Photography by Jeremy Schulz
Teach for America: Nothing but a Resume Builder?
I recently read an article about Teach for America, a program that recruits the best and brightest our nation has to offer from schools like Harvard, and put them in the most jacked up schools in our nation. Basically the article said this: After 2-3 years, almost half of these teachers had left the profession, and after 5-6 years, almost all of them were gone. With a track record like that, you have to wonder what the goal of Teach for America really is. I’m sure those stats don’t have their home office twirling their fingers and going “Whoopty-doo.”
The article basically highlighted the fact that Teach for America is harder to get into than Law School at Colombia, or Harvard, and that there were more applicants than ever this year because TFA offers a real paycheck, something harder and harder to come by straight out of college these days. But I read it in a little different light. The “best and the brightest” are using TFA as a resume builder, and laughingly, they’re doing it for the money! Isn’t that the ultimate recession irony? People are going into TEACHING for the money. Hilarious.
I remember the TFA students in my teaching credential program. They came to evening class all still wearing ties, took more notes than anyone else, and kind of put off the vibe that said, “I went to Harvard, we don’t need to associate, you’re a lifer.” Yes, a lifer as in, I’ll be teaching more than a couple years. I felt like the rest of us were freaks and perverts sitting in the back of the room while the Harvard alums were saving the children of Oakland for one year before going back to Ohio. In their defense, many of us were freaks and perverts. Getting into a teaching credential program without going through TFA isn’t what you’d call grueling. Our credential programs, like our hiring policies in public schools, basically consists of checking your wrist for a pulse followed by the question, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
But reading about the dismal numbers of the Teach for America program hit home a couple key points for me. The first is that intelligent, well-balanced, goal-oriented, powerful individuals eventually figure out teaching is a dead end job. Hey, if the best of the best from our Ivy League schools aren’t sticking around, what are we left with? The freaks and the perverts, or to be more accurate – me.
You see, studies have shown that the best of the best teaching candidates don’t usually end up being the best of the best teachers. The best candidates from an academic POV are the 4.2 GPAs with all kinds of extra-curricular, save-the-trees, politically active white people from affluent areas. The problem is that I’ve also just described the demographic that struggles most when teaching in our public schools (seriously, check out EdNews.org).
So essentially, what TFA is doing is helping these goal-oriented students earn a paycheck comparable to an entry level job in a “real” profession for 2 years, all the while boosting their resumes, because evidently TFA is harder to get into than most Law and Medical Schools. So like some political candidates these days, they can say, “I was a teacher once.”
Of course, the question left over is: “So where does that leave education?”
Where education always is: Forgotten.
These guys and gals go on to Law Schools and better paying jobs, buy bigger houses, and continually distance themselves from the poor kids they once tried to help for a couple years.
I guess this all sounds a little harsh. But to be honest, I’m not mad at the teachers in TFA, or those who run their organization. I think it is a great organization that recruits great teachers on paper, and I would welcome them to come to my school any day (please do, we’re always hiring). Because with a TFA teacher, I know I’m getting someone intelligent, because with the freaks and perverts, sometimes that’s exactly who I end up with in the revolving classroom next to mine. The lack of retention isn’t just a TFA problem, it is a problem in the entire profession. You can’t blame people for leaving a shit job, and in this country, that is basically what public school education is to most people. And a low-paying one at that. Our best and brightest Harvard alums can’t be wrong, can they?
That leaves those of us one sandwich short of a picnic, the lifers, like me, to stick around and help these kids out. I’m probably not leaving soon. And even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to put Teach for America on my resume – it would only say “Teacher.”
Reminds me of when then CA govenor Davis said that everyone should have to teach for a cpuple years or so before they go out and get real jobs. It makes me mad because I think, who did these people with “real jobs” get their education from? Certainly wasn’t their boss. It was teachers!
I agree w/your decision not to resent the TFA-ers or want them out of schools, but the best description is they are epiphenomenal to national teaching needs. And they get way too much pub for their likely effects as a whole. Each one of them may contribute, for 2 yrs or more, in a worthwhile manner. But all in all, they are a form of noblesse oblige in the “middling” world of teaching.
The endlessly interesting aspect of teacher prep/watching is which freaks & pervs and sort of middle earth nice folks emerge as really good and resilient teachers. I never know who’ll take the bit tween their teeth and go w/it. Did you expect to be really good at this?
You know Mike, I always hoped I’d be good at it, and I figured if I was a bust, I’d have to switch careers. I like to think I’ve come out on top, so I’ve decided to stick around, but I think part of the high turnover is that no matter how much preparation you have, and how much theory you grasp, it comes down to a lot of intangibles (being able to spot someone texting in the the sixth row in a class of 35 while delivering a complex lesson while trying to keep the bad kids from swearing at each other while at the same time being engaging and hitting all the learning styles). There are some brilliant people who can’t do these things, and you cannot blame them for leaving. And you HAVE to empathize with the kids, if you can’t do that, you’re done, and I think it’s harder for people not from low-income areas to get that.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the post. Based on your comments, I think you would agree that Black and Latino children in low-income communities, like all children, need and deserve teachers who are both bright AND well prepared to provide our children an excellent education. I encourage you to join the Facebook group I launched in 2008 to raise awareness about the Urban Teacher Residency (UTR) model of teacher preparation: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10229115973.
UTR programs select high-caliber aspiring teachers through a rigorous process and, after an intensive two-month summer institute, place them in urban schools for a full school year. During that year, residents gradually assume responsibility under the tutelage of trained master teachers. Highly effective residents become teachers of record the following year and commit to teach an additional three to four years in the district where they were trained in exchange for a living stipend during the residency year, a free master’s degree and ongoing support.
Best,
Joe
Your post was absolutely dead on the money! I have a daughter who was accepted by TFA but decided instead to get her MBA at Yale; she starts this Fall. Some of her friends are headed to TFA. They are all bright, caring, and will do a great job…for a couple of years. Not one has a desire to be a teacher. Those whose desires are for an education career began their college years there, student taught, and either were fortunate to get a job or are still looking. My daughter would be a great math teacher. In fact, he said that she’d get her MBA, work hard, make money, and then 15 years from now become a high school math teacher for the rest of her life/career! She’d be excellent.
I’ve had graduates of TFA work for me and develope outstanding educational software. So many end up in related jobs but not in the classroom. I’ve also met Harvard graduates who received their degrees in history or other subjects, and entered classrooms. One in particlar is an assistant principal in New Haven.
We need a well balanced group of young, energetic, talented teachers, senior, seasoned veterans, and everyone in between. Better teachers result in better students. But there is just as much turnover in corporate America with kids moving from one company to another. What we have to do is make it exciting and rewarding (rewarding in many ways beyond money) so we have lasting careers for educators.
Thanks for the great comments by all.
Two years teacher asst. in public spec ed, 2 years public 2nd grade, 10 years teacher and admin. in CA private. 1 year spec. ed . FL. Upon returning to RI 15 years later. NO JOBS FOR ME> NOT ELEGIBLE FOR THIS PROGRAM. Very sad.
While I hear what you are saying, and understand your argument, I think you are missing the bigger picture. As, a 2008 TFA Corps Member, I completely agree about your assessment of SOME of the TFA CMs. You are right, many of them come from incredibly privileged backgrounds, and worse yet, they are not aware of their privilege.
One of my best friends from TFA is a Yale grad. She came into our school with no idea of what to expect. She was in culture shock. She, like many first year teachers, was ineffective, but she continued to improve. And you are right, both she and I intend to leave this year.
That, however, does not negate the long term success of the program. TFA isn’t just about teaching for 2 years to build a resume. It isn’t designed for all CMs to continue teaching, but they do expect us to continue on to careers that will allow us to influence education policy and the communites we serve.
For example, while my friend will go to law school, she plans to practice adoption law so that she can help find more stable homes for the numerous students without loving families from our school. Her experience taught her that a supportive family can make a huge difference on the life outcome of a child. Thus, without TFA she could have easily practiced corporate law. Instead, TFA caused her to serve underprivileged communities.
I, on the other hand, am apply for an MA in Communication. My TFA experience taught me that my students lack digital literacy skills and that my district values test scores than teaching our kids skills to make them viable for employment. Similarly, my student’s community is manipulated by propaganda and taken advantage of because of their ignorance. I plan to work to use communication to better inform impoverished communities about social policy, so that they can self-advocate for things like better schools. I know the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but with no info to squeak, impoverished communities get no grease.
Hence, my point is this: yes, you are right. Many corps members start out with elitist attitudes. And many leave teaching. But, more importantly, they leave TFA humbled and with a desire to right the injustice in the communities they serve. TFA chooses the people they do because they are the future leaders of America, knowing that if this group of people experiences the horrors of our nation’s schools and impoverished communities, they will one day be the ones with the power to change, not just the lives of a small group of children (which is why we need career teachers, like you), but the fate of the entire education system and our nation.
Just food for thought. Feel free to disagree.