“TFA: Our ‘Chance to Make History’” by Wendy Kopp
Education Week, March 14, 2011
Topic: Commentary piece on Teach for America
Summary: This article, written by the founder and CEO of Teach For America provides a more “touchy-feely” overview of the program. It gets at TFA’s goals and aspirations that the education system can be changed to eliminate the achievement gap. It also focuses on TFA’s basic idea that all students, regardless of race, background, socioeconomic status, etc. have the same potential to learn and go to college.
Intended audience: Teachers, general public
Key Points:
- TFA has been around for 20 years.
- Corps members are diverse (32% are people of color and 28% are from low-income backgrounds)
- TFA is highly selective (5000 corps members chosen from 40,000 applicants last year)
- TFA helps give children in rural and urban areas the opportunity to fulfill their true potential.
Relevance: Interesting article. We have talked a little about TFA and I am personally interested, as my brother is a corps member. As the article is a commentary piece by TFA’s CEO/Founder, it is fairly one sided. It does not touch on any of the criticisms of TFA (Corps members lack the training of a more traditional teacher education program, members often do not stick with teaching after the two year commitment, etc.)
It is worth noting that TFA has not always had the luxury of being "highly selective." The first time that they met their capacity was 2008 (when a glut of new college graduates chose TFA over entering the worst economy in two generations.
ReplyDeleteI myself am highly critical of TFA. I recognize that they are attempting to do good, and for that I commend them. However, of the three people who I know personally who have joined TFA, zero actually want to be teachers, and zero are qualified to teach--especially to teach the students who need the best teachers.
In my experience, TFA has been a safety blanket for friends who have no idea what they want to do with their lives but want to feel good about themselves. And, after all, teaching is really easy, so why not do that for a couple of years?
Again, these are my experiences, but, as someone who wants to BE a teacher, I have often been offended by my friends' approaches to TFA.
The good thing is it appears that people who want to teach for the TFA have their hearts in the right place. The not so good things are what Jeff mentions above. As we are all learning is teaching is not that easy to do, especially in areas of poverty and less than ideal school settings. To me it sounds a little like the Peace Corps where the hearts to serve are in the right places, but the reality is much more difficult than what the people serving realize.
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