TFA founder says not necessary to overcome poverty. TFA will save the day...

[madfloridian]

okay, not her exact words. But that is the spirit of what she was saying in this interview. I keep going back and reading that paragraph over and over. It is so presumptuous.

This is really a puff piece type of interview by Mother Jones. The reporter gets some well-deserved hits in the comments, btw, from some important educators. To her credit she promises a follow-up.

Wendy Kopp's Lesson Plan for America

It's bothersome that the reporter's comments leading into the interview appear to accept Wendy Kopp as the end authority of education. Amazing how that happens when you get all the media on your side.

Kopp's lessons are drawn from Teach for America, which this year sent 8,200 new college graduates to teach in high-need schools across the US. Those 8,200 teachers may be a drop in the national teachers' bucket of 3.7 million, but they're still part of a bigger TFA corps than ever before, especially in Arkansas and Mississippi. And many TFA alums will continue to teach after their two-year paid fellowship ends. Some may even become power players in education reform, following in the footsteps of DC's Michelle Rhee and the founders of the successful charter school networks KIPP and Uncommon Schools.

Notice how KIPP is prominent in the interview. Easy to explain. Wendy Kopp is married to the founder of the KIPP Charter schools. They are considered one of America's power couples.

Marcello Stroud sent me TFA’s 990 for fiscal 2008. It shows that TFA had revenues of $159 million in fiscal year 2008 and expenses of $124.5 million. CEO and founder Wendy Kopp made $265,585, with an additional $17,027 in benefits and deferred compensation. She also made an additional $71,021 in compensation and benefits through the TFA-related organization Teach for All. Seven other TFA staffers are listed as making more than $200,000 in pay and benefits, with another four approaching that amount.

It’s also interesting to look at the 990 for the KIPP Foundation, the charter school chain led by Richard Barth, a former Edison vice president and TFA staffer who also happens to be Kopp’s husband. Barth made more than $300,000 in pay and benefits, bringing the Kopp/Barth household income to almost $600,000 for their work with TFA and KIPP. (In a 2008 article, the New York Times dubbed Kopp and Barth as “a power couple in the world of education, emblematic of a new class of young social entrepreneurs seeking to reshape the United States’ educational landscape.”)

TFA replacing higher-salaried, experienced teachers?

Back to the Mother Jones interview and the part that caught my attention.

MJ: You've been following education reform for the past two decades. How has it changed? What do you think of its tone now?

WK: The biggest positive change in the conversation is that we've moved away from the assumption that in order to fix education in low-income communities, we have to first fix poverty. Today, we know that we don't have to wait for that. We know that we can provide kids with an education that sets them up to succeed. That's a huge change.

She makes another comment that really upsets me. It is a common saying among reformers that until TFA came along it was assumed that poverty kept one from learning. I would love to find out who started that, because it is just another made-up talking point. Of course kids in poverty can learn, of course. But that does not mean it does not have to be fixed!

MJ: Was Waiting for Superman good or bad for education reform?

WK: Most importantly, Waiting for Superman showed that kids and parents in low-income communities desperately want a quality education. It's stunning to think that two or three years ago, people just assumed that kids in low-income communities don't succeed because their parents don't care. We at TFA know through our firsthand experience that nothing can be further from the truth. When kids are met with the highest expectations and given the extra supports they need, they can be as motivated as kids anywhere.

It infuriates me that she would say that. It is so untrue. It is a statement geared to make public education look bad and TFA look good. It shows they have no scruples about attacking any way they can.

TFAers should not think of themselves as heroes coming in to save the day.

So I really do hope that Mother Jones with its purported liberal reputation will follow through on setting it straight about such a one-sided interview.

The TFA 20th anniversary conference is going on today. Here are some interesting comments from Norm at Ednotes who is blogging the meeting. Just picking a few.

Joel Klein's words are a hoot.

*Klein is speaking now. “Is this our Egypt moment? Will we seize the moment? We will talk to each other and go home. I challenge this group to seize the moment. We no longer believe that poverty is permanent…Education…this is America’s issue. What will change it? Each one of you must insist that each school out there is one that you would send your kids too.” He takes it to a new level. He says “transformational change” isn’t enough—we need “radical change.” More empty statements from the former chancellor.

Words with little meaning.

Next, Michelle Rhee, who is now trying to fire 8% of all Florida's teachers.

Rhee: “ I have not demonized the teachers union. I have been trying to show people that the teachers unions are doing exactly what they are supposed to do.” What planet does she live on? Maybe it’s not really her? Nope, it is. We’ve just moved into the part of the session in which all the speakers are going to contradict themselves
She is plugging Students First, her new organization now, as the solution to the teachers union.

Then John Deasy, head of the Los Angeles schools.

John Deasey. “This is an issue around courage. We have the skill. How courageous are we going to be? What if 11,000 people descended on LA to demand change.” Hmmm, didn’t LA teachers recently take to the streets to demand what they wanted? Maybe their message isn’t what he wants to hear.
He is now talking about how he needs people to come to LA and work?

I think a column from the Oklahoma Daily blog put the whole thing in perspective last year.

Teach for America not as good an idea as some graduates believe

Those who are thinking of participating in Teach for America with a social justice mission in mind should consider this. Although a far more daunting task for sure, those really interested in social justice should consider ways of solving problems like unavoidable unemployment and low-wage jobs.

On top of failing to make a dent in poverty, Teach for America actually detracts from social justice by hurting real teachers. Teach for America students take low, entrance-level pay while also receiving a government subsidy for their salary in the form of Americorps stipends. Schools lay off teachers and then hire Teach for America teachers to fill positions that real teachers would otherwise be filling. Teach for America teachers are undercutting the wage needs of real teachers and causing them to be laid off as a result.

Imagine this: a well-off college student takes a subsidized teaching position at an impossibly low wage and displaces actual teachers who might already be struggling to get by — all for social justice!

For anyone who has any concern for labor rights, this is extremely abusive. Not undercutting wage demands of often unionized workers is rule number one of how to be a serious social justice advocate.

Amen to that. Yes, Wendy Kopp. We do still need to worry about poverty. TFA is not a solution to problems that haunt our country right now.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. With that bank account, you'd think they could provide more than 5 weeks training.

Maybe they'll move to the 6 week model this summer. :)

[madfloridian]

2. "almost $600,000 for their work with TFA and KIPP"

for Wendy Kopp and hubby. Non-profits can be very profitable. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. How many other non-profit CEOs make that kind of money?

[formercia]

5. It's just another racket

Like MegaChurches and pyramid schemes.

Their 'Ideas' will fail, we will pay dearly in the short and long term. They will walk with the loot.

[Danger Mouse]

3. TFA - a fucking joke.

[chervilant]

14. About which

no one is laughing...

(Well, maybe folks like the Kopps are laughing all the way to the bank.)

[madfloridian]

6. Do not miss the comments at MJones....amazing.

Here is one example from Leonie Haimson, an education activist.

"Leonie Haimson 02/10/2011 05:48 PM
For a much more realistic picture of TFA, check out the stunning Ed Week video interview of a former TFAer here: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/02/bilby_greene_tough_lessons_fro.html I am rather amazed that this reporter asked not a single tough question to Wendy Kopp. What has happened to Mother Jones?"

That links to a transcript that goes along with this video from a former TFAer.

Here's a snip from the transcript, the experienced teacher responding to the TFA teacher who has decided to go back and get a certificate the traditional way.

"David: John, Those are two questions. TFA teachers are hard pressed to do much unless they can wean themselves off of the prescribed formulas and look for proscribed alternatives. That is not likely to happen for two reasons. TFA puts a lot of pressure on you to do it their way. They also give you the big TFA teat to suckle. They give TFA teachers the "safe" way to prepare, so TFA becomes like an enabling parent. As a result, only the strong and more independent type of TFA teacher will separate themselves from this without help. And that is more likely to happen with a mentor who knows about and successfully uses proscribed alternative methods.

Unfortunately many mentors, as you describe, are still either enabled by TFA or another big approved program (the Teachers College model come to mind). Mentors and more experienced teachers must develop a mind set that there is more than one way to skin the cat of teaching. They must become students of teaching, so that they can pass along what they discover to their mentees. That is what is missing. When did teachers, especially mentors of new teachers, stop becoming students themselves?"

[Starry Messenger]

7. "Egypt moment??"

Um Joel Klein, you are the Mubarak in this scenario.

[madfloridian]

8. That was one weird comment.

From a weird kind of guy.

[madfloridian]

9. Public school teachers work with kids to overcome poverty every day...

They pay for many things out of their own pockets. In our school we helped make sure they had something for breakfast when the school was not furnishing it..often they did supply it at small cost.

Teachers buy supplies, keep extra coats and jackets for those who don't have them...and in the lower grades other clothing in case of accidents.

How dare WK say such a thing. How dare she even imply that teachers in public schools don't try to solve poverty-related problems all the time.

And most of us did not have the attitude that we were superior.

[roody]

12. I just paid for 3 of my students to roller skate on our field trip.

Fortunately, they are coming to school during our "ski week" vacation to work for me. The won't be away at the slopes.

[chervilant]

13. Therein

is the primary source of my discomfort with Michelle Rhee (AND, I suspect, Wendy Kopp, although I have only seen one rather dismal video of Kopp). Rhee has this off-putting aura of "I'm incredibly gifted, and a most erudite educator." I know that the teachers I had a a child who evinced such an attitude had huge power and control issues, which they rarely hesitated to inflict on their students. As a geek child, I frequently ran afoul of such teachers. They simply could not allow a mere child to be smarter than them, or quicker. Such teachers used sarcasm and disciplinary consequences to belittle and control, which only reinforced the message that my intellect was a problem rather than a gift.

Speaking of which, I know I've posted hereinbefore my contention that public education has historically promoted the message that most of us have 'average' or 'below average' intellects. This is one psychic wound we need to address in our efforts to improve public education. Given that the Corporate Megalomaniacs want most of us to graduate into low-paying, boring service industry or factory positions, fighting this pervasive mendacity will be especially difficult.

[maryf]

10. K&R

thanks!

[xchrom]

11. recommend

[earcandle]

15. There are not doing anything new. In the 50's and throughout my education

I have been provided with tools to make sure I don't land
where my mom did once my navy dad deserted her with 5 kids and
no income.  

[earcandle]

16. My social status was never an issue. Maybe that is what helped. I was American.

In America, everyone can make it.  Or could back then. 

[theaocp]

17. Fuck this. Start DFA.

Doctors for America. Let's see these assholes try and promote doctors with, say, two years training and expect them to be experts. What horseshit.