Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] "Teach for Awhile" falls short
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View original article here:
http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/teach-for-awhile-falls-short
Comment: Jesse Hagopian
======== "TEACH FOR AWHILE" FALLS SHORT ======================================
November 22, 2010
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Earlier this month, the Seattle School Board voted 6-1 to approve an
agreement to allow hiring of some Teach For America graduates in the city's
schools, despite having laid off hundreds of public school teachers in recent
years.
Teach for America is a teacher training program through which young people
interested in becoming teachers spend just five weeks of summer training,
after which they begin teaching--often committing to work in some of the
neediest schools in the U.S. But critics point out that five weeks is not
enough training and that the program can force out experienced teachers, lead
to a higher turnover rate and weaken teachers' unions.
Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Seattle's Garfield High School, founding
member of Social Equality Educators and graduate of the Teach for America
program, looks at why Seattle students and teachers deserve better.
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FROM 2001 to 2003, I "taught for America."
After graduating from college, I headed for the Bronx in New York City, where
I underwent Teach for America's (TFA) "teacher boot camp." With just five
sleepless weeks of on-the-job training teaching summer school to
fourth-graders, team meetings and night classes, I was given the stamp of
approval and shipped off to Washington, D.C.
The Seattle School Board recently voted to bring TFA to our school district.
But they should consider the lessons of my experience.
At 21, I found myself in a public elementary school in the ghetto of South
East Washington, D.C.--in a classroom with a hole in the ceiling that caused
my room to flood, destroying the first American history project I ever
assigned the students.
One lasting memory came on my third day of teaching sixth grade.
I had asked the students to bring a meaningful object from home for a
show-and-tell activity. We gathered in a circle and the kids sat eagerly
waiting to share their mementos. One after another, each and every hand came
out of those crumpled brown lunch sacks, clutching a photo of a close family
member--usually a dad or an uncle--who was either dead or in jail.
By the time it was my turn, all I could do was stare stupidly at the baseball
I pulled out and pick nervously at the red stitches.
Working in the "other America" was a personally powerful experience and made
me decide to dedicate my life to finding a solution to transform public
education and the broader society that would allow such neglect to occur.
But while TFA allowed me this window into the problems of our country, it
didn't prepare me to address these challenges. With only five weeks of
training, it wasn't just that I was not equipped to differentiate instruction
to meet the needs of students with a wide range of ability levels, create
portfolios that accurately assessed student progress, or cultivate qualities
of civic courage--it was that I didn't even know that these things were
indispensable components of an effective education.
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AS WELL, TFA often overemphasizes the importance of test scores, driving
corps members to narrow the curriculum to what's on the test to prove that
they are effective teachers. Yet even by this measure, TFA-ers don't make the
grade.
Consider a six-year study of TFA out of Stanford University that looked at
more than 4,000 teachers and 132,000 students on six different tests and
found not one case where TFA educators performed as well as certified
teachers.
Moreover, TFA's own statistics show that a mere 33 percent continue teaching
after their two-year commitment--creating high turnover in the very schools
that most need the continuity and stability.
Seattle has an abundance of teachers with teaching certificates and master's
degrees struggling to get a teaching position in the local public
schools--West Seattle Elementary School, a target school for TFA, had some
800 applicants for a single job. Why bring in undertrained TFA recruits when
we have so many young teachers in Seattle who have spent years developing
their skills?
TFA is being presented as a solution to the problems in our public schools.
But the reality is, in this era of cash-strapped school districts, officials
are lured not by the quality of TFA-ers but by the fact that young teachers
who leave the district and make room for more young teachers provide an
inexpensive alternative to investing in more experienced teachers who will
earn a higher salary.
Yet, if the Seattle school district truly wants "excellence for all," it will
need highly trained teachers who have a lasting commitment to the
profession--not the revolving door that has come to be known as "Teach for
Awhile."
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