After 29 Years Evidence That TFA Still Doesn’t Set New Corps Members Up For Success
When I first started this blog 11 years ago, the purpose was to give tips for new teachers. Back then, this was on the teachforus.org site, no longer active, where I would interact with new TFA corps members and offer advice to them.
You’d think that after 29 years, TFA training would have improved. But since they are supposed to be so data-driven, they should look at the most telling statistic about their quality of training. The quit rate for TFA has not changed from 29 years ago until this day, approximately 15% don’t complete their two-year commitment, or roughly 1 out of 7 corps members.
I was once a staff member at the TFA institute and I had a lot of conflicts with Michelle Rhee who was second in charge of it at that time. I also worked for the New York City Teaching Fellows which was a TFA spin-off and trained about 6 cohorts of math teachers. I wrote two books about teaching, the first one ‘Reluctant Disciplinarian’ is still in print. The lesser known one ‘Beyond Survival’ went out of print, though I obtained the rights to it and am considering making a kindle version of that one.
I noticed this tweet from an institute staffer today:
TFA Chorps Members are ready for their 1st Day of Power Up! Grateful for the opportunity to serve as a Faculty Advisor for the 6th year @TeachForAmerica @PrincipalBGrant @Bunche_Chargers
We rarely get to see or hear from actual TFA corps members. I don’t know if they now have to sign some kind of non-disclosure agreement but I find it strange that this group of ‘leaders’ produces not one person live-blogging or live-tweeting their experience. When CONTINUE READING: After 29 Years Evidence That TFA Still Doesn’t Set New Corps Members Up For Success | Gary Rubinstein's Blog