AJC article: TFA alum and former recruiter: Group's gone from “mostly harmless” to “mostly harmful"

[madfloridian]

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution, an article referring to the concerns of a blogger who was a Teach for America recruit, and who then became a recruiter for them. It's good to see major media noticing bloggers. Yay...hope they continue.

Teach for America alum and former recruiter: Group has gone from “mostly harmless” to “mostly harmful.”

This is a doozy of a critique of Teach for America, and I suspect that it will generate a lot of debate about the elite teacher recruitment program.

Former TFA teacher and recruiter Gary Rubinstein writes about losing his respect for the movement that he joined 20 years to work in schools that desperately needed teachers. His long posting is not easily distilled, so try to read the full piece before commenting.

Rubinstein is writing about more than TFA. He is writing about a willingness to put untrained teachers – whether TFA or not – in the neediest schools with the neediest students. He writes about the role of TFA alums in a new school reform movement that emphasizes “threats of school closings and teacher firings. These leaders celebrate school closings rather than see them as their own failures to help them. These leaders deny any proof that their reforms are failing and instead continue to use P.R. to inflate their own claims of success.”

Thanks to Maureen Downey of AJC for noticing this blogger.

Here is more from his TFA blog which I read frequently.

Why I did TFA, and why you shouldn’t

When I joined TFA twenty years ago, I did it because I believed that poor kids deserved to have someone like me helping battle education inequity in this country. At the time, there were massive teacher shortages in high need areas. The 1990 corps had 500 members and the 1991 corps had 750 members, with a third of us going to Houston. I was one of those Houston corps members, the first group to ever go to Houston. At the time, we knew that we weren’t going to be great teachers. It was unrealistic to believe otherwise. But we also knew that the jobs we were taking were jobs that nobody else wanted. Principals who were hiring these ‘Teachers For America’ or other paraphrasings of this unknown organization, were completely desperate. If not for us, our students, most likely, would be taught by a different substitute each day. Even if we were bad permanent teachers, we WERE permanent teachers and for kids who had little in life they can call permanent, it was something. The motto for TFA back then could have been ‘Hey, we’re better than nothing.’

..."I’m glad I ‘did’ TFA. Twenty years ago they filled a need. Putting a few hundred barely trained teachers into the toughest to serve schools was one of those concepts that was ‘so crazy, it might just work.’ We weren’t always doing ‘good,’ but we also weren’t doing much harm. Our five or six hundred teachers were pretty insignificant in the scheme of things.

..."Twenty years ago TFA was, to steal an expression from the late great Douglas Adams? — ‘mostly harmless.’ Then about ten years ago they became ‘potentially harmful.’ Now, in my opinion, they have become ‘mostly harmful.’

He mentions Michelle Rhee, Kevin Huffman of TN, and John White who runs the Recovery District schools in New Orleans. He points out that there is a lot of bragging about their successes. But:

Which sounds great except these leaders are some of the most destructive forces in public education. They seem to love nothing more than labeling schools as ‘failing,’ shutting them down, and blaming the supposed failure on the veteran teachers. The buildings of the closed schools are taken over by charter networks, often with leaders who were TFA alums and who get salaries of $200,000 or more to run a few schools.

Here is an interesting blog I found that points out that the cost of TFA to a school district is twice what they have been claiming.

From Geek Palaver:

Teach For America Costs Twice the Reported Amount

The Big Mistake

So that was one mistake that I made in underestimating Dr. Wardynski’s commitment to Broad Foundation funded programs. The second is actually much larger. You see, the contract doesn’t actually say that Huntsville City Schools will pay TFA $5,000 per teacher. What the contract actually says is on page 9 is:

With respect to each Teacher whose employment by School District is to commence in the 2012-2013 academic year, School District shall pay Teach For America an annual amount of $5,000.00 for each year in which such Teacher is employed by School District, up to two years from the date such employment is to commence

In other words, we’re not paying Teach for America $5,000 per TFAer. We’re actually paying them them $5,000 per TFAer per year for up to two years. The cost of this contract just doubled without anyone noticing. The cost of this contract just doubled without anyone on the board or in the central office drawing attention to this.

It is amazing how they do it with shameless propaganda. Double the cost to recruit trainees when experienced teachers are going without jobs.

That is the shame of our nation right now. There is no excuse for it.

The final comment at the blog is amazing...the cost of hiring TFA is staggering and no one is even noticing.

The Huntsville Times first reported the total cost on October 18th, as being $5,000 per TFAer for–at that time–a total of $550,000 for 110 teachers. They again reported the total cost on November 3rd as being 5,000 per TFAer for a total of $850,000 for 170 teachers.

The actual cost of the Teach for America contract is $1,700,000 for four years, not $850,000 for four years.

And the actual cost involves the loss of experienced teachers who have spent years learning how best to reach the children.

I read an article the other day about a parent who loved TFA because they used a lot of rhythm and clap clap to get the children's attention. There is so much more to learning than that. We all had little tricks we used that were similar....TFA is just borrowing from experienced teachers. But that is not teaching. That is simply getting the attention.

Real depth of learning is so much more than one can learn in 5 weeks of training.

[madfloridian]

1. Blogger links to a post by someone who left TFA....

http://theuntoldteacherstory.teachforus.org/2011/03/05/why-i-am-quitting-tfa/

"Why, though? Being a Teach for America teacher implied prestige – not to mention the job was temporary. Saying, “I’m a teacher” and knowing that this meant “I am a member of Teach for America” shouldn’t have been cause for embarrassment. Saying, “I’m a teacher” and meaning, “I have chosen education as my career field” could potentially have been a different story. There are plenty of parents out there who would lament such a low-paying job, but coming from a family bursting with educators, I wouldn’t have disappointed anybody even if that were the case.

Yet, there it was. I was ashamed. Shame is an ugly emotion, so I suppose it’s no wonder that I had pushed it deep into my subconscious. Now that Nicholas had forced me to confront it, though, I realized it had been there for a while. Months, if not more. What was it doing there? When had it arrived? How could I get rid of it?"


I guess I could say to that poster that everyday normal regularly trained public school classroom teachers don't have the luxury of being thought to have prestige. At least we teachers once felt respected, but the last 3 years have taken that away. So I guess I lost you at how you felt it implied prestige.

[sabrina 1]

4. I wonder what the longterm results of this assault on our

System of Education will be. we are going into the second decade of the disastrous NCLB business model to produce wage slaves from the public schools.

Education is the bedrock of any decent society so unless something happens fast, this country's future looks grim. But for Big Business, it's been great, from the profits for the Educational Publishing Corps (some of whom were friends of Bush) to the cheap labor being prepared for them in the not too distant future. We are heading towards third world status and there seems to be few in DC who care, or who don't outright support it.

[madfloridian]

7. In one word, devastating.

The longterm results of this fast moving steamroller will be devastating.

[chervilant]

18. hmm...

I can give you a glimpse of how bad it is already:

I teach and tutor algebra, trig and pre-cal at a small community college near Houston. The vast majority of our college algebra students lack the basic math skills necessary to prepare them for life, let alone college. Just last week, I had one young man lament to me, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't get nothing about math in high school."

Last year, TPTB at this little college were completely flummoxed by the increasing numbers of students failing in college algebra (the 'gateway' math for most degree plans). Their response? They told all math instructors that they could no longer provide 'formula charts' for exams! So, all of the younger students--newly graduated from high schools that inflict those horrific, pedantic standardized tests--were deprived of a resource they were accustomed to using EVERY YEAR on every major exam AND on those much vaunted standardized tests.

When I say that our students 'lack basic math skills,' I mean specifically that I see young people struggling to correctly multiply 6 times 7. I mean specifically that most of my students struggle to comprehend fractions, let alone performing math operations involving fractions! When we start using Pythagorean Theorem or the coordinate plane, countless students complain, "I hated geometry in high school" or "I didn't take that in high school"!

Now, our little college is experimenting with a hybrid of 'distance learning' where students are put in front of state-of-the-art computers in a nice big classroom to 'learn' college algebra. There is an accredited math instructor present (and me, an 'embedded tutor'), but the 'instructor' doesn't get to lecture. He's available to 'help' these students with their computer 'homework' and 'quizzes,' and to answer any questions they may have, but he is NOT supposed to lecture. Many of these students tell me that they would prefer a lecture format, and that they aren't 'getting' algebra this way. AND, when I respond to their questions, it's clear they have an extremely limited understanding of the algebra they're 'learning.'

I suspect from reading many of your posts on other OPs that you are aware that exceptional math skills are highly correlated with the most prestigious, and highest paying jobs. Moreoever, I suspect that the corporate megalomaniacs who are working diligently to privatize public education for their own ill-gotten gains likely view the continued deterioration of our children's grasp of basic math as icing on the proverbial cake: more factory fodder and docile service industry workers for the uber wealthy elites!

(edited to change * to 'times')

[madfloridian]

22. The accredited math instructor doesn't get to lecture, just there to help online stuff?

I wish you hadn't said that. Unbelievable.


"There is an accredited math instructor present (and me, an 'embedded tutor'), but the 'instructor' doesn't get to lecture. He's available to 'help' these students with their computer 'homework' and 'quizzes,' and to answer any questions they may have, but he is NOT supposed to lecture. Many of these students tell me that they would prefer a lecture format, and that they aren't 'getting' algebra this way. AND, when I respond to their questions, it's clear they have an extremely limited understanding of the algebra they're 'learning.'"

Now that is scary stuff.

[chervilant]

23. Yes, it is VERY scary.

This is the likely direction for public education at all levels, particularly if Gates and his sycophants get what they want. Think how profitable it will be for Gates when every student has a laptop, and must use his 'state-of-the-art academic programming'...

[distilledvinegar]

2. it's all about the $$

Even with the $5k fee, the average TFA teacher is going to save the Huntsville City Schools money - and that's really all that this is about, the bottom line. It obviously has nothing to do with the quality of the education that's being delivered.

Salaries there range from $36,144-$45,997 for a teacher with a bachelors, $41,564-$52,737 with a masters, up to $48,071-$60,824 with a PhD. The new TFA teacher likely has a bachelors, and with the $5k fee they will cost the city $41,144 their first year, and a little more the next. No one expects them to stay more than two years, and quite a few don't make it past one. A teacher with an MA with 10 or so years of experience adds more than $10k to that cost. Replace 50 of those experienced teachers with TFAers and you've actually saved the district roughly a half million dollars a year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely not advocating for this. Just pointing out that trying to argue that replacing experienced teachers with TFA newbies is an unnecessary expense is not going to work, because it's not an expense - in fact it's a deeply cynical way for districts to save money.

[madfloridian]

3. How about the fact that it is taxpayer money and going to a private company?

I wonder if that argument would work?

No, you are right. That won't work either. Because it is about the bottom line for corporations and businesses, and it has little to do with the children.

[distilledvinegar]

6. a very difficult problem to overcome

I think that it's very important to look at how we frame our arguments against this kind of attack - essentially TFA, Broad, and their ilk are running a very effective scam. In the long term I think progressives need to work much harder to get our candidates on school boards, and in the short term I think we need to speak the truth loudly, early, and often about what these organizations are doing to our schools.

From reading Geek Palaver's blog further, I see that Huntsville recently laid off over 150 teachers - and almost immediately they are making plans to hire 110 TFAers? And it's almost like they want to hide the fact that this is being done to save money. With all the current focus on austerity, why aren't the school leaders crowing about how much money this is going to save them? I think it's because they are well aware that what they are doing is shameful and wrong. That's the truth that people need to hear - that school leaders are purposefully removing experienced educators and the people they are replacing them with have zero experience, and they are doing it because it's cheap and because they don't give a damn about the quality of the education our children are receiving.

[Laluchacontinua]

14. So the TFA teachers are actually more expensive than new hires or second year

(& maybe even third-year) teachers that went through an ed program -- 5 weeks v. 2 years training + practicum & student teaching.

The only way they're saving money is if they're laying off their most experienced people.

[distilledvinegar]

19. they save on future costs

The TFAers rarely stay past three years, which allows the schools to hire in brand new teachers by the fourth year, if not sooner. This does help them save money because high turnover guarantees that few employees will ever max out the pay scale, and because they can focus on hiring people who do not have advanced degrees. The scheme is most productive when they use it to replace retiring teachers, but discouraging ANY career teacher from sticking with the profession eventually produces financial benefits.

There's another, somewhat less tangible benefit for districts - new teachers don't have tenure and can be dismissed at any time. I don't know how tenure works in Huntsville, but it usually takes 2-5 years to earn tenure. Here again is another opportunity for districts to discourage career teachers - just refuse them tenure or don't rehire them. Not to mention the lack of tenure makes the workers much easier to control. They may also discourage new teachers from joining the union (if they have one).

[csziggy]

29. Instead of paying teachers $5000 more to encourage better quality

Teachers to come to the district or to stay in the district, they are paying that money to corporations that will take that money OUT of the district. Teachers would spend most, if not all that additional money in the district. And better teachers who have incentive to stay in the community would work harder to make it a better place. The TFA has no such desire and don't care what happens to it as long as they can sell cheaper teacher substitutes to the school district.

[theaocp]

5. This is why this will continue.

They seem to love nothing more than labeling schools as ‘failing,’ shutting them down, and blaming the supposed failure on the veteran teachers.

"Veteran" is anyone who has been hired. TFA, or otherwise. Read that again, if your reading comprehension is impaired. All TPTB have to do is keep hitting on those in the system. There will always be teachers, therefore, there will always be targets. TFA just provides moving targets. AND, they're effing cheap. Sort of. Follow the money.

All hail MF.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. He makes a great point when he talks about experienced teachers being laid off to make room for TFA

I thought this was his most important point. He admits a first year teacher can NEVER be better than an experienced teacher and TFA has warped into a program where many good experienced teachers are losing their jobs in order for TFAs to be placed in classrooms.

[madfloridian]

9. Exactly, that is my main gripe.

A friend who is still teaching told me that one of the TFA teachers in their HS treats the rest of them as inferiors. That adds to the resentment of seeing friends laid off and replaced with them. Now that is a shame. I noticed that happening with interns several years before I retired. I talked to a professor who assigned them and asked her why. She said the university had that mindset and pushed it on them....that they were young and eager and that counted for more than experience.

She disapproved, but they did not listen to her.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. We're seeing that as well.

But only from some of the TFAs. Most are so busy learning their jobs that they don't have time to act superior.

[madfloridian]

11. They need Bill Gates ear buds.

:rofl:

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. LOL

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


When this is all over, we'll look back and remember the ear bud suggestion as the one truly funny part of the whole nightmare.

[Laluchacontinua]

13. what is the ear bud suggestion?

[madfloridian]

20. Here you go.

Bill Gates to use in-ear wiring for TFA teachers to speed development as teachers.

"Teachers-in-training will have their very own personal angel to discreetly coach them through new lesson plans, with the same ear-bud wiring that feeds live information to NFL coaches. Teach for America is hoping that private coaching will speed up the painstakingly slow process of teacher development, allowing teachers to get both tailored instruction and the experience of being at the head of the classroom, without risking a disaster for students.

"Once a teacher understands what it feels like to be successful, it takes root immediately," Monica Jordan, coordinator of teacher professional development in Memphis City Schools, told Education Week."


Those who can't teach need ear buds. :)

[Laluchacontinua]

24. omg.

[madfloridian]

27. My sentinents also.

No one ever talked me through any classes.

[Laluchacontinua]

28. Just grab someone off the street, why don't they? Or maybe a robot.

[Divernan]

15. Assigned to teach 13 yr. olds, TFA newbie cannot control her class, let alone teach them.

A young man I know in the Pittsburgh area has a girl friend who just finished college and started teaching in September, I believe in Alabama. She calls him many nights, very upset and depressed because her students are near impossible for her to control. Her TFA training has left her with the mindset that the students do not have any responsibility or control over their behavior because they come from broken homes, poverty, poor parenting, etc.

Her boyfriend's attitude is that these kids may have these problems, but rationalizing and excusing their behavior is
not going to help them; and their only hope is to learn that their future is up to them and their personal efforts to learn.

She's very young and idealistic, and totally inexperienced, and TFA has sold her their bill of goods.

(I cannot think of a more difficult age group to teach, from ANY socio-economic group, than 13 year olds.)

[TBF]

17. And that is where experience comes in -

One example I can give you is the non-profit theater group my child participates in. The organizer is a long-time actor/teacher, as is his wife (who helps out and is also a public school teacher currently). Together they can take groups of kids from 6-16, blend them into a group, and somehow not only make it work - but thrive. Parents can observe any time, so I've seen them with as many as 35 kids doing their trust building exercises etc... Instead of out-of-control kids, you have a varied group of kids of different ages, socio-economic groups, and experiences focusing on learning theater and also being friends to each other. The older kids look out for the younger ones and guide them along. The adults don't yell - they work with them and keep them focused through myriad activities. It is one of the best teaching experiences I have ever witnessed. The two adults probably have 50 years teaching experience between them, and I would love to see a TFA'er in their spot. It would be chaos within 10 minutes I'm sure.

[madfloridian]

21. Training with only ten students in the class

http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2011/10/11/talking-a-struggling-tfaer-off-the-ledge/

"I noticed today a post by a new CM called The Chief who is pondering quitting for the same reasons that I was twenty years ago. The post is here. Based on the blog name, I think this is a woman, so I’ll refer to her as ‘her’ and ‘she’ so I’m sorry if this is actually a male.

So reading through her older posts we see that she had a typical 2011 TFA training with only ten students in her student teaching experience. I’ve ranted about this before, but let me say again that TFA is actually breaking contracts they make with school districts when they promise to deliver CMs who have had a proper training experience. Ten students is ‘small group instruction,’ not full class teaching. TFA doesn’t seem particularly worried about this. They’ve been doing this since 1994 when they adopted this model to save money."

[Laluchacontinua]

25. I'm seeing some classes are now pushing 50. Really disheartening.

It's certain that practice teaching with a class of 10 or less is nothing like reality. Unless reality is the exclusive schools a lot of TFA-ers come from.

[madfloridian]

30. I keep remembering my first class many years ago. 40 1st graders.

No aide. I remember how well the students behaved. They were not angels, but when I mentally compare them to the classes of 21 or 22 I had before I retired.....they come out very angelic.

I guess times changed and parenting methods changed. I still have the class picture, and I treasure it. Long time ago.

[Laluchacontinua]

31. Yes, there were larger classes in the 50s-early 60s (don't know when you

started teaching) -- but kids (& parents) were different. More self-disciplined, more deferent to authority, more buy-in to the worth of education, and parents less inclined to take issue with teachers over small things (or even large ones, sometimes -- i.e. allowing teachers to paddle their kids).

But still, that big of a class can't serve every child unless the parents are keeping them on task at home. I think a lot of kids got lost in that system, but it didn't matter so much because there were jobs for them even if they did poorly in school.

[madfloridian]

32. Definitely agree.

Now all the outcry that small classes don't matter is to save money.

[Starry Messenger]

16. k&r

[dotymed]

26. Wait until the POLICE realize that they can be replaced

by privatized companies...

:rofl: