My stomach ties in knots any time I tell someone that I'm a Teach For America corps member. I brace myself for the skepticism to come. I can hear the assumptions running through someone's brain before they even start talking. She's too young. She doesn't even want to be a teacher. She won't stay. At first, I jumped at opportunities to defend myself. I did it on first dates, during family parties, and even at the grocery store. Over a year, refuting the same arguments has become laborious. It is challenging to convince someone that I am passionate about education when they have already discredited my integrity and my ability.
The Onion recently cast a shadow across my friend group when their "Volunteer Teacher" article hit a little too close to home. I thought about my own students, who mention teachers that left, promising to return, but never did. In reality, the article highlighted the ongoing struggle to assert the legitimacy of TFA teachers. A counterpoint, written by a TFA Houston alum, explained the issue succinctly: "I am a real teacher."
When TFA teachers go through the same hiring process, pass the same tests, and are subjected to the same evaluations as other teachers, it's difficult to understand why we're not considered "real." Like other teachers without a degree in education, we complete an alternative certification program. Like other teachers, we attend professional development at our schools (not to mention additional professional development through TFA). Like other teachers, we can be let go if we do not perform. The fixation on a lack of education degree is misguided. It is not a new or novel idea; it only became more publicized as TFA became more visible.
In 2011, Time attempted to debunk the "Five Myths" about TFA, including the suggestion that TFA teachers were less effective than other teachers. Overall, studies show that TFA teachers are at least as effective as other teachers in urban schools. Yet nearly a year later, I find myself repeating these studies or trying to convince a stranger that I witness the dedication of TFA corps members every single day. The charter organization I work for, YES Prep Public Schools, was founded by a TFA alum. Out of a staff of 62 at my school, nearly a third are TFA alums or current corps members. I watch these people commit their lives to ending the achievement gap and making sure that all of our children have access to an excellent education. Their work is undeniably real.
As TFA expands, critics have noted the lack of TFA teachers remaining in the classroom. However, more than half of teachers stay in the classroom for a third year, and over two-thirds of TFA alums stay in the education field. These critics also overlook the fact that it is impossible to quantify the emotional stress of working in an urban school, whether you are a TFA teacher or not. In my first few months of teaching I watched students' parents be deported, had children tell me that their family members had been shot, and picked up notes about sex and pregnancy. Teachers in low-income schools often become mentors, counselors, or even family to their students. They help students through issues such as death, gang violence, rape, and abuse. In 2009, a report showed that 6% of teachers left the profession each year; however 50% of teachers in urban schools left within five years. The capacity for any person to carry these emotional burdens is limited.
Not every single TFA teacher will forge a career in education; some may only be slightly better than the teacher in the classroom next to them. But TFA has begun to raise awareness about educational inequality and social injustice. They have created a large, diverse network of people in a variety of careers who are committed to improving the education system. TFA has brought education back into the spotlight. The fact that TFA incites debates about teacher quality and effectiveness is a testament to this fact.
I do not know how many more years I have in the classroom, but I do know that I will never forget my commitment to my students. I will make the world a better place for them by fighting for educational equality.
Follow Alyssa Granacki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aly_gran
http://ronniekstephens.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/clearing-the-air-about-teach-for-america/
TFA was created to take up the slack during teaching shortages. With hundreds of thousands of veteran teachers laid off, where is the shortage?
"more than half of teachers stay in the classroom for a third year, and over two-thirds of TFA alums stay in the education field. "
If your math is not bad, then you're saying that people with only TWO YEARS of classroom experience are now influencing education. I understand that many TFA kids are well-meaning, but they are part of the corporate takeover of America. Standards for teachers can be raised without this corps of people who are helping to bring American workers down by working 80 hours a week for less than 40K per year.
Apparently teaching is one of those fields where people figure if you really mean well, that's good enough. It isn't. There are plenty of really nice people in the world who would (or do) make lousy teachers.
Believe it or not, teaching is not just about good intentions. There are skill sets to master, bodies of knowledge to attain, and years of practice required to get really good at it. It's not that good intentions don't matter; it's just that they are not nearly enough.
1) TFA confirms what many anti-teacher folks believe-- that anybody could walk in off the street and do the job.
2) Your training is a slap in my face. Look-- I'm not going to defend traditional ed programs. But I and my colleagues at the very least spent hundreds of hours with students in classrooms before ever set foot in one on our own. I devoted years of my life to getting to this spot, to jumping through the hoops that the state said I had to jump through to become licensed. Please don't ask me to consider your five-week skip to the front of the line as equivalent.
3) I believe that TFA's founders and leaders never intended for TFA to be a tool against unions and teacher salaries. But it is. Think of TFA founders as the movie scientist who is horrified to learn that his civilization-improving discovery has been weaponized by the government. There are powerful folks out there whose idea of a perfect school is a series of low-cost young teachers who are replaced every couple of years and just do what they're told. They are a big chunk of your support.
I'm no apologist for traditional avenues to a teaching certificate, many of which are rife with problems raging from pedagogical infighting (do this! no, this!) to extraneous coursework that does nothing to prepare teachers to, you know, teach.
That said, nothing replaces years of supervised teaching and mentorship from a master teacher. No one is prepared to teach effectively after a six-week summer program plus ongoing training. It's just not going to happen, Indeed, it takes years for the best/most effective teachers to hone their craft.
My daughter, who graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry, turned-down a graduate fellowship to join TFA. She taught at a Harlem high school for four years.
The school had difficulty getting qualified science teachers. In fact, she was the only teacher at her school with a college degree in a hard science. Instead, the school usually relied on home-brewed science teachers who were ordained as science teachers after taking a couple of weekend STEM workshops.
Needless to say, these teachers seldom had an adequate grasp on subject matter. As an example, one high school math teacher was incapable of calculating the number of hours in a semester, and a biology teacher thought that a 5 Molar solution of sodium hydroxide contained dissolved teeth...
Pedagogical skills, of course, are important; however, it is also essential for a teacher to be competent in the subjects she teaches. Until traditional teachers programs can begin turning-out competent Science and Math teachers, programs like TFA will be needed to fill-in the gaps.
But anecdotes aside, actual teachers are usually not that incompetent and TFA actually isn't needed.
(Actually, TFA itself is admittedly to blame for much of it, as it possess an unbelievable marketing machine...but still [Insert cliche expressing TFA's diminutive footprint in the education world.]
Maybe I am in the minority of TFA corps members since I have been teaching for longer than most. However, this holds true for teachers in general; half leave within the first five years. If TFA did not exist, I would never have gotten into education. I could see myself in education forever, as a teacher and maybe school counselor 5-10 years down the road. It is true that if TFA had never existed, fewer people would be aware of educational inequity. TFA is not going to solve this issue singlehandedly, but it has at the very least recruited thousands of people to work on this issue.
-If the TFA applicant is going to be only "just as effective" as the traditional applicant, than why not hire the traditional applicant in the first place? The school's students will have a greater chance of retaining that teacher over time (you say it yourself...about 50% of TFA leave within THREE years, compared to 50% of traditional teachers leaving within FIVE years).
-You work for a charter organization that is cycling TFA members through it. You, yourself, prove the assertions that TFA is impeding traditionally-credentialed teachers from obtaining jobs and that charter schools operate in an unsustainable fashion by cycling low paid college grads through.
-Your "...two-thirds of alums work within the education field..." is completely misleading and a TFA talking point that is constantly used...and debunked.
-The martyr complex that many TFA members possess (and which the end of your blog sounds reminiscent of) may make the members feel good about themselves, but it has no relevance to their students.