Before the discussion in class, I didn't know that much about Teach for America. When hearing about it in class and looking over their website, the organization sounded like a great cause and something I would be interested in. I was surprised to hear that there were a lot of criticisms and negative points of views on the program. After reading more about the criticisms online, I found some of the points they made to be unreasonable.
Especially this article I found online, http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2013/07/criticism-of-teach-for-america-justified-program-needs-reevaluation-073113. It states that, "While two years might seem like a long time, it isn’t. Being at a school
for two years and then packing up hurts more than it helps especially
when you consider that your replacement is probably just as young and
inexperienced in teaching." The two years in this quote was referring to the amount of years participants needed to sign on. In my opinion, I feel like two years is a pretty sufficient amount of time for this program. Being a part of this program for more than two years would make it more like a career choice rather than a temporary job. I feel like a lot of people who enter this program are just looking for the experience.
The article also states that, "They also found that TFA teachers “scored
significantly lower in reading/language arts and about the same in
mathematics (worse in grades 4-5 and better in grades 6-8)” than new
teachers with education backgrounds." This fact actually suprised me because I know how competitive this program can be. Also, the people who are admitted to this program aren't just people who are looking to become educators, they're people of many different educational backgrounds.
The final criticism the article makes is that, "Just because TFA members
received a good education and have been in school for most of their
lives, it doesn’t guarantee you can teach kids and provide them with
critical thinking skills and a thirst for knowledge." Well of course not, but not all teachers outside of the program are necessarily that good either. Obviously, teaching is not the easiest thing to do and it's not right for everyone, but I'm glad that Teach for America is able to give people the opportunity to do so.
I appreciate that you understanding learning about the program includes reviewing criticisms of the organization. There have been a number of studies, some more methodologically sound than others, that examine the effectiveness of TFA teachers. In fact, the federal government recently published data that shows first-year TFA math teachers outperform other first-year math teachers (especially those who are alternatively certified through different organizations) significantly--their students learn as much as 2.6 more months of material, on average. That's like the students of TFA students are in school nearly 12 months instead of nine! Imagine what kind of impact this can have on students who are academically behind. Learn more about how effectiveness is measured, and TFA teachers' performance, by glancing through the findings: http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/Newsroom/Releases/2013/HSAC_Sec_Math.asp
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