General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Teach for America is suddenly having trouble recruiting college students
Teach for America, the well known program that recruits college kids for teaching gigs in disadvantaged schools around the country, said recently that it had experienced a sudden decline in applications for this school year. And the program has received fewer applications for the next school year than it had at this point a year ago, after many years of rapid expansion since the program began in 1990. The decline is once again raising questions about the program's model, which has always been controversial.
The program's critics say it doesn't train its recruits adequately. They say that since Teach for America recruits only commits teachers to two years of teaching, it undermines the idea that teaching is a profession and a career. Proponents say pupils who are assigned to Teach for America staff perform better on standardized tests than their peers, and Teach for America has recently made changes in responses to claims that it puts naïve -- if intelligent -- college graduates in front of children whose great educational disadvantages they aren't prepared to address.
In 2013, Teach for America experienced a high number of applicants, but that was due to the program's efforts to persuade older people with experience in other professions to give teaching a try, according to a Teach for America representative. The number of applications declined by 12 percent the following year, and as of last month, there have been 10 percent fewer applications to teach in the next school year than there were last year, although the final deadline hasn't yet passed. The decline in applications was primarily among college students. Whether that decline is only temporary, or whether it shows that the group has reached some kind of limit, remains to be seen.
In The New York Times, Motoko Rich suggests that Teach for America's bad reputation may be driving away some recruits. She spoke with Haleigh Duncan, a junior at Macalester College who considered applying:
As she learned more about the organization, Ms. Duncan lost faith in its short training and grew skeptical of its ties to certain donors, including the Walton Family Foundation, a philanthropic group governed by the family that founded Walmart. She decided she needed to go to a teachers' college after graduation. "I had a little too much confidence in my ability to override my lack of experience through sheer good will," she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/09/why-teach-for-america-is-suddenly-having-trouble-recruiting-college-students/
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)As a college professor I have seen many young graduates head off to TFA.
They mostly end up regretting it. The ones who are serious go to school for an MA in education.
It's one of those things that sounds good but hides exploitation, incompetence, and inefficiency.
NuttyFluffers
(6,811 posts)so this is a useful follow-up. i wonder how much of it was also lack of viable employment elsewhere during the great recession, too.
Godhumor
(6,437 posts)Ignorant students think they can fall back on TFA as a safety net if their chosen career field isn't hiring (Sheer ignorance in that attitude). However, right now there is a bit off confidence for students that other fields are hiring, ergo they don't apply to TFA. It is also one of the reasons actual teaching programs are also experiencing a decline in enrollment (Enrollment increases in bad economic climates and decreases in good ones.).