I’m not going to lie: When I went to see “Waiting for Superman” with my education major friend recently, my eyes filled up. Davis Guggenheim’s latest movie chronicles the struggle of five families who try to get their children into charter schools via the lottery system, and who must send their children to failing public schools if they are not lucky enough to have their numbers drawn. As my friend and I left the theater, daubing the remnants of tears from our eyes, I asked her: Why can’t we figure this out? Why are America’s public schools such incredible failures?
There are many potential answers to this question, ranging from the intractability of teachers’ unions to the tracking system, which funnels students into different academic tracks based on prior achievement. There are also many potential solutions for our failing schools, most nearly as controversial as the explanations for why our schools are failing in the first place.
One such controversial solution is Teach for America.
This is the 21st autumn that idealistic college seniors are applying for a position with Teach for America. The organization—whose motto is that every child deserves an excellent education—plucks students from elite universities around the country, gives them a five-week training course in the techniques and pitfalls of education, then plops them into a troubled public school for two years. TFA, which started as a 500-person team in six low-income communities, had swelled to 7,300 corps members and 35 communities by 2009. But as my bright-eyed contemporaries plan to go out and save American public education, I can’t help but wonder: Are they doing more harm than good?
In national debates about its efficacy, TFA is usually aligned with free-market education reforms involving competition in the form of charter schools, which are viable reform options. I certainly don’t advocate defending the hidebound teachers’ unions at the expense of change. But I also don’t advocate dismissing a committed teacher in favor of a young TFA teacher. TFA came to Boston in 2009, just after budget cuts had forced the Boston Public School District to lay off nearly three dozen teachers. Although BPS officials said that the teachers who were laid off were not certified to teach in subject areas that the TFA recruits filled, the Boston teachers’ union said that the city should have certified the laid off teachers so that they could have transferred to other subject areas. The union voted against the BPS decision to partner with an organization that brings uncertified, untrained teachers into the classroom, when the BPS had just dismissed trained teachers who could have easily been certified in a different subject area
But of course, not all trained teachers are committed. Some aren’t doing their jobs. Fresh blood in the classroom has to be better than teachers who repeat the same old stale errors, right? Sure—if that fresh blood sticks around. Education experts say that it takes five to seven years to become a “master teacher”—that is, an expert. TFA stints are two years each. Some students do stay and get jobs in the field; according to a TFA survey from 2009, of the 57 percent of alumni who replied, 63 percent were pursuing a career in education.
But what about the other 43 percent? And what about the fact that for inner-city students, who need long-term authority figures to invest time in them and to understand the divisions, troubles, and traditions of their communities, a TFA grad who flits through the classroom and then pulls up stakes makes little impact? Teacher turnover in public schools is infamously high anyway—according to National Center for Education Statistics, it was 17 percent after the 2003-2004 school year. Does this number need to be further inflated?
What’s more, most TFA participants are not education majors and have no prior teaching experience. They’re given a five-week training course the summer before they begin, and then they’re thrown into the classroom. This practice stems from the philosophy that a teacher doesn’t need a fancy education degree to impart knowledge to students. Do we really devalue education so much that we believe that students shouldn’t have the right to learn from someone who has been trained to do his or her job?
The most recent crop of TFA hopefuls might have the best interests of America’s youth at heart (besides the opportunists who are just applying to TFA so they can bolster their resumes before getting their MBAs). But like the teachers’ unions and like the overblown bureaucracy dragging down our public schools, might TFA be just another concept that puts the interests of children behind the interest of adults? We are home to the Boston University School of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Northeastern School of Education, Wheelock College, and countless other education programs. There’s no sure way to fix American public schools, but recruiting bright, certified students who are planning to dedicate their careers to education is a better path than recruiting uncertified liberal arts majors for whom teaching is simply a brief stop on the path to a bigger future.
Emily Cataneo is a senior at Boston University double majoring in European history and print journalism.
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