Straight Up Conversation: TFA Research Chief Heather Harding
by Frederick M. Hess • Mar 12, 2012 at 7:58 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
Recently, Education Week's "Living in Dialogue" blog featured a number of provocative posts on Teach For America. Phil Kovacs, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, penned a guest post that offered a sharp critique of TFA and the research supporting its efforts. There was also an impassioned back-and-forth between two TFA corps members on TFA's "locus of control" concept. Given high interest in TFA, the relevance of research on TFA to the broader teacher quality agenda, and my own long, complicated history with TFA as a critical friend, I thought it worth sitting down with TFA's VP for Research Heather Harding to get her take. (Full disclosure: I recently hosted a working group for TFA which pulled together TFA leaders and a number of outside researchers to discuss "next generation" research possibilities. Veteran readers will also recognize Heather as a former RHSU guest blogger.)
Rick Hess: Heather, what's your role with TFA?
Heather Harding: I am a vice president of research at Teach For America. Our focus is to initiate and help
Heather Harding: I am a vice president of research at Teach For America. Our focus is to initiate and help