Monday, January 7, 2013

Schools Matter: The TFA PR Machine Even Works in the Critics

Schools Matter: The TFA PR Machine Even Works in the Critics:


The TFA PR Machine Even Works in the Critics

Walt Gardner has a post on the TFA PR machine, and in it he shows exactly how effective the TFA PR machine is by perpetuating the lie that TFA teachers perform as well as, or better than, professionally-prepared teachers.
The protracted recession has caused many graduates from top-tier schools to put their real career plans on hold and take their knowledge and skills to the classroom through TFA. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they perform as well as, or even slightly better than, traditionally certified teachers. To the extent that such performance helps students who otherwise would be shortchanged, I commend TFA. But let's not forget that there is hubris associated with TFA ever since it was the subject of Wendy Kopp's senior thesis at Princeton.
Come on, Walt, you can do better than that.  Just in case your google machine is broken, here is this sidebar