In a letter (presumably to Teach For America and/or the Boston Public School District), union president Keith Stutman writes, "you are only making the matters worse." Citing "resume builders" and the notion of merely teaching for a while before moving on to something bigger and better. Also, in the article Vaznis references the attempts in Detroit of some education advocacy and reform groups to rebuild the Teach For America corps after it was eliminated about five years ago due to budget shortfalls. Detroit teacher union president Keith Johnson said that teaching was a "pit stop to becoming corporate executives."
This corps member, for one, is on no road leading to a corporation or executive-ship. But, I digress...
The union presidents, as well as those from the public commenting (in some cases in apparent rage) on the article frequently reference teacher credentials, degrees earned, certification, partial certification and so on, for the primary reasons why veteran teachers in the system should not be replaced by TFA corps members (as an aside, the Boston school system says the incoming corps of 20 will be used to help fill up to 200 potential vacancies created by retirement, and will not function as replacements of laid off experienced teachers). For as much power as I anticipate the Boston Teacher's Union has, and considering the power those making comments on the article have, as they are the very constituents who vote in the people responsible for reforming our education system, it frightens me how partially informed they are about what truly goes on in failing schools.
These two powerful voting bodies, albeit only a small percentage of them are represented, are essentially saying: "You've got the credentials on paper? Here, have some students." Certainly there are hundreds of phenomenal teachers in my own school system who went through traditional certification routes and are making huge academic gains in their classrooms, classrooms that likely mirror the classrooms occupied by TFA corps members. But, the tone of the comments from the public and union presidents seems to be suggesting, "we can't trust TFA corps members because we don't know what they're capable of - they don't have anything written on paper (the credentials) to prove they can be effective." What I say, then, to counter the primary argument to stop this attempt at reform in Boston in its tracks is: how can we make a sweeping assumption that all teachers who have the credentials can be trusted either, as the public and unions seem to be doing?
Link to article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/03/hub_teachers_reject_public_service_corps/?page=1
1 comment:
I read recently that 11% of all Ivy League seniors applied to Teach For America this year. The organization glowingly cited this number as a step in the right direction toward closing the achievement gap. I read it as a serious red flag.
You are right about the questionable effectiveness of teachers trained by TFA (and similar alternate route programs). Just because a person is a successful student in the classroom does not mean he/she will inevitably be a successful teacher. As a seasoned TFA Corps Member myself, I can attest to this personally.
In fact, being a successful student at the university level almost seems to make teaching MORE difficult: it used to be so easy to let the information wash over me in class, study when I needed to, and take responsibility solely for my own learning. When I was suddenly asked to actually produce lessons, to take responsibility for up to 100 other people, and to think in practical instead of academic terms, I floundered. I think this is the challenge of the alternate route, especially when the incoming teachers come from prestigious universities.
There is an upside, though, to the statistics of this year's TFA applicant pool: 25% of all seniors from Spelman College applied to be part of the 2009 Corps. Now, Spelman is, of course, a prestigious university just like Harvard, Yale, etc., but its historically black roots offer a connection with inner-city students that these other universities cannot offer their graduates.
Hopefully, as programs like TFA continue to grow and spread awareness of the achievement gap, the applicant pools will become more diverse and allow for the selection of the most qualified teachers in the nation, even if they are not the smartest or most privileged students around.
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