- Teach for America Corps Member, Puget Sound ‘11
Last year, the Seattle and Federal Way committed to accepting TFA teachers into the hiring process for the 2011 school year. With incredible support from groups like the Seattle Foundation (see video below) the community rallied to bring the new Corps members to the Puget Sound.
Over more than 20 years, school districts have partnered with Teach For America, because they offer an additional pipeline of diverse, effective teachers and leaders for their communities. Of the 35 Seattle Corps members, 40% are people of color, 30% received Federal Pell Grants to attend college and 55% are from or attended school in Washington State.
In an independent survey by Policy Studies Associates of principals who employed Teach For
America corps members, 94% report that the corps members made a positive impact on their
schools. The most recent study from Tennessee, which looked at 42 different teacher preparation programs, found that, Teach For America corps members outperformed the average new teacher across all subject areas and grade levels. Teach For America was the top new teacher preparation program in the state.
Yet, this Seattle Corps faces some of the strongest opposition and misinformation campaigns the organization has ever seen. Blogs such as Save Seattle Schools, Walking to School, and Seattle Education are preparing to tar and feather every school board member, superintendent, administrator, principal, teacher, UW graduate or student who ever breathed a word of support for TFA.
In the next few weeks I hope to bring you the stories of people who participated in the discussion about bringing Teach For America to the Puget Sound and give a human voice to the other side of the issue.
Meanwhile, please take a few seconds to this online poll.
Could you provide the citation for the research study from Tennessee? I'm interested in reading it and in seeing which traditional teacher education programs they analyzed, as well as how they analyzed teacher preparedness. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe full study is available at
ReplyDeletewww.tn.gov/thec/Divisions/fttt/report_card_teacher_train/report_card.html
This study received coverage in The [Memphis] Commercial Appeal at
m.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/03/teaching-program-beating-colleges
How did the TFA corps members perform relative to experienced certificated teachers?
ReplyDeleteIf the out-performance of TFA corps members provides ample support for choosing them over other novice teachers, doesn't the out-performance of experienced teachers also provide ample support for favoring them over TFA corps members?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget www.scribd.com/SPSleaks!
ReplyDeleteJulian
Wow! You remove an innocuous comment because you don't want to support your slander?
ReplyDeleteIs that the kind of tone you want to set for a discussion?
So, let me get this straight. You weep for the 35 anxious TfA folks who want to teach for a couple of years (fact: more than 3/4 of TfA teachers leave teaching after 3 years).
ReplyDeleteYou have nothing to say about the 1000's of experienced teachers who got laid off this year, about the State of Washington cutting education budgets again?
It's all about the 35 from your pet organization?????
Just read the title of your blog!
ReplyDeleteAnd how, exactly, is refocusing people's attention on 35 TfA recruits
"refocusing on the kids"?