S.F. school board sticks with Teach for America
After a heated debate and a two-week delay, the San Francisco school board Tuesday decided to stick with the status quo, voting to hire 15 Teach for America interns for the next school year, the same number as last year.
The vote was a compromise. Superintendent Richard Carranza wanted the board to boost the amount to 24. Yet a few board members wanted to toss out the Teach for America program, a national nonprofit that places new college graduates who don’t have a teaching credential in low-income communities for a two-year teaching stint.
Other board members criticized the Teach for America model, in which teachers don’t have a credential and sign up for a two-year commitment, although they can stay longer.
Teacher shortage
Yet other board members as well as district staff and Carranza argued that the state is facing a teacher shortage and San Francisco will need about 500 new teachers by the first day of school this fall. Last year, the district had to hire 440 teachers and was several short when classes started in August.
Teach for America supporters and critics packed the school board meeting, urging the board to keep or kick out the organization’s interns.
“This issue has pitted teacher against teacher. Board member against board member,” said board member Sandra Fewer, referring to the negative tone of the debate.
Program opponents
Several people against Teach for America carried placards that said, “Our students deserve well-trained and fully credentialed teachers!!”
Many were current teachers in San Francisco schools who oppose Teach for America’s financial connections to those who support charter schools and market-based education reform. Others challenged the instability of teachers who signed up for a short-term gig in schools.
“The nature of the TFA program can only add to the instability in our most challenged schools,” said Ken Tray, political director of the United Educators of San Francisco. “The ethos of the program is a two-year commitment.”
Several Teach for America alumni and current teachers held signs supporting the organization, saying it offers an alternative path into classrooms. Teacher for America teachers are enrolled in a credential program while they’re teaching.
“I’d love it if every teacher who came through our doors was a 10-year veteran with strong content knowledge, cultural competence, and a social justice mind-set,” said Cris Garza, a seventh grade English teacher at Everett Middle School and former Teach for America teacher. “But as those of us who work in schools know, hardly any of these teachers are banging down the doors at Everett and other hard-to-staff schools trying to teach our children.”
After Carranza amended the resolution to allow the hiring of 15 rather than 24 Teacher for America teachers, board membersS.F. school board sticks with Teach for America - SFGate: