My daughter has again applied to Teach for America. Last year, after a full year of substitute teaching on a per diem basis, she was waitlisted twice before being turned down. This year, while already on her third extended substitute position and some additional per diem assignments in between, she was offered a shorter application process and was accepted. She even was placed in the area of the country that she chose as her top priority. I am very proud of her but am now, after a family conference call the night of her 24th birthday, thinking this may not be for her.
I wrote in a previous entry about how most of the parents were truly trying to micromanage their adult children with the information they were seeking on the call. I admit I am picky about those in charge of almost anything. I have high expectations, which were probably too high for this particular call as I feel that I have more tele-conference call experience than either of the two Teach for America representatives. This worries me as one of these women is in charge of the area my daughter has been placed in and will be her main contact and source of information. She did not impress me as being the “in charge” or the “I have all the information” type. My daughter looks for that in a superior and I have seen the frustration she has experienced on a local level this year when the administrator is not this type of a person.
Here is a timeline that was offered that is specific to the Connecticut region for this year.
- Induction: This is a period of time to get to know the area that you are being placed in and to get to know the other corps members that will be in the area with you. For my daughter’s region, induction will start on June 19th. Corps members are expected to come to induction as if they are, at that point in time, moving to the area. Items will be put in storage until living arrangements are found later in the summer. This is approximately a one week time period.
- June 27th my daughter is expected to report to Institute. Here is where I start to be unhappy about what she is going to have to do. My daughter has a degree in elementary education. She has spent a full college semester student teaching in what is close to a neighborhood school in a suburban school district and in an elementary school in a city school district. Institute is where Teach for America teaches the 98% of people who are not education majors how to teach – a good idea in practice but not a necessity to someone who has an education in education and who has been substitute teaching for two years.
- Elementary teachers are put in two categories for getting offers from schools in Connecticut. If an elementary teacher is offered a position from a charter school, those on the phone call are told the offer could come before or during Institute. If the person is being offered a position in a public school, the offer could come as late as the actual start of school. I do understand these time frames as schools have to wait until budgets are in place to know if hiring can take place or not. My issue is with moving away without a firm offer in hand.
While I totally agree with the premise, or mission of Teach for America – to bridge the educational inequities in our country, I do not believe the process that the organization is using, especially in this economy, is the proper one. There are a lot of educated educators out there – not that having a degree in education makes a person a good teacher – who are unemployed due to the economy. Why make it harder for these people to do what they want to do – teach?
Nicki's Nook 
I guess I don’t understand the process or the purpose of an organization like Teach for America. Why can’t your daughter simply apply directly to school districts and interview directly through the district offices? Seems like Teach for America is acting as a middle man which only serves to further inflate costs to the school districts hiring their personnel (someone has to pay for them, right?).
As for the part about having to wait until after the start of school…if they do it anything like they do it here…it is about numbers less than it is about budget. We get our budgets released in June or July, but so much depends on enrollment. Two weeks after school starts, when enrollment stabilizes there is often a shuffling of teachers and some hiring going on if numbers are high. Of course, every district does it differently and states vary in how they deal with educational budgets and funding. I have to admit, Oregon is one of the least stable in their funding of education.
Moving without a solid offer in hand is always a scary proposition. I think you are wise to caution your daughter as to the pitfalls, and also help her think through some worst case scenarios.
Are they paying her to attend Institute? That would be another question I’d worry about.
Teach for America is meant to help close the educational inequity gaps in lower achieving schools. It is a program similar to AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps. The organization takes mostly non-education majors and hopes to turn them into teachers.
Institute is a non-paying gig. It is basically classes on classroom management, lesson planning and student teaching – things that my daughter has already done as an education major in college. There is an offer of “transitional funding” – which is either a grant or no interest loan – for corps members to use during this period of time to help with the expenses of finding a place to live (without knowing where they will be living).
She has opted to turn down the offer from Teach for America. Should she find an opening in CT she wants to apply for, she will do it on her own.