What’s Wrong with Teach for America?

Teacher_writing_on_a_BlackboardSuccessful, ambitious young people armed with a 5-week summer training course drop into America’s less desirable schools. But who is it really helping? Critics claim that TFA recruits inexperienced people who are more interested in padding their CVs than making a real difference. There are also claims that school districts prefer hiring TFA teachers because they come in at the bottom of the pay scale and leave before climbing much higher. And if that weren’t bad enough, it appears that veteran teachers have been laid off to make way for the swelling ranks of “corps members” deployed on their two-year stints. Faced with such criticism, Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp defended the organization saying that it is a leadership development organization, not a teaching organization.

Take a look at one teacher’s sardonic take on “The Green Berets of Excellence.”

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