First it was the Broadies and Now It's the TFA Tribbles
It was pointed out in the Crosscut thread on UW and TFA that our new Manager of Recruiting, Nathan Fitzpatrick, is a former TFA alum. Actually he has quite a long association with TFA from his Linked-In page:
Current:
Manager, Recruitment at Seattle Public Schools
Past:
Manager, Non-Profit Alliances at Teach For America
Recruitment Director at Teach For America
Corps Member at Teach For America
Now by my count we have but one Broad person left in the person of Jessica de Barros. (The district just recently bid farewell to Cordell Carter.
I only know of two TFA SPS staff (there are a couple of teachers but I wouldn't count them):
Current:
Manager, Recruitment at Seattle Public Schools
Manager, Non-Profit Alliances at Teach For America
Recruitment Director at Teach For America
Corps Member at Teach For America
Now by my count we have but one Broad person left in the person of Jessica de Barros. (The district just recently bid farewell to Cordell Carter.
I only know of two TFA SPS staff (there are a couple of teachers but I wouldn't count them):
- Nathan Fitzpatrick (he did testify in favor of TFA at the November Board meeting but this was before he was hired by the district)
- Erin in the School Board office (I cannot remember her last name and, as usual, can't find it at the SPS website.)
Comments
Would a teacher rather Teach in Finland or Seattle?
This from the Minister of Ed in Finland:
Virkkunen:
... Our teachers are really good. One of the main reasons they are so good is because the teaching profession is one of the most famous careers in Finland, so young people want to become teachers. In Finland, we think that teachers are key for the future and it's a very important profession -- and that's why all of the young, talented people want to become teachers. All of the teacher-training is run by universities in Finland and all students do a five-year master's degree. Because they are studying at the university, teacher education is research-based. Students have a lot of supervised teacher-training during their studies. We have something called "training schools" -- normally next to universities -- where the student teaches and gets feedback from a trained supervisor.
Teachers in Finland can choose their own teaching methods and materials. They are experts of their own work and they test their own pupils. I think this is also one of the reasons why teaching is such an attractive profession in Finland because teachers are working like academic experts with their own pupils in schools.
---------
Teach for America was approved in Seattle by the School Board ... this sends a clear message of how the Board views too many Seattle teachers.
The $500,000 "four" of 2007 ... knows exactly how the Big Money wants them to vote and votes that way --- evidence is not required, used, or wanted in formulating School Board approval of proposals. ... Much the same is true for the WA Legislature, and the Gov.
------------
I once thought the Board approvals were arbitrary and capicious .... now I realize the approvals are bought and paid for.
Don't forget TFA Alum and Executive Director of Schools Aurora Lora. "Ms. Lora's Story" is after all TFA reading.
Is Bree Duesuealt TFA, or is it that her husband was in TFA? I know they both worked in charter schools and that her background was "consulting" before that.
trilin
Yes, Bree and her husband are both former TFA as is Aurora Lora.
So that makes 5, 4 of whom are in high level administrative positions.
(I know another teacher at West Seattle Elementary was TFA but I believe she is leaving that school but I don't know if she is leaving the district.)
Sounds like a pretty clear case of quid pro quo.
Another example: DeBarros, a "Broad Resident" was paid by SPS as a consultant to write the "research paper" that led to the District selecting MAP (which Goodloe-Johnson favored already). Then she was hired by the District outright (for $90K or so) and put in charge of MAP.
Same pattern probably also applies to the hiring of the Strategies 360 person, Lesley Rogers, who was already doing PR for the District as a consultant, and, what a coincidence, ended up as the top choice for SPS' "Chief Communications Officer" after a "national search" by a 30-person hiring committee.
These people do some kind of work that often fits the SPS HQ reform agenda, first as consultants (or in the case of Fitzpatrick, volunteer speaker -- though he was probably recruited to speak before the Board by TFA's Janis Ortega), and then they are hired full time by SPS and given well-paid, publicly-funded jobs.
And central admin grows and grows.
Does anyone in the District ever get hired based on their actual abilities, and not just their connections and favors?
And the interesting thing is these people get hired because of their skills and yet we get:
Brad Bernatak - twisting stats and allowing them to be used that way for months
Lesley Rogers - the communications over the Ingraham incident is not exactly a stellar incident to point to as good crisis management.
Hopefully, enough good people in our city will create the critical mass necessary to force the incumbents out of office. The systemic problems that are not being addressed will continue to waste millions of taxpayer dollars and harm children.
Check out what Sandy says and then what India Carlson says following Sandy.
All 20 testimonies were on TfA.