Alyssa Agranat

Teach For America will not save American education, even if the examples cited by Landon Mascareñaz in his recent column about his organization’s work in New Mexico are accurate.

I am certain that most Teach For America (TFA) volunteers (corps members) have their hearts in the right place and really want to make a difference.

Principals in understaffed schools are truly grateful for the availability of these enthusiastic, confident and well-educated young people who are willing to work for them. Students in those schools are clearly better off with a TFA volunteer than with no teacher at all. These are top-notch college graduates, often from Ivy League schools, who undergo five weeks of training to fill vacancies in rural and urban schools.

However, there is a great deal of hype and misinformation surrounding TFA. While some do make gains over the substitutes or emergency-licensed warm bodies who precede them, the research does not support claims that TFA volunteers are more effective than other teachers.

Teach For America will not save American education, even if the examples cited by Landon Mascareñaz in his recent column about his organization’s work in New Mexico are accurate.

Exaggerating results

Unfortunately, TFA has a history of exaggerating and inflating results. Founder Wendy Kopp continually tells of the amazing results her recruits achieve, yet, the results are consistently debunked by actual evidence.

Even corps members themselves are dubious. Some are shocked when they realize, after drinking the Kool-Aid, that TFA doesn’t actually have data that proves the advertised “transformational” results the organization is so proud of. Others feel they are so unprepared by TFA that they are instead doing a great disservice to students.

The Louisiana story, like others Mascareñaz cites when he says TFA is “among the most effective sources of new teachers,” is just a feel-good myth. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans presented an opportunity for corporate education reformers to achieve their dreams when the entire public school system, and teacher’s unions, were wiped out.

Teach for America celebrated this “miracle” when 70 percent of all students attend charter schools staffed by TFA corps members. However, TFA did not celebrate when 79 percent of those charter schools received a D or an F from the state.

The actual data supporting the effectiveness of TFA is shaky at best. There are cases in which the unintended consequences brought about by TFA’s involvement in communities have been detrimental. In Memphis, Tennessee, TFA’s contract with the district forced the hiring of 100 TFA corps members for 101 positions. More than 15,000 applicants – new teachers from local universities, high-performing teachers from other districts, and surplus veteran teachers from the district – were not even considered.

Districts also pay an extra $5,000, for each volunteer, to the organization on top of the corps members’ salaries.

Least-prepared teachers put in most challenging schools

There are deep concerns associated with staffing our most challenging schools with the least-prepared teachers. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) sent a letter to the Obama administration disparaging the decision to allow untrained teachers, like TFA corps, to be deemed “highly qualified” teachers, and to operate in high-poverty schools with high numbers of English language learners and/or students with special needs, without the required parental notification about an unqualified teacher in their child’s class.

Diane Ravitch, respected Education historian, writes, “TFA is a huge success story, but there is also something scary about seeing so much money and power assembled around its core belief that a brand-new college graduate with only five weeks of training is just right to educate our nation’s most vulnerable students.”

There are many peer-reviewed and extensive studies that show TFA corps members are actually less effective than traditionally certified teachers with the same experience, are far less effective than most veteran teachers, and only become as effective as the traditionally licensed teachers after several years of experience and attaining certification. Sadly, most TFA corpsmen/women don’t stick around long enough to gain that valuable experience or become certified. Their unpreparedness overwhelms their enthusiasm, and they don’t teach long enough to find out what they are really capable of.

In one urban school district, six TFA recruits abandoned their classrooms after two months on the job. By that time, the district was unable to replace them because the supply of teachers, previously available during hiring season, was gone. The classrooms went unstaffed.

For those who stick it out through the contract, the turnover rate for TFA teachers abysmal. 50 percent of volunteers leave after two years, and more than 80 percent leave after three. This results in unprecedented staff turnover in very needy schools, which principals know is very disruptive and has a negative impact on learning. These are the same schools that really need more professionalism and stability in their ranks.

Better preparation and incentives needed

There is far more to a great teacher than a high IQ, knowledge of subject matter and a basketful of good intentions. Veteran teachers know it takes about five years to begin to understand teaching, and a full 8-10 years to master it.

A first-year teacher is a novice, no matter how brilliant or inspired. Even the best-prepared only perform at a fraction of their potential. In comparison to what they will someday become, the best teachers in the world start out as complete rubbish.

I was once that novice, and though my mentor, my principals, colleagues and even my students’ parents all praised me highly, I look back on my first years with horror. Nearly a decade later, I see that novice in every first-year teacher I meet, including TFA’s.

I am now a mentor to beginning teachers (BTs) at APS. Mentors observe beginning teachers; discuss concerns, curricula, assessment, and techniques with them; and provide feedback. Mentors see their potential, and areas of excellence. BTs would be lost without previous teacher preparation programs and a full-year of observation and student teaching before entering the classroom.

Teach for America corps members need better preparation and incentives to stay in the profession. Until they get it, we should not rely solely on TFA to staff our neediest schools.

A stop-gap measure

TFA is a stop-gap measure, but long term, we should incentivize Level III master teachers to work in those schools where experience really does make a huge difference. We need to recruit and thoroughly train new teachers living in rural communities. We should use proven methods through accredited universities, satellite branches, and even distance learning opportunities (if thoughtfully combined with student teaching and mentoring from master teachers).

We should not have to rely on unprepared volunteers with high turnover rates to fill the gaps.

While Teach For America deserves praise for their assistance, we should consider the value of appropriate teacher training and experience before we go skipping down any road paved solely with good intentions.

Alyssa Agranat is a National Board Certified Teacher who holds a master’s degree in the subjects she teaches at Albuquerque Public Schools.