Category Archives: educator_speaks
Does Teach for America Leave Black Lives Behind?
The corporate reform movement often frames its work as promoting civil rights for children of color and TFA echos this in their marketing. But, given the role of the financial backers of corporate reform and TFA in the growing inequity … Continue reading
Veteran educator voices concern over TFA’s special ed initiative
To many, it’s concerning enough that TFA targets its placements in low-income minority schools where this exacerbates the churn of ill-trained novices. Even worse, TFA has long placed their recruits in special education contexts despite these recruits having little, if … Continue reading
TFA capitalizing on school closings, financial crises
In numerous large cities, TFA is moving beyond its role of filling teacher shortages and is becoming a willing partner in efforts to privatize schools. Ani McHugh is a HS English teacher who has written about TFA’s role in taking … Continue reading
“TFA Truth Tour” Exposing Dark Side of Corporate Education Reform
The United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) has launched a “TFA Truth Tour” to expose the dark side of corporate education reform. “The tour will visit 15 campuses to expose the truth about TFA: not only does it fail to prepare … Continue reading
#ResistTFA tops charts in Twitterverse
The #ResistTFA Twitter chat hit the top of Twitter trending charts on Feb 17th. The chat was organized by Students United for Public Education (SUPE) as part of their Students Resisting TFA campaign, but garnered strong and enthusiastic support from … Continue reading
Resources taking a critical look at TFA
Part of the reason I started this site is because most critical content on TFA was scattered in various nooks and crannies on the web. This site allowed me to collect links to this info in one convenient place and … Continue reading
TFA Takes Advantage of Season of Giving
For many, the holiday season is a time of giving – to show appreciation to family and friends and to offer help to those facing hardships. Sadly, there are some groups that try to take advantage of this generosity for … Continue reading
An Open Letter to New Teach for America Recruits
Special Education teacher Katie Osgood (who I have featured on here before) recently wrote An Open Letter to New Teach for America Recruits urging them to Quit and, instead, work with educators and communities on Real Reform. The post went viral … Continue reading
Organizing Resistance to TFA
On July 14th, there will be an Organizing Resistance to TFA Summit. This summit is led by many TFA alums and is part of the inspiring Free Minds, Free People conference.
Advice for Prospective TFA Recruits (and other new teachers)
Veteran education reporter John Merrow recently wrote a post sharing his advice to those joining TFA (and their close relatives). His tells us that the most important thing is to establish a relationship with the veteran teachers at your school. … Continue reading
Reconsidering TFA 