TFA Decides to Try Something New
Me and my hero, Diane Ravitch I plan to go to the Board soon and ask that the district's contract with TFA be ended. There are two reasons. One, it seems like a lack of real support for the district's own fledgling Seattle Teacher Residency to support another teacher training program. All SPS' attention and efforts should be towards STR. Second, TFA has just not been popular here in the least. Our school-based hiring teams have found them lacking because if not, we would have seen far greater numbers hired. And, as Charlie has pointed out, SPS can hire TFAers without the district having a contract. Charters are coming in and they love TFA - let them hire TFA. At the Network for Public Education conference this weekend, I attended a packed workshop on TFA. At first I was dismayed at the size of the panel but each one of them had something really great to say about this issue. What is interesting is that the panel offered the...