May 26, 2006

The Hot Choice, Post-College

Law school or Teach For America? Wrede Smith, a DePauw University political science major, weighed his options this spring as graduation loomed. Acceptance letters arrived from two of four law schools, and he received his invitation to enter the teaching corps in April.

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In the end, Smith chose to enroll in the most competitive of his options — the one that accepts less than 20 percent of its applicants (hint: it has nothing to do with torts or criminal procedure).

Many students like Smith enter their final term in college facing the grad school vs. service program question. And if recent numbers from Teach For America are any indication, the latter option is faring just fine. A record 19,000 people – roughly a 10 percent jump from the previous year – applied this academic year to the program that places students from top colleges in classrooms in disadvantaged school districts for a two-year assignment. The program allows the students to begin teaching just months after graduation while they work toward their teaching certificate, instead of having to wait a year or more to get into the classroom.

Teach For America accepted about 3,300 students this spring — fewer than one in five of those who applied — and roughly 2,400 are expected to begin teaching in the fall, according to Todd McGovern, a Teach For America spokesman. The program, developed by a Princeton University alumna, Wendy Kopp, as her undergraduate senior thesis in 1989, has become a popular option for aspiring educators and those looking for a meaningful first job. It has also drawn its share of skepticism, as detractors question whether a beginning teacher with often just a few months of training can be effective in the most challenging and lowest-performing schools, and whether program participants are in it more to pad their resumes than to become teachers.

Teach For America drew applicants from at least 10 percent of eligible graduating students at such institutions as Amherst, Carleton, Claremont-McKenna, Dartmouth, Kenyon, Scripps and Spelman Colleges, the University of Notre Dame, and Yale University. More than 9 percent applied from both Georgetown and Rice Universities, and among state universities, the University of California at Berkeley led the way, with 6 percent of its seniors applying.

“We’ve had a jump over the last couple of years due in part to this generation of students increasingly wanting to do public service,” McGovern said. “They see that it’s within their reach.”

Theresa Mikajlo, director of literacy at the Newark Public School District, said she has been impressed with the commitment and intentions of the roughly 40 Teach For America participants who teach in her district per year. “It has brought talented people into the schools without a doubt,” said Mikajlo, an adjunct at Seton Hall University who teaches the course that allows corps members to receive their alternative certificate. “But there’s a mismatch between what TFA defines as its goals, and what our goals are. When people enter the program, there can sometimes be a quick-fix mentality. One person can’t change the culture of the school.”

McGovern said Teach For America has stepped up its recruiting efforts over the last few years, visiting hundreds of campuses and hiring student interns to spread the word about the program. In particular, recruiters have been after potential math/science/engineering students, who made up 20 percent of the applicant pool this year, McGovern said. At Notre Dame, a third of all eligible students in those fields applied to the program, he said.

A record 14 DePauw graduates plan to begin their assignments in the fall, including Charles Carpenter, who, like Smith, chose Teach For America over law school. “I think that inequality in public education is our most pressing domestic issue. It is the new injustice,” he said in an e-mail.

Smith, who will be teaching in St. Louis this fall, said he is interested in experiencing public policy first-hand. He said he doesn’t plan to stay in teaching — other than perhaps a faculty position in higher education — beyond the two years required by Teach For America. “The idea that I could take two years off before law school and do something productive seemed like a good one,” he said. “I’ll be better prepared [for law school] in two years than if I was going this fall.”

Teach For America has gained the reputation as being a solid career starter, but many students move outside the teaching field after the program. That has led some traditional teachers to deride the program’s participants as dilettantes. McGovern said more than 60 percent of corps members stay in the field for a third year, either at their school or in another capacity — he points out that some of the participants from years ago are now principals. And those who don’t remain in teaching leave with a better understanding of the needs of public education, McGovern said.

Mikajlo said in any given year, about half of the corps members choose to stay in her district after their assignments end. She said the district is proud of its retention rate, but that those who leave create a “cycle of attrition at our schools that becomes in and of itself a problem.”

Mike Hendel, Carleton College ’s interim director of the career center, said Teach For America has prepared Carleton students well for a career in education. But he said the recruiting tactics are not always effective. “They target student leaders, and while that’s a good idea, not all of those high achievers want to teach. That’s where the disconnect lies.”

Stew Peckham, director of career development at Kenyon College, said the recruitment effort has worked on his campus. He said most of the students he has spoken to indicated that Teach For America was their first choice.

Smith, the DePauw student, said some of his cohorts applied in the fall round and accepted right away. “For most people it’s their first choice,” Smith said. It was for DePauw graduate Lauren Hawley, who said the social justice element of the program sold her right away. “TFA was my first choice for post-grad plans ... I did not apply for any other jobs,” she said in an e-mail.

McGovern said Teach For America hopes to grow over the next four years – from 3,500 corps members to 8,000 by 2010. Bekki Lee, associate dean of students and director of the career center at Amherst College, said she doesn’t see interest on her campus waning any time soon.

“It’s seen as a viable option for getting in on the ground level of teaching,” Lee said. “They are building a core of people who have first-hand experience, and it’s a good way to get them invested in ways they wouldn’t have been.”

— Elia Powers

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Comments

this is great

I think this is a bit of a puff piece. TFA, unlike the application profess to law schools is incredibly self-selecting. People don’t apply to TFA and six or seven other similar programs, hoping to get into one. So, the ratios alluded to are not analogous to law schools.

The problem with TFA is that in attempting to attract the “cream” of the crop, as the article admits, it chews up, and spits out people (or it says “move outside teaching.”) Often to law school.

Finally, as Mr. Hendel says, “targeting student leaders” is silly. A “student leader” is anyone that wants to run a club or participate in the silliness that is student government. Not a scholar, or even a future teacher.

Larry, at 7:40 am EDT on May 26, 2006

Although I am a little skeptical of the opinion in the article that our graduates go into TFA for altruisitic reasons (rather than resume padding), the fact that this program can place top grads into our lowest performing schools (even for only two years) is magnificent. The real challenge would be to get the 80% of TFA denials into other low-performing classrooms. The problem, of course, is that TFA has developed an exclusivity buzz that has little to do with the nature of the service the program provides.

Patrick Mattimore, TFA Model, at 9:55 am EDT on May 26, 2006

The Hot Choice

Students who are attracted to TFA are students who have not decided what they want to do and are looking for other options before they begin their “careers". I doubt that many TFA alumni actually stay in teaching. Everyone thinks that because these are law students, they must be the cream of the crop. In reality, plugging young rich adults, regardless of race or ethnicity, into inner-city schools really does not address the real problems of equity and opportunity, which need long term solutions and constant monitoring.

Patricia, at 10:55 am EDT on May 26, 2006

TFA is so offensive to the profession of teaching. How can we take someone who has no training in educational pedagogy and place them in schools where students have the most need? I really want to be a doctor at this point, can you create a Heal for America program for me? Don’t say it is not the same thing. If you are reading this, thank a teacher.

Fellman Blouin, Retired educator, at 11:05 am EDT on May 26, 2006

TFA alum

As a PROUD TFA alum, I can say that many of us do stay in teaching or go into adminstration or start our own schools.I personally stayed for 3 years in my school in Mississippi. At least we’re trying to help the K-12 education system-unlike other posters to this forum.

Melinda Manning, UNC-Chapel Hill, at 11:10 am EDT on May 26, 2006

I don’t find TFA offensive at all and I currently teach. The program sends some incredibly talented individuals into classes in places like Compton, Ca. that don’t exactly have newly minted grads from teaching schools banging down their doors to get in. So what if these are not long-term teachers. Don’t confuse long-term solutions with long-term teachers. The fact that TFA sends an army of 3500 into classrooms each year is a great thing. We should be looking to place lots more people like those-even if they are not making careers out of teaching. (BTW TFA claims a pretty good rate for keeping people in the profession- though not exclusively as teachers- on their website).

Patrick Mattimore, TFA is great!, at 11:20 am EDT on May 26, 2006

Please know your facts...

As both an incoming MS Delta corps member for the upcoming year, and a student recruiter this past year, I challenge those of you who are skeptical to actually go out and research Teach for America and then comment. Mathematica Policy research, an independent research firm found that TFA corps members: * Make 10% more progress in a year in math than is typically expected, while slightly exceeding the normal expectation for progress in reading. * Attain greater gains in math and the same gains in reading compared to the other teachers in the study, even as compared only to certified teachers and to veteran teachers.

Kane, Parsons, and Associates, another independent research firm, surveyed principals of corps members to find that:

*Nearly all principals (95 percent) reported that corps members’ training is at least as good as the training of other beginning teachers.*The majority of principals (63 percent) regarded Teach For America teachers as more effective than the OVERALL TEACHING FACULTY, with respect to their impact on student achievement.

In regards to long-term impact, has anyone heard of the Knowledge is Power Program? Arguably the moss successful charter school in the country, and they were started by two TFA alums. That’s just one of many hundreds of examples of how TFA alums go on to impact education in a variety of ways.

We are all working to educate students. If the skeptics spent half the time and energy they put into attempting to discredit TFA and put it towards a constructive way to close the achievement gap, we’d be a lot closer to educational equality than we are today.

Ryan Frailich, at 11:30 am EDT on May 26, 2006

TFA Story

Very high quality research demonstrates that TFA teachers are adding value to the education of public school students. The fact that the “education establishment” is tweaked out about the publicity given to TFA and to the fact that they are allowed to teach despite having completed a teacher education program demonstrates that TFA is helping to turn up the heat on education schools unable or unwilling to change. While teaching involves more than content knowledge, the fact is that most graduates of most education schools have nowhere near the subject matter mastery of the average TFA graduate. Nor, despite the rhetoric, do ed school graduates have skills in classroom management or pedagogical content knowledge. Just ask any principal who hires a new graduate from a US education school.

Sheldon, at 11:55 am EDT on May 26, 2006

Hypocrites!

To the retired educator I ask this question, are you willing to spend your teaching career in a lower SES school where students perform poorly academically and have discipline issues? And maybe parents won’t offer you as much support as schools with higher SES...think twice before you call TFA an insult.

The reality is teachers don’t want to teach in low income schools. Why can TFA place so many corp members into those districts each year? The turnover rate is really high. Teachers just come and go in these districts because they don’t want to stay.

Yes TFA is idealistic, but so what? Whats wrong with some idealism in this world? Maybe corp members will have to come crashing down to reality after they start teaching but at least they tried and were brave enough to go the tough route.

To the skeptical “Heal for America” stalwart...there are programs for you to start performing “medical” procedures. JUST VOLUNTEER! Has that thought ever crossed your mind? My friend started giving pap smears after volunteering a month at a gyno. You can join many doctor’s efforts around the world as assistants as well. Have you heard of Patch Adams? You can join his efforts and help me heal children around the world. Volunteer at a hospital and boom! you are doing a doctor’s job.

To all you skeptics...please don’t be so pessimistic anymore. Just believe.

Jenn,, at 11:55 am EDT on May 26, 2006

As someone who is currently working on the TFA application, I would like to remind the skeptics that whatever someone’s reason may be, putting some of the arguably most ambitious and intelligent graduates in the country to work in schools is a worthy cause. I know what I want to do with my life, but I do not wish to immediately continue my higher education. Rather, I would like to take the time to give other students the same educational opportunities that I have had over the years. We send thousands of young people abroad every year with the Peace Corps to help other poor countries, when many thousands of students in America could use our help right here. Whatever happened to “no child left behind?” There is a shortage of licensed teachers in this country and people rarely choose to teach in poor areas due to fear and the low salaries. If college graduates are the only people willing to take the time and energy to try and impact even one child’s view of education, than who is anyone else to argue? You cannot reach everyone with programs like this, but you can reach a few, and that may make all of the difference.

P.S. Why aren’t graduates qualified to teach? I personally have been attending school for 16 years, I’d say I know which strategies actually taught me anything and I have had several examples of both good and bad teachers. Add to that several years of private tutoring. With additional training, what makes me any less qualified than the next guy?

Caitlin Stuart, at 12:30 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

“How can we take someone who has no training in educational pedagogy and place them in schools where students have the most need?” Very carefully, is the answer. The TFA teachers are winners in a selective, competitive process. But, does anyone who completed many years of schooling truly lack training in pedagogy? Assimilation still operates.

The skepticism of teaching without formal credentials would strike most moms and pops as very strange. Most of us were taught much by parents without formal degrees in child teaching. Some of us learned to read this way.

Marvin McConoughey, at 2:00 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

more “facts”

Teach for America and its devotees are fond of bringing up the Mathematica and Kane-Parsons reports and treating them as conclusive. There are, however, studies with contradictory findings. One such study published in the Education Policy Analysis Archives, available at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n37/ is particularly discouraging:

“On all tests, and in both years, the certified teachers out-performed the under-certified novice teachers from Teach for America.”

“Jonathan Schorr (1993), a former TFA teacher...notes, ‘just eight weeks of training ... is not enough for teachers’ Schorr admits, ‘I was not a successful teacher, and the loss to the students was real and large.’”

David Cohen, Graduate, at 2:10 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

I read with interest the debate on how TFA teachers compare to teachers with formal training in educational pedagogy in student outcomes. For a non-educator unfamiliar with the studies like me, the relative merits of the studies cannot be assessed. However, even if trained teachers fare better than those from TFA, the value of the program cannot be discounted without consideration of whom, if anyone, TFA teachers are replacing in their positions. Are TFA teachers preventing trained teachers from filling these positions, or would the positions otherwise go unfilled, or filled by uncertified staff? Do any of the analyses of the subject address this?

Craig P, at 4:15 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

TFA

TFA is epiphenomenal to the needs of our impoverished schools and communities. It has a noblesse oblige tone, especially in its “only the best & brightest” orientation. But the program has been phenomenally successfully at attracting attention and private funding. And as a result, a relatively small number of career teachers are produced.

Nonetheless, the willingness of kids to attempt what the program expects and surrender 2 years in service is elegant. Like Peace Corps, VISTA and other volunteer and service programs, the program offers young people an opportunity to put some of those chaotic 20’s to purposes beyond career and such. I meet a lot of young people w/ varying desires to serve, many associated with spiritual drives in their lives.

It’s very appealing when a young adult-to-be decides to serve, even if the way or ideology of the service doesn’t always mesh w/ my ideas. The presence of these college students are partial counterpoints to the representations in I Am Charlotte Simmons and other less attractive images of college students (who are indisputably present as well).

TFA and Spring Break Missions and many other decisions remind us that characerizing a whole generation or population in one way omits the amazing diverseness within any large age group. BTW, the notion that spending 2 years teaching in a poor school is an effective way to pad a resume seems overkill to the max. It’ll be an incredibly challenging task, and if pursued sincerely (and we have no reason to question the sincere efforts of TFA kids), will be a large investment of self. If those 2 years are followed by 30-40 as a surgeon or corporate lawyer, why cavil? The experience is a service to others — take it as that.

I find such decisions and young folk as both comforting and hopeful. I don’t compare them to the young teachers who ultimately pursue a passionate service for 20 years or more — or social workers or community organizers, etc. A career or life in service is markedly different than 2 years, but if we get those 2 years, better than none? I’ve long wished all our young people would be required to contibute 2 years to our society in some way. I wonder if that’d impact our notion of citizenship. Perhaps not, but it’d be a leveling experience.

Mike Sacken, prof of educ at tcu, at 4:15 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

Facts and Flaws

Most research I’ve seen shows very little difference (if any at all) between first year certified teachers and TFA teachers. But, consider the real issue. First year teachers have an incredibly difficult time no matter what the preparation system. I think where TFA fails is investing significantly in people not committed to becoming experienced, qualified, educators — and to me “educator” means someone who has studied the field of education, the same way “medical doctor” means someone who has studied the field of medicine. So I think, yes, there’s a conceptual problem if we think “anybody” can teach effectively without training. But more importantly, I’d rather see the funds and energy invested in TFA invested in alternative certification programs for people committed to k-12 education — such as those that find superior para-pros and turn them into certified teachers.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 4:20 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

and oh,

Caitlin,

I surely admire your passion and desires, I do. But if they were really deep, why didn’t you study education? I’m not saying you cannot work with children, but just as going to the doctor often as a child will not make you a surgeon when the Peace Corps sends you to Africa, having succeeded in education does not really make you prepared to teach in a nation where the majority of students do not succeed. Some here are nervous just as we’d be nervous if you said you wanted to be an emergency physician in Darfur after 8 weeks of training — perhaps because we think education is that important.

So, I wonder, what do you know about education, about learning theories, about behavioral issues, about learning disabilities, about the impact of poverty on the learning process, about teaching with multiple languages... etc? And, will you commit — will you stay teaching in that impoverished school for five or ten years, turning into the highly qualified teacher those children deserve?

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 4:20 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

School districts and other failing institutions(such as Compton USD) welcomed these green graduates.It was a lot less in terms of salaries they spent on these young people ,rather than hire the more experienced and credential holders(veteran teachers.).

Mr.F.G.Cortes B.A., at 5:15 pm EDT on May 26, 2006

non-certified teachers

Can someone tell me what percentage of certified teachers remain in the field for longer than two years?

Annie Hall, senior at Ohio State University, at 9:20 pm EDT on May 27, 2006

Many more than 60%

In fact, that’s the complaint the right-wing is always making about certified teachers — they get jobs and almost all get tenure. The biggest drop out rates are in Teach for America and in other alternative certification programs — though evidence shows that when those being “alternatively certified” have worked in schools prior to beginning the program, they are more likely to stick.

The issues to me are still commitment and training. I’m not going to be a big defender of every university teacher preparation program, and I’m surely not against kids padding their resumes with community service (I think it is great), but all the “achievement comparisons” between certified and non-certified teachers in their first year mean nothing. It takes years to make a great teacher — not eight weeks, not one year. And poorly trained (and bad) teachers are as dangerous to the lives of children as poorly trained (and bad) doctors. The children in Teach for America schools especially need the highest training, in disability accommodations, in safe and sane approaches to behavior issues, in educational diversity, in understanding the culture of poverty and underclass in America.

If the Teach for America foundation took the education of our struggling children seriously they would pump up salaries for the top certified teachers to get them to these schools. And would give them bonuses for staying there. We’re a pathetic country where we do exactly that to get soldiers to Iraq ($18,000 to join, sometimes $30,000 to stay), but see how cheaply we can babysit kids in our most challenged schools.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 5:25 am EDT on May 28, 2006

Good for the kids who want to spend two years in TFA — even if many do go onto other careers, and wind up as lawyers and management consultants, they still will have been exposed to some corners of the US they otherwise would not have seen, and may have done some good along the way.As for the need for individual trained in “educational pedagogy” — well, most of it is psuedo-scientific nonsense, and graduates of undergrad education schools are generally the lowest-scoring students on campus. Sorry, but no-one needs an undergrad degree in education.

gzk, at 7:55 pm EDT on May 29, 2006

David Cohen’s citation of “research” purporting to show that students of TFA teachers consistently underperform students of certified teachers comes from a study whose methodology does not permit the authors to draw that conclusion. The article is more ideology than science, as is most ‘research’ in education. The Kane, Goldhaber, and other studies—some of which find positive effects for TFA teachers and others with mixed findings—use value-added methods to capture the effects of teachers on pupil learning GAINS, measured at the individual level and not at the classroom level.

Ira Socol’s insult to the motives and beliefs of one student in the process of applying to TFA shows all too clearly why growing numbers of our best college graduates shun colleges of education for more intellectually rigorous and rewarding courses of study. And since nearly 50% of all new teachers in the US leave the profession within 5 years, according to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, it’s hard to see why TFA teachers should bear more of the blame than the weakly-prepared graduates of teacher education programs who also leave in droves.

Sheldon, Research on TFA, at 11:15 am EDT on May 30, 2006

Maybe I’m just bitter

I’m all for the principles of Teach For America and I think it’s great that they’re getting so many applications. But my low-income background inner self is rankled by this whole “cream of the crop” idea. Is TFA doing outreach to interest people who are really going to be good teachers, or are they just counting their applications from Ivy League grads and patting themselves on the back? (Full disclosure: I graduated from a University of California campus, applied for TFA, and was rejected. Hence my subject heading).

Despite TFA’s assessment that I wasn’t going to be effective in their program, I ended up teaching through various alternative pathways in downtown L.A., inner-city Milwaukee, and Compton. I made my share of mistakes while teaching but I loved the students and stayed in alternative schools for 9 years.

I’m all for creating different paths to teaching but I hate to see TFA turning into yet another elite opportunity for people with the “right” pedigree.

Conflicted, at 1:00 pm EDT on May 30, 2006

Response

Sheldon,

I am not insulting anyone’s motives. TFA markets itself as a way to improve and expand your resume while “giving something back.” I know many commenters here have little respect for teacher preparation, which may stem from the fact that most university profs have never gone through that kind of training and yet think of themselves as good teachers. But college profs are good teachers of the top (or “most successful") 30% of students. Students who might even be able to learn on their own.

The schools desperate for teachers have the highest needs. Perhaps, like “Conflicted” above, my background in that kind of school makes me nervous about using the children with the highest needs as an experiment group. Perhaps there is also a class issue, maybe I think that these schools would do best if people in these communities were raised up to teacher status through alternative certification, rather than importing the academic stars of elite universities to do “community service” there. Or maybe I just distrust the “value added” research gzk quotes, because I do not think of children as commodities.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 2:40 pm EDT on May 31, 2006

Thanks for your comments. I agree that TFA markets itself in the way that you describe, something I regard as a positive. The struggling schools where many TFA teachers are placed have very high rates of teacher turnover and very low pupil achievement—not unrelated. It is also the case, I believe, that these schools are not served very well by traditional teacher education programs—which largely fail to prepare their graduates with the teaching skills, content knowledge, and classroom management ability to teach successfully. The big ed school critics of TFA are doing nothing to change their programs. As for value-added and students as commodities, this approach to understanding what goes on in schools treats students as learners—looking to see whether (as measured generally by standardized tests) they have acquired measurable knowledge between Time 1 and Time 2 (e.g., over the course of a school year). The tests themselves may not be the greatest instruments, but they are the best we have at the moment. If children are not learning, what is the point of schooling and teaching?

Sheldon, Response to Ira on TFA, at 9:35 am EDT on June 1, 2006

Counting Student Achievement

The problem with virtually all student achievement analysis (in my view) is that it creates group measures for a highly individual process — learning. I never have any interest in the group result, that’s meaningless — to give an extreme example, 6 kids do better, 20 do nothing different, 2 do worse, 2 flee school, the group rating shows a “statistically significant gain.”

This is most true over the course of a single year, especially in the type of schools we’re discussing, with significant student turnover. (I realize that I go deeply against the current American grain with these thoughts.)

Staff turnover, as you point out, is a huge problem, and a problem only worsened by TFA. That is why I still favor bonuses to keep good teachers in those buildings, and alternative certification programs that convert other types of school employees (especially para-pros) who are from the community itself, into certified teachers.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 11:10 am EDT on June 1, 2006

Action coupled with humility

As an incoming NYC corps member this year, I’m extremely honored and anxious to become a part of a coalition of dedicated young people to work against a social ill many of us are aware of but have no idea how to begin to cure. I know that I will not be the best, most brilliant teacher out there. I know I will depend on the support of the Teach for America staff and the veteran staff at the school in which I’ll be placed. As someone with what most critcs would categorize as very limited experience with children, I know I am embarking on a very challenging project for the next two years, and that my focus must be determined but also coupled with humility and the willingness to take criticism and learn from others. This is what attracts me most to Teach for America- that the corps members involved desire to take on this incredible job of teaching— a profession we highly respect— with the most humble of attitudes. To those who question my ability, and the other corps members’ abilities, as a teacher next year with “limited experience in educational pedagogy,” I say this: Yes, I do have limited experience. But, I am committed to this challenge and willing to learn all that I can to do the best job that I can in these next two years.

Sarah, at 9:10 pm EDT on June 1, 2006

Sarah

Just a question: With limited experience with children and limited exposure to learning theory, do you think you would be better prepared to deal with the vast issues the children in your classroom will be facing in September if you had truly interned — that is, been a “student teacher” for a year?

I understand and appreciate both your humility and your willingness to learn, but just from the perspective of your own students — wouldn’t they be better off if you had either more education or more “apprenticeship” experience? And why does a child in Scarsdale get a more prepared teacher than a child in an economically challenged part of New York City? Is that the best way to cure the “social ill” you speak of?

Please feel free to email me off this forum if you would like. I’d certainly appreciate learning about your experiences — stating in all honesty — that I am willing to change my opinion.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 9:20 am EDT on June 2, 2006

This has been quite a series of exchanges, demonstrating the intense interest people have in teaching, approaches to preparing teaching, and how we know anything works. Two quick comments: Ira’s response to my earlier comments about student achievement studies mischaracterizes the value-added assessment methodology: it is entirely based on individual students, and their individual learning trajectories over a set period of time. As for the alleged contribution that TFA makes to teacher turnover, TFA has arisen and become popular (and successful) as a response to turnover. Accusing the program of contributing to turnover because its participants make and keep a 2-year commitment to teaching is like accusing high school seniors of contributing to the dropout rate because they leave after graduation.

Sheldon, Student achievement and TFA, at 12:05 pm EDT on June 2, 2006

Questions

The reports that demonstrate TFA success (those that I have seen) are averaged measures. But I’d love to see student-by-student breakdowns, you can link me here or directly by email.

And I guess my question remains... do those who favor this approach really argue that teaching children requires no preparation? Not just no formal education, but no apprenticeship either?

It is one thing to say that most US teacher prep programs aren’t nearly good enough (an argument which I would not only agree with, but suggest that you are “being polite") but it is something else to declare that anyone can walk into a classroom with 8 weeks of prep and be a good teacher.

One last thing: Obviously TFA contributes to turnover. Alternate Certification of community members is far more likely to create long-term teachers. I refuse to get trapped into comparing TFA with “doing nothing” — I am suggesting alternate uses for this funding.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 1:25 pm EDT on June 2, 2006

TFA

I’m a fan of a multidimensional approach to providing high quality education to the children and youth in our public schools, including TFA. I find it interesting however, that often TFA alums with an average of 3 years teaching experience leave with more cache than those who go through education progams and 5+ years of teaching experience. As most veteran educators know, it’s only around your third year of teaching that course content, classroom mangagement and school policy/politics come together for a deeper understanding of what it means to be an educator. To leave at three years and profess to have a thorough understanding of what it means to be a teacher isn’t possible.

Cindy, PhD candidate, Education, at 1:40 pm EDT on June 3, 2006

All very interesting

A good friend of mine sent me this article, as he knew that I applied to TFA. After going through the interview process, I was not offered a position with the program. After seeing the acceptance rates and knowing others who were not accepted, I don’t feel disappointed. Reading the ongoing comments to this article, I found myself steering down a middle road of seeing the positives and negatives of the TFA program. I wonder, however, how such a program became necessary. There is a need for teachers in low income areas because teachers leave those positions. Is it because they are underpaid? I doubt it. They work in an environment that classroom discipline tools are meaningless, making effective teaching nearly impossible. More, importantly, however, many of these teachers work in an environment in which their personal safety is in jeopardy everyday. Can you imagine the amount of money it would take to take someone who is successful out of a productive and safe environment and place them in a situation like that TFA members face? The fact that I was not offered a position has not deterred me from my desire to be a teacher, nor has it diminished my willingness to work at schools with the most need. Witnessing my brother go through a school of education at a University of Wisconsin school and sharing classes with school of ed students at Marquette has truly opened my eyes to what I see as a remarkable problem. The ongoing conversation among school of ed people was how they could not wait to stop student teaching so they could get certified and get a nice job in the suburbs. I think what troubled me more, though, was the behavior and performance of school of ed candidates in their areas of concentration. History majors take History seriously. I wish I could say the same for the school of ed students. I don’t remember the last time I encountered more undisciplined, unknowledgeable, and unprepared students. I’m convinced content knowledge is essential and should be a primary concern and only supplemented by pedagogy. There is no question that educational standards are lower now than they were in the past. If teachers continued to get trained in the same way, how can we expect improvement. Drastic change is indeed necessary, but I highly doubt it will come anytime soon because it will mean we will have to admit that public education has failed. As such, I enter the battlefield knowing full well that many battles will be lost. Hopefully those motivated TFA alums will continue to move on and provide educational alternatives to public education. Until the system is turned around, it is up to individual teachers to fight that uphill battle in their own classrooms.

Joe, BA History at Marquette University, at 10:35 am EDT on June 4, 2006

Larger Picture

There are two main objectives of Teach for America. The first is to bring highly motivated individuals into the classroom and offer a creative and dynamic educational experience in districts that have statistically shown to be at a disadvantage. The second is to create a dialogue and eventually enact lasting change in the educational policies guiding public education in the United States. These two objectives not only admit that there is something fundamentally wrong with public education, but also offer a solution to achieve lasting change. The first objective, related to immediate effectiveness, is hotly debated and the fact of the matter is that Teach for America places in locations where there are teacher shortages and therefore does not target the displacement of recent education graduates or certified teachers. TFA applicants are thrown to the wind and used to fill gaps while education majors can be more selective in their chosen locations. Upon completion of the two year commitment, corps members are fully certified educators in their fields. Certification is achieved by taking night classes in education alongside other educators/students/emergency teachers. When/if the corps member decided to leave the vacancy can easily be filled with another incoming corps member or a certified teacher if available. The choice is that of the school administrators. The cycle creates a mini factory of certified teachers who are free to use their qualifications and experiences as they please. It seems to me that the true question is about retention. Why don’t certified teachers, TFA or not, stay in the classroom? The logical answer is that other career options are more attractive over the long term. This is a problem with possible answers tied up in federal and state policies, educational institutions, and general societal perceptions…and begins to touch the second TFA objective. Ultimately, it seems that TFA seeks to create a dialogue with an audience large enough to effect long term change. “Cream of the Crop” is not as clear cut as it might seem. 4.0 paper perfect candidates from top schools are routinely denied admission while candidates with a less than perfect GPA but strong leadership and healthy initiative are gladly accepted. TFA selects natural leaders and seeks the “cream of the crop” because of a logical assumption — those who show early promise are eventually effective. Why not throw the nations willing top graduates in a service positions? Who better to be the eventual ambassadors of public education, in whatever field they end up in, than the cream of the crop? Failing public schools have historically made good news fillers, but have also been easy to ignore by those outside of the lower socioeconomic classes. TFA is working to change the problems with public schools from one that is talked about to one that is directly addressed.

Scott Findley, Not Necessary at Nor is this, at 6:15 pm EDT on June 29, 2006

TFA

As a 2004 corps member, I would just like to reiterate the point that TFA has a two-fold mission. When I graduated from college, I thought I knew what I wanted to do, and the career path I thought I would be headed down had nothing to do with public education. After teaching in my classroom with my kids, my priorities changed. (FYI...no one wanted my job. It is why I (an uncertified and unexperienced recent college grad) was hired. A surplus of certified teachers does not exist. Now, I know that I have found my vocational calling in working to change our nation’s public schools. I do not see how people can argue with that.

Gail, at 5:55 am EDT on September 13, 2006

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