre-built mechanisms that we can plug in and start using. We’re told it’s a product that we must build ourselves at our site that this will take a long time. This smells like a con to me. So far all I’ve gleaned is that PBIS entails giving kids lessons on how to behave, because the real reason they misbehave is because they don’t know how to behave properly. Really? They don’t know that urinating on the bathroom floor is wrong? It seems ludicrous to me, yet my colleagues parrot the gospel as if it’s self-evident truth. I’m really disappointed with my fellow teachers.
I hear what you are saying. The behavior piece of classroom teaching can be exhausting.
I do think elementary teachers need to be responsive to teach positive behaviors (whether it’s called PBIS or something else). There is a limit. There are situations (we’ve all had them) that are beyond what is reasonable for classroom teacher and that is negatively impacingt the classroom community. In some situations there needs to be another layer of staff to support the situation. Or there needs to be an alternative classroom setting.
I def. do not think that these interventions should be tracked and monitored in a computer system – this violates privacy of all involved.
As we all know, there are many reasons young children can not regulate their own behavior in a way that is appropriate in a classroom including: impulsivity/ adhd, lack of proper socialization before school, busy households, lots of screens and little time with peers, lack of boundaries at home, poor role models, trauma, mental health issues . . . . . etc. Unfortunately we can not control socialization before children enter school. It becomes our responsibility to attempt to teach / correct…. so that the child can be socially successful in the long term.
I am fortunate regarding the area I teach and the strong staff supports when tricky situations arise. I know that is not the case in many areas. And I agree with many who have said that the increase in these situations are causing new teachers to leave in some areas.
Some districts utilize PBIS in an entire school….not just for the few who are responsible for misbehaving. This creates a huge mess in schools. Read Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. PBIS works for a few and it works for very young children, but it gets out of hand when the kids figure out what is going on when the most unruly are getting continuous rewards while those that behave well get ignored. It does the opposite of what’s intended if it’s continually used.
We had a spate of restroom vileness last year. Seems not so bad this year. Even under the influence of tic tok, we have thus far escaped most of the deliberate vandalism some places have seen.
My classes are fine. Even the last period of the day is under control. Not to suggest anything is getting done at that time of the day.
“We’re told it’s a product that we must build ourselves at our site that this will take a long time. ” 😀 !! I think you got it exactly right. There’s no there there.
Lots a times the results of what we teach doesn’t show up until years later. How do you test for that?
Do you measure/assess teachers by test results, supervisory judgment, student/parent comment or peer review?
How about how many likes you get on Facebook for your birthday from former students.
My most successful classroom management policy involved one very simple requirement: “classroom decorum”
Now of course my 8th graders needed an explanation for this new and intriguing term. Behaving appropriately in any given setting is easy concept to understand. I defined class decorum with a few simple words that they bought into:
serious
cooperative
mature
calm
polite
I described this to my students as the
‘One Rule to Rule Yourself’
An Adminawhile! LMAO!!! That’s freaking perfect!!!
Love it!
LOL
TFAs pivot from teacher training to admin training is a predictable path that continues to exploit high needs POC schools . Once again, the idea of using a business model of top down leadership “training” and expecting different results is the lunacy of what ed reform has become over the last 20 years. “Strong leadership” is a euphemism for firing teachers, more punishments via VAM-like evaluations, more testing, and other heavy-handed ed reform tactics. This model once again ignores authentic teacher voice for better working conditions and supports, necessary changes that would improve learning conditions for everyone. Their mea culpa is a thinly veiled cover for giving them the opportunity to entrench themselves further into the machinations of school leadership from within. This new TFA working model is like a cancer that entwines itself to the hapless victim; once it takes hold, it’s nearly impossible to remove.
Well said. Ignoring “authentic teacher voice” is at the heart of the problem.
Although so many professional seasoned teachers have left…. I don’t know what the voice of new teachers would bring – since they have been so heavily influenced by the reform movement of the last 20 years.
Brainwashed, reformy children in teachers’ clothing. Lord help us. We’re freaking doomed.
Well, I can see that the problems that other businesses are having filling positions hasn’t affected the Bad Idea Factory. In fact, based on the information in this post, I’d say the plant is working overtime.
“I may be dumb but I am not stupid”
These folks don’t have a clue about quality education, authentic teaching, effective leadership, or learning.
But they have more than a clue about using the system for their own benefit and gain – monetary and cultural.
They have the playbook on takeovers of public education through board seats, golden-boy hucksters, and misinformation campaigns.
And, they were emboldened by the “howl at the moon, lie, and blame” virus that sat in the WH and Florida for four years and the hundreds of state legislative and county board seats.
Follow the money and the motive – keep the legitimate media informed – send them the NPE website and reports – combat every “report”, flyer, letter to the editor, and open meeting comment with the counter argument and information
…. (note – truth no longer matters because the right has convinced everyone truth is in the mouth of the spewer, not facts and reality.
“Instead, it will work on training school leaders, like principals, administrators and school board members.”
Thinking of the uncredited BROAD Academy, I think most of us already know how this will turn out.
More public school admsitnrators trained to sabotage the very schools they end up working in driving more dedicated teachers out in an attempt to cause the public schools to collapse and turn into torture chambers.
Dianne was right:
“educational historian Diane Ravitch, argue that Broad Academy superintendents exert too much influence on their school districts. “What I see happening is that they colonize districts,” said Ravitch, who criticized the venture philanthropy approach to education reform in her 2010 book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. “Once there’s a Broad superintendent, he surrounds himself with Broad fellows, and they have a preference towards privatization. It happens so often, it makes me wonder what they’re teaching them.”
https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/criticism-grows-louder-as-broad-superintendent-academy-expands-influence
“Critics Target Growing Army of Broad Leaders”
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/critics-target-growing-army-of-broad-leaders/2011/06
I wonder what happened to the BROAD Academy after Eli Broad died. Did it die, too, and, did TFA see an opportunity to fill that vacuum to keep disrupting and spreading chaos among the K-12 public schools?
Any community that values its public schools should run from any relationship with TFA and what they represent. Public schools are public assets that must be defended from TFA and any other group that wants to turn education into a commodity.
How will a staff of teachers, ranging in age from their early 20s to their early 60s react to the announcement that their new principal is 24-25 years old, with two years of teaching experience? The same way we react to Nick Melvoin, the boyish school board member in my district from TFA with two years of teaching experience, as he promotes segregationist policies and conspires with outside organizations to privatize schools and attack the job protections of experienced teachers. We strike. We file grievances with the Public Employee Relations Board. We unify. And when we strike, we win. TFA will continue to attack teachers. They have the money. We have the numbers. In the end, corporate reform will retreat back to its rightwing libertarian corner and sulk. I’ll use some Betsy DeVos language here: TFA is a dead end.
Agreed. One of the best moves Houston made was to send TFA packing. That was the start of the decline of TFA “teachers” in public schools. Young college graduates also caught on to what an exploitation machine TFA is, and it became harder for them to snare dewy eyed young people into working for peanuts while TFA collected big dollars on the contracts.
I had a 28 year old principal, and believe me, she was a total failure and flop. All kinds of terrible things happened under her “leadership” including student injuries (fights, door panels falling on students, dog attacks, and an attempted in-class suicide). The only people that could get along were the TFA people, and they were totally unacceptable. This is insanity. I can remember when I believed in TFA, but that was before I got to know some of them. Geez 😦
How would I react to learning that my new principal was a 22 year old?
With utter derision.
If ever there were a job requiring wisdom gained via experience, being a principal is it. Any experienced principal can explain to you the hundred thousand reasons why.
Hahahahahaha! And yes, of course Bob.
It doesn’t make sense.
If they failed at creating effective teachers, what makes them think they can take inexperienced college grads and put them into leadership roles?
If at first you fail, then fail, fail again. All while collecting the moolah. Talk about incompetence.
They need a reason to exist. Use those inexperienced teachers to “train” future principals.
“How will a staff of teachers, ranging in age from their early 20s to their early 60s react to the announcement that their new principal is 24-25 years old, with two years of teaching experience?”
I’m sure Mike Bloomberg would have a ready answer for that one.
The wolf has shed his sheepskin. Just another corporate hack. Eli Broad’s “Superintendent Academy. Bloomberg’s “Aspiring Principals Program’.
Go away TFA. The pandemic has brought to the forefront that a top down, administrator heavy style of management has resulted in an overwhelming shortage of essential workers. Schools do not have enough bus drivers, custodians, caf workers, paras or building subs…even school nurses are hard to find and retain. Yet, money for administration or consultants appears endless.
Here is the first questions I’d ask anyone applying to these “school leadership” academies. How can you lead a group of people when you have NO experience doing what they are doing?
“There is a lot of teacher and principal turnover in St. Louis”
..said the head of Turnover For America in St Louis.
Turning over a new leaf,
…same as the old leaf.
Here’s a better idea: leaf us alone.
TFA is to school as rotisserie is to chicken.
Or maybe “spit is to chicken” would be better.
Does anyone remember the phase when they hired administrators from the business community who treated staff and students like commodities instead of people. They were only concerned with the bottom line.
What a disaster that was. Why don’t we ever learn?
The problem is not learning.
The problem is teaching. :}
NO administrator should receive an administrative credential without a minimum of 5 years of classroom teaching experience, an absolute minimum requirement. And I suspect that TFA has a strong political direction that it’s serving up to it’s neophyte “administrators” that is at strong cross purposes to a right and proper education…..If my 56 years of award winning education have given me any insight.
Should race play a role in administrator selection? (be careful)
I’ve worked for effective and ineffective principals – male, female – black, white, Hispanic, Asian. I can’t categorize any gender or race as being better or worse. They all had their strengths and weaknesses, but there were definitely some I enjoyed working for (preferably with) than others.
I did work for some amazing black women.
Lots of research- higher academic achievement for Black students w/ Black principals…
Peter, I’m not surprised. That was my experience working in the Buffalo Public Schools. However, I can think of a few white women who ruled their students with a loving, but iron fist. One of them was a little bitty thing, but when she told them to jump, they asked how high.
I don’t understand why parents buy into this? Why would any parent want an inexperienced administrator or teacher? Is it that they just don’t know or is it that they just don’t care? A dad told me once that he didn’t care what went on in school; he just needed somewhere to put his kids. Sigh.
If parents don’t know, how can we bring it to their attention and make it the fervor that CRT is?
The most ineffective, arrogant, malicious principal I ever had was a 27 year old TFA principal in a state takeover district. 2 years teaching. 2 years charter principal then moved to public by a TFA superintendent. He was blonde, white, only spoke Ed speak and the school was 99% Latinx and Black.🙄
He is now a state employee in a TFA embedded state with his old boss as education commissioner.
Wow. What a Nightmare.
Not a reply to you, Texas (but, coincidentally, this guy comes to Chicago via San Antonio!): the new head of CPS has…NO classroom experience. None. Nada. Was most recently Supt. of San Antonio Public Schools. Reportedly, mixed reviews from S.A. Teachers.
Also, worked under Arne Duncan. Friend of charters.
Hmm…
I’m betting people will be missing Janice Jackson.
Oh, & BTW, only TWO years of teaching are required for eligibility to take educational administrators test, &, after passing, one may apply for administrative positions. This has been in place for at least the past 30 years.
I work at a school filled with TFA admin. They are floundering. They have no pedagogical training, yet they serve as instructional specialists. I can’t suggest anything to them, as I’m just a peasant with 10+ years of experience beyond their own. We are failing – fast.
This type of leadership style has trickled into the suburbs. Misguided confidence. And we have learned to “go along to get along.”
One of the saddest moments is often at the end of the AP’s Observation Review, which is usually conducted a day or two after the observation has taken place.
Here in NYC, the AP is required to offer a best practices suggestion or two, even if the teacher has hit a grand slam home run. These suggestions are written out at the end of the official review transcript and read aloud to the teacher. This shows that there’s always room for growth and that the admins know how to attain that holy grail.
My colleagues and I have seen some unbelievably lame suggestions and some pretty good ones. But, for the most part, it’s just another box for the admin to check off.
What a horribly reductive take on the change in approach. Notwithstanding the fact that you’re insinuating a lie that these folks in the aspiring leaders cohort will have two years of experience (they won’t; they’ll be experienced educators who seek higher leadership options), your insinuations that TFA is a failure because it hasn’t changed the scope of education ignores the larger structural challenges faced by educators. I would expect more from an experienced and thoughtful commentator.
How many years of teaching experience will the average aspiring leaders have? Will they all be former TFA’s or is this a leadership program for say…. public school teachers who have taught for 15-20 years?
I can’t get over the gall! First they employ poorly trained impostors to teach and now they’re expecting their inexperienced newbies to run a school? I don’t even want to think how this will impact SPED kids and kids with disciplinary issues.