As Dallas ISD Looks to Renew Teach for America Contract, District Offers Numbers in Support

If the district is going to spend that money on teaching, give it to the underpaid experienced teachers who bring more life/kid/psychology knowledge to the classroom. This is more critical in the urban setting than conscientious rule-following. 

CEI's are soooo unreliable. I will say it again---I had 98.8 of my kids pass the TAKS test. Only one failed, but according to the CEI, I only got a 59% or something like that,  I forget exactly, since they had TO CORRECT their miscalculations. A fellow teacher gets a lower rating than that, even though he outperforms almost ALL teachers in his subject on ACP's, year in and year out. I havebeen as high as a 4 and as low as a 1 on that stupid thing, which is based on ten year old data--comparing kids by zip codes.... To spend ANY money to RECRUIT any teacher right now is absurd, when we are cutting good teachers. They are primed to cut another 400 spots next year, and the principals do not want to be the one to rock the boat. They LOVE TFA teachers, because they work hard, knowing they are outta here in two years. They so indeed treat them like little darlings,because they know thatthe TFA'ers tell their Glover guys everything that goes on at the campus level... Yes, we know.

I tellyou what. Let's kill two bids withone stone. Hire TFAs to work a newly added alternative school. We need at least two more "Village Fair" type schools. Put the little darlings there and let them make a difference. Then, when they go off to administration or law school or politics, they can truly say what a joy it was.

As a former corps member, I can say for sure that two years can make a difference not only in the schools, but in the teachers themselves, many of whom stay in education after that two years. In their first year as Teach For America alumni, the majority of our charter corps members have opted to stay on in the field of education, three out of four are working full-time in education, and 63 percent have continued on as K-12 classroom teachers in Dallas ISD and at other schools serving kids growing up in low-income communities.

Are we still slipping behind the world average when it comes to standard educational measurements?  Because if we are, this is just so much smoke in the wind.  The US spends more $'s per pupil than almost every other country, yet we continue to lose ground educationally.

It seems to me, we could cut athletics (properly the responsibility of parents), clubs (again, parents), and administrative trips to exotic locations and actually apply those $'s to the pupils' educations to make a difference.  TFA might be the best way to accomplish that, might not be.  I'm fairly positive that 20,000 seat football stadiums with full press boxes and on-field wireless comms for coaching staff do very little to raise math, science and LA performance.

The data says nothing about where TFA teachers were sent vs. where the other teachers did their teaching.  There have been persistent reports of TFA teachers ending up at already high performing schools.  There's a lot that needs to be investigated here before anyone jumps to any conclusions based on DISD-supplied data.

I am a veteran teacher who teaches alongside TFA teachers every day in DISD and I amazed at the commitment they show to their students and our school. The data provided in the September principal survey says that 95% of principals would recommend hiring a TFA teacher and felt they made a positive impact on their school. We need to look beyond the budget numbers and see that Teach for America teachers are making a difference in our schools. Instead of spending time complaining that just less than half leave after two years, we should think about what we can do to convince them to stay.  

"But one thing TFA constantly faces is the question: Why is a district paying millions to recruit a fraction of a fraction of teachers, many of whom don't stick around past the two years?"

This Goofy dude is running an Teacher Employment Placement Company Its Product is Placing Teachers , not education .

Using the The past success of the now vanished teachers is a foolish way to encourage the  continued use of this Teacher Employment Placement Company to hire more who are going to be doing the same thing .

The success we should expect is to use them less and less Not the same amount every year or more.

TURN OVER IS GOOD FOR the Teacher Employment Placement Company.

Not the DISD!

The fact that we have new teachers coming into DISD and helping our kids learn -- that's what matters most.  Regardless of whether those high-performing teachers are provided by Teach For America or other sources -- the bottom line is our kids are learning -- and that's the whole point, isn't it?  

The back-benchers have been howling for local data. Here it is. Congratulations, TFA. Mission accomplished. Don't let up.

Tthe math doesn't work. If TFA averages 100 new teachers a year for five years and the cost per teacher is $3,000, the total expense is $1,500,000. If Glover raises 85% of that total ($1,275,000) and if my calculator is working properly, the DISD out of pocket cost will be $225,000 ($450 per teacher). Am I missing something? I would be glad to see my tax dollars spent to bring in TFA teachers - if the data are accurate and (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) even the $3,000 expenditure seems to be a very efficient allocation of resources - let alone the $450 arrived at by my calculation. My perception is that there is a small but vocal group trying desperately to squash the TFA initiative in Dallas. Fund 'em.

The data given by the district is inspiring. If these teachers "outperformed other 1st year teachers in Mathematics and Science in the district...and...reading/LA was slightly higher than other 1st year teachers in the district", it shows that they are being effective. If the goal of DISD is to get the best teachers in front of students, I think that we want the teachers that are performing at the highest level. At least for my kids, I'd want the teachers that "outperformed" others.

I realize that the CEI is controversial and may not be the best way to measure teachers. This article does point out that the majority of principals had a positive experience with their TFA corps members. I've heard of TFA teachers being teacher of the year at their campus or taking on leadership positions on their grade team or leading/starting extracurricular clubs for students. Since principals are on the ground level with the teachers, I'd say this helps support the data found by the CEI analysis.

It sounds like to me that even if we get these teachers for 2 years, we are lucky. The fact that we are keeping a lot of them for more than 2 years is even more exciting. I say to the district, let's bring more in and work on offering them pathways to keep them in the district.

Glover, who served his TFA time in Durham, North Carolina, before coming to run the office in TFA founder Wendy Kopp's hometown(ish),says that $3 million contract with the district really doesn't amount to much -- not when you consider it's spread over five years, not when you consider it's but   a small, small piece of his total budget. Says Glover, "I will raise 85 percent to that for the needs of the district based on that commitment. Or, I should say, I will attempt to raise it."

How much wrong headed thinking is in this paragraph  ?

Bottom line: the district needs effective math and science teachers. If TFA teachers are outperforming other math and science teachers we need do everything we can to get more TFA teachers--they are good for the district and good for our kids. 

My only problem with TFA is the expense--the revolving door of expense due to the 2-year commitment.All suburban districts have managed to find quality teachers without the extra fee.How is that?The root of the problem lies in the management of DISD, as it has for decades.  We need to change trustees so we can change district management.  Taxpayers have to keep paying extra fees to fix/compensate for bad management.  The trustees hire the district managers who are wasting our money and then the same trustees want us to spend more money to fix the disastrous rock stars they embrace.Solutions:-Require a 3-year commitment without a fee increase to up the value we get for our tax dollars-Keep the 2-year commitment and get the fee slashed-Cut DISD departments to balance the spending on TFA.  There is a 300+ page list of bureaucrats in the org chart.  When they are cut, no one on the campuses notices. Cut Professional Development and HR for starters.  A shocking expense that hasn't had much traction is the Parent Portal.  How many millions were spent to pick one, ramp it up, shut it down?  And now we're back with the program that was there all along--already paid for?  We could triple the number of TFA teachers with kind of money.