TFA is the US embodiment of a phenomenon that’s being carried all over the world

Lois Weiner educator, author, and researcher writes:

The postings on the blog are on target, from what I know as a researcher who spends a great deal of time in urban schools.

 But an important aspect of the TFA story is missing, which is the international aspect.

Briefly, TFA is the US embodiment of a phenomenon that’s being carried all over the world, virtually eliminating teacher education except for those people who will teach in schools serving children of the wealthy and powerful. Though it sounds like a conspiracy, it’s not, because the reasons for replacing career teachers with “fast track” candidates who have little or no preparation to teach were spelled out in World Bank documents at least ten years ago. The plans were imposed on developing countries as the political price for receiving loans and aid. So all over the world we see TFA equivalents. In El Salvador it’s a World Bank project called EDUCO that puts less educated teachers into rural schools. The World Bank cites Benin as a fine example of how a government can bring down the cost of teacher salaries: Fire teachers (civil service employees) when they ask for a salary increase, place an ad in the paper, and hire the folks who show up although they have no preparation to teach. All over the world, teachers and researchers tell the same story, which I document in my new book – see www.teachersolidarity.com

What is most shameful is that politicians (in the US, both Democrats and Republicans) who say they want to improve education for all kids enact policies that put ill-prepared teachers into schools that have the worst conditions. They admit when pressed that teachers with little preparation will follow the scripted curricula that are geared to standardized tests and achievement of minimal skills. Yet, as Ken Zeichner argues in his chapter in my book, these politicians send THEIR kids to schools that have teachers who are experienced and well-supported.
So what are we going to do about this? We have stories in the book from teachers and teacher unions who have organized successful resistance. What the stories show is that the deskilling of teaching, which is what TFA represents, is not going to go away because it’s bad for kids. We have to get serious politically.

Lois Weiner is co-editor with Mary Compton of “The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and Their Unions: Stories for Resistance,” published by Palgrave Macmillan in London and New York.

Teach for America or The Collapse of the “Public” in Public Education

A blogger at The Geek Buffet writes:

The Background Story: I was at a small departmental gathering last night and – after much food and drink – the topic of conversation turned to Teach for America, since our host’s daughter is going through their training program as we speak for a Denver teaching position in the fall. Not being one to hold back his opinions, I made several disparaging remarks about Teach for America, including that it A) encourages people to see teaching as an altruistic resumé-builder that a privileged recent college grad could do rather than as a serious profession that must be done by our best and brightest, B) has a low rate of participants who continue in the field as teachers, C) doesn’t sufficiently train their participants to deal with the tough educational environment of poor rural and urban public schools and D) is a stop-gap feel-good solution for a much wider educational equality problem of income tax disparities between districts. These opinions reflect both research published in various educational journals and in the Education training I received at Grinnell College, particularly from Drs. Jean Ketter and Kara Lycke.

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Kevin Rudd’s revolution

Mike Williss at Australia’s On Linne Opinion writes:
Given that the UK does not have a Peace Corps tradition on which to base its version of TFA, its originators went straight to the heart of Gen Y aspirations and named their scheme “Teach First”. The idea is unashamedly that if you are bright, white (predominantly) and upwardly mobile, then a two-year stint in an inner-city slum school will be good for your resume and will enable you to provide evidence of your leadership skills and ability to reach or exceed performance targets.

The TF website explains: “Teach First supporters consistently identify communication skills as being the greatest weakness of the graduates they hire. As a result of a rigorous recruitment process and their time in the classroom, Teach First participants demonstrate strong communication skills, as well as planning, organisation and creativity. In addition, they have all excelled academically. The results show that they are making an (sic!) significant impact in England schools. What could they achieve in your business?”

Wessex Scene Online adds: “Teach First hopes to demonstrate to applicants how the skills they gain while teaching will enhance their careers in the long-term, as well as offering fast-track recruitment from the sponsors of the project.”

TF shares the same flaws as TFA: its recruits are not qualified, they are there for the short term, whatever altruism they possess is tempered by a preoccupation with later corporate employment, and they just don’t perform as well as experienced and qualified teachers.

Conclusion
Rudd has picked up the Teach for Australia baton from Noel Pearson who first proposed it as a scheme for addressing disadvantage in remote Indigenous communities.

The speech to the National Press Club was short on detail and it is all too apparent why “programs of this kind” might appeal to a politician wanting to put some flesh around the bones of an “education revolution” that to date has had little else to offer.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I hear Elvis singing, “Fools rush in …”

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Why I Hate Teach for America

A blogger at Feministe writes:

But teaching is one of those careers that doesn’t lend itself to career switching. It’s one of those careers where the longer you do it, the better you get at it (though I’m sure there are limits to this, depending on the person). And, unlike, say, a job as a copy-editor or an architect or an art dealer, when you are a teacher it really matters that you be good at what you do, since there is no one to catch and correct your mistakes before they’ve poisoned your students’ learning experiences in some way or another. If it is your job to make sure that a bunch of six year olds learn basic reading skills, and you fail, you may have just seriously fucked some six year olds. Maybe most of them will catch up in the second grade, but maybe some wont (especially if their second grade teacher is also straight out of the pre-service training…). If it is your job to make sure a bunch of 19 year olds understand basic math concepts well enough to pass a high school exit exam, and you fail, some of those students might never go back and graduate.I’m not saying any of this to overstate the importance of teachers in the lives or their students or to freakout any first, second, third, or fourth year teachers about their individual failures (myself, obviously, included). Every new (and veteran) teacher is allowed to make mistakes. Further, I’m not saying that teachers are obligated to stay forever in shitty work environments with principals and administration that treat them badly, or in careers that they don’t find satisfying. What I’m getting at is that there is something wrong with a system that floods poorly performing schools with inexperienced teachers who leave just as they are becoming experienced teachers.

Which is why I hate Teach for America.

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