Despite the TFA PR that claims that 60% of TFA teachers keep teaching for a third year, the reality, according to a study at Harvard University, is that about 44 percent of corps members remain at their original placement schools for a third year and only 15 percent stay at their schools for more than…
read more »Wow, I never thought I’d be writing in this blog again. And I didn’t actually think I’d say these words. I thought I could leave teaching, leave TFA and never look back. But…I miss teaching. For a month or so I was really depressed – about leaving teaching, Houston and my life. I started my…
read more »A few months ago, I got an interesting email from TFA: From: alumni.teaching.awards Subject: Teach For America Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching Date: Friday, June 24, 2011, 11:16 AM Dear Gary, As a teacher who has been recognized for your tremendous accomplishments in the classroom, we believe you could be a strong candidate for…
read more »Two years ago I first heard about a new Charter School in New York City called The Equity Project, founded by a TFA alum named Zeke Vanderhoek. There was an article in The New York Times about how they were going to pay their teachers $125,000 in return for more work and accountability. Teachers could…
read more »In today’s New York Times there was a story about a research study which supposedly proved that students who had teachers with good value-added scores were more successful in life. This inspired me to complete something I have been working on for several months, off-and-on, a detailed analysis of the raw data supplied in the…
read more »Superman has arrived and he takes Visa. As districts get more and more desperate trying to reach 100% proficiency by 2014, they begin to turn to a new breed of ‘experts.’ These experts claim that they hold the secrets to turning around failing schools. Proving that ‘poverty is not destiny’ with case studies of successful…
read more »It’s a lot more satisfying showing that a ‘failing’ school is being unfairly closed than showing that a ‘miracle’ school is getting accolades it doesn’t deserve. I applied the same analysis I recently did for Jamaica High School to the just announced closure of a New York City school since 1913, Washington Irving High School. …
read more »So it’s been a while since the first episode of my live internet talk show. That was 3 months ago and it was pretty eventful. You can watch the re-run of the first episode in two parts, since I got disconnected in the middle. http://www.spreecast.com/events/talking-ed-episode-1 http://www.spreecast.com/events/after-disconnect I’m hoping episode two, on Wednesday 12/21 at 10:00…
read more »The New York City reform model is centered upon closing ‘failing’ schools and opening new ones. Some of these ‘failing’ schools have been pillars of their communities for decades. One such school I read about in The New York Times is Jamaica High School in Jamaica, Queens. This large high school opened in 1925. But…
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