StickWithANose

News this week out of North Carolina provides a window into how the corporate take-over of public education continues apace: EdWeek

Faced with a yawning budget gap, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board last week approved plans to let go of hundreds of teachers, basing that decision on the teachers’ low performance on evaluations, rather than on their seniority.

Even more controversially, the 134,000-student North Carolina district granted an exemption to teachers hired through the Teach For America recruiting program who meet teaching standards over more-senior teachers, and it is poised to hire more TFA alumni…

[M]embers of the district’s school board said the decision was influenced by several factors, including the desire to maintain a contract with TFA and an overall sense that the teachers are doing well by their students.

“The idea was that we have a relationship with these folks who are in the toughest schools and situations,” said James L. Ross II, a school board member. “We could build that long-term if these people can stick around.”

A second school board member, Tom Tate, added, “We seem to be getting good results from these teachers generally.”

As with the rest of the American economy, the on-going financial/economic crisis facing the nation is providing ample opportunities to de-unionize the teaching profession. Notice the primary reason stated in the article is the “desire to maintain a contract with TFA” and “good results” comes second. Hey guys, we can’t break our contract!

I have no data from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district specifically, but I have read the research on Teach for America and alternative licensure pathways to the teaching profession. Data at the national level does not suggest that TFA teachers are more successful than are certified teachers. In fact, the literature suggests that 1) TFA teachers find the minimal training they receive to be inadequate in preparing them to work in the challenging schools they are placed, 2) TFA teachers are less successful than are teachers certified through traditional routes that include pedagogical training and practicum experiences, and 3) TFA teachers have  significantly higher turnover rates. [1] [2] [3] Looking at the data alone it is hard to justify the actions taken by Charlotte’s school board, but that is to miss the point.

For policy-makers, the crisis facing Charlotte is an opportunity to solve a budget nightmare and eliminate a political problem in one swoop. Naomi Klein calls it the disaster model. Sadly, the losers in this exercise will be the students.