Teach for America

[DoubleClutch]

A couple friends I know did Teach for america. I know someone who did teaching fellows also....

Both programs are rough....but like they say it depends where you are placed.

I feel like if you're Black and Male they put you in the worst areas (which makes sense).

For example, one of my friends was in NJ. I heard a lot of bad stories. Bad kids etc...Our education system is pretty bad as you know.

But you have to be extremely dedicated and work almost all day otherwise quit like a lot of people do.

But I'd sign up if they put me in LA or Hawaii for a year or two....

I hear its also good for your resume/connections which is why kids do it straight out of college with no desire to teach afterwards.

 

[Gus Money]

Examples? I'm curious. Thanks.

For one thing, it seems like they focus more on training members to become "leaders" rather than teachers. During the interview/application process we were asked several questions about our leadership experiences (did we hold executive positions of students groups, did we supervise anyone at work, etc) but they barely asked us about classroom management experience or working with kids. I had to volunteer the facts that I love working with kids and I have experience in a classroom because they didn't even bother to ask. It was kind of weird.

TFA first started because there was a lack of teachers willing to work in rough schools. However, now there is a surplus of teachers and many of them are out of work, but schools have to hire inexperienced TFA teachers rather than veteran teachers when they sign contracts with the organization. In other words, TFA is replacing veteran/experienced teachers with young, inexperienced teachers who may not even plan on teaching in a few years (if they even make it that long because a lot of them quit early). They train members, who often lack any classroom experience, for about five weeks and then throw them into the roughest classrooms in the country.

 

[Gus Money]

Also, from what I gathered at the interview and from reading other experiences online, TFA for some reason recruits a lot of privileged kids who have never faced real adversity, never worked with people from different backgrounds, and don't plan on teaching once their two year commitment is over (definitely not all, but a lot). I've read stories of people getting bullied by their students and called names (whitey, Casper, etc) and they aren't prepared. They think its going to be like a movie.

I remember during the break at my interview I was talking to a few other applicants and none of them actually wanted to be teachers. They wanted to become politicians or lawyers, and they were just using TFA as a stepping-stone. I applied because it would let me get in the classroom quickly and I can see myself teaching for a long time, but it felt like I was the only one so that kind of turned me off.

The interviewers kept mentioning that we can do great things once we leave the classroom. It was assumed that we wouldn't be teaching for long and that bugged me too. Kids in the worst schools need the best teachers, not people using them to pad their resume and get out once their commitment is up.

I was actually thinking about reapplying but after reading my own posts I fully remember why I declined their offer.

 

[RickyGQ]

My sister does it. She is in Phoenix currently and is having a rough time with her students. She is in a shytty school and is astonished at how much responsibility they place on her while being so inexperienced. She finds that alot of her peers don't really put that much effort into it either, even though they have just as many responsibilities as she does.

 

[you're NOT "n!ggas"]

i wish i was but i had to go through ALOT of shyt to reach the place i'm at now... long story short i half assed most of college and my gpa is just a tick too low for tfa its pretty fukked up to know so many people don't even take it seriously. i been workin with underprivileged kids for 3 years, i actually wanna teach, its the perfect opportunity for someone like me... but damn, otherwise it sounds like its just hurtin kids and demeaning teaching even more

 

[newarkhiphop]

Knew a girl who did this about 4 years ago , she was white very very smart was placed in a public school here in Newark , as a kindergarten teacher ( she didnt have any experience teaching prior to that)

she liked it but thats because she wanted to be a teacher , other people that worked with her though she told me just bullshytted there way through it, she never had any problem with the kids being they were so young, by problems i mean really problems, she broke down a couple of times dealing with problems

Only real complaint she gave was that you spend A LOT of time taking training and re training and writing up paperwork

 

[Serious]

i wish i was but i had to go through ALOT of shyt to reach the place i'm at now... long story short i half assed most of college and my gpa is just a tick too low for tfa its pretty fukked up to know so many people don't even take it seriously. i been workin with underprivileged kids for 3 years, i actually wanna teach, its the perfect opportunity for someone like me... but damn, otherwise it sounds like its just hurtin kids and demeaning teaching even more

bro it can't be that bad, it's not less than a 3.0 is it?

 

[No1]

Also, from what I gathered at the interview and from reading other experiences online, TFA for some reason recruits a lot of privileged kids who have never faced real adversity, never worked with people from different backgrounds, and don't plan on teaching once their two year commitment is over (definitely not all, but a lot). I've read stories of people getting bullied by their students and called names (whitey, Casper, etc) and they aren't prepared. They think its going to be like a movie.

I remember during the break at my interview I was talking to a few other applicants and none of them actually wanted to be teachers. They wanted to become politicians or lawyers, and they were just using TFA as a stepping-stone. I applied because it would let me get in the classroom quickly and I can see myself teaching for a long time, but it felt like I was the only one so that kind of turned me off.

The interviewers kept mentioning that we can do great things once we leave the classroom. It was assumed that we wouldn't be teaching for long and that bugged me too. Kids in the worst schools need the best teachers, not people using them to pad their resume and get out once their commitment is up.

I was actually thinking about reapplying but after reading my own posts I fully remember why I declined their offer.

I don't really find all these critiques valid. TFA teachers get better results than normal teachers in many instances. I have friends doing it all over the country, and they fully enjoy it. A lot of them don't know if they want to be teachers, but they're smart and hardworking. It makes no sense to be upset that a lot of these people don't want to be teachers in the future if they give those kids the best chance at that time. Privileged kids are disproportionately TFA members because they are the ones at the top schools where most TFA members come from and they are the ones excelling academically.

They want to give these kids the best, especially because you are expected to do so much on your own.

What does it matter that many of these people want to use it as stepping stones if they get results? In my law school A LOT of my best friends did TFA and we all do education pro bono stuff right now. There is more than one way to participate. You want as many future influential people that have been through that process or near it as possible. The only legitimate complaint is that many of these people don't know how to handle the pressure.

 

[No1]

bro it can't be that bad, it's not less than a 3.0 is it?

It has to be because that's the TFA minimum :mitt:

 

[Serious]

It has to be because that's the TFA minimum :mitt:

nah worse:

Your undergraduate cumulative GPA is at least 2.50 on a 4.00 scale

Applicant Prerequisites | Teach For America



bro wtf did you do in college. I hope those girls were worth it bro.........

 

[No1]

nah worse:

Applicant Prerequisites | Teach For America



bro wtf did you do in college. I hope those girls were worth it bro.........

Oh that's right, but at least a 3.0 is preferred. Damn breh, how did you not meet that?

Don't that plague yo mind? :thiswork:

 

[Mr210]

i thought about doing it after college but end up not doing it

 

[Gus Money]

I don't really find all these critiques valid. TFA teachers get better results than normal teachers in many instances. I have friends doing it all over the country, and they fully enjoy it. A lot of them don't know if they want to be teachers, but they're smart and hardworking. It makes no sense to be upset that a lot of these people don't want to be teachers in the future if they give those kids the best chance at that time. Privileged kids are disproportionately TFA members because they are the ones at the top schools where most TFA members come from and they are the ones excelling academically.

They want to give these kids the best, especially because you are expected to do so much on your own.

What does it matter that many of these people want to use it as stepping stones if they get results? In my law school A LOT of my best friends did TFA and we all do education pro bono stuff right now. There is more than one way to participate. You want as many future influential people that have been through that process or near it as possible. The only legitimate complaint is that many of these people don't know how to handle the pressure.

I'm not upset. Don't confuse my comments with anger or anything like that. I didn't intend to make it seem like I was criticizing everyone working with TFA because that's not what I was trying to do.

The idea that TFA teachers get better results than regular teachers in "many instances" isn't totally accurate. A study from a few years ago argued that the improvements in math among students taught by TFA teachers compared to those taught by regular teachers were miniscule. It also said TFA teachers don't make a difference in reading/writing scores but I'm re-reading the study right now to make sure this is correct (its from a few years back so the data might be outdated).

Also, a lot of the data TFA uses to support these claims come from their alliance with Charter Schools, and this can be misleading as well. For example, KIPP is a Charter School that TFA refers to a lot when promoting their results, but research shows that they kick out low-performing students which keeps their test scores at a higher average. In other words, they don't always help the students who need quality education the most. Some other Charter Schools have been shown to exaggerate their statistics and claims of results while also weeding out kids who don't perform as well.

Your friends enjoying it and doing great work is good to hear, but there are thousands of TFA members and they all aren't having the same success. The dude who interviewed me seemed like a passionate, hardworking guy but he acknowledged the fact that TFA has several flaws that they're working to improve on. The training of members, or lack thereof, is one thing that is a major concern of a lot of critics.

I understand not everyone wants to be a teacher, and that's fine. However, using TFA as a stepping stone can be a problem because, in a growing number of situations, they are replacing veteran teachers and have no intention of staying in the classroom. This just causes more turnover rates for the students who need the most stability. Having a revolving door of teachers who are inexperienced, working in the roughest schools, and may not actually be getting the results that TFA claims doesn't sound like the best way to ensure that kids are succeeding.

I don't have a problem with them recruiting privileged kids and I probably should have chosen my words better. I have a problem with them recruiting kids who have never dealt with any adversity or are unprepared to work in underfunded schools. They are more likely to quit when things get rough.

This guy named Gary Rubinstein, a TFA alum, has a blog where he breaks down the critiques of the organization better than I can. You can find it here if you want to take a look: Gary Rubinstein's Blog

 

[Gus Money]

Damn, that was longer than I meant it to be I'm not trying to sound like I hate TFA or anything. I fully agree with their mission and I'm still interested in working in the educational field. I just think they can do some things differently.

 

[No1]

There are a lot of things they can do differently and I fully agree with the training complaints. I was THIIIIIIIIIIIS close to be a TFA member myself. But I knew that I just didn't have the heart for teaching like that. But I don't see how the turnover argument works because most students aren't taught by the same person from 1 grade to the next. If the TFA teachers gave those kids a solid base then they'll be better off.

Moreover, TFA tends to get the smartest people to do it and we all know that we've had teachers before where we thought they didn't know shyt. As far as KIPP goes, one of my friends here did that and I can't imagine a more passionate person than him. Dude came from nothing. Every firm we interview with the first question he asks is about their pro bono program. Don't take this as my glowingly endorsing TFA either, but I'd love to look at the study you're talking about.