A Former Teach For America Teacher

My name is John Bilby and I was a TFA teacher in the New York region from September 2009 until March 2010.




I left the organization because I felt that it does not adequately prepare its people to serve the poorest children in public schools. I also think that TFA is more interested in power, access, and influence in the federal game of education than it is concerned with resolving educational inequity. Its "corps members" are merely a means to this end, providing the organization with a front while it pursues the goals of its donors, namely to remodel public education in this country in order to favor a high-turnover, non-unionized workforce in charters run by hedge-fund managers for tax breaks. I foresee this further stratifying our current system into one in which children with disabilities, children who don't speak English, and children who do not do well on standardized tests are funneled into substandard schools in a constant state of crisis due to continuous budget cutting.

I still believe, however, in the democratic power of education and the right of the people to vote out those who might infringe upon it. I am beginning a traditional route teacher certification program and I am looking forward to getting back into a city classroom soon.

Education Rephorm Train - you don't need a ticket - just get on board

The 'Soul Train' had love, peace and soul.  

The 'Education Rephorm Train' has tests, punishment and gold.
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From Edushyster - Click Here

That scent in the air isn’t Memphis-style barbecue but the rich bouquet of education rephorm.

Today our tour of the rephormiest places in America takes us south, to good old Memphis, Tennessee. That unmistakable scent wafting through the air isn’t dry ribs slow cookin’ in a pit, but the rich bouquet of education rephorm. Reader: I give you the Achievement School District, a bold experiment in excellence and innovation that will take the bottom 5% of students in Tennessee and catapult them straight to the top 25%. What’s the ASD’s secret recipe? Take old, failing schools and replace LIFO lifers with fresh, new teachers and administrators. Now add high expectations, toss in a bushel of buzzwords — and don’t forget the spin. Presto chango — Elvis has left the building.

Less than a year into the New Orlean’s style rephorm-over, the Achievement School District’s numbers are off the charts. By numbers, I’m referring NOT to student test scores at the 6 ASD schools —they ranked in the 16th percentile in reading and math —but the eye popping salaries that district personnel are pulling down. Tennessee may be called the volunteer state, but in Achievement land, the “sweet salary state” might be a more accurate nickname. District head and TFA alum Christopher Barbic takes home nearly $18K —a month. A little perspective: that’s more than the governor of the state makes, and, believe or not, a hair more than Kevin Huffman, TFAster turned former Mr. Michelle Rhee turned chief rephormer for the state of Tennessee.

Chris Barbic, superintendent of the Achievement School District, earns more than the governor of Tennessee.

To be fair, Barbic has his work cut out for him. Not only must he work test score miracles in 5 years or less but he also presides over a sizeable rephorm crew. More than 145 people are on the ASD payroll (see complete list here), including someone whose sole responsibility seems to be monitoring and responding to comments on local Memphis media sites. Good news: there are plenty more positions still to be filled. If you have what it takes to Join Our Team (Big Challenges, Stunning Colleagues), contact a recruiter today—operators are standing by.

Like any rephorm train with a well-compensated captain at the helm, this one is quickly picking up speed. With a logic that will be familiar to anyone who has the misfortune to live in a district that has come down with rephorm fever, the Achievement School District will keep expanding, fueled by spin and “high expectations,” no matter what its actual results or how fervently local residents oppose it. Case in point: the hand-picked committee that is about to announce six more Memphis schools to be converted to charters next year. 

MORE - CLICK HERE
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People Get Ready - Eva Cassidy

Original by Curtis Mayfield/The Impressions

Dallas ISD dedicated teacher - "I just want to focus on my students"

The following note was received from a sincere Dallas ISD teacher who loves teaching and loves her students.

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Good evening Ms. Ranger,

I am a taxpayer and a... teacher. I love my students and I love my campus; however, in the first time of my ... years with DISD I am seriously thinking of reviewing my resume and search for other employment.  The new regime that was forced on us by the board looks and talks to us in such a patronizing and condescending attitude. 

My entire career is with DISD, and I am proud to say that I have always had excellent PDAS reviews and good working relationships with all of my principals; however, this year is pushing all of us to the breaking point. 

If the plan is for the district to implode itself and hire all new TFA recruits to fill the classrooms, then that is a sad day for the kids in Dallas.  My students have unlimited potential, and it saddens me to think that the new regime doesn't believe that our kids deserve the best. 

I was an AC student ...I am still here!  I was a first year teacher that was lucky to have an experienced teacher in the classroom next door. Her experience and help was a godsend my first year.  How dare we as adults allow the young kids of today to be used as an experiment in education consulting business. 

Have you checked MM consulting business web page Focal Point?  Check his bio page. I didn't think he could use our district as a selling point for the consulting business.

Teachers have not had a raise in over 4 + years. And as ... teacher with ...+ students, I no longer get the stipend of $1000 a semester ...So many well deserving teachers that love their students are being figuratively slapped with the patronizing and condescending heading of the SIX figure salaries...and they NEVER work with students??? sad sad sad. 

Thank you for allowing me to rant ...It is not my intention to offend, just to question what in the heck is going on?  

I can't spend my time worrying about the admin and all of their terrible misguided decisons. We just started our 3rd six weeks.  I just want to focus on my students. I am sick of the childish adults.

Teach For America Five-Year Contract Approved 7-2

Dallas ISD Trustees approved a five-Year contract with Teach for America.

Voting for the five-year contract:

• Lew Blackburn
• Bernadette Nutall
• Mike Morath
• Nancy  Bingham
• Edwing Flores
• Adam Medrano
• Eric Cowan

Voting against the five-year contact:

• Bruce Parrott
• Carla Ranger

Teach For America spin

“… The goals of corporate reform are privatization and deprofessionalization.
By deprofessionalization I mean that it is the idea that anyone can teach.  You

don’t need any particular credentials or training – just maybe five or so weeks

and you are a teacher. Sometimes not even that – just fill out the papers …”
Diane Ravitch – February 24, 20110.

At the Board Briefing two weeks ago I requested that the Teach For America item be pulled for a separate vote.

Since Trustees Lew Blackburn, Bernadette Nutall and Mike Morath recently supported another policy change requiring two Trustees to pull an item for a separate vote, I did not expect this item to be pulled.  I was prepared to vote against the consent agenda - if necessary - or abstain. 

The price of such a policy is that Trustees can play games.  Anything on the consent agenda does not reflect a specific vote; Trustees can claim they voted for the consent agenda as a whole, not the specific item of public interest. They can even claim unanimous support because the item was on the consent agenda.

Such policies undermine democracy.

Each elected Trustee represents over 100,000 citizens.  Individual members of the Dallas City Council can pull an item for a separate vote.  Individual members of Dallas County Commissioners Court can pull an item for a separate vote. But not individual Dallas ISD Trustees - we cannot pull an item of public interest to the citizens who elected us.

Be careful who you trust with power.  People get in positions of power and set things up to exclude the public interest. They set things up for their self-interest.

Teach For America (TFA) has become a part of the top down corporate reform movement that is destroying public education.  Study after study has documented the failures of the top-down corporate approach to so-called education reform.

Teach for America is not an education reform - it is a part of the political movement of education toward private entrepreneurship and increasing control of education by private groups.

The highest performing education system in the world (Finland) doesn't use Teach for America type programs. Neither does Highland Park ISD.

Students from Finland outperform peers in 43 other nations – including the United States, Germany and Japan – in mathematics, science and reading skills. There are no yearly mandatory tests or exams. They have invested in the teaching profession as a career. 

I have no interest in the current corporate privatization model of public education.

The spin is that TFA teachers perform better than regular alternative certification teachers.  Anybody who knows anything about education at all knows that teaching is a career not an experiment in first year test taking in two subjects.

Give our other first year alternatively certified teachers the same $30,000.00 of first year training received by each Teach for America recruit from private sources and there would be no spin possible. 

I would rather spend the funds on developing good training for our own first year teachers who intend to make teaching a career.

As was stated elsewhere:

"I do not defend the current trend of sending recent college grads with just five weeks’ training and just a two-year commitment to teach in our nation’s most struggling schools which already suffer from high teacher turnover. But that is the model for  Teach for America, Inc. a multimillion-dollar enterprise that is now funded by the Obama government to the tune of $50 million-plus and is arguably de-professionalizing the teaching profession.

Five weeks training does not make these uncredentialed grads “highly qualified,” despite the recent shenanigans by Congress."

See More Here

Looking Past The Spin: Teach For America

"What I have come to appreciate is that things that matter take time. We live in an era when it is rare to meet people in their 20s and 30s who have stayed with something for more than a few years. And certainly, in some cases the right thing is to experiment and move on. But in many cases, the right thing is to stay with something, internalize tough lessons, and push yourself to new levels of knowledge and responsibility. Deep and widespread change comes from sticking with things."

-Wendy Koop-TFA Founder

 The Lesson: High Stakes Testing = Mis-Education

Teach for America's push into the political side of education

 Teach for America: Elite corps or costing older teachers jobs?

"TFA alumni Nathan Carlberg, who for two years has taught alongside Turk at Cherry Hill, agrees. He says TFA's push "into the political side of education" could make a huge difference.

"Once we get people who have experienced and gone through TFA as union heads and secretaries of education and presidents of school boards," Carlberg says, "then we will see the large systemic change that is needed in this system."

More Here

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-29-teach-for-america_N.htm

USA Today-7/29/2009