Kiva Sam is a Dartmouth graduate and member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who will return to teach in her native Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota this fall. Kaitlin Anderson recently left her job at Bank of America to become a corps member in the Mississippi Delta. LaDerrick Collins is a 10-year veteran of the armed forces who joined Teach For America after serving three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a couple of months he'll be tackling a whole new challenge as a fourth grade math and science teacher in Kansas City.
Kiva, Kaitlin and LaDerrick represent the face of Teach For America's new corps, the largest and among the most diverse in our history. Last week we were proud to announce a major milestone: this coming school year more than 10,000 first- and second-year corps members will be teaching in urban and rural classrooms across the country.
Together, they will reach some 750,000 students in 46 communities. The 497 brave souls who formed our charter corps in 1990 could not have imagined they were paving the way for such a large and vibrant group of young leaders. I couldn't have imagined it myself when I started Teach For America 23 years ago.
At least as important as the size of our new corps is its makeup: 38% identify as people of color, 35% come from low-income backgrounds, and 23% are the first in their families to earn a college degree. In the past two years, Teach For America has nearly doubled the number of African American corps members from 390 to 720, and has increased the number of Latino corps members from 300 to 550.
Because they come from the same neighborhoods as the kids they teach, and have overcome the same obstacles they face, corps members like Lanette Suarez are living examples for their students of what's possible. Lanette grew up in a low-income family in Miami with English as her second language and beat the odds to excel in college. This fall she'll be teaching in Miami, where she lives at home and helps support her family.
Our new corps members also bring a diverse range of professional and life experiences. They were Capitol Hill staffers, bankers, consultants, and members of non-profits. LaDerrick is one of nearly 100 veterans in our 2012 corps -- a number that will grow in coming years as we expand our outreach efforts. Kerri Martin is leaving her job as an engineer at Procter & Gamble to teach in Newark, determined to instill a love of science in more black men and women like herself. More corps members than ever before come from unconventional backgrounds, and many have given up lucrative jobs at top companies to make a meaningful impact on the lives of children and their families.
When you think of the typical Teach For America corps member, soldiers and ex-bankers are probably not the people who come to mind. In fact, there is no such thing as a typical corps member. They can't be neatly pigeonholed or painted with a broad brush. The one thing they share in common is a belief that the staggering number of kids in our country who aren't getting the education they deserve is an intolerable problem -- and a solvable one.
As a white woman with a privileged education, I'm keenly aware that I founded an organization that can only realize its goal if it enlists many more leaders who share the backgrounds of the students and families we work with.
While I started out with a vague understanding that diversity would be important, my own observations have led me to realize that achieving greater levels of diversity is in fact vital to our long-term success.
To close the opportunity gap, we need the energy and talent of every last person who is willing to join us, and all of us who are engaged in this work have a responsibility to deepen our understanding of the circumstances we're addressing. But over and over I have seen an undeniable reality: we move further faster when our decision-makers include individuals with the perspective and credibility that comes from sharing the background of our students.
In the long-run we will need many more African-American, Latino, and Native American leaders, and leaders from low-income communities, who can bring additional insight and a deeply grounded sense of urgency, and who are the most likely to inspire the necessary trust and engagement among students' parents and community leaders.
There's a reason that every successful civil rights and social justice movement in our nation's history has had significant representation and leadership from the disenfranchised group they were fighting for. This was true of the women's rights movement, the civil rights movement, the Chicano movement, and the gay rights movement.
It must also be true for the movement for educational equality. Meeting our new corps members and hearing their stories makes me more optimistic than ever that it can be.
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It's not.
All of your posts refer to amorphous concepts like a so-called "achievement gap", and/or "opportunity gap", or "educational equality" or some other nebulous idea that is apparently chosen to confuse and mislead the public about your organization's real objectives.
Now, we all know that certain students, in certain schools, don't have the opportunities of students at Scarsdale High School or Andover.
How is TFA or any other "reform" organization going to turn the worst schools into the equivalent of the best ones? Are your "teachers" the "supermen" we've supposedly all been waiting for?
It is very insulting to hear you compare your artful attempts to destroy unions and community schools to "every successful civil rights and social justice movement in our nation's history". It's also absolutely Orwellian. Do you actually think your readers are that obtuse?
Show us the evidence that TFA's methods will somehow turn a school in East St. Louis or Detroit into the equivalent of Greenwich High School or Choate. Demonstrate how your group of 22 year olds---from any ethnic group or social class---will somehow create magic and create a society where there are no "broken" schools, no "failing" kids, and no minimum wage workers.
We're waiting...
Those I know who 'enlisted' as corp members - well they regretted the lack of preparation and training. They also regretted listening to the TFA spiel and the advice regarding veteran teachers. You know, the ones responsible for the mess they believed they had to clean-up after. Rather than helping their students, many felt the did more harm than good.
Students looking for student loan relief.
How many people over 45 in your ranks?
I'd actually be interested in knowing the answer to both of those questions as well.
Is there anyone from TFA---like their executives who make over a quarter million per year, plus speaking fees---who might be able to give us some verifiable data on this question?
After the 5 week intensive of classes, workshops (professional dev) and teaching practice under a master teacher, we have 1 year worth of coursework with a strong school of education.
The course work in that year alone is actually worth 15 credits (we can pay the school to receive the credit). The 5 week intensive would count for at least 8+ credits.
So, that is 23+ credits, plus 1 year and 5 weeks teaching under a master teacher/teacher trainer (during that 1st year we have mandatory observations/reflections with a teacher trainer from TFA AND also have a mentor/master teacher from the placement school).
To me that is comparable to the traditional route.A new teacher through traditional route needs a LOT of help, no different from a TFA teacher. The cool thing is that TFA has more extensive resources to support and identify strengths and weaknesses in their teachers, especially when the placement school does not have time/money to pay attention to all of its' teachers.
to tell you the truth, most student teachers that I have met, have had less experience with current standards and theory in education than I had after just the 5 week intensive.
6) I do have gripes with ANY teacher that uses the teaching career as a stepping stone into some non-related subject/career or as a 'safe' job due to the poor economy.
2) This will be my 6th year in the classroom
3) Most of the positions newer corps members have received in my district and those nearby have been in charters, or in other public schools AFTER those with seniority either decline the offered position or no one else can be found that qualifies as "highly qualified". We are usually placed last, just before the school year begins because we have to wait for internal hiring. My school has let 6 teachers/staff go this year, folks with 11-40 years in...and trust me, they were doing a disservice to their students.
4) TFA teachers do more than just 5 weeks of work to prep. That 5 weeks is a grueling 70hr work week of classes, and teaching experience.
What does a traditional teaching program do? The courses they take that are directly teaching related account for only 18-22 credits including the teaching practicum.
The teaching practicum equates to one half year worth of experience (this varies by school but all of the student teachers in my district have only 6m in the classroom and are rarely in the lead teaching position in the classroom). The other credits a teacher undergrad takes are electives, content specific (math courses for a math teacher).
BUT, WilyCoyote85, you've hit upon the problem that many veteran teachers have with TFA: charter movements are actively destroying our working conditions, security, salaries and benefits and TFA is in collusion with them (read Gary Rubenstein's blog). You say that most of the TFAers in your region are placed in charter schools, and confirm that veteran teachers are being let go in lieu of next year's TFA crop. Sure, some/most of the six veterans you say were doing a disservice to students probably were, and should've been let go. But, I'll bet you that a least a couple were decent teachers who simply were not "going along" with your charter's philosophy and now have lost their jobs.
I bet that if you stick around for another six years you'll come to see how detrimental charters are. Perhaps you should question why this TFA-charter relationship exists, and try to understand what its implications are for the future.
These members are being used, and most don't realize how they are being used, but that does not allow them free reign to speak falsehoods.
I encourage TFA members to take a strong stance against the negative tenancies of their organization. If they discover that they were placed in a region that has no teacher shortages, and in fact are experiencing teacher layoffs, I ask that they refuse that placement. Better to risk being kicked out of the organization than to be complicit in its negative motives. I also ask that TFA members refuse any special education placements if they have no prior training in special education. And lastly, I ask that members begin speaking up about the way TFA is being used for union-busting or further corporate interests. Tell them that is not why you signed on! In solidarity, we can support the children together.
Although I'm no Bush fan, his phrase "the soft bigotry of low expectations" is sadly all too common in low income schools. Why? Because too many people accept your belief that poverty is destiny.
In my experience, I have never heard any TFA staff member say that corps members are better than other teachers. I have no doubt that there are some corps members that adopt a 'save the world' attitude and think that they are the bees knees, so I will not deny that. TFA has never expressed to me that we will be better than other teachers. I have always been encouraged to work with them because we all have the same goal. I know that I will learn an immense amount from working alongside veteran teachers and simply observing. Again, we all have different experiences, and I am just giving you a view from the inside looking out.
Secondly, I have heard several times in training that poverty is the driving force behind the achievement gap. This is something that TFA often does push. They push that your zip code should not dictate the education you receive. So I think I'm confused on what you are trying to say. Is this something that you have read somewhere?
Each teacher is assigned to a mentor, who coaches that teacher an works with them throughout their two year commitment. A traditional teacher does not receive that additional support.
As for your idea of having them be "teaching assisstants" ....fine, not a bad idea. In fact, I think ALL teachers should start off that way. But that's up to the schools/districts, not TFA.
Finally, are you in HP, Bulkley, Weaver or did you score a spot in Steve Perry's scam school where you pick the very few kids (and now recruit athletes from what I hear) and get rid of those who don't work out? I am genuinely curious.
The answer to that is no, will you cut your working day down to 7AM-4PM...still dedicated and effective, and I applaud you. But then you will be, by no means, abnormal.
You sound just like me twelve or thirteen years ago.
The problem I have with TFA is their cozening of the charter movement. Some charter schools will push you out when you tell them that you cannot provide an extra hour of free tutoring before or after school, or when you refuse to go to those twice-weekly "voluntary" meetings. And there you are, with a newborn.
Kinda stinks, doesn't it?