Does Teach For America work - Center for American Progress



Does Teach For America work?

A critical examination of the popular post-grad program

By: Josh Rogen

Teach For America (TFA) is an innovative program designed to close the achievement gap in American high schools by recruiting high achievers from selective universities and placing them in low-income school districts for two year teaching stints. Proponents of TFA argue that a strong knowledge of subject material is at least as important as a specialized teaching degree like the "Secondary Education" major in Peabody College. To prepare candidates for the classroom, TFA offers a summer program that runs several weeks.

Many people, such as Dan Brown, a reporter for the DC Education Examiner, believe that TFA educators perform better than their peers. He calls TFA a "triumph of private sector innovation." The Wall Street Journal agreed, criticizing caps on TFA hiring as "another example of how unions…put tenure and power above student achievement."

So Teach For America works for students, right?

Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, a former adviser to Barack Obama, urges people to look more closely at the data. In a study of over 270,000 students and 15,000 teachers, TFA educators were found to consistently perform worse in comparison to their certified counterparts when other qualifications were normalized. Likewise, non-TFA, non-certified teachers achieved poorer results on their students' math and reading tests than certified teachers. These findings appear to affirm the value of teacher certification programs, which TFA lacks.

Unfortunately, the criticisms of TFA run deeper than simple student achievement. A study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that amateur teachers make their biggest leap in ability after their second year of teaching. Accordingly, teacher retention beyond two years should be a high priority, a philosophy that is not reflected by the voluntary two-year commitment candidates make to TFA. Indeed, Harvard researchers showed that ten percent of TFA acceptees cannot even make it to their second year, and nearly all of them leave education after that.

Those who stay in education often leave their underperforming school districts for more lucrative offers in better-funded areas. Thus, the experience and talent leaves the area that nurtured it. For students, teacher placement volatility has a negative effect on achievement and devalues the role of interpersonal relationships in education. For districts, low teacher retention means spending more money on recruiting teachers.

In sum, TFA guarantees a very high percentage of teacher turnover in schools that support the program.

Part of the problem of TFA is that it promotes a de-professionalized approach to education. Rather than advertising teaching as a career, TFA offers a two-year stepping stone to more prestigious careers. Companies such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Google offer two-year deferment programs, which allow applicants accepted into both TFA and the private firm to retain their offer after their two-year commitment to public education. While these offers contain elements of altruism, a perfect program would reward its participants for staying and teaching in underserved areas, rather than inducing them to leave for higher paying jobs in private banks and law firms.

This is not to suggest that TFA is a malicious program or that all of its participants are inadequate teachers. TFA does an excellent job at bringing capable, bright graduates into districts where student performance is already low and teacher turnover is already high. Graduates of TFA may be better informed about underserved districts and some argue that TFA alumni are already revolutionizing education policy and administration.

However, TFA should not be passed off as a solution to education, but as a stepping stone in itself. The real solution is to keep highly achieving teachers in education and get them the training that is required to teach in underserved communities. Until then, TFA will continue to be a small band-aid on the gaping wound of our education system.

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© Copyright 2009 The Orbis

Is the GOP Fading Away?

By THiNK Staff – July 2009

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Whose left?

It’s a question that a lot of Republicans will be asking (or avoiding) in the coming months. Since President Obama took office in January, his approval ratings have remained astronomically high compared to his predecessor and the Republican members of Congress, while several prominent figures on the right have taken a beating. First was the admission of an affair by Nevada Senator John Ensign, then came the bizarre case of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, and just this past Friday, news of Sarah Palin’s resignation as governor of Alaska have left the once-vibrant field of possible 2012 candidates much thinner.

Palin of course has not ruled out a run for the presidency, but resigning from an elected position a full three years ahead of the 2012 election could hardly be considered a shrewd political move. And NBC’s Andrea Mitchell has reported that sources close to Palin say that her political career is over, less than one year after it really began.

Sanford was also considered a possible candidate for the next election, but a bizarre series of events involving his disappearance, the Appalachian Trail, a rendezvous with an Argentinean mistress in Buenos Aires and the subsequent unanswered questions that surround the whole episode has left his career in shambles.

Other candidates include former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who finished the 2008 Republican primary in third place, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and 2008 candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

But of those four candidates, only Jindal would be a break from the old school GOP that has lost 54 seats in the House of Representatives and 15 in the Senate since 2006. And if the elections in 2006 and 2008 have taught us anything, it’s that looking backwards doesn’t win you elections.

There are a whole host of other potential nominees who have yet to step forward, and they certainly have plenty of time to do so. But if the Republican Party wants to remain a truly national party capable of winning elections in all 50 states (Democrats have at least one Congressperson in every state but Wyoming, Republicans will have none in all of New England when Judd Gregg retires next term), they need to stop putting their worst feet forward.

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