How I Joined Teach for America—and Got Sued for $20 Million

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Typical for TFA to coach their members to turn on one another

I'm calling this comment fishy.

Another thing - teachers with many many years experience struggle from year to year to "ensure that their students realized significant academic gains despite the chaotic conditions". Some years you get there, some years you don't. But first year teachers, especially TFAs with no experience, don't get there. Even Michelle Rhee admits she had no idea what she was doing when she started teaching. Since there is currently an investigation into questionable test scores in DC, I would be more likely to believe someone had a lucky pencil than to believe a first year teacher showed commendable academic gains.

I speak from experience. I've worked with TFA interns for 5 years now. This year I have 5 of them. I am mentoring them and am in each of their classrooms several hours every week. I meet with them before and after school once a week. I've seen them grow. 4 of the 5 are very good teachers. The other one is just taking more time to grow into the job. But award winning? No. Each of them will also admit any gains their students have made are due to the work of several teachers, support from the district, the students' parents and community volunteers who come in regularly to tutor. I consider that admission a great victory. TFA tells these kids they are the solution and all they have to do is walk into that classroom, work hard, and the kids will make great progress. The smart TFAs realize within a week that's bullshit. Children grow and learn because of the efforts of a team of people, beginning with their parents and involving several teachers at the school level. No one teacher works miracles. But TFA instills a lone wolf savior attitude into these kids that we have to work hard to correct.

So I am not surprised to see a TFA publicly criticize a peer as in this comment. It's a red flag to me.