action seems to override common
sense by calling for recruits to “follow
content and pacing of lesson plans faithfully, regardless of circumstances.” Corps
members either come into the program
with these qualities of “relentless”
pursuit—or they need to develop them
quickly.
A Narrow Focus on Achievement
The organization’s philosophy—that
“education leaders” post high expecta-
tions for students and produce gains in
student achievement—appears to drive
the training. One corps member who
taught 3rd graders in Atlanta, Georgia,
noted how explicitly the goals were
articulated: “Students will make 1. 5
years growth in reading as measured by
a reading growth assessment.”
Corps members learn how to track
student test data on Excel spreadsheets,
but this focus on routines associated
with business doesn’t necessarily
provide support in practical settings. As
one novice said,
So we had this kid crying on the first day.
They’re preK, 4-, and 5-year-olds. And
here we are. We’re supposed to be professional. We’re supposed to be knowledgeable about what we’re doing. And
all you want is for somebody to show you
what you’re supposed to be doing.
Compressed Learning
Teach for America seems to have compressed years of teacher development
into a two-inch-thick training manual,
which is the mainstay of the summer
training institute. Clearly, recruits must
get the hang of teaching quickly.
The preparation program is so short
that recruits must keep pace or fall
behind. Moreover, the compressed
training creates processing overload. As
one recruit explained,
We were so exhausted that we didn’t
know what we were responding to. As
the manual states, we were directed to be
challenge ready, [but] without the tools
to do the job well. The focus was always
on the assessment and the big goals, and
we often were just repeating the ideas to
ourselves but internally questioning, How
is this really going to happen when I have
live kids in the class?
Researchers (Carter & Gonzalez,
1993) have synthesized the knowledge
that novice teachers need to learn into
three areas: information processing,
practical knowledge, and pedagogical
content knowledge. It’s doubtful
whether a novice could learn any one
of these in a five-week span, let alone
retain and apply this information on the
job. Noted one veteran teacher who had
worked with new Teach for America
teachers, “They don’t have anything to
hang all of this information on to.”
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
The Teach for America training model
seems to be generic. Said one recruit,
“Teach for America consistently refuses
to acknowledge that there are distinct
differences between teaching high
school mathematics and 2nd grade,
saying that their methods work across
all grade levels.”
Take the case of a member of the
2011–13 Teach for America corps about
to enter week four of her five-week
summer teacher training—she still
didn’t know what grade or subject area
she would be teaching. She wondered
why she couldn’t be trained for her
specific assignment during the training
itself, rather than later, when she would
have to quickly figure out her program
for either elementary or middle school
learners.
Special Ed—in 30 Minutes or Less
The most challenging aspect of the program’s condensed preparation relates
to those who teach special education.
One recruit I spoke with told me that he
received, in total, about a half-hour of
training in how to teach students with
special needs.
For new Teach for America teachers,
limited preparation can have serious
consequences in the classroom. One
veteran who works with new Teach for
America teachers who are assigned to
special education classes noted that “in
my district, 82 of the 82 IEPs [individu-alized education programs] prepared
by TFAs did not meet state guidelines.
The TFAs don’t even know general education, so how do you expect them to
know how to teach special education?”
One novice teacher who was slated
to teach in general education pointed
out that the classes he was assigned to
teach nevertheless had many students
with special needs. “I felt helpless in
terms of knowing how to work with
them appropriately,” he said. “Working
with special education students was
very minimally addressed during TFA’s
summer training.”
Learning With—and From—Novices
Many Teach for America applicants
expected they would learn how to teach
from veteran teachers in the program.
This was not the case. Recent Teach for
America alumni conduct the workshops
