My Take: Want to be a Teacher? Don’t Join TFA
From September 2008 through June 2012, I mentored Teach For America corps members for Fordham University in the Bronx, NY. As a result of my direct work with them in their schools and some basic research, it is clear to me that what the public is told does not match what goes on behind TFA scenes.
This just in from Bloomberg.com: Most Teach For America Instructors Plan to Flee Teaching:
“More than 87 percent of TFA teachers say they don’t plan on remaining teachers throughout their careers, compared with 26.3 percent of non-TFA teachers working in the same subjects, grades, and schools, according to an analysis released last week by Mathematica Policy Research (PDF).”
According to the article, twelve percent leave after their first year in the classroom.
It goes on to say, “A full 25 percent of them said they would quit teaching after the current school year, compared with only 6.7 percent of non-TFA teachers. And of those who plan to quit, 42.9 percent of TFA teachers anticipated leaving education altogether, compared with 6.7 percent of non-TFA teachers. TFA doesn’t provide the number of TFA recruits who don’t complete the two-year commitment, or who don’t stay in teaching.”
I wonder why.
In my book “Doing the Right Thing: A Teacher Speaks“, I pointed out these observations based on my experience:
– Corps members are usually successful and energetic students. Unfortunately many are also naïve. Often followers, they are perfect fodder for TFA leaders.
-Regardless of what TFA says, their five-week boot camp training period and process is hell and does not come close to preparing corps members for what they are to face.
-Corps members are taught by TFA to follow. Stay in line. Be formulaic. They are taught not to be like the great teachers they remember: wise, creative, independent, and spontaneous. Most of all, they are trained by TFA to be a corps member above all and not a part of a school or district.
-Most TFA corps members do not have command of the 4 c’s: Culture of schools, Culture of community, Culture of curriculum, and Culture of classroom management. Most also lack the practical wisdom or street smarts to have a good chance of success in the schools where they are placed.
-They must attend “mandatory” TFA meetings at “headquarters” (even if that time is spent on street corners surveying passers-by). They travel hours out of their way to go to local TFA “headquarters” for meetings or get the already prepared materials to copy and plug into the prescribed curriculum.
-TFA uses former corps members with only two years’ experience to go into corps members’ schools to provide what they call support, reinforce the TFA gospel, and tell corps members they must rely on TFA prepared materials to be successful.
-The recurring theme recanted to me over and over by almost all of my corps member mentees is that TFA is not only of Want to be a Teacher? Don't Join TFA | EdCircuit:
