I was lamenting the fact that there were no good sports events to watch Friday night when I happened upon NBC’s Dateline which was showing an hour long piece entitled “Educating Ms. Groves.” I stopped because I heard the words Teach For America (TFA). For those who don’t know, TFA is an organization that recruits college grads, without teaching degrees, and signs them to a two-year contract that grants them a teaching license and places them in a high need school with only a few weeks of training. Ms. Groves is a University of Virginia grad who decided to put off law school plans because she felt the desire to provide a quality education to needy students.
Disclaimer: I don’t like TFA. I think it is a stop gap measure that places people in extreme situations that they are poorly equipped to handle. I understand that it seems necessary to provide these warm, educated bodies to desperate schools in order to reduce class sizes and improve accountability. But, it is treating the symptoms. More later.
I watched as Ms. Groves prepped for her first classes, set her high standards, and gave statement after statement about being determined to produce results. I also counted the number of factors related to classroom management, organization, and student motivation that she was probably completely unaware of, given the rushed nature of her pedagogical instruction. My methods prof. would be so proud. Sure enough, her first semester was plagued by discipline problems, fights, failing students and emotional breakdowns. Teach For America only requires two years of teaching from its enrollees. Most studies show that teachers don’t begin to really become effective until their fifth year in the same classroom. TFA reports that most of its teachers make it through both years and keep on teaching well after their initial contracts expire. Statistics from people monitoring TFA and teacher turnover rates in areas where TFA sends high quantities of teachers suggest otherwise. After watching the first half of “Educating Ms. Groves,” it’s easy to see why. The young woman seemed to spend most of her first semester in tears. She seemed completely unprepared to deal with situations that I have been taught endlessly to deal with. She was frustrated, frightened and probably ready to quit.
It’s a great credit to her that she didn’t. She managed to turn her second semester around by implementing a lot of strategies and tools that every teacher should know on day one. Where she learned them, we aren’t told; but it was clear that she was motivated enough to seek out solutions to her problems and implemented them relatively well. In the end, the first year of teaching is always the hardest, but when TFA multiplies that difficulty for its wide-eyed recruits it’s not only the fledgling teachers that suffer, but the schools and, most importantly, the students.
If you’re reading this and had been thinking about TFA or some sort fast-track licensure programs I would urge you to reconsider rushing into a classroom; or consider choosing a program with a heavy emphasis on teacher education and classroom management skills. To be honest, I have seen schools and classrooms far worse than the one Ms. Groves was placed in, and TFA places its teachers in them. What America’s troubled schools need are highly qualified teachers educated to handle the many intricate facets of the profession: treating the disease, not the symptoms.
–Luke Webb
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