The Goals of Teach for America
The Washington Post‘s Michael Gerson wrote approvingly about Teach for America (TFA) and the wonders it’s working in some of the poorest and most under-performing schools. He focused on a DC school in the Trinidad neighborhood.
Principal Cartland is a Teach for America alumnus. Two years ago he was asked by D.C. public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to direct the turnaround at Wheatley. Cartland replaced 80 percent of the staff and hired seven Teach for America corps members.
Rhee is also a veteran of Teach for America — indicating something more than a pattern and something less than a conspiracy. Teach for America has funneled some of the brightest college graduates into some of the country’s toughest teaching jobs, creating a human capital pipeline from elite institutions to poor neighborhoods. For many, Teach for America is more than a rite of passage. At the start of their service, 17.5 percent of corps members intend to pursue a career in education. About 65 percent eventually do.
That last sentence caught my attention.
TFA has had two goals from the start. One, to put highly-motivated, not-easily-discouraged, very bright college grads into under-performing schools. The second goal– and the reason that the teaching commitment is only for two years–is to make these future leaders (and that’s what these TFA kids are on the track to become) advocates for public education. It will be interesting to see what the effect will be of so many TFAers remaining in education rather than moving on to the boardroom or the bar.
H/T to The Stopped Clock, who thinks that Gerson’s got it all wrong.
