Dear Akeli (and Mike and Noah):
I’m just as ready to identify weaknesses in the work we do, but I think there are some glaring problems with this criticism:
1) Comparing TFA teachers with teachers in the general population would generate numbers like these – but teachers in the general population don’t jump at opportunities to teach in low-income school districts, and there results are not only an apples-and-oranges comparison, thus, it actually highlights the need for new blood to actively recruit individuals who would be willing to work in these difficult classrooms. That TFA teachers have been repeatedly found to outperform their peers in these schools, to me, is a much more telling statistic. Obviously, the best solution would be to incentivize (monetarily) our nation’s best teachers to work in our nation’s most under-performing schools. I’d venture to guess that TFA would perform worse in such a scenario, but not by much, and I’m actually not convinced that “the best teachers” would still be the best in such contexts.
2) As to leaving the profession, I’d again ask that a comparison be made of ALL new teachers. It continues to be my steadfast opinion that teacher union’s in NYC enable veteran teachers to get their own room, with the best kids, with more access to administration and (thus) funding, while getting paid on the same step-and-ladder as younger teachers who garner none of these advantages. I think this rotating door in education is incredibly problematic – but not the fault of TFA. For what it is worth, however, TFA always does note that the goal is not to keep Corps Members in education forever – when corps members leave classrooms to become principals, content area coaches, school board members, donators, etc., I hesitate to entirely dismiss their commitment to educational reform.
I’m actually a bit upset that someone would publish such data, given that the observations I have made above are pretty common knowledge, and her point seems a bit trite in the case of such a glaring omissions. Perhaps someone can point out where my thinking may have gone wrong?
