Wednesday, July 17, 2013

UPDATE: Teach For America under heavy fire! + 7 Things Educators Want To Tell Bill Gates toteachornototeach

toteachornototeach | This is the place to come for your daily rant about life in the public school system!:



Teach For America under heavy fire!

Teach For America under heavy fire
from educators and former members

by Amanda Holpuch

Critics allege that the program destabilizes schools and
communities and questioned its role in privatization of education

Teach for America, a program which places high-achieving college graduates as teachers in low-income schools around the country, is coming under heavy criticism by educators who allege its training for teachers is insufficient and that it destabilizes schools and communities.
About 100 of those critics assembled in Chicago last weekend at the Free Minds Free People education conference to discuss “organizing resistance against Teach for America”, which is one of the most well-known efforts to improve the nation’s flagging educational system. Its educators represent less than 1% of teachers in the US.
TFA alumni, parents, community activists and veteran teachers gathered to discuss concerns over the role the program plays in the privatization of education. Their criticisms 

7 Things Educators Want To Tell Bill Gates


‘Teachers’ Letters To Bill Gates’ Website Reveals 
7 Major Things Educators Want The Mogul To Know
by Rebecca Klein

Just five years after leaving the day-to-day operations of Microsoft, Bill Gates has become a major player in education policy — and some teachers are not pleased.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated billions of dollars to advocacy groups and research organizations that support causes such as charter schools and standardized testing. The foundation’s ability to spend unprecedented amounts of money on education reform causes has recently made Gates unduly influential in the education world.
The organization supports groups that generally have an anti-union and pro-testing agenda. Therefore, the emergence of a site featuring letters from teachers bemoaning how Gates has affected their classrooms may not be entirely surprising.
The website, titled “Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates,” encourages educators to share their