This Is What Happens When You Criticize Teach for America

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/186481/what-happens-when-you-criticize-teach-america

The incredible assumptions of talent afforded to TFA members, both as instructors and later as political figures, are integral to the logic holding the organization together. For decades, sociological research has shown that anti-poverty measures, not energetic young college students, are the driving factors in improved education outcomes. Yet for over twenty years TFA’s organizational model has been based upon the idea that a college student, fresh from a five-week summer camp, could swoop into an poor, overcrowded classroom and inspire her students to overcome all barriers of structural inequality. Thus, the fundamental premise of Teach For America elides this need for wealth redistribution, perhaps explaining TFA’s massive corporate donor appeal.

As Julian Vasquez Heilig, professor of educational leadership and policy studies at California State University, explained to The Nation, the numbers do not justify TFA’s organizational premise. “TFA has a single study that they always trot out to show they have a positive impact at a standard deviation about 0.07,” said Vasquez Heilig. “While yes that number is bigger than 0, as researchers we do not consider that very significant, especially when reforms like class size reduction and universal pre-K do so much more.” Vasquez Heilig continued, “Prior studies have not demonstrated that TFA does better than than traditionally certified teachers, though they have shown that they do better than alternatively certified teachers, which makes sense because those teachers get thirty hours versus TFA’s five weeks. Its a choice between bad and worse.” Echoing the concerns of many other education researchers, Vasquez Heilig also claimed a lot of positive research TFA cites is often misleading, failing to meet basic research standards, such as clarifying the pool of teachers to whom recruits are being compared.

Further, despite overwhelming sociological research to the contrary, most TFA alumni believe that in the world of education, just as in that of high finance, getting rid of the dead weight is the key to raising the bottom line (i.e., higher test scores). Note, for instance, Michelle Rhee’s rhetoric at a Harvard education policy panel: “If someone told you as a business, that if you removed the bottom 6 percent of your performers, that you would move from 25th in the market to top-5, you would do it in a heartbeat. You would not even think twice about it. But we have an incredibly hard time in this country. We like teachers. It is an incredibly noble position in this country. But we have to look at the reality.”

Though decorated with the trappings of quantitative analysis, this so-called “reality” is highly manipulable. At Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, one of Rhee’s heralded turnaround schools, in only two years the student body leapt from a math proficiency level of 10 percent to 58 percent. These enormous gains were attributed to Rhee’s merit pay system, which supposedly incentivized the Noyes teachers to work harder; in both 2008 and 2010, Rhee’s district rewarded these teachers for their output with $8,000 bonuses. A USA Today investigation, however, found that over the course of three years, 80 percent of Noyes’s classrooms churned out standardized exams that were flagged for “extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests,” indicating that cheating was taking place. During Rhee’s tenure, over 103 public schools were flagged for having alarmingly high erasure rates while from 2007–08 alone over $1.5 million was handed out to teachers, principals and support staff for their “improvements.”

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. I'll rec this now and read it later. Still trying to hold down my breakfast after reading

Madfloridian's post about teenagers who can't count money or tell time being taught fucking *Algebra* because of the Race to the Top morons.

Sorry. We need to follow the TFA trail also.

K and R.

[riversedge]

2. The war on teachers--which really

is the war on union teachers or public schools is alive and well and ongoing and will only get worse with Republicans in charge (look at Wisconsin) or NJ. There is little or no respect from the Republican politicians and the public who agree with them.

[LWolf]

9. Correction:

The war on teachers, teachers' unions, and public schools is not a Republican war. It's a bipartisan war, with a too-large number of Democrats, including Barack Obama, fully engaged.

[daleanime]

3. K&R....

[malthaussen]

4. At least three purposes are being served here.

1) Most obviously, it obviates the need to spend money to try to fix the underlying problem.
2) It perpetuates the "good teacher/bad teacher" myth, thus reinforcing the argument for "objective" teacher evaluations.
3) It also perpetuates the ills of the underclass, the throw-away people whom I'm sure most of our rulers would prefer to see shot, except they don't want to pay for the ammo. After all, insisting on a "fix" which is not really a fix at all can do nothing but keep things broken.

-- Mal

[Thespian2]

5. When looking for the major problems in education,

you need look no further than Greedy RWNJ's, in this case, the criminal Michelle Rhee.

[d_r]

6. This story is chilling.

Everyone should read this, not just about TFA but as a look at how these organizations manage the message in "open media." There is an actual memo there and everyone should read it. I was really disturbed by the phrase "known detractors" - they are very actively tracking comments on facebook and twitter.

And if anyone is paying attention here, there is something really troubling to me admitted in that memo. The US Department of Education tipped off TFA that the reporter had filed FOIA requests with the Dept. of Ed. related to TFA.

In the summer of 2012, alumna Alexandra Hootnick (Bay 2008) reached out directly to several people on staff, asking to speak as part of her work for her Columbia journalism school thesis. She said her topic was TFA’s expansion efforts through the lens of Seattle and our i3 grant. It quickly became clear she was unlikely to portray TFA in a positive light—we learned from the U.S. Department of Education she had made a large FOIA request—and that her thesis could become a media piece.

That advance notice allowed TFA to craft a response and strategy before the article was published.

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. +1 Good Catch:

>>>>The US Department of Education tipped off TFA that the reporter had filed FOIA requests with the Dept. of Ed. related to TFA. >>>

[bigbrother05]

7. If you remove the bottom 6% of Med School students, individual performance might be enhanced

but you'd have 6% fewer doctors to service at risk communities. Those bottom 6% still meet the qualifications required and often gravitate into general practice/primary care where there is the greatest need.

If the bottom 6% still represents qualified instructors, you will only increase the workload on the rest if they are gone from the system.

Suspect that a significant proportion of those targeted are more senior and therefore more expensive teachers that are less inclined to tolerate the kind of foolishness represented by dubious new standards and teach-to-the-test curriculum.

ETA:

If TFA was only a supplemental program, i.e. adding instructional staff to reduce class size, it would be welcomed openly across the communities. As an alternative to existing accreditation policies and resources, it will always meet opposition.

Another medical analogy: PAs as supplements to a practice allows more folks to be served at an appropriate level, but you never operate without the professional having the final word.

[Igel]

8. You consider a study significant if it has a standard deviation of 0.07 because that's > 0?

Huh?

"TFA has a single study that they always trot out to show they have a positive impact at a standard deviation about 0.07,” said Vasquez Heilig. “While yes that number is bigger than 0, as researchers we do not consider that very significant...."

If your standard deviation is 0 that's already really, really ... uh ... weird.

This make sense to anybody?

(It's the kind of talk I expect from education researchers, not even sociologists.)

[theHandpuppet]

10. I am so glad you posted this

I've been compiling a list of charities/volunteer organizations that serve the Appalachian region. In the process I've been trying to gather more information about each organization because you can't recommend any group based solely upon what they put up on their website. I came across the website for Teach for America but felt I wasn't getting the whole picture, so I didn't add it to the list of charitable/volunteer organizations.

Having said that, if anyone here might be able to offer recommendations for educational/literacy groups that service the Appalachian region, could you please pass that information along? I'd really appreciate it.

[CRK7376]

12. I just got notified

that I did not make the cut to attend the day long interview with TFA. No big deal. When I interviewed with the young lady last Saturday, I told her up front that I was only willing to be placed in one location. I also asked about the 5 week summer training session. it's 1500 miles from my family and home and I've been separated from the family way to many times due to Uncle Sam's deployments and missions abroad. I have 12 years experience teaching in a public, rural high school and another 6 years teaching experience as an instructor/Dean of Distance Education/Reserve Affairs for the ARmy. Now that I will be retired from the ARmy in about 35 days, I've been seriously looking for teaching positions near where my family and I will be living. Hence, my desire to only be considered for one location and my questions about the 5 week summer session.

To me their training program sounds pretty good for brand new college graduates and those who are leaving one profession to try teaching and have not been though an education program in college. But for old dogs, like me….would be a tough transition I suspect…I told the gal up front before the interview began, that after doing more research about TFA, I didn't think I would be a good fit and she should interview others. She still wanted to interview me and I agreed and went though her list of questions.
she relayed my concerns about the program to her boss and last Sunday, the day after the initial interview, I got an email stating that all employees had to attend the full 5 weeks at the designated training center if selected as a finalist. So today I got the letter stating I was not going to attend the day long interview or attend future training with TFA. Oh well, my heart wasn't really with their program. Gives me a better chance to focus on a new school position/program. Still I will enjoy hearing form others about their experiences and what they were able to do for TFA. Good luck TFA!