Teach For America: It isn't simple

Veteran education reporter John Merrow posted an intriguing blog item marking the 20th anniversary of Teach For America. He stakes himself out as neither fan nor foe, but a member of "the lonely middle" who sees both inspiration and failure in the program that sends bright young recruits into needy schools.

What caught my eye was his account of trying to sell a documentary to funders who invariably asked if his report was positive or negative. His answer: No.

"We had captured reality, and reality is full of small victories and defeats. A couple of the TFA teachers were splendid, seemingly born to teach. Two were flops. One got a raw deal from his principal and never hit his stride. It was life, but no potential funders were interested in that story."

Every reporter can relate. Miracles and gotchas make great headlines. Complexity doesn't. It can be tempting to pick a side and tell a simple story, but the truth of public education and the lives of real people are complicated.

John's conclusion is a good one: Even if an honest look at complexity doesn't hand you an answer, it can help you ask a better question.

TFA founder: It's all about people

Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America, was in Charlotte this morning giving a pep talk to about 100 people involved with the quest for local philanthropists to boost public-school reform.
(There's more news from the CMS Investment Study Group coming today).

Her message: It is possible to break the link between poverty and academic failure and to do so on a large scale. But it isn't easy.

"It really is possible, not only at a classroom level but at a whole-school level," she said. "It's going to take a lot of hard work to have whole systems of transformational schools. It's going to take developing and unleashing extraordinary leadership."

I can practically hear the hackles raising among readers who are skeptical of TFA. Some see it as a means of replacing seasoned (and expensive) teachers who have made a long-term commitment to education with eager young rookies who stay a couple of years and move on.

For what it's worth, Kopp wasn't preaching TFA as the solution for CMS, which already relies heavily on its recruits. In fact, she made it clear that any formulaic approach to change -- more charter schools, a trendy curriculum, giving kids laptops, etc. -- isn't likely to move the needle. One of the reasons there has been so little gain to show for the last 20 years of investment is that "we just keep lurching after one silver bullet after another," she said.

Instead, she said, any district that hopes to transform high-poverty, low-performing schools must have leaders who can recruit great teachers and principals, then give them the freedom to figure out what works for their school.

Kopp said her Charlotte speech is an early roll-out of points she's making in an upcoming book, "A Chance To Make History."

Afterward, she noted that philanthropic support is emerging as a common thread in the districts with the best shot at helping poor and minority students succeed in school. But Charlotte's level of commitment is "extraordinary," she said, as is the willingness of Superintendent Peter Gorman to work with them.

More on Teach For America

After I blogged about Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' study of Teach For America, Superintendent Peter Gorman suggested I look at another TFA study, this one done by UNC researchers.

He passed along a PowerPoint summary of that study, presented to the UNC Board of Governors in April.

His tip landed after I'd finished Sunday's story (and four weeks after I started asking CMS for information about the costs and benefits of TFA). I'm still trying to track a full report. But there's clearly a lot of interest in this topic, so I'm sharing what I've got.

Update at 5 p.m.: Go to this link and click the first report, on "Teacher Portals," for the full study. Thanks to lead reasearcher Gary Henry of UNC Chapel Hill for a quick response. It's 63 pages and I haven't read it yet, so the rest of this is still based on the PowerPoint.

The study looked at Teach For America recruits in CMS and 12 rural districts in eastern North Carolina, comparing them with teachers trained through the UNC system, those from private schools in state, those hired from out of state, and N.C. Teaching Fellows, who earn scholarships in return for four years of teaching in-state.

That study found that TFA teachers got better results on several middle- and high-school exams than teachers who came through the traditional UNC route. The gap appears to be biggest in middle-school math, where the slide show notes that "TFA corps members increase student test scores for middle school math by approximately ½ year of learning." In elementary school and some secondary subjects, the two groups came out about the same.

Out-of-state teachers underperformed those trained through UNC in four of 11 areas tested, with no significant difference in the others, the study found. CMS has one of the highest concentrations of out-of-state teachers, the study says.

Data on Teaching Fellows appears to be even more mixed, and it's a bit hard to decipher from the PowerPoint (such presentations always feel to me like trying to read someone else's notes).

CMS Teach For America study

Some of you have been peppering me with questions about the costs and benefits of Teach For America in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, concerns that have grown in urgency as CMS lays off teachers.

Here's an article on some of the costs, benefits and issues. For those who want more detail, CMS has produced a 64-page report on its Teach For America experience.

Read the report here.

The report, done by CMS's Center for Research and Evaluation, looks at test scores, classroom observations, principal assessments and interviews with TFA recruits who were in CMS in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

As some of you have noted, research can be used to argue almost any position. Sure enough, there's fodder here for TFA boosters and detractors alike.

My blog readers are as pesky as reporters, so I can anticipate your next question: If this came out in August 2009, why haven't I reported on it before?

Keeping up with CMS can be like drinking from a firehose, so it's possible I saw some reference to it that got washed from my brain in last year's back-to-school deluge. But I've also just discovered that CMS apparently "releases" some of its most intriguing research by quietly posting it on the CRE website. I've got some catching up to do -- while gearing up for back-to-school 2010.