Many of the NYC public schools and almost all the charter schools hire "Teach For America" (TFA) "two year wonders" because they are cheap and not because they are "quality teachers". In fact, hiring TFA "newbies" is simply hurting student academic achievement by not hiring the "quality teachers" necessary to improve student academic outcomes. To help the student academic achievement of the school, the Principal needs to hire experienced teachers not the TFA "newbies" . Education reformers may say they are "quality teachers" but their simply "full of crap"..
The Gary Rubinstein blog states that over 80% of the TFA "newbies" leave the classroom after their fourth year of teaching. In fact, the majority leave the classroom without ever achieving tenure. No wonder the TFA "newbies" are known as the "two year wonders".
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) states that a "highly qualified teacher" is properly credentialed in their subject area, has experience, and possess classroom management skills. By contrast the TFA "newbies" are not credentialed, have no experience, except an inadequate five week training course, and usually has poor classroom management skills.
Despite the obvious problems associated with the TFA "newbies", the media, politicians and their education reformer friends will falsely proclaim that the TFA "newbies" are just as good as experienced teachers. Didn't Mayor Bloomberg once say that teacher experience doesn't count?
The bottom line is you get what you pay for and if you practice "education on the cheap" by hiring TFA "newbie teachers" then as Principal of the school you have nobody to blame but yourselves when your hire a "two year wonder" from the TFA and can't understand why the TFA "newbie's" students don't improve academically.
7 comments:
Chaz,
Why do you think that principals care? They're under the gun with no budgets. The actual budgets they have are controlled by the network of their choice. The principals I know (and there are 6 on my campus) could care less about who the hell they hire. If it's a TFA, no problem. A 1st or 2nd year teacher that will work until 6 pm everyday for no per session, even better.
Stop the nonsense about why this and why that. The principals don't care. This isn't 1997 where there were smart administrators, maybe a handful of principals in high school per borough. They cared, and there were no networks holding them back with $$. It's a whole different ball game. Principals will never ever hire experienced teachers due to salary spending. The sad thing is that these principals don't care. Not much matters. Take a look at the regents pass rates per school. They're tragic. Then again, who cares that they're tragic? No one really. The principals are the problem. They are not doing what's right because the networks are pulling the strings. The whole system is pathetic.
I said it b4, I shall say it again, Ms Carmen Fariña is a waste if time for the city. All talk no action. It will be June b4 you know it and zero change will occur. Same Ol same Ol network disaster. She likes it maybe.
Disposable teachers- get them cheap, use them up, throw them away. Who needs experience (other than the students- and their needs don't count).
The "reformers" have a model and it is the District of Columbia. As documented in the Washington Post they have tremendous turnover- 80 % after 6 years.
Chaz. For your next "topic", can you just let the readers unload dirt on their administrators? Can ya title your piece "True Dirt"?
Hi Chaz,
As ATRs, we travel to a different school weekly. Every other agency in the city gives their employees placards to place in their cars to facilitate their non-permanent transient travel. The union needs to request this for us. Its causing undue hardship on all of us. (And, yes I do realize that many permanent teachers dont have them.)
High-level expectations, common core standards, and academic rigor driven by turnstile teaching staffs throughout NYC. Yep, that sounds like the formula for success to me!
...and yet they are conning the public with catch phrases like "accountability" to create the illusion that they are actually doing something positive for the kids.
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