Seattle Schools Community Forum

Federal Way Schools , the other new TFA district, renegotiated their contract so that they could reduce the number of hires they were required to make.  They are trying to find a donor to cover the $3k per year per teacher TFA fee (as opposed to the Seattle fee of $4k per year per teacher) but haven't yet so they cannot afford to hire the 10 they originally planned for.  They will be hiring 4 but currently have hired only 3.  It appears they are all math or science majors.  The TFA/Apple connection?  Steve Jobs wife is on the TFA board. TFA has a new website and boy, is it interesting. New mission statement: Teach for America is growing the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education. You'll note it says nothing about teachers.  You'll note that it says nothing about shortages or filling gaps.   There have this at their Mission page:  We can provide an excellent education for kids i...

I received an e-mail from LEV touting the upcoming visit of TFA head, Wendy Kopp. She's doing a talk AND a book signing (good way to combine pushing your book AND TFA). So there was link to the LEV website with an article about the visit. I get they are pro-ed reform but this was over the top for me. “Bringing Teach for America (TFA) to the Puget Sound is a real breakthrough in our focus on the achievement gap,” said LEV’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Korsmo. “Their commitment to the kids and schools that struggle the most is extraordinary. It’s long overdue – we’ve been exporting talent to other TFA sites and it’s high time we tapped into that resource and kept these talented individuals in the Puget Sound area.” First of all, I just don't think TFA will make even a dent our the achievement gap in our district. It's interesting because in the press release they tout research on how "highly effective" TFA recruits are but nothing about closing any scho...