‘What’s Next? at TFA’ webcast. Spoiler alert: More of the same
TFA has been recently taking a beating in social media. Whether in response to this, or if it is just something that’s been planned for a while, the two co-CEOs Elisa Villanueva-Beard and Matt Kramer were part of a live webcast tonight called ‘What’s Next at Teach For America?”
This was an hour long live show broadcast out of Nashville where TFA alum Kevin Huffman is commissioner of education and another TFA alum Chris Barbic is the superintendent of the Achievement School District, which is like the Recovery School District in Louisiana.
As is everything with TFA, this was carefully scripted and controlled. It began with a high school student. This Latino student embodied everything that TFA believes in. She is obviously quite a gifted speaker and she has a TFA teacher as one of her teachers right now. Of course she proves that ‘poverty is not destiny’ and that every student who is poor and who did not go to college would have if they just had the chance to be taught by a TFA teacher. Hearing this student speak, I have a feeling that she was going to make it to college even if she had all traditional teachers. Let’s give the kid some credit, here.
Huffman was next on the bill. He reminded everyone that on the latest NAEP results, Tennessee had the most ‘growth’ of any state. Just like ‘miracle schools’ that have