“TFA: Our ‘Chance to Make History’” by Wendy Kopp
Education Week, March 14, 2011
Topic: Commentary piece on Teach for America
Education Week, March 14, 2011
Topic: Commentary piece on Teach for America
Summary: This article, written by the founder and CEO of Teach For America provides a more “touchy-feely” overview of the program. It gets at TFA’s goals and aspirations that the education system can be changed to eliminate the achievement gap. It also focuses on TFA’s basic idea that all students, regardless of race, background, socioeconomic status, etc. have the same potential to learn and go to college.
Intended audience: Teachers, general public
Key Points:
- TFA has been around for 20 years.
- Corps members are diverse (32% are people of color and 28% are from low-income backgrounds)
- TFA is highly selective (5000 corps members chosen from 40,000 applicants last year)
- TFA helps give children in rural and urban areas the opportunity to fulfill their true potential.
Relevance: Interesting article. We have talked a little about TFA and I am personally interested, as my brother is a corps member. As the article is a commentary piece by TFA’s CEO/Founder, it is fairly one sided. It does not touch on any of the criticisms of TFA (Corps members lack the training of a more traditional teacher education program, members often do not stick with teaching after the two year commitment, etc.)
The good thing is it appears that people who want to teach for the TFA have their hearts in the right place. The not so good things are what Jeff mentions above. As we are all learning is teaching is not that easy to do, especially in areas of poverty and less than ideal school settings. To me it sounds a little like the Peace Corps where the hearts to serve are in the right places, but the reality is much more difficult than what the people serving realize.
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