Public education is arguably the most important free social service in the United States. K-12 education is vital, obviously, to having an informed, literate society of citizens who can shape the world around them. 
There isn’t one particular model of a public school system that works for every student in every state. Large public school systems in urban cities have different needs and functions than smaller, rural schools.
The need for effective teachers is a commonality among every school in the U.S. Without teachers, schools would not run. Without effective teachers, schools would run themselves into the ground.
What does an effective teacher look like?
According to the No Child Left Behind Act (I know, not the most salient piece of legislation during the Bush era), a highly qualified teacher “must be fully certified by the state or have passed the state teacher licensure exam and have a license to teach in the state In addition, highly qualified teachers must demonstrate their knowledge of the subject they teach through certain credentials or test scores.” The nuance between highly qualified and effective shows itself mostly in the classroom. A highly qualified teacher knows the content very well and can relay it to students in practical, efficient ways. An effective teacher can engage students in the content, helping them make connections between disciplines and making the information “sticky.”
Becoming an effective teacher is hard work. It takes many, many years in the classroom and constant rounds of feedback and evaluations. Because there are so many different variables in the classroom that affect a teacher’s effectiveness, it can sometimes feel like swimming in the Atlantic without a life preserver.
And where are these “highly qualified” teachers coming from?
Colleges and universities provide traditional routes to prepare future educators. As an education major or minor, you complete your content and pedagogy courses that lead to teacher certification in the state where you teach. Some school districts hire teachers who have recently graduated while others require some experience in the classroom.
Sounds like a simple enough solution. Train teachers, they go forth and teach.
BUT the problem arises when schools in low income neighborhoods do not have effective OR highly qualified teachers. Teachers are not compensated as well in schools that lack access to funding so they turn to other neighborhoods that will ensure their careers are sustainable. This leads to high teacher turnover rate, with many different teachers coming and going each year.
This leaves the country’s neediest schools with less-than-effective teachers guiding our children. We could raise the funding of teachers, but that money comes from somewhere else in the budget (usually sports and arts programs).
This critical intersection of high needs schools and high demand for teachers catalyzed the movement of alternative teacher training programs.
Most notably of all, Teach for America.
We needed more teachers in the neediest schools. The solution was to incentivize the teaching profession and make it attractive to recent graduates. Targeting young, energetic and hopeful Americans eliminates the need to establish a sustainability plan. Younger teachers are less likely to complain about a 12 hour work day if they think it contributes to the overall mission of closing the achievement gap.
Teach for America seeks to “eliminate educational inequity” by providing America’s schools with teachers (and future leaders). After a 5 week training institute during the summer after your college graduation, you’re ready to step into the classroom as a full-time teacher. Without having taken many of the teaching certification exams, you are enrolled in a master’s of teaching program in conjunction with working in a high-needs school (in a location you may not be very familiar with).
What does it take to be a TFA’er?
A bachelor’s degree with at least a 2.5 GPA.
U.S citizen or permanent resident status.
That’s it.
No, you needn’t have studied education in college. You don’t need to have taken any prior background checks, teacher exams, or physical exams.
A more informal assessor of your “worthiness” is to have taken on leadership roles, of any kind, either in high school or college. An RA in a college dormitory is an example.
Before I continue, let’s note that some teachers who are a part of the program did study education as part of their undergraduate program. These teachers use Teach for America as a launching pad into their long-term careers. Others who apply to the program become passionate about school reform and become phenomenal long-term school teachers and leaders.
Now, “NCLB also requires states to take steps to ensure that low-income and minority students are not taught by teachers who are not highly qualified at higher rates than are non-minority and low-income students.” This is relatively problematic for TFA because all of it’s recruits start off as “not highly qualified.” The question over whether low-income students are taught by these teachers at a higher rate than their non-low income counterparts is up in the air.
The controversy over TFA, charter schools, and school reforms is plenty. Just check out the #resisttfa tweets of folks who are encouraging college graduates to reconsider recruiting with the organization. Other more abrupt criticisms include those who say TFA acts as a colonization method. “By default, Corps Members rationalize their place in the classroom with a savior complex. They act as some sort of missionary from the privileged class, here to save the poor kids…well, save the poor kids for two years before going on to a more prestigious career.” (Taken from “The Catalyst” an independent student newspaper at Colorado College.)
Elitist white savior organizations like TFA address the wrong side of the problem. The solution to poor school systems, according to TFA, is to send hordes of privileged recent graduates into low performing schools and “enlighten” the children who don’t know any better. The victims of the corrupt system are being addressed instead of the perpetrators. Have we stopped to ask WHY these schools are in decline? Have we asked WHY these children are living in poverty? Can we find out why less than equal education is inextricably linked to poverty? Perhaps that’s too much of a socialist ideal.
Apparently TFA is having some trouble recruiting recent college grads, most because of the recovering economy in conjunction with the growing criticism of the training methods. Ironically enough, TFA has difficulty in confronting the criticism it receives, spending millions of dollars on PR campaigns that promote the benefits to recruits.
In any case, we need teachers. That’s an indisputable fact. But if our best answer to the lack of effective teachers is to recruit those with absolutely no experience into our neediest classrooms, we’ve failed our kids.
Musings of a Burgeoning Brooklynite 