The New York Times editorial board offers strong words today in support of Teach for America, pointing to an Urban Institute study that found in North Carolina, high school students taught by TFA members scored "slightly better" than those taught by much more experienced educators. The study's authors attribute this to the higher test scores of the TFA teachers themselves, and the fact that they mostly attended selective colleges. But there's a catch -- the gap was observed only in math and science. Many TFA teachers also leave the classroom quickly; after three years, almost half are out of the profession. As such, TFA hasn't really cracked the code for system-wide reform of teacher recruitment, education, and retention. That would require so much more across the board, starting with higher pay, bonuses for teaching in low income communities, stronger state or even federal standards for teacher education, and training and testing to make sure that educators have real depth of knowledge in the subjects they teach. TFA, with its 6,000 young teachers nationwide -- most of whom will eventually go onto other careers -- is an interesting model that highlights the importance of attracting intelligent, motivated people to the profession. But ultimately, it is just a band-aid solution to our teaching crisis. --Dana Goldstein
MORNING EDU BLOGGING.
A second Trump administration will cement a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court for a generation, and put our collective future in the hands of someone who will be virtually unchecked by our institutions. The country has shifted rightward, and the reverberations will ensue for potentially the next few decades. In this climate, a robust independent media ecosystem will be more important than ever. We're committed to bringing you the latest news on how Trump's agenda will actually affect the American people, shining a light on the stories corporate media overlooks and keeping the public informed about how power really works in this country.
Quality journalism is expensive to produce, and we don't have corporate backers to rely on to fund what we do. Everything we do is thanks to our incredible community of readers, who chip in a few dollars at a time to make our work possible. Any amount you give today will help us continue reporting on what matters to our democracy.
You can help power this newsroom by making a one-time donation or by becoming a member today.
