New Teach For America study: What it really proves
A new study on Teach For America by Mathematica has been released, and it is been hailed as some kind of proof that TFAers are more effective than other teachers. But does it really prove that? Here’s a piece on it by Julian Vasquez Heilig, an award-winning researcher and associate professor of Educational Policy and Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. This appeared on his Cloaking Inquality blog.
By Julian Vasquez Heilig
Teach For America (TFA) has sought to direct attention to a new study released by Mathematica. A blogger at the Washington Post even argued that my prior critiques of TFA were “not true anymore.” (See all of my prior posts on TFA here.) Is that the case? Next week I will start an entire series on the Mathematica TFA study, but for now, because there is an avalanche of email and media inquiries about the study, I will discuss several important issues that I have noted in the study.
1) Mathematica TFA study does not say much about TFA writ large
The sample is large and covers an adequate number of students, schools and states. However, there are clearly some issues in the TFA sample that calls into question whether it really represents TFA and the profession more broadly.
The sample only contains secondary math teachers. However, in most communities, the majority of TFA teachers teach elementary, not secondary (See Houston example below).
The sample is heavily weight toward middle school, 75% of the classroom matches were middle school. Middle school teachers are much rarer in TFA assignments in districts
Problems that schools are expected to solve
Problems that schools are expected to solve
Are schools asked to do too much? Here’s a post on the subject by Larry Cuban, a high school social studies teacher for 14 years, a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA), and professor emeritus of education at Stanford … Continue reading →
Problems that schools are expected to solve
Are schools asked to do too much? Here’s a post on the subject by Larry Cuban, a high school social studies teacher for 14 years, a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA), and professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. His latest book is “Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice: Change without Reform in American Education