Grading Teach For America, 20 Years On

Erin Gavin, a Teach for America teacher, listens to seventh-graders at a Brooklyn Center School in Brooklyn Center, Minn. (AP)

Teach for America, the non-profit that recruits top college graduates to commit to teach for two years in low-income schools, turns 20 this year.

When founder Wendy Kopp first proposed the concept in her senior thesis at Princeton, her adviser told her she was “quite evidently deranged.” Now Teach for America has a $212 million budget and a staff of 1,400.

But many education experts dislike the program, largely because the college graduates only go through five weeks of teacher boot camp instead of lengthy education master’s degree programs.

We assess the program with Andrew Rotherham, who writes the Time magazine column “School of Thought” and the blog “Eduwonk.” He also works with Bellwether Education, an educational consulting firm.

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Robert

So, does this mean that the teachers who stay, on average, are the bottom of the barrel? Is this the “credible” voice we hear shouting about benefits and bargaining rights in Wisconsin?
Maria Hunter72

I am an alumna of TFA. Even though the training was speedy, nothing trains you like experiencing teaching first hand and recieving training as you go. I started with TFA and have remained in teaching. I’m in my 16th year.
Teacher, CO

The “Teach For America” teachers in my school are well meaning, however they have been leaving throughout the year. Of the 5 that came, 2 remain. They have lamented the lack of training, lack of reality discussions while in training (the difficulty of teaching in schools where English is not the 1st language of the student’s home), the long hours, and the expense of purchasing the needed supplies which are not supplied by the schools. I feel sorry for them, but they are not ready for this level of reality!
Shorty

As was mentioned in you report many teachers feel inadequately trained. I went to a large well known university and my student teaching supervisor visited me one time for 45 minutes during my single semester of student teaching. My first full time job was started in January in a large urban high school. The district offered no support. Several more senior teachers helped some but it was basically on the job training by experience. I’d say it took me 15 years to become a good teacher and at least 20 to be very good.Woody Allen said “those who can’t do teach, and those who can’t teach teach gym”. I would change that to those who can’t teach sometimes become administrators who often impose their ill informed ideas on the people who stayed in the classroom.
Teach for America is a great idea, but these and all new teachers need better training and support in their first few years.
Richard Adelman

This story reinforced something that occurred to me often during my thirty-seven years as a teacher in Philadelphia; namely, that teachers are not the most important factor in the intelligence of students, though the common consensus is that teachers are the sole reason for the success or failure of students. During my career, I noticed that on standardized tests, students in the same track (i.e., regular, special ed., advanced placement) in one teacher’s class almost always tended to score the same as students from the same track in another teacher’s class, regardless of the age, experience, or methodology of the teacher. Something beyond the teacher was causing their success or failure. Otherwise one teacher who was great would have great success and another who was mediocre would not. But no, the scores were about the same. Now, there are poor teachers who let a class go and may do some damage, just as there are terrific teachers who may be responsible for some remarkable progress. But both of those extremes are few and far between. Any reasonably hard-working teacher (as almost all of the teachers I knew were), no matter what his background and experience, had the same results on a group of homogeneously grouped students. Now, why is this? My considered opinion is that most of a student’s potential for success comes from outside the classroom. It comes from his home, his community, his peers, his temperament, his IQ, his values, his mother wit—all kinds of things—that he brings to a classroom where the teacher provides a space for him to focus and practice. So, almost any teacher—union guy, Teach for America gal, old hand, whatever—if his or her teaching ability is within reason, will get the same results. That’s why Teach for America people are on a par with the others. Since students learn, you might say “in spite of their teachers,” the path teachers take to the practice and how they practice is irrelevant—other factors matter more.This theory of mine is born out in those educational programs that specialize in social matters—health, family relations, values training, conflict resolution, etc.—and not as much on teacher responsibility, that are so successful, like that Harlem program we hear so much about. Teachers, contrary to popular belief are not so influential as people would like to believe (society needs to scapegoat someone). Any teacher from any background who is willing to work hard (which is what teachers do) will get the same results.
Philonous

I started teaching college English straight out of graduate school, having had no training in how to teach. In my own experience and observation, teaching is a skill that a person is born with or not. It can be honed, but it cannot be imparted.

It’s more effective to give a prospective teacher a solid grounding in the subject to be taught and then let the person sink or swim. That’s what will happen anyway, no matter how much effort we put in.

Greg Camp
Springdale, AR
http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/
nancy trussell

i heard your story about TFA on my way home for lunch. My son teaches with TFA in Yazoo City MS. (delta). It was a very timely story as he called this morning to say that he had been beaten up by one of his unruly students – thrown on the ground and punched. My son was angry, humiliated, and disheartened.
The program is fantastic, when it works. My son went into TFA because he is a GOOD and charitable person. He wants to help others. He will continue teaching with the hopes that SOME of his students learn from him and go on, perhaps, to college. He is doing a job in Yazoo City that ‘REAL’ teachers do not want.
Praise God for the students who are working so hard for others.
Say a prayer that my son does not face a beating again.
Nancy Trussell
Quested2

What the studies say more than anything is that education programs in American universities and colleges are not adequately preparing today’s teachers. Furthermore, education programs tend to attrack college students who are not amongst the top of their class. In many countries where students are outperforming American K-12 students teachers are selected from the top of class.

From my own personal experience of having been a research scientist before becoming a teacher I found the education program at a top ten university to be almost useless. Classes were repetitive and filled with mostly busy work. The only part of the program I found useful was the in-the-class student teaching experience. Once I was teaching in a large urban inner city school the amount of support was insufficient. What mentoring program they did have did not focus upon support that would have been actually helpful.
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