UPDATE: TFA contracts ignore the evidence - and Malloy’s own rhetoric - another must read piece by Sarah Darer Littman - Wait, What?

TFA contracts ignore the evidence - and Malloy’s own rhetoric - another must read piece by Sarah Darer Littman - Wait, What?:

Blessed are the Gifted for they shall inherit the earth.

by jonpelto

Okay so that wasn’t one of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, but maybe that’s because the concept hadn’t been fully developed yet.  But things are changing.

Despite unprecedented financial pressures, three of the poorest cities in Connecticut will be redirecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in education funding to create special academies for a small group of their most gifted students.

In what might be called the most bizarre turn of events yet in Connecticut’s “education reform” movement, education reformers extraordinaire, Special Master Steven Adamowski and Bridgeport Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas, are teaming up with the University of Connecticut’s Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development to create three 

TFA contracts ignore the evidence – and Malloy’s own rhetoric – another must read piece by Sarah Darer Littman

by jonpelto

CTNewsjunkie columnist, Sarah Darer Littman published another “must read” piece in last weekend’s CTNewsjunkie (see link)

In it, Littman tackles the issues surrounding the efforts to enhance the teaching profession, provide opportunities for young people to serve their communities by teaching in urban and poor schools systems and the political/lobbying apparatus that is known as Teach for America.

During a recent college tour, Littman and her daughter, who wants to be a teacher, ran straight into the paradox that one path to teaching is through investing, “four, possibly five years pursuing a double major in a subject area and education” or simply graduating from college and trading a two-year commitment to Teach for America in return for a brief training program and a guaranteed job in a classroom as a teacher.

Teach for America bristles at the notion that they are anything but a force for good, but