The new TFA: more than a face-lift

Since its founding in 1989, critics both from within and outside the Teach for America (TFA) family have called for a reassessment of its model: recruiting elite young graduates and career-changers to teach two years in low-income schools after a summer crash course, writes Dana Goldstein for Vox. Yet new studies using value-added measurement (a reformers' favorite) indicate that in schools with high teacher turnover, students lose significant learning in both reading and math compared to socioeconomically and academically similar schools with low turnover. The first changes of TFA's new CEOs (Wendy Kopp stepped down in 2011, replaced by Matt Kramer and Elisa Villanueva Beard) were to place teachers in regions where they'd lived, attended school, or volunteered, if possible. They also announced two pilots: one with a full year of pre-service training; one requiring five years in the classroom. TFA's newest and highest-priority regional partnerships are now in rural America, where teacher need is high. That said, most recruits still undergo a "no-excuses," content-neutral instructional training; both modes have been shown to interfere with student learning. But if the pilots succeed, the organization that helped build today's no-excuses, high-turnover, standards-and-accountability driven movement might help to revise, transform, and reform it. More

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities. Our aim is to foster schools that facilitate the personal and academic success of children and youth, from birth through high school. We are an innovative leader in school reform, known for proven, effective programs and responsive collaboration. Our focus is on producing college- and career-ready graduates. Founded in 1984, LAEP was the first educational-transformation organization in Los Angeles and among those at the forefront of the movement nationwide. Over the decades, our cutting-edge work has evolved into recognized best practices.