StickWithANose

Among the professions, teaching is unique in that it is commonly assumed that most people could carry out the duties of a teacher successfully without formal preparation. We’ve all been to school, so we know what teaching is all about… right? The assumption is that if someone has the knowledge base in an academic area then s/he has what it takes to make a fine educator. In current policy and reform debates, there is no better example of this assumption in action than Teach for America.

TFA is a program that recruits high-achieving college students to work in schools serving low-income students for at least two years after graduation. Participants are given just five weeks of preparation courses before being placed in the toughest schools in the country with the idea that they will inject needed talent into those schools. In popular discourse, TFA is portrayed as a successful program in which the nation’s best and brightest are doing their part to help struggling schools… as this article from the Tennessean demonstrates.

Jake Ramsey is a well-spoken Vanderbilt University graduate with a degree in economics and a near-perfect grade-point average.

He’s an Ingram Scholar, which means he got a full ride because of good grades and a dedication to public service. He’s well traveled, having interned in Northern Ireland and Buenos Aires.

And this fall, Ramsey, 22, will teach his first high school algebra class at Maplewood High School in Nashville.

Ramsey is one of 50 teachers who will work in struggling Metro schools as part of Teach for America, a national nonprofit that recruits non-educators to two-year stints in the classroom. The group is the No. 1 employer for graduating seniors at Vanderbilt, Brown University, Spelman College and more than a dozen other schools.

Sounds exciting! Who could argue with bringing in new teachers from such well regarded institutions such as Vanderbilt, Brown, etc.? The problem is that there is no evidence that the TFA program is effective. Looking at the effectiveness of alternative licensure and teacher preparation, Darling-Hammond reports the following findings:

Alternatively certified teachers are also generally less effective than certified teachers. These findings hold for TFA recruits as well as others. Controlling for teacher experience, degrees, and student characteristics, uncertified TFA recruits are less effective than certified teachers, and perform about as well as other uncertified teachers. TFA recruits who become certified after 2 or 3 years do about as well as other certified teachers in supporting student achievement gains; however, nearly all of them leave within three years. Teachers’ effectiveness appears strongly related to the preparation they have received for teaching.

Darling-Hammond’s findings are by no means unique. [See 1 2] The skinny is that there is more to teaching than simply knowing the content. This should seem like a no brainer… Placing under-prepared individuals in the toughest schools will not raise academic achievement… but I am afraid that is not the case. TFA is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

While on the surface programs like TFA are being heralded as the answer to our educational woes, the reality behind such programs is that they are part and parcel with the great de-skilling of the American workforce. In an era of scripted curricula and standardized assessment, who needs to learn about cognitive psychology, sociological theory, and ethics to become a successful educator? The answer is that anybody who wants to become a teacher should, but the stark reality is that the children of the American under-class are taught by the least prepared teachers in the workforce… even those who studied at Vanderbilt.