Texas lawmakers to examine if TFA teachers are worth the 8 million spent by the state.

[madfloridian]

Some of us have been wondering just how long before someone somewhere would catch on that districts have been PAYING a company to recruit teachers with only 5 weeks training, while there are experienced good teachers waiting to be hired without such a recruitment fee.

Texas is wondering.

Teach for America faces scrutiny from Texas lawmakers

Texas lawmakers have ordered a study of Teach for America to help determine if the Peace Corps-like program, which recruits top college graduates to work in needy schools, is worth the state's $8 million investment.

The evaluation, due to the Legislature by Jan. 31, could serve as a key discussion piece as lawmakers debate how to slash the state's budget, with a shortfall estimated to top $20 billion.

The state devoted $8 million to Teach for America over the last two years. The funding, $4 million annually, went to training, especially to help teachers with science and math instruction and with limited-English students, according to the Texas Education Agency. Local school districts cover the teachers' salaries.

The study is supposed to compare the student achievement levels of TFA teachers with Texas teachers from traditional university-based teacher-preparation programs and other fast-track alternative certification programs.

Teach for America is thought by many to be a way of getting rid of teachers on tenure, teachers with experience....and quite frankly teachers who have moved up the pay scale. In other words pay teachers less while at the same time enriching a company that recruits and trains them for 5 weeks. Amazing how they have managed to sneak that new kind of teacher recruitment in so easily.

Teach for America. A way to replace experienced, higher-salaried teachers?

Those who are thinking of participating in Teach for America with a social justice mission in mind should consider this. Although a far more daunting task for sure, those really interested in social justice should consider ways of solving problems like unavoidable unemployment and low-wage jobs.

On top of failing to make a dent in poverty, Teach for America actually detracts from social justice by hurting real teachers. Teach for America students take low, entrance-level pay while also receiving a government subsidy for their salary in the form of Americorps stipends. Schools lay off teachers and then hire Teach for America teachers to fill positions that real teachers would otherwise be filling. Teach for America teachers are undercutting the wage needs of real teachers and causing them to be laid off as a result.

Imagine this: a well-off college student takes a subsidized teaching position at an impossibly low wage and displaces actual teachers who might already be struggling to get by — all for social justice!

For anyone who has any concern for labor rights, this is extremely abusive. Not undercutting wage demands of often unionized workers is rule number one of how to be a serious social justice advocate.

I hope Texas really does take a close look at paying out 8 million for teachers with only two years commitment.

I hope they start looking at the teachers who are available in their own backyard, and require only a salary paid directly to them....no middleman like TFA waiting in the wings.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Nah.... Sounds to me...

..more like a TFA teacher somewhere it Texas flunked a football player.

Some things are more important than money.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. 5 weeks? They only get 3 weeks here.

Those TFA teachers in Texas must be lots better than the ones here - 2 weeks better. LOL

[madfloridian]

3. I think that is the TFA training , the 5 weeks.

http://www.teachforamerica.org/admissions/faqs/training-and-support/

"Summer institute

* We operate rigorous five-week summer preparation institutes in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Mississippi Delta, New York City, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. Through opportunities for practice, observation, coaching, and study — as well as careful planning and thoughtful reflection — corps members develop the foundational knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed to be highly effective beginning teachers."

Different states may require more or less? Not sure.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. It's 3 weeks here

A friend was just offered a contract to teach the TFA recruits this summer.

[madfloridian]

4. Wonder if Sacramento paid that 2.7 million to recruit TFA teachers?

Sacramento may pay Teach for America 2.7 million to bring them to their city.

"Sacramento is a finalist for Teach for America, a program that sends highly motivated college graduates into troubled schools. As a community, Sacramento would have to raise $2.7 million within the next month to become one of three cities to which the program will expand next year. The Morgan Family Foundation has already pledged $600,000 over the next three years.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has been pulling for Teach for America to expand to Sacramento. Johnson was on the national board, and his fiancée, Washington, D.C., schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, taught with Teach For America in Baltimore.

Teach For America would require Sacramento school districts to take 30 of its teachers each year for three years for a total of 90 teachers. The $2.7 million would pay for the selection, recruitment and support of those teachers. Salary and benefits would be paid by school districts."

[Jakes Progress]

6. Blue dogs and republicans throw money at corporations.

No accountability. No research. No thinking.

[JackDragna]

7. HEY AMERICA! Do you like greenhorns doing your important jobs?

Look no further than Teach for America! For a fraction of the salary paid to an educated professional, you too can let someone with miniscule work experience do one of the nation's most important jobs! Thrill to a complete lack of organizational and classroom management skills! Rejoice as they tell your kid they can do whatever they want so long as they just shut up! Operators are standing by! Make sure your community orders some TODAY!

[chervilant]

8. No,

I wouldn't anticipate anything appropriate or forward-thinking from the Texas BOE. In fact, I would wager the only reason this is happening is to generate data that can be used to defend the practice of hiring TFA teachers in lieu of veteran teachers.

I despair of ever getting an opportunity to teach, and I know that our students will continue their inevitable descent into complete illiteracy.

[distilledvinegar]

9. teacher "effectiveness"

There are several significant problems here, regardless of how the study turns out. Is two years really enough? This NYT article describes the difficulties in rating teachers:

But the experience in New York City shows just how difficult it can be to come up with a system that gains acceptance as being fair and accurate. The rankings are based on an algorithm that few other than statisticians can understand, and on tests that the state has said were too narrow and predictable. Most teachers’ scores fall somewhere in a wide range, with perfection statistically impossible. And the system has also suffered from the everyday problems inherent in managing busy urban schools, like the challenge of using old files and computer databases to ensure that the right teachers are matched to the right students.

Has Texas found some better way to rate teachers? If so, they should give New York a call, but unfortunately it seems that Texas is only looking at two years of "student achievement levels." That means test scores. According to a study mentioned in the same NYT article, "with one year of data, a teacher was likely to be misclassified 35 percent of the time. With three years of data, the error rate was 25 percent. With 10 years of data, the error rate dropped to 12 percent." Again, Texas apparently has two years of data - but, to be fair, how could they have more when TFAers only commit to teach for two years?

So let's put all that aside and say that a TFA teacher can raise test scores for a year or two. Does that make them a better teacher? Or does that mean that they are better at teaching to the test? It may feel good to base decisions on numbers, but there's just no way to be sure. Then there's the long-term impact on schools that have teachers turning over every two years on a regular basis. How do you establish a community? Do parents really want to think of their child's teachers as long-term temps?

Texas is spending $8,000 over two years on top of salaries for each of their TFA teachers, and yet they have to commission a study to figure out if the teachers are worth it? I'd like to know what exactly they expected to get for their $4,000 per year per teacher that was above and beyond what their regular, credentialed teachers are doing.

[LWolf]

10. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. nt