Reporting on the latest issues.
Teach for America Dropouts
Despite Obama’s hopes, some Teach for America alumni say the program is deeply flawed. Some even leave before the end of their two-year commitments.
By Kristi Eaton
January 5, 2010
A 2006 Teach for America training, which some say inadequately prepare participants. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Like many recent graduates, Lauren Baideme felt a little lost and unsure of her future upon graduating from New York University in 2008 and venturing into the troubled job market. Teach for America, which trains recent college graduates to teach in struggling public schools nationwide, seemed like the perfect option for the journalism and psychology major. Not only would the program allow her to immediately enter into a well-paying teaching job, something she had always considered a possible career choice, but Baideme could also attain her master’s degree at night courses TFA helped finance.
See one TFA alum's response to this article.
In a speech last year, President Barack Obama used Teach for America as a shining example of young peoples’ desire to serve their country. "I've seen a rising generation of young people work and volunteer and turn out in record numbers," he says. "They have become a generation of activists possessed with that most American of ideas—that people who love their country can change it.”
Increasingly, however, critics say, the program’s good intentions are overpowered by its problems. According to some TFA alums, the organization often seems less like a “shining example” and more like a way for school districts to replace experienced, more expensive teachers with people who will work for far less, most of whom end up leaving after their two-year commitment is up. Some, like Baideme, don't even make it through their first year.
According to a 2008 study from the Harvard Graduate School of Education looking at TFA retention rates, only 43 percent of corps members remained at their schools beyond the commitment. Critics also argue that TFA’s breakneck training course leaves TFA teachers—or “corps members,” as they’re called—with insufficient classroom experience, before throwing them headfirst into some of the most disadvantaged school districts in the country. And a brand-new study cast doubt on the effectiveness of TFA in promoting civic engagement among its participants – it found that TFA grads score lower in areas such as voting, civic activism, and donations to charities than individuals who dropped out or were accepted to the program but declined.
TFA has grown exponentially since Wendy Kopp started the organization in 1990. In 2008, TFA saw its largest applicant pool ever—approximately 35,000 students applied for a little more than 4,000 spots in 35 regions across the country, and many, as TFA noted, were from Ivy League colleges. Compare this to 2000, when only 900 corps members were chosen from 4,000 applicants. Moreover, Congress’ recent passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010 earmarks $21 million to help TFA reach its goal of growing to more than 8,000 corps members within the year.
With this impending augmentation, Josh Kaplowitz says he hopes Teach for America is doing more to support current and future corps members than it did when he was teaching fifth grade at Emery Elementary, an inner-city school a mile north of the U.S. Capitol Building. Kaplowitz, who graduated from Yale in 2000 with a degree in political science, turned down a job working on Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign to join Teach for America. “I applied for TFA primarily because I wanted to give back some of the privilege that I had benefited from growing up in the upper middle class suburbs,” Kaplowitz says. “And I thought that I could use my energy and creativity to get my future students excited about learning.”
After attending an initial five-week TFA training, where corps members undergo a crash course of lesson planning, seminars, student teaching, education theory and TFA philosophy, Kaplowitz was on his way to giving back to those less fortunate. What he didn’t know at the time was how ill-equipped he was for what lay ahead.
On a typical day at his school, Kaplowitz would spend the time he was supposed to be teaching trying to control rowdy students, who composed about half the class. The other kids sat and watched, unable to get the education they desired. Students threw slaps and punches as well as hurling racial slurs freely. On top of that, Kaplowitz says he faced an unhelpful and unsympathetic principal who he says often undermined his classroom authority.
"Some of [the principal's] actions defied explanation," he says. "She more than once called me to her office in the middle of my lessons to lecture me on how bad a teacher I was—well before her single visit to observe me in my classroom. She filled my personnel file with lengthy memos articulating her criticisms."
Despite the difficulties, Kaplowitz made plans to return to the same school the following year and complete his two-year commitment with Teach for America. All that changed, however, four days before his first year ended. According to Kaplowitz, as he guided a recalcitrant student to the hall that day, he placed his hand sternly on the child’s back. Kaplowitz apparently wasn't trained to know that teachers aren't supposed to touch students. Before the week was through, he was charged with assault by the child’s family. Kaplowitz’s criminal trial lasted just six days, after which he was acquitted of the charge. But then he—along with his school district and principal—was sued for $20 million by the child’s mother. The school district settled the suit for $75,000.
Looking back, Kaplowitz says he generally agrees with TFA’s mission and philosophy, but believes there are many problems with its execution. “I think my case is a good example of some of the flaws in the program,” he says, “the frequent lack of support or empathy for teachers who really struggle, a lack of candor in their recruiting process and a philosophy that can sometimes be dogmatic and inflexible.”
Though some TFA corps members ultimately succeed and find the experience valuable, some corps members are unprepared and ill-trained for the challenges they face as a teacher.
Like Kaplowitz, Sarit Platkin joined Teach for America hoping to make a difference, but says she soon found herself at a New York City school without any real guidance. Platkin experienced problems similar to the ones Kaplowitz faced, and like her fellow corps members, she got little support from administrators. Requests for mentoring were denied, she says, and administrators often admonished her in front of her classroom. By the end of her first semester, her school administration put pressure on her to resign, she says. Platkin could have contested, but she chose not to because she assumed TFA would not support her. Teach for America, for its part, was unsupportive, she says. “They cared more about keeping a relationship with the school,” says Platkin, who left in the winter of 2007.
Because Teach for America strives to recruit the best and brightest from universities across the country, it pays particular attention to students who hold leadership roles at their schools. Many of the corps members are overachievers who have rarely failed throughout their lives. According to Baideme, her Type A personality was her downfall.
“I am an overachiever, as are many candidates that are accepted into the program, so I read every word [TFA] sent me,” she says. Waking up at 5 a.m. during the training session, she would spend the day student teaching and participating in workshops and classes, before staying up late into the evening working on lesson plans. She would usually go to bed around 1 or 2 a.m.
Yet despite all her work, Baideme claims TFA’s training program left her struggling. “[I was] absolutely not as prepared as I should have felt, in my opinion,” she says. “I had some resources, some management skills, [and] some contacts. But really, in my heart, I felt that I had no idea what I was doing. It was almost too much information, not put well together.”
In spite of it all, Baideme started the year optimistically, and, by all outward appearances, thrived. “My class soared in their reading benchmarks,” she says. “So, from the outside looking in, when all of my kids were sitting with books open and their hands on their desks, it looked like I was doing a great job. But [the administration] didn't see me working non-stop at home, staying up late and waking up in panics. They rarely got there in time to see the temper tantrums or the fights, or to see half my kids fail a math test.” On top of that, Baideme says the requirements from TFA were intense, including biweekly curriculum meetings, meetings with the program director, and tracking the students’ academic performance.
Not one to do things halfway, Baideme met all the requirements, while also creating lesson plans for school. Until one day in October, when she snapped.
“One of my kids had a meltdown, and I melted down with him,” she remembers. “It was after school, and I called my mom, and I just told her I couldn't to it anymore. I literally thought I would die.” She abruptly resigned, to the shock of her principal and students, and she never went back. Baideme, who is now working as a housing counselor at the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, says that, though she’s sorry she left with almost no warning, she is indeed happy she left. “I don't regret it for a second,” she says.
Kristi Eaton graduated from Arizona State University in 2008.
Social Bookmarking
--------
Comments
|
!
Wow. Libel much? Where are all the comments from Teach For America to counter claims made by the sources quoted in this article? Surely Ms. Eaton could have made a call to a spokesman or woman at Teach For America to get ANY sort of statement after criticizing the program so much.
Well-researched and written, for sure, but fair? Not so much.
— Dave Schwartz - Jan 6, 11:37 AM - #As a Teach For America corp member currently working as a special education teacher, I have a lot of problems with this article. Now I’ll be the first to stand up and say that TFA training is not as good as they sell it, you cant have all the experiences necessary to be a great teacher in one month. However, that said, it is good training that gets you as prepared as humanly possible.
The only statistic that’s used is the one about 43% of TFA alumni staying in their placement school. That’s a misleading stat first of all because a lot of TFA teachers move to charter schools, which may have more progressive views on education, and more supportive administrations and teacher corps. Secondly, 43% isn’t that bad considering I’ll bet 90% of corp members say they are only in for 2 years when they begin their training.
Then the article goes on to rehash the whole Kapowitz story which is now almost a decade old. Everyone in TFA has heard of Kapowitz and it’s safe to say his experience is very unique.
Finally we have this Baideme. She quit in OCTOBER! That means she worked for a grueling 2 months before giving up. Nobody claims that being in TFA will be easy. She sounds like the roughly 10% who just can’t hack it and drop out every year. It doesn’t reflect anything systemically wrong with TFA. As someone who is and knows corp members, there are many of us who wake up wanting to quit and cry because it is an incredibly difficult job. We stick with it because of the commitment we made to be there for our kids.
Finally the article neglects to mention the numerous studies that show kids with TFA teachers make greater gains in reading and math as compared to non-TFA teachers. It also blows over the thousands of corp members whose experiences were formative in their decisions to stay in education and become principles or teachers or founders of charter networks who impact children across the country every day.
— James - Jan 6, 07:38 PM - #this is a great article, but in one case Kaplowitz is spelled “Kapowitz.”
— Barack Obama - Jan 7, 12:46 PM - #I completely completely agree with this article. Teach for America misleads its applicants and corps members into thinking they will be supported by the organization. I too quit after I realized what a sham it was.
— Amber James - Jan 7, 12:53 PM - #As a TFA alum who taught high school special education, I’m deeply troubled by the article. It’s incredibly one-sided. Can we at least hear another viewpoint? Like those of us who loved our time with TFA? Like those who continued their commitment far beyond the 2 years?
— Sarah - Jan 7, 01:14 PM - #For those who dropped out and are complaining in the article, they need to take responsiblity as well. Too many people that don’t like kids and/or have never worked with kids living in poverty apply for the program thinking they can save them or that success will be easy. TFA is an incredibly humbling situation and many have a hard time with that.
TFA has its problems (and yes, there is always room to grow during the trainings), but I’ve been impressed by how hard they work to address their critiques.
On a side note that is still very relevant…If the writer did a little more research, she’d know that the person leading the instruction in the picture did TFA in the early 90s and continues to teach. He now leads sessions in the RGV (outside of institute and those are my fellow corps members pictured) to help new TFA teachers get their teaching certification and become better teachers. Martin (leading the instruction) was always there whenever any of us needed help. He also gave us resources about the valley when we arrived and even handed out voter registration cards for us to fill out if we wanted. His story is the exact opposite of what is mentioned in the article.
I laughed when I read this article. I have been teaching for 38 years, having started in a VISTA project shortly out of college, with no training. After that experience I went back to school for a year to get teacher certification, during which time I taught under a master teacher part time for the whole year. When I got my own classroom I felt exactly as Ms Bademe did. Moreover, every new teacher that I knew then and know now feels that way. I worked nights and weekends preparing lessons, grading papers, thinking of new and exciting ways to make the classroom come alive. Oh, and I had a baby and began raising a family.
Today I teach at the community college. I still work nights and weekends; I still look for ways to make material come alive for my students. I am a very good teacher, and being one means that Iwill work way beyond the 40 hour work week. It also means I have the joy of watching students come alive as they discover the power of knowlege. To ANYONE who wants to teach – be prepared to work harder than you ever have, to have heartbreaking failures, to lose sleep over kids and classes. But be prepared as well to be a partner on the most exciting journey you will ever take. And to those of you who quit – it was probably a wise decision. Find an easier career – like underwater welding or explosives expert.
— Mollie Owens - Jan 7, 01:26 PM - #I agree with the other comments that point out 1. teaching is hard, regardless of whether your a TFA corps member or not, and 2. how one-sided this article is. Perhaps an article appraising why TFA receives so much criticism (it has become very trendy to criticize TFA in the last few years, and some of it is warranted) would make a better read.
— Leigh - Jan 7, 02:22 PM - #I think Ms. Badame’s failure represents a naive and arrogant approach to education – that the discipline of teaching is an easy and conquerable field. Not in three months. No first year teacher is going to be completely successful; as a first year teacher, I had failures every day. But Ms. Badame’s failure was a failure of commitment. She couldn’t handle the grind, plain and simple, and she quit. That’s a shame for her, not for Teach For America.
Her workload was no more or no less than any other first year teacher. Some people are not equipped to handle the stress of teaching. But again, that’s a problem with the individual, not with the profession.
— Michael Koler - Jan 7, 02:36 PM - #Dave, James, Sarah, Leigh, and other current and former TFA corps members — I’d be interested in speaking with you for a response/follow-up I’m writing to this article. If you’re available, please email me at cbelling@princeton.edu.
— Catharine Bellinger - Jan 7, 04:22 PM - #I find it tragic that well-educated teachers, teacher candidates, and those interested in teaching cannot find the time to spell each other’s names correctly – another indication that the breakdown in education lies less in the children than we believe. Nevertheless, teaching today is tougher than it used to be: the children are angrier, older before their time, and more disrespectful. The learning disabilities rate has skyrocketed as medicine learns that bodies are more repairable after a traumatic birth than the brains are. Video games, internet activities, and violent television have sucked the life out of the American teenager’s education in at least nine out of ten cases. Our entire society is feeling the strain of the failure of itself to raise and educate the next generation, which is the burden of today’s generation; it was provided for US. Something about living in such a dangerous world as compared to the fifties, or even the eighties, has taken its toll, from nuclear war to terrorism, two-income households to single-mother households, and heroin to a lack of heroines. We must do something besides sit and watch our best and brightest despair in a land that used to dream. Why? Because that disrespectful, ignorant teenager will be your doctor, lawyer, banker, or spouse in ten years. Good or bad, those jobs will still need to be filled, and with substandard occupants if necessary. Where were you ten years ago? Can you still do what you did ten years ago? And what you have learned since to do your own job? What if they can’t? What happens when your laboratory medical test results or the person who inspects your food or the police officer who determines your freedom or the journalist that brings you your vital information had a poor education? Do they still get the job? Sadly enough, when the numbers are counted, yes, they still do. Your health depends on their education. Now does it matter?
— Melissa Goodman - Jan 7, 06:37 PM - #I think that while this article is looking to highlight problems with TFA, what it really does is bring to light the problems teachers (outside TFA) face across the country. Many are quick to jump and say that teaching is an easy, low-commitment profession. In addition, it is easy to blame teachers for low test scores and other failing indicators, while in reality many low income school districts face unique challenges to success. Until we provide all teachers with the support and methods needed to succeed in these school districts, we will continue to see the same problems. To think that TFA members can be fully equipped in a short period of time to handle these classrooms, is an insult to the profession as a whole.
— Megan Tackney - Jan 8, 10:10 AM - #Are there problems with TFA’s support system? Oh yes. Is our training still somewhat lacking? Sure. Do I sympathize with the CM (and others) who wanted to quit in October? You betcha. I was almost there myself.
That doesn’t make this a very good article though. Like another commenter said, the CM-getting-sued story is like ten years old. Certainly somebody from a regional office would have loved to give you a comment. Even TFA admits that their support isn’t where they want it to be.
It has gotten a lot better, and will continue to get better. The folks joining in 2010 will have a better go of it than I got, and I imagine I had better support than the 05s, 06s.
— Mr.Brown - Jan 13, 01:42 PM - #As a certified teacher that works in a successful, charter school, I have to side with the author in regards to a lot of TFA tendencies. I left a career to go to grad school for education to become a teacher. When I arrived at my current school, I soon found out what TFA tendencies look like. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered too many 22 year olds that want to play teacher for two years and then go off to apply to their law schools or such. I’ve also heard some of the most blatantly racist, ignorant comments from “corp members”. I don’t get it. I have much respect for my corp member friends that have stayed on in education well past their requirement. But it seems (to this fool..) that the majority of TFA jump ship. This is a serious problem that no one seems to want to talk about. If somebody really wants to “give back” to their community because they’ve reaped the benefits of their middle-upper class background, start local. Don’t apply for something in the guise of “giving” when you’re only using this experience as a resume builder.
— Jean - Feb 17, 08:15 AM - #I completely agree with Jean’s statement about TFA corp members’ desire to “give back” as a way to build their resumes. As the wife of a TFA corp alum who now holds a leadership position in a regional office, I have heard the sales pitch over and over and detest the line I often hear, “Having TFA on your resume will definitely be to your advantage.” It’s like spitting on my career decision to stay in the trenches as a classroom teacher. And then, the manipulation of those who have promising career opportunities other than TFA.... Lord, help them. They are faced with harassing phone calls in an attempt to get them to ‘push that button’. If it’s not what they want, leave them be. We don’t need them abandoning a classroom full of kids. Like I tell my interns, “Be very sure you want to do this job.” I don’t sugar coat what they’ll face. Teaching is mentally, physically, emotionally, and psychologically exhausting. I guess TFA couldn’t really implement truth in advertising during Matric season.
— Kimberly - Mar 29, 10:41 PM - #As a TFA alum who is still in the classroom, I agree with this article’s message. Most people who join TFA are not in it for the children and are really just looking to build their resumes. When they leave, they make claims like “I am going to be able to impact more children in X position. Isn’t it wonderful.” They have been totally brainwashed to support the corporate culture that TFA promotes and begin believing that their leaving is somehow the direct result of their desire to have a larger impact. TRUTH: People leave the classroom because this job is hard, the children are difficult to teach, and because TFA itself doesn’t respect the teaching profession. After you finish your two-year commitment your inbox begins to fill-up with new job opportunities and ways to make your next step. Again, all in the name of impacting more kids. TRUTH: Staying in the classroom is the best way to change a students life. TFA should be filling more of it’s literature with people who have remained committed to the movement instead of people who jumped ship because they couldn’t hack it or wanted to do something more honorable than teaching. TRUTH: TFA tries to silence those of us who are outspoken and challenge the status quo. I made the mistake of being honest on a few surveys and was blacklisted from summer jobs at institute. I had the highest passing rates in my corps, but that didn’t matter. They gave the position to someone who was leaving the classroom, but was a drink buddy to office staff. TFA needs to realize that the culture at the ground is bleeding and that immature 20 somethings are not improving anything. These communities need teachers that care and are planning to stick around for awhile. Instead, what I have witnessed in my corps are young college grads more interested in building a resume, getting drunk, and pretending to leave for altruistic reasons. TRUTH: I will probably be hunted down for writing this but I don’t care. I am still teaching and have the support of my school. This message was brought to you by a corps member who has fought for her kids, lives in the community, and has shunned the TFA mission of privatizing education, breaking the unions, and pushing out veteran teachers. Here’s to fighting the new threat to quality education!
— Rache - May 15, 11:55 AM - #Note to TFA: Teaching is the most honorable profession. Stop encouraging people to leave!
— Rache - May 15, 11:58 AM - #I apologize for any grammatical errors. I wrote this quickly because some of the comments upset me and I wanted to be sure that the truth got out there.
— Rache - May 15, 12:03 PM - #Rache: You took the words right out of my mouth!
— ABee - Jul 2, 10:57 PM - #When you research you find that a lot of TFA people seem to just use it as a stepping stone into government jobs. It’s the new trendy liberal way to appease your white/affluent guilt and find a way onto the federal dole. I’m not impressed. As a side note, the current focus and design of public education and its corrupt lack of administrative transparency will keep any teacher (TFA or regular) from changing the dysfunctional ghetto culture that is a cancer on America.
— sellman - Jul 12, 01:14 PM - #