TFA - UW and SPS and Outcomes
I have to thank so many of you for your input. You don't know how many times someone either reaches out to me at my Save Seattle Schools e-mail (sss.westbrook@gmail.com) or writes something here that sticks in my brain. It's like a phantom itch; it doesn't matter how much you scratch, you can't make it go away.
So I think I have figured out (and some of you probably as well) why TFA is so damn sure they'll be putting their recruits into SPS. That Wendy Kopp doesn't even try to demur should tell you something. (Janis Ortega, the regional TFA director, does the same thing in her e-mails to the Dean of the UW's College of Education. Funny, he never asks her why she's so sure.)
They are sure because I would bet money that the district has a quiet agreement (beyond the contract) about TFA. Here's how it will work:
As many of you have point out, there are many schools (not just a couple) that the district projects as under-enrolled. One of them is Garfield which, as we all know, is a laughable thought. You couple this year's enrollment figures, look at historic neighborhood enrollment (you can extract that information from our previous choice assignment plan) AND the sky-is-falling capacity management projections and you KNOW there will be very few under-enrolled schools.
But, if the district has a significant number of schools with projected under-enrollment, then they RIF at those schools.
Come the first day of school, masses of students show up. Whoops! Oh my gosh, look at all those kids who need a teacher!
Well, the first people they call are from within the district including the RIFs. But the district knows by the first day of school few teachers either want to move from schools they are assigned to and few RIFed teachers will be available because they have moved on.
Who is left to plug the holes? TFA recruits.
Works out well, no?
And, of course, then about in October, you know, right before the general election, Gates or someone suddenly gives a great gift or grant to the district and boy, do those incumbents shine. I believe it's called a quid pro quo and yes, I absolutely believe it's going to happen.
See, it would be one thing if the School Board, said, look, we won't promise TFA any jobs but they can interview and let the principals decide. But that wouldn't have been good enough for TFA. So there has to be some way to make sure it happens. Well, if the district is going out of its way to make sure TFA comes in, I'm sure they want something back.
So we need to call the Board on this RIGHT NOW. Again, ask them - why are SO many schools projected as under-enrolled?
Now, onto the UW and its College of Education which seems to have some real problems brewing.
As one commenter said, it is true that out of nowhere (because there was no hint of it at last Wednesday's meeting with grad students), the Dean has decided that there will be summer courses to allow their grad students to be done in time so they can be eligible to apply for any open Puget Sound teaching jobs in September. Just like that.
Smell that? That's the whiff of someone getting a little desperate. I do believe that the Dean has had his cage rattled and he realized that he can't just steamroll the grad students and the faculty.
TFA always expects something. Always. They act like they are doing someone a big favor and therefore, want something in return. If they can get someone else to pay for stuff, they will.
So what that means for example at UW is maybe these perks for TFA and only TFA students:
Do you think it fair for TFA recruits to get these benefits that UW College of Education grads don't get? That regular UW undergrads don't get? In these hard fiscal times, when UW is admitting fewer in-state students, TFA is importing mostly out-of-state students who get special breaks on tuition? Do you know how many first-year teachers would love for someone to give them money for classroom needs?
But TFA, sure.
Those of you with high school students, is this fair for your child who might want to go to UW?
It's not.
(I'll wrap up with one last part on next steps and why I don't "hate" TFA.)
So I think I have figured out (and some of you probably as well) why TFA is so damn sure they'll be putting their recruits into SPS. That Wendy Kopp doesn't even try to demur should tell you something. (Janis Ortega, the regional TFA director, does the same thing in her e-mails to the Dean of the UW's College of Education. Funny, he never asks her why she's so sure.)
They are sure because I would bet money that the district has a quiet agreement (beyond the contract) about TFA. Here's how it will work:
As many of you have point out, there are many schools (not just a couple) that the district projects as under-enrolled. One of them is Garfield which, as we all know, is a laughable thought. You couple this year's enrollment figures, look at historic neighborhood enrollment (you can extract that information from our previous choice assignment plan) AND the sky-is-falling capacity management projections and you KNOW there will be very few under-enrolled schools.
But, if the district has a significant number of schools with projected under-enrollment, then they RIF at those schools.
Come the first day of school, masses of students show up. Whoops! Oh my gosh, look at all those kids who need a teacher!
Well, the first people they call are from within the district including the RIFs. But the district knows by the first day of school few teachers either want to move from schools they are assigned to and few RIFed teachers will be available because they have moved on.
Who is left to plug the holes? TFA recruits.
Works out well, no?
And, of course, then about in October, you know, right before the general election, Gates or someone suddenly gives a great gift or grant to the district and boy, do those incumbents shine. I believe it's called a quid pro quo and yes, I absolutely believe it's going to happen.
See, it would be one thing if the School Board, said, look, we won't promise TFA any jobs but they can interview and let the principals decide. But that wouldn't have been good enough for TFA. So there has to be some way to make sure it happens. Well, if the district is going out of its way to make sure TFA comes in, I'm sure they want something back.
So we need to call the Board on this RIGHT NOW. Again, ask them - why are SO many schools projected as under-enrolled?
Now, onto the UW and its College of Education which seems to have some real problems brewing.
As one commenter said, it is true that out of nowhere (because there was no hint of it at last Wednesday's meeting with grad students), the Dean has decided that there will be summer courses to allow their grad students to be done in time so they can be eligible to apply for any open Puget Sound teaching jobs in September. Just like that.
Smell that? That's the whiff of someone getting a little desperate. I do believe that the Dean has had his cage rattled and he realized that he can't just steamroll the grad students and the faculty.
TFA always expects something. Always. They act like they are doing someone a big favor and therefore, want something in return. If they can get someone else to pay for stuff, they will.
So what that means for example at UW is maybe these perks for TFA and only TFA students:
- scholarships
- "negotiated" tuition rates
- deferred billing
- stipends to cover their in-school classroom expenses
Do you think it fair for TFA recruits to get these benefits that UW College of Education grads don't get? That regular UW undergrads don't get? In these hard fiscal times, when UW is admitting fewer in-state students, TFA is importing mostly out-of-state students who get special breaks on tuition? Do you know how many first-year teachers would love for someone to give them money for classroom needs?
But TFA, sure.
Those of you with high school students, is this fair for your child who might want to go to UW?
It's not.
(I'll wrap up with one last part on next steps and why I don't "hate" TFA.)
Comments
You get upset that you are not invited to press events. And then you come up with entries like these that are entirely conjecture.
Do you have ANY proof for what you're saying? AT ALL?
Oh, right. No.
You continue to want your cake and eat it too.
As for the TfA'ers and the Ed-reformers. The attempt at privatizing will not work with the SPS. These private, non-profit(LOL) groups attempt at trying to get to the $$$ trough of the taxpayers is being exposed very easily.
Speak truth to the people, not to power, as power already knows the truth.
I have e-mails that show an absolute belief by TFA with no room for doubt about coming into SPS.
I have Wendy Kopp's own words.
I have the district's own capacity management presentation.
I have the district's figures that show under-enrollment at many buildings.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see line things up. People like Wendy Kopp don't use words like "will" and not mean it. You can't see the capacity management plan and then think, "Oh but many of our schools, even popular ones, will be under-enrolled for 2011-2012."
If I'm wrong (and I"m not on the main point of how TFA is getting into SPS), then I'll eat my words. But I feel fairly certain, via all my research and sources, that this is the plan.
The chain of events she posits here make perfect sense to those of us who have been watching the Teach For Awhile debacle unfold. I mean, we've all heard Ms Kopp's piece on the radio, how sure she is that TFA WILL have placements in Seattle next fall, and we've all seen the undercounts, and we've all seen the district RIF teachers...It is apparent to all that there will be openings next fall, BECAUSE teachers were laid off this spring or not hired to fill what will certainly be openings come fall...
Do you have a suggestion, Gouda, as to how TFA will get its 20-25 contracted Teach-For-Awhile warm bodies into classrooms in any other fashion? Please, let us know.
As to the UW/TFA craptitude, we'll just see how that unfolds, eh? Unless you, Gouda, can also inform us of the fairness and ethical aspects of Stritikus bringing in his TFA to compete with legitimate certificate candidates....Or is MW just conjecturing about that, too?
Ms Westbrook is, I'm sure, more knowledgeable about Seattle education than just about anybody in the room, and her "research" in this case merely confirms what most of us already suspect.
TFA, on the other hand, and (apparently) Stritikus, know little or nothing about Seattle education, as evidenced by their blatant attempt to manufacture circumstances where they might be welcome.
Heck, TFA (on its Seattle web site) says that its non-certs will be teaching IN Puget Sound! Ha!
ken berry
"We had to destroy the village to save it."
There are two plausible scenarios currently underway in SPS.
The first; there is a massive amount of incompetence and dogma-driven decision making within SPS, all of which will lead to unintended consequences. Evidence is strong for this scenario, but it just seems so strange that a public institution could be so poorly run. This is not Alabama or Louisiana...it's Seattle for Pete's sake.
The second; there is a well-orchestrated campaign (supported by some very adept PR wonks and consultants) designed to deteriorate Seattle Schools to such an extent as to foment a public outcry for rescue. Which "White Knight" will ride in to fix the mess? The privatizers who stand to make billions in this new emerging market. This scenario requires deep knowledge of the District to comprehend. Melissa (and Charlie) has the inside on this and I usually believe her (and him).
The second scenario requires a well-coordinated external effort and co-optation, I realize. However, examine the players and the flow of money and you will begin to see a disturbing pattern.
The fox is going into the henhouse...TFA will open the gate open.
If the UW would just timely release public records, there would be a definitive answer to your question.
Gouda is a stinky cheese (?)
I suggest you read the following article in the NY Times: Behind Grass-Roots School Advocacy, Bill Gates
By SAM DILLON
Published: May 21, 2011
...... "For years, Bill Gates focused his education philanthropy on overhauling large schools and opening small ones. His new strategy is more ambitious: overhauling the nation’s education policies. To that end, the foundation is financing educators to pose alternatives to union orthodoxies on issues like the seniority system and the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers.
In some cases, Mr. Gates is creating entirely new advocacy groups. The foundation is also paying Harvard-trained data specialists to work inside school districts, not only to crunch numbers but also to change practices. It is bankrolling many of the Washington analysts who interpret education issues for journalists and giving grants to some media organizations."
And Gouda - I'm guessing MW isn't stupid enough to make these kinds of suggested scenarios without having the documentation to prove it. She's certainly put more time in than any Seattle Times reporter does.
“It’s Orwellian in the sense that through this vast funding they start to control even how we tacitly think about the problems facing public education,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who said he received no financing from the foundation.
Mr. Hess, a frequent blogger on education whose institute received $500,000 from the Gates foundation in 2009 “to influence the national education debates,” acknowledged that he and others sometimes felt constrained. “As researchers, we have a reasonable self-preservation instinct,” he said. “There can be an exquisite carefulness about how we’re going to say anything that could reflect badly on a foundation.”
“Everybody’s implicated,” he added.
============
Note: This is written by Sam Dillion of the New York Times (A real Journalist, just like Mel Westbrook).
Seems I've heard this a lot before Sam put this on the front page of the NYT. Perhaps a few more folks will now finally get it.
Melissa is always careful to say, "Someone told me," or "I heard" . . . and she almost always includes a statement to the effect that she will follow up on it or asks other members of the blog to see what they can find out. She openly sites her sources unless her sources have requested anonymity, but even then, the things she says are easily verifiable if you are doing to work yourself to find out. And if she is giving a possible example of the way something might be accomplished, she labels it as that -- a possible example or scenario, not a fact.
I think (notice I said "think") that Gouda's post is an attempt to move the discussion away from TFA and the effect it is going to have on our schools by attempting to focus attention on Melissa.
Let's focus on TFA, folks. Let's focus on our children.
Gouda, stand up and fight fair.
Scrapin' Mom
The spotlight is shining bright on TFA right now (thanks very much, in part, to Melissa and this blog). Seattle is a city full of involved, active parents, and strong teachers who aren't going to let TFA recruits just slip in under the radar. And a principal that decides to hire an under trained TFA recruit over a formally trained first year teacher, or an experienced teacher from the displaced pool, will not be very popular amongst their staff or parents. My guess is they'd take some serious heat in their building.
I don't think TFA is going to get 25 teachers in SPS. They may get their recruits in other WA state school districts, but I don't think they will be successful here in SPS.
So that's my naive prediction. We'll have to wait to see what happens.
here's the KUOW report on that:
Seattle schools OK TFA contract
With that in mind, I decided to quote some passages from an article in a national newspaper. This article has nothing to do with education, but the quotes could have been made about this TFA situation.
1) "True friends are critical friends."
2) "The worst poison is distrust."
3.) Leaders "are no less susceptible to adulation than the average man."
4) When a leader is forced to make a choice between two radically opposing views, he must make that choice with the knowledge that his choice "may cause more isolation and instability" rather than the improvement that was intended.
5) We "must move beyond short-term tactics to adopt a strategy that will take us beyond our seige mentality."
It seems to me that TFA has managed to make all of these things work in their favor.
Techno Mom
The Favorite One
Part of becoming an adult is the ability to accept feedback on your opinions (otherwise known as criticism), evaluate that feedback, and then choose which parts of the feedback are valid and might change your mind and which parts of the feedback simply don't apply. This blog helps with that.
Techno Mom
The Favorite One
However, if you go back to any singular point in time and you only wrapped 1 layer of tinfoil around your head, the chance that your outlandish wild ideas were close to correct were pretty good.
if you assume something evil and something venal from dean for a while tom terrific, and his clique of toadies forever, you have a really good chance of being correct.
too bad tom terrific & wendy weren't upfront with the sheep of the u.w. - the degrees of your students will be worthless because we're gonna McJob their careers, there are lots of direct flights from NYC to Seattle and Seattle is a great getaway from the east coast, and we're turning your silly little college of thumb twiddlers into a 5 week wonder factory, and Wendy will be getting a corner office!
I Can See Wendy's Corner Office From My House.
How does that favor TFA? Because TFA has secret doors opened for them by people who are within the system and greedy, ambitious, or true believers.
Techno Mom
Techno Mom
Another mom, I didn't say that no TFA recruits will be hired, I said I doubt very seriously that 25 recruits will be hired. The spotlight is shining bright on TFA right now. A couple of recruits may get hired, but they won't slip in under the radar. The push back the district will get from teachers and parents, and the bad PR that is sure to accompany that, will probably be enough to have the district back off of hiring TFA recruits.
Again, that is just my opinion. We'll have to wait and see what happens.
Check the latest at the Times=>
Moving forward following the Ingraham High principal dust-up
Seattle Public Schools interim Superintendent Susan Enfield's listening skills and flexibility are deservedly credited with the reinstatement of Ingraham High School's principal. However problematic the execution of her first major decision, the issues it dealt with were grounded in matters Enfield knows well as the district's former chief academic officer.
At the same time, the foundation has just three trustees, Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, and no board of directors. Instead, it operates advisory panels with a handful of outside experts for each of its three main programs — global health, global development and U.S. education — but the meetings and reports are not made public. Despite its humanitarian intentions, its power to influence policy without a public process has raised concern.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015116661_gatescampus22.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015116661_gatescampus22.html
The following year, look for lots of openings.
This year my third-grader’s teacher was on maternity leave at the beginning of the year. They had to fill all other positions before getting the long-term sub for her classroom which means the position wasn’t officially filled until the Friday before school started. We still got a great teacher from the RIF list. And, according to one teacher I spoke to, they had three really strong candidates to choose from and had difficulty making the decision.
GiGi
I would be careful about thinking like that.
Within any teaching group there will be a few "all-stars". If they are very careful to "install" a couple of their absolute best candidates, then it will be much less likely to get building-level pushback. At that point the wedge is in place.
It's also much easier to complain about an organization or a process than it is to complain about an individual, especially when a specific individual isn't doing anything egregiously bad.
These folks aren't stupid, they've been running their show for years, and I'm sure they know what they're doing. The bogus process needs to be daylighted to the general public somehow. Right now it's still mostly the education wonks and blog readers that understand the full story.
You reminded me of two things.
1)Wasn't there some rumor of superstar/TFA alum Chrissy Coxon leaving W. Sea. Elem? True?
2)Peter Maier, in his one act of backbone- or maybe just cartilage - amended the TFA contract to require measurement.
I agree about the process, but let's be sure to measure any and all TFAers in SPS - recruits and alums both. Chrissie Coxon makes me wonder if even TFA graduates who stay in teaching may have shorter average half-lives than full-certs. You know, the Mary Poppins model - swoop in, fix children, swoop out - might get permanently ingrained.
You know, like in netflix when you first joined back in the day, you would get priority placement and fast response for popular movies in your queue. Then after a few months, no more priority, but you would have to wait (gasp!) longer for new movies. Same here. Seattle is going to get candidates that are too good to pass up.
The district knows this and therefore, knows there will be many open seats (especially for the TFA recruits with a math/science degree of which we might see 6-8 interview out of 12 available in Puget Sound).
I'm going to have to do some deeper research on TFA and who stays, for how long and where. But I do know that they skew, as does the rest of teaching, female, and the female TFAers seem to get better results than the males.
There's also a good study out that is the most fair-minded that I've seen (and I saw it so long ago I forgot about it until one commenter mentioned it recently). I'll post that soon.
If you read my post carefully, you would understand that I was questioning your assumption that RIF teachers would have "overwhelmingly likely" accepted some other placement by September. The RIF list is long and teachers know that jobs come up through the fall. And even if they don't, where else are they more likely to find a job?
In my experience last year, there were still good teachers from the RIF list who were applying for jobs in September. Why would this year be any different?
-GiGi
Let's not forget that Level One (or is it SIG schools, it's all so confusing) skip the first two hiring phases (internal) and go right to Phase III, anybody welcome to apply.
So in the past, RIFfed teachers could apply BEFORE TFA or anybody else; now they "get to" apply WITH TFA, et al, at schools that are most "troubled."
I could easily see TFA candidates being stuffed onto the interview lists ahead of RIFfed certificated teachers, just because someone wants it that way.
None of the Board members seemed to notice - and none of the staff mentioned - that the TfA folks were only interested in positions at the Level 1 and Level 2 schools and that those schools would not have Tier I and Tier II hiring periods.
Funny, huh?
That makes all of that fuss about waiting for the Tier III hiring period either silly, a mistake, or an intentional deception.
I'm guessing intentional deception.
Mary
Wishing for Less Bureaucracy and More Mentoring
Thanks. That was the clarification I was looking for. I didn't understand the Tiered hiring periods properly.
So, how do I tell which schools are Levels 1, 2, or 3?
-GiGi
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2010/Pages/Teach-for-America-Inc-OPP1020814.aspx
Dora Taylor
Signing in as Anonymous because blogger sucks.
If you don't want some recruit fresh out of college with no education in teaching who will be out the door in at the most 2 years in your school then not only do you tell the do-nothing board (except Patu) now your concerns but you also tell your principals that having TFA recruits who are inadequately prepared to teach any child is not an option and raise a stink! These are our children and billionaires who think they know the way but don't should not have a say in what we know is best for our students.
End of story.
Dora Taylor
Signing in as Anonymous because, well you know...
TfA is a peace corps model of two years of very challenging service that will inspire future actions back in the real world, not a model for developing teachers. So if we had a similar model but with the idea of creating sustainable teachers, we'd need to do things a little differently. More mentoring, less ambition?
TfA has a cult-like attitude that they are better than other teachers. Watch the public testimony from last Fall's board meetings. It was disturbing to hear person after person not saying "we are good, you will be happy with us" but "we are so much better, we are the only teachers who care." How does that attitude build good teachers who work together. Teaching, like parenting, is about the most humbling job one can do. Collaboration, flexibility, confidence tempered with humility are all important.
The TfA model seems to suck mentoring out of other teachers without a clear plan and without considering the cost to the other teachers. Additionally, it's hit or miss because TfA recruits in very challenging schools mean they might not find good mentors, only other new teachers. Plus, teaching in a challenging school is more work (as the ed-reform movement who wants to incentivize it agrees) so good teachers who are already there in the challenging schools are already overworked -- how can they be effective mentors to new crop of TfAers all the time? As Tom said, it would be the duty of a knowledgeable teacher to mentor a newbie TfA teacher on the side. Without acknowledgement, without time built into the day, without support for their own classes.
I'd like to see schools designed for institutionalized mentoring. What if a school with 30 teachers had 10 student/novice teachers on board for a whole year. That would allow for flexible grouping, extra collaboration time, lots and lots of opportunities for these novices to take over classes, to observe and participate in classroom management, curriculum development, the daily ins and outs of education.
Seattle had 3 TFA recruits some years ago at Rainier Beach. The teacher who shared this with an audience at RBHS said that the TFA recruits required a lot of time and hand holding because they were not at all prepared to teach in a real school. This became an additional load on other teachers who already had their hands full with their own responsibilities.
If you mean by "mentoring" that staff will have to take their time to basically provide them with the rest of their education or as an alternative, pay for mentors to help these unprepared teachers along, I would consider that a bad idea.
Dora Taylor
Signing in as Anonymous...
Creating Educational Monocultures http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-thompson/creating-educational-mono_b_865141.html
Yes! As someone who has always wanted to switch careers and teach, and who has (after research and talking to teachers) been appalled at some of the dreck laded into the teacher prep curriculum -- yes! I think TfA, as it is currently constituted, is a bad, bad idea for all schools except those whose alternatives are uncertified or emergency sub teachers teaching out of their areas (I would take a bright, passionate TfA'er who majored in math for a math class in that case, hands down -- just like in the Peace Corps, you might be happy to have an uncertificated, intensively trained over a summer teacher instead of -- no teacher at all!)
I have always felt that the current programs exist to justify the existence of weak Ed departments and suck maximum tuition from teacher candidates, while doing far less to prepare them for teaching than they could do with fewer classes and much more time in mentored schoolrooms.
Wouldn't it be great if, instead of TfA, the Gates Foundation had thrown its money and influence behind an alternative certification program like the one Dorothy proposes -- where there is a lot less time in really lame classes, and a lot more time student teaching, teaching paired with mentor master teachers, teaching with observation and critical self-assessment/filming, etc. You could even designate "teaching schools" -- like "teaching hospitals" where the administrators were also picked for their ability to run a school that is heavily involved in teacher training.
In the back of my mind, as this TfA debate has raged on, I have been thinking that it is done SO badly that it will likely also screw up any efforts in the future to reform the teachers certificate/masters in teaching model in a way that truly COULD make it better.
In order to promote teaching as a profession, future teachers need to be instructed in a variety of research based and data driven different methods for instruction.
I chose the program at UW for its emphasis on social justice and equitable teaching practices for all children; something I did not see evidence of in other teacher prep programs. Though I wouldn't hate to see a refund at this point in my dealings with Dr. Stritikus, I do feel that I received an education worth every penny that I paid.
I hope that the CoE at UW can pull through this, and somehow find a way to continue the Teacher Education Program... even after TfA has invaded.
Job-hunting Future Teacher
www.scribd.com/SPSleaks
In order to promote teaching as a profession, future teachers need to be instructed in a variety of research based and data driven different methods for instruction.
... hummm do you think the UW CoE does this?
Odd, in regard to math instruction the UW seems to regularly ignore data. Check out "results" from The UW CoE Math Education Project.
=======
Dr. Stritikus seems to be acutely "data decision" impoverished. Previously I thought Dean Wasley needed a lot of improvement in the data-decision department.