My cousin joined Teach For America when he graduated from college a few years ago, and I’ve wanted to be a part of the organization ever since. When I recently looked at their website, however, it was immediately clear to me that their entire system is flawed. Given how strongly TFA recruits at Dartmouth, with the College consistently being one of the organization’s highest contributing schools, students must be cognizant of the organization’s shortcomings before committing to the program.
The biggest issue with TFA is the lack of training its teachers receive. According to the organization’s website, “Corps members teach summer school students for an average of two hours each day and are observed by experienced teachers” for up to five weeks over the summer. Forty hours of classroom experience is not nearly enough to train fresh college graduates, many with little teaching experience, to become full-fledged teachers.
Teaching for two hours a day with supervision from experienced teachers is very different than handling a full classroom alone for upwards of six hours at a time. I spent a year tutoring students one-on-one, an hour at a time, and even in those brief sessions I was shocked by how short many of my students’ attention spans were. Though these tutoring sessions are not equivalent to TFA, many of the people who join the organization are likely similar to me — idealistic, book-smart people who have good intentions but little or no experience dealing with children for more than an hour at a time.
Several news outlets have reported similar criticisms. In a Feb. 6 New York Times column, Motoko Rich noted that TFA has garnered criticism from “teachers unions, education schools and some policy makers,” arguing that sending naive and bright-eyed recent college graduates to low-income communities with only a few weeks of training often does not create quality teachers. A July 2013 article in The Guardian mentions a 2013 Free Minds, Free People education conference, at which teachers and community members both associated with TFA or otherwise echoed these criticisms, namely that TFA destabilizes schools and disenfranchises communities.
This same article touched upon the other large issue with TFA. In many low-income or struggling areas, like some neighborhoods in New Orleans affected by Hurricane Katrina, schools are hiring TFA teachers instead of professionally trained teachers because they can pay them less without worrying that the teachers will unionize or petition for higher wages. The same financial incentives that make TFA attractive to these low-income areas, however, are also negatively impacting their students, who must deal with the instability that comes with short-term, two-year teaching stints. Especially during high school, when teacher recommendations are essential for helping students — first-generation students in particular — get into college, a constant cycle of teachers coming and leaving can hurt students who need teacher recommendations.
It is clear that TFA needs severe reforms. It’s a good concept, but its short training program and two-year cycle are not substitutes for real experience, especially in the classrooms that need experienced teachers the most.
The simplest way to improve TFA may be to just increase the time commitment. A mandatory five-year commitment, with all teachers supplementing the current summer training program by spending one year shadowing experienced teachers, would help teachers learn how to handle real students in real classrooms. They would be able to observe full classrooms — not just summer school classrooms — and understand the dynamics among various types of students. Making teachers stay in schools for four years rather than two would benefit students by increasing continuity, allowing students to build stronger relationships with their educators.
These reforms would not completely solve the problem of bringing better teachers to classrooms in low-income areas, but would get TFA on the path to training more qualified and committed teachers. If nothing else, people who are willing for commit to the program for five years rather than two are bound to be more devoted — and hopefully better at teaching.
