A Huge Rise in Teach for America Recruits

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Look how wonderful the unions are teaching our kids. They have lower scores, the teachers are not marked by anything other than longevity. Union teachers are for themselves and are geared to not educating on the truth but on the future vision of the union bosses (socialism).
GREAT for these kids wanting to do better education and getting away from the union thugs and their minnons (the teachers). You need only look to Wisconsin. The union backed politicians lost - the response was the union bringing in outside folks and creating chaos and disruption. The center piece was the teachers union - skipping school bring kids to their marchs. Is this the things the union want to teach the kids? Disrupt and deflect, disrupt and deflect, so the wonderful unions can progress their agenda of socialism. To bad our educated teachers are to uneducated to recognize their pawns in the big plan.

dave of CO 12:51PM May 13, 2011

Big picture, we are all pawns is a Neo-liberal (social justice thru market solutions) social engineering experiement led by the anti-union forces in America. Check, you'll see, Carrie Penner-Walton (of anti-union Walmart) is on the board of Teach for America. Check to see who is on the board and what their affiliations are. They are all charter school and anti-union forces. All the Teach for America candidates are alternative credentialing teachers (so they can get around NCLB) designed to be hired to teach at the private charter schools, and to kill the teachers union. They close public schools, lay off everyone, reopen as charters, bring in Teach for America kids for cheap. End of the teachers union. they are scabs and they don't even know it. Worse yet, neither do the teachers they are replacing. It's a nationwide, well organized and well into their plan, and brilliantly slick. These people don't set out to destroy a union until they already know they are going to win. Ask the retail and grocery industry. You, me, all of us just pawns in the plan. It's amazing when you see the scale of it.

DocScrappy of DC 3:54AM January 07, 2010

I just got rejected (Oct 06, 2009) from advancing to the personal day long interview. I am graduating with a MA and have 4.0. I also have been teaching now at a college level for a year and a half. My wife who I dearly love is graduating with B.A at 3.8 passed to the in person interview stage. She has no teaching experience except for tutoring. The only thing that we can put together of why she advanced and I did not is that she is from a 3rd World country. We were asked the same questions during the phone interview and answered almost the same way. So whats the deal?

ananomous of FL 6:12PM October 06, 2009

I'm sure that the majority of grads going into TFA have at least some passion for educating underprivileged youths, but i also think there are a lot of external reasons that benefit the grads that make the program so popular. For example, dedicating 2 yrs to TFA is a sure fire way to have most grad/law/med schools choose you for competitive programs. I'm sure most employers also look very favorably on former TFA teachers. Don't think for a second that these grads are 'sacrificing' 2 yrs of their lives for social good. They get paid back in the long run in a variety of ways.

Eryn of OH 10:52PM May 26, 2009

Throughout my college experience, I have tried to be involved in organizations related to diversity and equality. Our generation will be defined in history books as the Obama generation and as he called for in his inaguaral address, we must also be the service generation. Many recent grads are not troubled by significant family and financial responsibilities and therefore are willing to invest all of their time and energy for this cause. Also, with the social unrest overseas, TFA gives recent grads an opportunity to fight for a cause that is significantly safer than programs such as the Peace Corp.

Kristine of IA 3:25PM January 22, 2009

I'm considering TFA and I am applying because I would love to teach in an underrepresented area. I do believe that the two-year commitment is not helping to close the education gap. I plan to stay longer if I am chosen.

of TX 10:50PM September 17, 2008

I asked my daughter who starts TFA in Phoenix tomorrow why she chose TFA. She replied : "Teaching the future children of our nation is the most productive way to use my science degree! "

Doug of Los Angeles of CA 5:03PM June 07, 2008

Jacksonville, Duval county, can't even place all the teachers who are coming out of collage with their degree in education, so this makes me wonder why they are recruting from Teach for America and making schools hire them first. Some Duval schools are surplussing teachers who could fill most of the openings. Just venting.

none of FL 11:46AM May 30, 2008

Im a college graduate, with a degree in mathematics. I understand that my degree gives me the best opportunity to get accepted into TFA but im not sure I have the full credentials needed to get accepted. I have volunteerd at a high-needs school in NYC for several years and am positive that teaching is what i would love to do. My acedemic performance was not spectacular but nontheless still above the 2.5 bar. I would like to hear back from TFA alumn about what they think would increase my chances of getting accepted for when I apply this fall. Thanks.

of NY 10:27AM May 30, 2008

The first benefit to our country from TFA, is what it does for our kids. To know that someone who has many career choices, because or their superior educational opportunities, cares enough about these students to devote two years of their lives to working with them, is a tremendous boost to the kids' sense of self worth. Compare that to the daily fact of crumbling facilities, inadequate amounts of books and basic supplies, too little heat or not enough warmth, and the kids know that someone, at least, cares about them when a TFA member shows up. Of course, this is what most teachers have been doing all along.
The second benefit of TFA for our country, I feel, is that now, more and more people who have had the TFA experience, will be going on to make their marks in other important areas of national life. I am made hopeful by the sense that they will do so informed by their experiences in TFA. We will have lawyers, doctors, judges, political leaders, school board members, corporate leaders, and far from least, voters who will know in their bones how hard teaching is, how harmful the educational equity gaps are, and how vital to our future it is to support education.
I think of TFA members as being the conservationists of our nation's intellectual resources, just as the Conservation Corps around the country are conservationists of our environmental resources. The differences between the economic and educational attainments of the two groups could not be more stark, but their missions are strikingly similar and of critical importance. I applaud them both.
Also worthy of applause is the TFA program's insistence on keeping selection standards high. Although almost any help is welcome in our schools, the community should know that only the best are being allowed the responsibilities and rewards of being a teacher. I would implore those who are not selected to volunteer wherever
they find themselves next, as tutors, or classroom aides, or after-school playground coaches/directors...whatever.
Teach for America is the REAL essence of the concept of "no child left behind".

Karen of CA 6:41PM May 24, 2008