The Analysis of the Teach For America - Essay Example

THE TEACH FOR AMERICA HELPS THE EDUCATION REFORM The TFA places people under a 5 week training and they are immediately placed in a school. This is not even quarter of the time that other teachers undergo their training program before they can start their teaching practice. In the 5 weeks, the corps members are mostly trained on commitment to the TFA mission and motto. They do not acquire enough experience to stand in front of a class and pass on knowledge. The corps members are also denied the right of choosing the subjects that they want to teach as they have to comply with the TFA guidelines. Although the TFA wants to make the best reforms for the American educational system, critics argue that the short duration training is not enough for the corps members. This has brought forth the debate as to whether or not the TFA is indeed making a positive change in the society or if it is making matters worse by giving students inexperienced teachers to guide them. Teach For America (TFA) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 by Wendy Kopp. The organization operates on the motto: “One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education” and is driven by its mission: “To eliminate educational inequality by enlisting high-achieving recent college graduates and professionals to teach for two years in low-income communities throughout the United States.” In its first year of operation, TFA recruited and placed 500 teachers in various schools across the nation. The number has risen by over 50% over the decades. As suggested in its mission; the TFA recruits college graduates and professionals to teach in urban and rural communities throughout the US for two consecutive years. The recruits are known as corps members, and they do not have to be certified teachers (Tulenko 20). With this knowledge in mind, we shall look at the different ways in which TFA has helped school reforms: The corps members in TFA are cheaper so that they will give pressure to the tenure teachers to improve teaching performances. Most of the TFA corps members are fresh college graduates who are eager to make a change in the society. Majority of them are hoping that they will be in a position to help the underprivileged students form low income families to get better grades. Many of them are liable to hearsay about the training program offered by the TFA and how it is aimed at making positive educational reforms. They are also aware of the fact that they will be placed in jobs at various schools across their country. Unaware of the problems that they will encounter due to poor training, they enroll for the program. Once they have completed the training program, the graduates; now corps members are placed at various schools in rural communities across the country. The corps members are entitled to salary and other teaching benefits just like other teachers from other training institutions. However, they are paid less than the most experienced teachers. This means that most schools will prefer to hire TFA corps members as compared to teachers who have been trained in other training institutions. Research indicates that most tenure teachers have actually lost their jobs to TFA corps members. The availability of the TFA corps members after every summer also makes it more likely that they will be hired (Emile 20). Just recently, the Hartford Board of Education committed to give the TFA $650,940 to recruit more graduates into their program. This stands to prove the value given to the corps members over other qualified teachers. However, this has acted as a motivation to the tenure teachers. For fear of losing their jobs to an inexperienced and young person, they have to work extra hard. This means putting in more effort to ensure that their students are performing well in all subjects. The pressure exerted on the teachers by the fear of losing their jobs is enough for them to put in more teaching hours and pay more attention to the weak students. At such moments the teachers are bound to follow their designated syllabus as required by the school. As depicted in the video “Waiting for Superman” the teachers will stop sitting around doing nothing as they do not want to loose their jobs to yong people. Therefore, it would be right to conclude that the low cost of hiring a TFA corps member acts as a motivational factor to the tenure teachers to improve the schools’ performance. The TFA does not need lots of money to train a teacher. And young teachers can connect to students better, which might improve academic results. And bring new ideas to school reform. The corps members are fresh graduates and they desire to make an impact on a young person’s life. This motivates them to relate with their students in a manner that the students are not afraid to approach them when they need help in their academic work. Kady, a teacher in the video “Waiting for Superman” is not afraid to let out her innerchild as she attempts to reach out to her students and indentify their weak areas. The TFA corps members only undergo 5 weeks of training before they qualify to teach. TFA does not need to spend millions during this training duration. Given that it is a non-profit organization, TFA depends much on the funds that it gets from outside donors and the government as well. The duration has been set in accordance to their operating budget. The organization wants to train as many teachers as possible, hence it needs to spend its finances wisely. It therefore minimizes the cost and duration of training so as to offer room for more graduates to undergo the training. One would agree that students will relate better to a young teacher than they will with a 40 something man standing in front of them in class. Students will be more comfortable approaching a young teacher on their weaknesses or problems. This means that they are not afraid of asking questions, attempting to answer questions in class or doing extra academic work as long as they are under supervision of a person who is easy going and relatable. The students are also able to approach a young teacher when they are faced with personal problems. They are not afraid of being reprimanded or judged because according to them that teacher is within their age bracket. A good teacher-student relationship is bound to improve the academic performance of the students. This is illustrated in the video “Waiting for Superman” where one young teacher named Kady is able to connect to the students in their academic work and in sports. She is able to earn their respect and students find it easy to approach her when faced by problems. The corps members of the TFA organization are young people who are eager to make a change in the educational sector. They have a lot of fresh ideas which, when well implemented are bound to change the educational system for the better. This is because they have been through the educational system more recently and they are in a better position to pin point its weaknesses. If their ideas are taken seriously, the American educational system will improve with no time and not much effort will be required for the same. When it comes to class matters, they are in a better position to understand their students and to help them overcome their academic weaknesses. They are able to address issues reasonably with the students without leaving the students out. The corps members are also trained to be committed to their responsibilities. This means that they will not abandon their weak students at any cost and they will work towards ensuring the students reach and utilize their full academic potential. The TFA organization is committed to its course. The organization was founded in 1989. Over the years, it has recruited over 30,000 graduates to become corps members. The organization places more than 5000 corps across the over 40 regions in the US. The TFA is not discriminatory in its enrollment as it takes graduates from many colleges in the US. The organization also surpasses the racial discrimination that is practiced by other training institutions. This is proven by statistics which indicate 10% of the corps are Hispanics, 13% are African American while 38% are white people. The Teach For America organization believes that the achievement gap that exists between low income and high income areas in the United States must be closed. The organization has committed itself to achieving this noble cause by placing teachers in the rural low income areas. To the organization, educational achievement for American children should be the same regardless of their social class (Bullock et. Al, 2009). The organization has since maintained that coming from a low income family is not a good enough reason for a student to perform poorly in his life. In “Waiting for Superman” the KIPP becomes a really big success in helping reduce the achievement gap between children from families that are well off and those that live below the poverty level. The KIPP LA was started by Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin who had previous experience working with the TFA. They gained enough experience and lessons to know the importane of transfomring the educational sector as depicted in the video. However, critics argue that all that the TFA is doing is sending inexperienced an unqualified people to classrooms. This is attributed to the 5 week training program that the institution offers. The critics forget that in the midst of the fresh graduates that enroll for the program, there are other qualified teachers who want to participate in the gold course that the organization has set out to achieve. In response to the critics, the TFA board of governors is set out to enroll a new training program that will run for more than 5 weeks (Philissa 4). In defense of the organization, Kopp claims that the TFA is more of a leadership development organization and not a teaching organization. To TFA, education is not merely based on academic achievement, but also on ensuring that the students emerge out as people who are ready to face life and solve the problems that it will hand to them. In conclusion, the TFA program has since worked to achieve its mission. The organization takes the criticism it faces positively to build on its program and achieve more results over the years. It aims at ensuring all students can become what they want to be in the future provided they have proper guidance and moral support from their teachers. The corps members of the TFA are aware of what the organization aims to achieve. Coupled with their own desire to impact positively on the society, they are able to work towards achieving the goals set by the organization. In the midst of challenges, one can rightfully say that the TFA has indeed played a major role in improving the educational system in the US. Work Cited Osgood, Katie. “An Open Letter to New Teach for America”, June 30, 2013. Retrieved from http://atthechalkface.com/2013/06/30/an-open-letter-to-new-teach-for-america-recruits/ Plesset, Emile. “Teach for America to start new training program for volunteers”, March, 26, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.michigandaily.com/news/tfa-proves-problematic Osgood, Katie. “Why My Students Do Not Need Teach for America”, July 24, 2013. Retrieved from http://atthechalkface.com/2013/07/24/why-my-students-do-not-need-teach-for-america/ Cramer, Philissa. “Teach for America to start training some teachers earlier”, March 5, 2014. Retrieved from http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2014/03/05/teach-for-america-to-start-training-some-teachers-earlier/ Bullock Richard, Daly Goggin, Maureen, Weinberrg & Francine-Kozol, Jonathan. “Fremont High School”, The Norton Field Guide to Writing New York-W.W. Norton&Co-2009-2nd Ed Prod. John Tulenko. Perf. Kady Amundson. “The Real World of Teach for America Kady Amundson - "The Mentor"” Learning Matters, 02 Feb. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. Retrieved from Http://learningmatters.tv/blog/current/the-real-world-of-teach-for-america-kady-amundson-the-mentor/3880/. Read More