Monday, December 10, 2012

Can This Claim Be True? TFAers in the Classroom for 8 Years? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Can This Claim Be True? TFAers in the Classroom for 8 Years? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:


Can This Claim Be True? TFAers in the Classroom for 8 Years?

The Huffington Post this morning features an interview with Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp, focused on how much TFA has to offer the poor of the world. Five years ago, Kopp founded Teach For All, in order to export the TFA model to other countries around the world.
In this interview, Wendy Kopp states: "On average, our corps members stay in the classroom for eight years." Honestly, I find this claim incredible.
I have firsthand experience with Teach For America. I worked in high poverty schools in Oakland, California, for 24 years. In my last four years (2007 to 2011) I led a mentoring program that was developed to provide support to the many new science teachers we had in the District. The District was relying on TFA and a program affiliated