What should we call me tfa

Their efforts will produce insights and accelerate organizational learning to reach our 10 year goal: By , twice as many children in communities where we work will reach key educational milestones indicating they are on a path to economic mobility and a future filled with possibility.

Read more. Redefine the future for students at Teach For America. At Teach For America, we know lasting change can happen: All children will get the excellent education they deserve. Find the regions that fit your needs with the Compare Regions tool. Our corps members are also leaders outside the classroom who often take responsibility for sponsoring after-school clubs, sports teams, and field trips to national landmarks and colleges. Our art teacher is now planning a trip with students to Paris.

In an area still marked by de facto racial segregation and where many students have never ventured to the banks of the Mississippi River, the work of our corps members exposes them to a world filled with diversity and opportunities through education.

In partnership with our veteran staffers, our corps members set big goals and work relentlessly and purposefully to ensure that our students achieve at grade level and above.

Although I never imagined working in education, or in a rural community, through the opportunities provided by Teach For America, I am able to ensure that children from low-income communities have access to a high-quality education and get set on a path to college. All Topics. About Us. Group Subscriptions. Recruitment Advertising. Events and Webinars. Leaders to Learn From. Current Issue. Special Reports. EdWeek Research Center.

EdWeek Top School Jobs. EdWeek Market Brief. Menu Search. Sign In Subscribe. Perspectives on TFA. Reset Search. Teacher Preparation Opinion. March 14, 14 min read. Share article Remove Save to favorites Save to favorites. Steve Zimmer. Jennifer Goldstein. Michael D.

Michael L. Cormack Jr. Related Tags: Alternative Certification. Thank you for subscribing. Nov 15 Mon. This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.

Help every student belong in school with these practices for school climate. Content provided by Panorama. Nov 16 Tue. Feel at home teaching, and feel even more at home learning how to get better. Stay a while. Then stand and deliver. Emma M. Lind '09, an editorial chair emeritus, is a public charter high school teacher in Brooklyn, New York.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter. By Emma M. After a year in this environment, I realized I could understand how, when the annual testing frenzy rolled around, a lot of teachers chose to put their heads down, tune out, and cover themselves.

Teach for America cited the Atlanta scandal as a sad example of what is wrong with education's status quo, one of the many reasons America's schools need even more reform and innovation. But what occurred to me, as I worked my way, ill-prepared, through Atlanta Public Schools, was that the two systems are not as far apart as either might like to suggest.

TFA strongly encourages its teachers to base their classes' "big goals" around standardized-test scores. Past and present corps members are asked to stand to thunderous applause if their students have achieved some objectively impressive measure of achievement, and everyone knows that the best way to work for and rise through TFA ranks is to have a great elevator pitch about how your students' scores improved by X percent.

Nor is the organization a stranger to controversies involving performance measurement. Whether or not the numerical data is broadly accurate, I can attest to the pressure within TFA to produce proof of student gains without much oversight or guidance. By the end of my time at TFA and Atlanta Public Schools, I came to feel that both organizations had a disconnect between their public ideals and their actual effectiveness.

But in my experience, many if not most corps members are confused about their purpose, uncertain of their skills, and struggling to learn the basics. A follow-up analysis of the Mathematica data showed that Teach for America teachers produce significant student achievement gains in math, regardless of how well students were performing beforehand.

Department of Education study of secondary math teachers showed Teach for America teachers to be more effective than other teachers at their schools. According to the study, students with TFA teachers scored higher on end-of-year exams than their peers in non-TFA classrooms—the difference is equivalent to 2.

But Teach for America aspires to close the achievement gap by training teachers that are significantly better than educators already in the system. I am sitting in a black, leather office chair in my new Washington, D. I have just been hired at a private company whose vision statement says nothing about closing the achievement gap, and the time has come to send TFA an e-mail announcing that I am leaving the program. I have only completed one year of my two-year commitment, knowing full well that this kind of mission-shirking is seen as a very serious, selfish betrayal within TFA.

However, the reality is that my employer has been Atlanta Public Schools, my contract with the district was only for one year, and most of my teaching experiences have been defined by the messy struggles of Atlanta Public Schools, not the comfortable mantras of TFA. I struggle to summon the guilt I know I am supposed to be feeling. My large-screen computer monitor rests sturdily in front of me, and the cursor on an empty Word document blinks.

What can I say to them? I steel myself against the possibility of criticism, against accusations of apathy, inability, or lack of leadership. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword.