Lately, I have been reading numbers of articles about Teach For America (TFA) written by former participants in the program as well as by researchers and investigative reporters. It appears that there is general consensus that TFA is not the answer to teacher shortages, closing achievement gaps, or eliminating poverty in this country. Most of the writers agree that the program is using public schools and poor children to develop a network of new leaders who will advance a corporate reform agenda. Great harm has been done in school districts and states where these new TFA leaders have emerged. Who bears the greatest portion of responsibility for what is happening?
The biggest enabler of this perversion of the teaching profession rests at the feet of local school districts that enter into contracts heavily favoring the TFA agenda. I have examined as many of these contracts as I can locate on the internet. Of course, they are all public information easily found by good investigative reporters, but most reporters have focused on only the contracts developed by school districts of their subscribers.
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