Archives for category: Teach for America TFA
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Referees for America?

By dianeravitch
September 27, 2012 //
10

Jersey Jazzman takes note of the media hysteria about those NFL referees who replaced the experienced, unionized referees. Even Governor Scott Walker was upset when the inexperienced referees made a call that led to a loss by the Green Bay Packers.

Do we need “Referees for America” to step in when the unionized referees go on strike? Apparently the football lovers of America say no.

Maybe experience and qualifications matter.

And remember how the media piled on teachers in Chicago for their outrageous salaries? Was it $56,000, $74,000?

Well, a reader sent this important information:

The refs make $150,000 for 6 months of part time work. They want $200,000. I haven’t seen those numbers thrown around in the media. Every time they talked about the teachers in Chicago they threw out the bogus $74,000 average salary. Then some pundit would always add they only worked 8 months out of the year as well. Everyone bemoaned the greedy overpaid teachers.
I was watching Morning Joe yesterday and Joe Scarboro, who couldn’t get enough of trashing the teachers in Chicago last week, was up in arms over the greedy NFL owners refusal to pay for experienced refs.

Categories Teach for America TFA, Unions

Why Is TFA Collecting Your Nickels and Dimes?

By dianeravitch
September 26, 2012 //
17

TFA is clearly a very successful operation. It places some 10,000 or so young college graduates in the nation’s schools each year, after giving them five weeks of training. They commit to stay for two years but some stay for three or four, and a few stay longer. Districts pay TFA $2,000-5,000 for each recruit.

According to a recent article in Reuters, TFA has assets of $300 million.

TFA has an awesome fund-raising machine. It won $50 million from the U.S. Department of Education; another $49.5 million from the very conservative Walton Foundation; $100 million from a consortium of four foundations; and untold millions from corporate donors.

This reader wondered why JC Penny was collecting donations for TFA. Another reader said that other big corporations are also fund-raising for TFA. When I went to my bank’s ATM, I was informed that I could donate $1 to TFA.

This reader asks why TFA is so aggressive in advancing its own power:

1)enormous sums of money are being thrown at TFA (hint: they may be valuable to someone’s bottom line)

2) TFA members getting into policy positions after 2 or 3 years of teaching (why waste time getting expertise. Be an impatient optimist)

3) State Ed policy positions becoming increasingly closed to people who don’t have TFA or Broad credentials (according to someone I know who is highly placed in a State BoE)

4) public education going through a corporate funded regime change (Walton/Broad/Gates)

5) TFA being associated with a broader movement that is being used to dismantle and take over public schools (coincidentially lining pockets)

6) TFA participating in expedient policy (such as 60 students in a class in Detroit)

7) the complex connections between TFA leadership and other interested parties in the edreform movement. One might follow the money (Murdoch/Klein/Rhee)

But, if you’re still having trouble following the argument, let’s just quit. Sometimes humor makes the better point.

http://edushyster.com/?p=606#more-606 or this: http://edushyster.com/?p=541
Categories Education Reform, Teach for America TFA

What is the Mind Trust (part 2)

By dianeravitch
September 24, 2012 //
5

I wrote a post about the Mind Trust the other day, having realized that it is part of the faux reform movement intent on privatizing public education in Indiana.

Quite by coincidence, the great education writer Karen Francisco at the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette wrote a piece about the Mind Trust on exactly the same day.

She points out that their modus operandi–right out of the ALEC playbook–is to bypass democracy and local control so as to impose privatization by fiat.

The entering wedge is the rhetoric: “It’s all about the children.” “Do you believe in great teachers?” “We are here to save black children.” “We came to save the children from failing schools.”

Knowing how these reformers work, the next step is to open charters in affluent suburbs, where there are no failing schools, no children to “save,” but then all children need choice, right?

And their empire grows.

Is there a prize for opening the most charter schools? for replacing the most public schools? Where do these people come from?

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Indiana, Teach for America TFA

What’s at Stake in Nashville Charter Fight

By dianeravitch
September 24, 2012 //
14

Readers of this blog know we have been following the story of Great Hearts Charter School and its effort to locate in an affluent section of Nashville. Here is a good and objective summary in a Nashville newspaper.

State Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman–whose only prior experience in education was working for Teach for America (he taught for two years, went to work for TFA, was never a principal or a superintendent)– wants this particular charter very badly. He has been monitoring the actions of the Metro Nashville school board, and he warned them there would be bad consequences if they did not approve this charter. Huffman made it clear: he wanted this charter approved.

The local board thought that the school would not be diverse, would not reflect the district, and they turned it down. They turned it down three times. The state board ordered them to approve the charter, and the local board said no again.

Maybe the local board was aware of research showing again and again that charters don’t get better results than public schools unless they exclude low-performing students.

Huffman and the Governor were furious that the school board said no. They announced that they would punish the democratically elected Metro Nashville school board by withholding $3.4 million in “administrative” funds. These are funds for student transportation, utilities, and maintenance.

In their vindictiveness, Governor Haslam and Commissioner Huffman are prepared to deny transportation funds for the children of Nashville and shut off the lights and electricity.

All for a charter that expects parents to pony up $1,200 as a “voluntary” contribution to the school. No wonder there are people who think this is a ploy to open a private school with public dollars, located conveniently in an area where upper-income parents want a free public education, inaccessible to children from the other side of Nashville.

Haslam and Huffman are likely to go the ALEC route. The rightwing organization ALEC has model legislation that allows the governor to appoint a commission to authorize charter schools over the objections of local school boards.

A measure of this kind is on the ballot in Georgia this November.

What this demonstrates is that privatization means more to these conservatives than local control. With a governor-appointed commission, they can hand over public dollars to fat cats and cronies.

Nothing conservative about that. A conservative member of the Alabama state board of education writes me offline, and points out that the privatization movement is about greed, not education. It violates every conservative principle.

Remember when local school boards in the South used their powers to defend segregation. Here is one that is using its powers to defend desegregation.

Governor Haslam and Commissioner Huffman can’t tolerate the school board’s defiance. they are ready to wipe out the authority of local school boards to advance the privatization of public education and to hasten the return of a dual school system..

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Teach for America TFA, Tennessee

The Pattern on the Rug

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2012 //
6

A reader sees how the pieces of the reform movement fit together:

I think that all the double-speak is just to divert attention away from the major process of dismantling education that has been taking place across the country, and the smoke and mirrors is to conceal the intention to ultimately declare brick and mortar schools obsolete and teachers expendable and unnecessary. Effectively, the goal is to not have teachers anymore.

One online teacher I work with put it this way recently, “We’re just glorified graders now.” Honestly, for a teacher, there is no glory when your job boils down to just grading. But politicians, corporate reformers and companies like Pearson and K-12 seem to think that education can be reduced to presenting material on a screen and testing, and that they can train virtually anyone to be graders.

Actually, online, you can set it up so that tests are self-administered and automatically generate grades, so currently instructors are grading papers, class discussions, group projects, participation, etc. and I can see how that might one day be considered superfluous to the powers that be.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Parent trigger, Privatization, Race to the Top, Stand for Children, Teach for America TFA, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Technology, Computers, Unions, US Education

What Is The Mind Trust?

By dianeravitch
September 19, 2012 //
11

When I first read that The Mind Trust had proposed a sweeping reorganization of the Indianapolis public schools, I assumed it was another reform scheme to dismantle and privatize public education.

But I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, so I held my tongue. I decided to wait and see.

Today I received an invitation from The Mind Trust to hear one of the nation’s leading voucher advocates and all doubt was dispelled.

When I saw that the event was co-sponsored by the anti-teacher, anti-public school group “Stand for Children,” as well as Education Reform Now (the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ front-group), no further question remained.

Something tells me that Howard Fuller, the speaker, won’t acknowledge that the children in voucher schools do no better than those in public schools. Nor will he admit that black children in Milwaukee schools, whether public, charter or voucher, have NAEP scores about the same as black children in Mississippi. That’s the result of 21 years of competition, with public dollars divided three ways.

Indiana, once so proud of its tradition of public schooling, is now the playground for privatization, for-profit charters, TFA, and entrepreneurs of all stripes.

Time for Hoosiers to wake up before the reformers sell off or give away the public sector.

Categories Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Privatization, Teach for America TFA, Vouchers, Wisconsin

TFA Leading Corporate Reforms in Indiana

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2012 //
15

Read this glowing report about how TFA alums have taken over leadership roles across Indiana, with 11 working in the State Education Department.

This is a state where the Republican Governor and Legislature have passed voucher legislation, encouraged the proliferation of charter schools, and welcomed for-profit schooling. It is the full rightwing agenda, exceeded perhaps in scope and ambition only by Bobby Jindal’s privatization agenda (which is led by TFA alum John White).

Near the end of the article, the reporter finds an experienced educator or two to wonder whether five weeks of training is sufficient, but the rest of the piece glows with adulation for the kids who are reshaping the state along the lines of corporate-style reform.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Teach for America TFA

The Real Story Behind The CTU Strike

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2012 //
23

Count on Stephanie Simon of Reuters to get the story that eluded every other reporter.

She is the one that got the inside story on Louisiana, TFA, and for-profit investors.

Now she has the scoop on Chicago.

The strike in Chicago is not about money.

It is a national story.

It’s about the survival of public education.

Read her story.

Categories Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, For-Profit, Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teach for America TFA, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, U.S. Department of Education, Unions, US Education

An Exchange of Views about TFA

By dianeravitch
September 6, 2012 //
51

I received the following comment from a TFA advocate, in response to a blog about the outspoken and brilliant Camika Royal:

In my experience with TFA, which stretches across over a decade, at local and at national levels, Dr. Royal is not the exception, but a shining example of the kind of person who joins, then runs (she was on staff for a number of years) TFA and who then moves on to contribute in thoughtful ways to education. Granted, she is exceptionally incisive, but the difference between her and many other TFA alumni is one of degree, not of kind.

Whatever it may look like from the outside, TFA is one of the most self-critical organizations I have ever seen, always questioning its own presumptions and seeking ways to more effectively serve students and schools. If you disagree with its premise, that’s fair. If you say that a number of its young teachers are arrogant, you’re right. But they are not the majority, and they don’t reflect the ethos of the organization. To be critical of TFA is merited, but the wholesale TFA bashing that has become a sport on this blog and elsewhere is simple-minded scapegoating that distracts from the real issues, which are much more nuanced than the good guy/bad guy scenario that appeals to lazy thinkers. More importantly, it is a missed opportunity. Whether you agree with its mission or not, TFA is an efficient and well-run educational organization, which is why it thrives even in difficult times. That’s a rare animal in our world, and we ought to be asking not how we can take it down, but what we can learn from it to apply to our own efforts.

This was my response to the comment:

TFA would be regarded in a positive light if it did the following things:

1. Recognize that five weeks of training is not adequate to make a “great” teacher.
2. Stop boasting that its first-year teachers are better than veteran teachers
3. Stop sending young recruits to take the jobs of experienced teachers who were laid off in budget cuts (that’s called “scab”)
4. Stop claiming (as Wendy Kopp does) that we don’t have to fix poverty, we have to fix the schools
5. Return to its original mission of sending young people to high-needs schools that are unable to find teachers.

Categories Education Reform, Teach for America TFA

Talk About Nerve!

By dianeravitch
September 4, 2012 //
25

A group of 30 organizations associated with corporate reform wrote a letter to Secretary Arne Duncan to insist that he hold teacher education programs accountable for the test scores of the students taught by their graduates.

Groups like Teach for America, StudentsFirst, Democrats for Education Reform (the Wall Street hedge fund managers), The New Teacher Project, various charter chains, Jeb Bush’s rightwing Chiefs for Change and his Foundation for Educational Excellence, and various and sundry groups that love teaching to the test stand together as one.

Their views are in direct opposition to those of the leaders of higher education, who oppose this extension of federal control into their institutions.

Read Gary Rubinstein’s blog about it here, where you will see the full cast of corporate reform characters, many of them funded by the Gates Foundation.

They are certain that what minority students need most is more testing. They want the test scores of the students to determine the career and livelihood of their teachers. And they want the federal government to punish the schools of education that prepared the teachers of these children.

If Duncan takes their advice, he will assume the power to penalize schools of education if the students of their graduates can’t raise their test scores every year.

The vise of standardized testing will tighten around public education.

These people and these organizations are wrong. They are driving American education in a destructive direction. They will reduce children to data points, as the organizations thrive. Wasn’t a decade of NCLB enough for them?

They are on the wrong side of history. They may be flying high now, but their ideas hurt children and ruin the quality of education.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, ConnCAN, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Higher Education, StudentsFirst, Teach for America TFA, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, U.S. Department of Education
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »