What is Teach for America, and what's the point of this blog?
Teach for America (web site) is a national nonprofit organization that recruits idealistic individuals, most of them recent college graduates, to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools that serve low-income communities. Schools in impoverished districts are often severely underfunded and may lack many basic and essential resources: Textbooks may be outdated or scarce; school infrastructure may be deteriorating, even dangerous; funding for classroom technology and after-school programs is in many cases minimal or nonexistent; teachers are frequently underqualified. In addition to the problems they sometimes face within their schools, students from underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds all too often must also contend with poor housing conditions, limited access to health care, and hunger or malnutrition, among many other difficulties.
For those students, the barriers to academic achievement are unspeakably high. Teach for America aims to lower those barriers in the short term by encouraging its recruits, often called "corps members," to devote all possible time, energy, and ingenuity to helping their students make tangible (measurable) progress in the classroom. In the long term, TFA's leaders hopes that corps members will go on to use their knowledge of the ravages of poverty and the failings of American public schools to work for lasting change.
Since its inception in 1990, Teach for America has grown into a large and well-respected organization. According to TFA's web site, in 2003 more than 3,000 corps members/new teachers were placed in 20 different regions, from New York City to rural Mississippi to Los Angeles. Those 3,000 members were drawn from a much larger pool of applicants; TFA has become a high-profile program on college campuses across the country and has recently begun to receive more than 10,000 applications a year (source: Yale Daily News). TFA is also popular among individual and corporate donors, whose gifts have helped the organization enlarge its budget to $34 million for 2004 (Source: TFA).
College career counselors, mainstream press outlets, and TFA's own representatives have often been vocal in their praise of the program, and Teach for America is unquestionably an organization with admirable goals. But, as a former TFA corps member whose experiences with the program were far from uniformly positive, I am dismayed by the uncritical approach taken by many chroniclers of the TFA story, and by how little prospective corps members actually know about the organization. While many scholars, policy-makers, and educators have made public their discomfort with TFA's approach to education reform (more on that in future posts), many of those interested in TFA have had little opportunity to hear from former corps members who are critical of the organization. That is unfortunate, both because corps members have a unique perspective on the way the program works, and because the viewpoints of recruits who've had negative experiences with TFA may be very useful to prospective corps members.
From what I have seen as a TFA corps member, Teach for America, while widely praised, is a deeply flawed organization that is not designed to effect the long-term change to which its leaders aspire. Although the TFA program is presented to college students as an invaluable opportunity to do a great deal of good—and for some corps members, it is just that—teaching through TFA can also be a brutal, disheartening, and destructive experience. By sharing my thoughts on the program, I hope to provide a much-needed counterpoint to the carefully crafted image of TFA presented on the program web site and by TFA recruiters.
For those students, the barriers to academic achievement are unspeakably high. Teach for America aims to lower those barriers in the short term by encouraging its recruits, often called "corps members," to devote all possible time, energy, and ingenuity to helping their students make tangible (measurable) progress in the classroom. In the long term, TFA's leaders hopes that corps members will go on to use their knowledge of the ravages of poverty and the failings of American public schools to work for lasting change.
Since its inception in 1990, Teach for America has grown into a large and well-respected organization. According to TFA's web site, in 2003 more than 3,000 corps members/new teachers were placed in 20 different regions, from New York City to rural Mississippi to Los Angeles. Those 3,000 members were drawn from a much larger pool of applicants; TFA has become a high-profile program on college campuses across the country and has recently begun to receive more than 10,000 applications a year (source: Yale Daily News). TFA is also popular among individual and corporate donors, whose gifts have helped the organization enlarge its budget to $34 million for 2004 (Source: TFA).
College career counselors, mainstream press outlets, and TFA's own representatives have often been vocal in their praise of the program, and Teach for America is unquestionably an organization with admirable goals. But, as a former TFA corps member whose experiences with the program were far from uniformly positive, I am dismayed by the uncritical approach taken by many chroniclers of the TFA story, and by how little prospective corps members actually know about the organization. While many scholars, policy-makers, and educators have made public their discomfort with TFA's approach to education reform (more on that in future posts), many of those interested in TFA have had little opportunity to hear from former corps members who are critical of the organization. That is unfortunate, both because corps members have a unique perspective on the way the program works, and because the viewpoints of recruits who've had negative experiences with TFA may be very useful to prospective corps members.
From what I have seen as a TFA corps member, Teach for America, while widely praised, is a deeply flawed organization that is not designed to effect the long-term change to which its leaders aspire. Although the TFA program is presented to college students as an invaluable opportunity to do a great deal of good—and for some corps members, it is just that—teaching through TFA can also be a brutal, disheartening, and destructive experience. By sharing my thoughts on the program, I hope to provide a much-needed counterpoint to the carefully crafted image of TFA presented on the program web site and by TFA recruiters.
posted by ex-TFAer at 1:56 PM
2 Comments:
I've been trying to find "negative" feedback about TFA and I finally found it. I'm sorry you had a bad experience and your blog reinforces why I'm glad I didn't get into their program.
If you think the actual program is, the way they handle "dismissed" applicants is even worse. I'm a seasoned professional with a degree in journalism/PR (in my 30s) who recently went through the rigors of TFA's interview process. I exerted a great deal of time, energy and money (as you well know) into the final interview process.
A few weeks ago I found out I was not accepted into the program via a "canned" and very cold-hearted rejection email. I have interviewed and hired people in my roles as directors for non-profit public health organizations. I would never had told my candidates they didn't make it via a tacky email!
This was the biggest slap in my face and made me feel like a "number"--the email was beyond unprofessional. TFA could have had the courtesy to at least personally call me to tell me I wasn't accepted (especially after the efforts I put forth into the interview process).
I also felt it was incredibly rude and tacky that in the email it stated that I could not contact TFA further to find out why I was not accepted into the program "due to the high volume of applicants they couldn't respond to my inquiries."
I have a feeling why I wasn't accepted and feel I was discriminated against because of my age (because I am not a fresh-faced, just out of college 20something). That's my personal opinion. I think they want kids that they can mold and bend.
If you're interested in sharing more information, I'm actually thinking about investigating the in's and out's of this program further and writing an article about the untold "personal accounts" of teachers (like you) who had bad experiences. I tried to do some research before I enrolled in the program and I didn't find a lot (only the positive information). I'm really glad I stumbled upon your blog.
Based on my experiences, I feel it is a highly elitist program (and not in a good way). Obviously, they are trying to do a lot of good but I am wondering WHO they actually are hiring and what they really are accomplishing?
They promote that they hire "professionals" but I wonder HOW many professionals they really do hire or is that just BS so they don't look like they are discriminating against people like me?
I'm sorry you had a bad experience and after I received that email, I'm glad I didn't get accepted. That tacky email really says it all about their program and I do not want to have anything to do with such an unprofessional organization.
I'm highly disappointed in Americorps as well. I have worked for 2 large national non-profits and Americorps has always had a good rep. I am surprised they would treat people in such a rude and unprofessional way.
Best of luck to you!
Likewise, I'm a TFA rejectee of non-traditional age who is reeling not only from the impersonal "I am sorry to inform you" e-mail, but also from the fact that I have NO idea why I wasn't selected to join the corps.
I hoped that I might find an answer in the second paragraph of the rejection e-mail, which mentioned and provided a link to the selection criteria. Slap in the face (or fist to the gut, which is more how I've felt) #2, though: the link simply took me to the criteria on their Web site against which I'd been comparing myself all along. Do they really think that any of their applicants would exert such incredible amounts of time and energy and thought without ensuring that they meet or exceed the published selection criteria?
My friends, family, colleagues, referees, and I have been grasping at straws trying to figure out why I didn't get accepted. "Too old" is one conclusion. If this is the case, it's not terribly surprising, since most programs that are funded by Americorp do set upper age limits for admission. "Too smart" has been offered as well. And I can see how TFA might be turned off by more wizened applicants: not necessarily by those with a stronger than usual academic background (though perhaps they find that, too, to be intimidating), but by those who have seen a lot of the world and who approach life and problems with a healthy amount of cynicism. That's not to say that I'm not just as idealistic and enthusiastic as all of the kids that I interviewed with combined! Maybe I just have the wrong sort of idealism, one that's a little too inquisitive and a little too eager in some ways...
It's difficult not to fall into bouts of self-doubt, but I keep reminding myself of how well I've performed, both academically and professionally, in the past in order to keep up my spirits. I was offered a lucrative assistantship at a graduate school, and the charter school where I've been substitute teaching has asked me to apply for a vacant position. These opportunities are both terribly exciting and indicate how qualified I am/would be to teach, and I should be content to know this, but instead I just wonder what flaw TFA was able to detect in me that the graduate school and the charter school were not.
I'm complying with their request not to contact them in order to seek out the specifics of my rejection. In my stead, however, one of my referees has been trying to contact them and has not reached a person by phone, e-mail, or post, and no one has even acknowledged the messages that he has left. I, too, have been involved in the other end of the interviewing and hiring process, and no matter how egregiously someone acted or spoke, I never flat out refused to accept contact with a candidate.
The rejection came one week ago. If no one responds to my referee after this coming week I think it'll just be time to move on. There are plenty of opportunities for uncertified teachers -- even those of us in our 30s.
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