Images of molecules are bouncing around on Karen Cruz鈥檚 computer-projector screen, here at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, as she walks her junior physics class through this morning鈥檚 lesson.
鈥淭hink of molecules like little kids,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f your molecules have a lot of energy, they need a lot of space.鈥�
In Teach For America lingo, that would be called a hook, a compelling way to think about a concept so that it鈥檒l stick in students鈥� minds.
Cruz, a first-year TFA corps member, has already had her students plot a set of data points so they can see the relationships among gas pressure, temperature, and volume. Now, she puts up an ungainly equation representing the combined gas law.
鈥淚 know it looks crazy and overwhelming, but let鈥檚 look at it like a regular equation,鈥� she says, walking students through a word problem in which they have to identify the missing variable and work backward to compute it.
The students hunker down for independent work while Cruz circulates.
鈥淢s. Cruz,鈥� one boy calls, seeking her assistance. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember what I鈥檓 supposed to do next.鈥�
鈥淵ou have to get this variable alone,鈥� Cruz prompts, pointing to his paper. 鈥淗ow would you do that?鈥�
鈥淚 have to multiply on both sides,鈥� he says, in a tone of voice halfway between statement and query.
Cruz smiles鈥攁 gesture that carries a meaning beyond signaling to her student that he鈥檚 got it right: It鈥檚 a personal acknowledgment how much he and most of the other students in the class have progressed in a few months.
On her first week on the job, Cruz had found students鈥� lack of foundational algebraic knowledge shocking. So she integrated algebra into the first 10 to 15 minutes of each class, determined that her students were going to learn physics, not some watered-down version.
鈥淚 could just not worry about the math and let them use calculators,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut to me, if you don鈥檛 have the foundation, you won鈥檛 learn the content.鈥�
Organizational Shifts
Cruz exemplifies a lot of the characteristics that Teach For America is said to embrace: She鈥檚 driven, purposeful, capable of working through obstacles. She is also modest about her performance, fretting after the lesson about whether she included enough hands-on elements.
鈥淚 think the way I was taught [was] really different from the way education is going,鈥� she says. 鈥淗ow do you make physics inquiry-based? It鈥檚 not just about doing labs. It鈥檚 about having kids figure out patterns.鈥�
Those concerns are reflective of the new tack toward preparation taken by TFA鈥檚 Dallas-Fort Worth region, which is trying to move away from teacher-directed instruction in favor of techniques that focus more on students drawing conclusions on their own.
And rather than giving its new corps members a crash course on lesson planning, typically the first step in the TFA鈥檚 summer training, the Dallas region supplied its recruits with 700 ready-made lessons, focusing instead on giving candidates feedback on the finer points of carrying off a lesson well.
Most importantly, Cruz did her summer training with Dallas students and now teaches in the city. That alone is a change: Until this summer, Teach For America prepared its Dallas corps members 240 miles away in Houston.
TFA CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard says the organization has devolved more authority to its regional offices to account for different instructional and resource needs.
All in all, the training Cruz received is emblematic of a major shift in the now nearly 25-year-old organization鈥檚 overall philosophy. Teach For America has quietly begun devolving authority to its 52 regions, some of which are pushing the boundaries of the venerable group鈥檚 model.
It鈥檚 a major shift for an organization whose tendency toward centralization is so deeply ingrained that it鈥檚 felt and heard even more than seen. Staffers even speak a bewildering jargon all their own, replete with references to 鈥淐MAs,鈥� 鈥淢TLDs,鈥� 鈥渂ig goals,鈥� the 鈥渓ocus of control.鈥�
The ramp-up to TFA鈥檚 25th anniversary, to be celebrated next month, has not been marked by the rah-rah theatrics that have characterized its earlier milestones. Instead, the group seems to have entered a period of introspection and change.
For some, the new approach is a reflection of the organization鈥檚 first and only leadership shift, in 2013, from founder Wendy Kopp to current CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard, who hails from Texas鈥� Rio Grande Valley and completed her TFA experience in Phoenix.
Others have portrayed it as a reaction to years of relentless criticism and the pressure caused by a two-year decline in application numbers.
Whatever the underlying reasons, TFA鈥檚 new, decentralized approach and experimentation raise fresh new questions about the organization鈥檚 model鈥攁nd its future course.
Generating Controversy
The story of TFA鈥檚 birth in Kopp鈥檚 1989 senior thesis at Princeton University is by now so well known as to be almost the stuff of legend. It hinged on the audacious, if not totally original idea that putting high-achieving young people into under-resourced, struggling schools could change students鈥� trajectories for the better, as well as produce a crop of new civically minded leaders.
A quarter of a century later, Teach For America is miles away from its plucky startup days. It has more than 40,000 alumni and commands a budget of some $300 million, most of it derived from philanthropic and government support. Observers say the organization鈥檚 mission has subtly shifted over the years, too, from supplying teachers to schools desperate for them to providing an alternative teacher pipeline for urban districts.
In the cluttered K-12 human-capital arena, TFA continues to occupy an odd third rail, preparing and supporting teachers but not hiring or firing them. It has also, for good or ill, become a proxy for advocates鈥� best and worst dreams about the teaching profession.
The group has, on the one hand, attracted a generation of smart individuals who might not otherwise have considered going into teaching. Especially in the beginning, it recruited its teachers from elite colleges, including some that didn鈥檛 even have teacher-preparation programs.
But it has also been accused of 鈥渄eprofessionalizing鈥� teaching, by bypassing established channels for preparing teachers and tolerating generally high rates of turnover by virtue of its two-year-commitment standard.
Today, thriving cottage industries of TFA critics and supporters duke it out on social media. So disparate are perceptions of TFA in media accounts that sorting through them is a bit like staring at an optical illusion. TFA has been copied, parodied, lionized, vilified.
For all that, the basic sketch of Kopp鈥檚 thesis remains intact, even as its initial, bare-bones approach to training has evolved significantly: TFA now spends an astonishing $53,000 to recruit, prepare, and support each teacher, both through the five-week summer boot camp known as Institute and the provision of two years鈥� worth of classroom-based coaching.
TFA鈥檚 standard preparation program can be most clearly linked to the work of Steven Farr, a staffer who codified the work of TFA鈥檚 best teachers in the early 2000s into a teaching framework.
In addition to specific training on lesson chunks like the hook, preparation includes modules on 鈥渄iversity, equity, and inclusion鈥� and a good dose of classroom-management techniques of the type popularized by instructional expert Doug Lemov鈥檚 Teach Like a Champion.
Corps members鈥� experience once they enter schools can nevertheless be bewildering, often depending on their specific experiences at summer training. Ashley Douglas, now in her 4th year of teaching at Baltimore鈥檚 Liberty Elementary School, says the feedback her TFA instructors provided was good, but she has some qualms about Institute鈥檚 scope and sequencing.
鈥淲eek one I would teach phonics all week, and week two would be all mathematics,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e got a short amount of time in front of the kids, and there were like 10 kids in the class. So I wouldn鈥檛 say it was a very realistic experience.鈥�
Commentary on TFA鈥檚 training model tends to fall into ideological camps, but those who have taken the middle road generally reflect Douglas鈥� assessment.
鈥淚f you ask TFA teachers, they will say that coaching is much more useful and focused on their practice than the similar advice they get from district administrators who come to check,鈥� said Jal Mehta, a Harvard University associate education professor.
And yet, he said, 鈥渢eaching is really difficult, and going into teaching with limited summer training is really hard. It can be challenging for students, and I think it can be difficult personally and psychologically for a lot of people in TFA.鈥�
The mismatch between rhetoric and reality is one of the reasons why TFA鈥檚 Dallas staff insisted on training its own corps members this year. Some of its summer school classes topped out at 25 or 30 students, a difficult but far more realistic glimpse of their future work, corps members here say.
The Dallas region has also de-emphasized some other traditional elements of TFA鈥檚 training model. Elizabeth Fritze Cheek, the Dallas region鈥檚 director of teacher-leadership development, says that relying on TFA鈥檚 teaching framework too much sometimes encouraged 鈥渇unky archetypes鈥� about teaching that prioritized teacher actions. She says the focus ought to be on how students respond to their teacher鈥檚 instruction instead.
鈥淎s a novice, it鈥檚 the hardest thing to get away from, that teacher-centered classroom,鈥� she said.
Dallas has also extended its summer from five to seven weeks and, through a partnership with a local nonprofit, the Momentous Institute, has added a heavier dose of social-emotional learning to the curriculum.
Classroom Snapshot: Henry J. Coleman
At the Dallas TFA training this summer, Henry J. Coleman taught a complicated lesson on how to find the median, the mode, and the range in a given set of numbers.
It was one of his early attempts at bat, during which he was watched both by a TFA staffer and by a veteran teacher.
Sometimes, Coleman remembered to wait for silence before moving on to the next segment of the lesson; sometimes he forgot. He called too often on the two students who raised their hands the most.
鈥淵ou aren鈥檛 explaining it,鈥� said one frustrated boy.
During a practice exercise, Coleman circulated, but never managed to make it to a group of girls who knew how to get the answers, but were struggling with the mathematical concepts underpinning the lesson.
Several months later, teaching math full time in Dallas鈥� Spruce High School, Coleman has made progress. He moves around the room more to engage all students. His rapport with students has notably improved. Students are much more respectful.
鈥淏uilding relationships has helped me so much, because they are more open about themselves. They feel like they can relate to me,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 a black male teacher, and they don鈥檛 see many black male teachers.鈥�
Today, Coleman is passing back and reviewing a practice math exam. He spends much of the period answering students鈥� questions individually.
TFA鈥檚 Dallas director, Alex Hales, who鈥檚 also sitting in, thinks Coleman still needs to improve classroom procedures and routines, so that when students finish reviewing their tests, they have something else to work on immediately.
Coleman has a bit of a hangdog expression on his face after class ends. Later, reflecting on the lesson, he comes to a similar conclusion as Hales.
鈥淚 just didn鈥檛 plan enough. The test, in reality, wasn鈥檛 the most rigorous test. It didn鈥檛 take the whole class period to review,鈥� he says. 鈥淚deally, I would have had additional practice exercises or a re-teach of whatever most students were missing.鈥�
Turnover Concerns
To an extent, TFA has made peace with the idea that no method of teacher preparation is foolproof.
鈥淚 honestly think that my personal view on it is that teaching is really hard, and when you enter that first day of teaching no matter how you were prepared, it is incredibly challenging,鈥� said Villanueva Beard, TFA鈥檚 CEO.
And the strongest research studies indicate that TFA teachers on average do as well in the classroom, or slightly outperform, other novices. Whether that is because of some aspect of training, corps members鈥� backgrounds, or pure ambition isn鈥檛 clear.
But those findings have not settled criticisms of the organization. A scathing 1994 article by teacher educator and policy expert Linda Darling-Hammond still serves as the basic template for most TFA critiques. In addition to panning the fast-track training, Darling-Hammond painted the group鈥檚 teachers as uncommitted to teaching and insensitive to their students鈥� diverse backgrounds.
Of the criticisms, the argument about turnover has been the most relentless and the most difficult for TFA to counter, in part because it is a concern some of TFA鈥檚 allies share.
鈥淪aying it鈥檚 a better source of talent for high-poverty schools than what many of them got before TFA does not mean the same thing as it鈥檚 the right way to staff these schools,鈥� said Kati Haycock, the president of the Education Trust, which advocates on behalf of disadvantaged students. 鈥淭heir enormous prickliness shut down that conversation for 10 years.鈥�
Even some former TFA alumni who now run schools and generally support the organization say they sometimes hesitate on taking on TFA corps members.
鈥淚 usually don鈥檛 hire TFA teachers. This has been a point of contention with the Baltimore office,鈥� said Joe Manko, a former corps member and now the principal at Baltimore鈥檚 Liberty Elementary. 鈥淥ne of the questions I ask teachers during the interview process is, 鈥楥an you stay 10 years?鈥� Our kids have so much inconsistency in their lives, the last thing they need is more of it.鈥�
That point of view is balanced out by administrators who think those TFA teachers who stay often go on to be among their strongest teachers.
鈥淥n average we find that they start [out] on the same level, traditional and alternative teachers. But TFA teachers advance faster,鈥� said Timothy Hise, an executive director at the Dallas district.
Classroom Snapshot: Jocelyn Providence
Math teacher Jocelyn Providence does not want to leave the classroom after two years, even when she鈥檚 had a day as full of ups and downs as this one in October.
She is a 2nd-year TFA corps member at Baltimore鈥檚 Digital Harbor High School. Her relative experience shows: She has the routines down pat, she greets each and every student by name, and she knows who sits with whom and who they鈥檙e friends with.
鈥淪usan, where鈥檚 Michael?鈥� she says as the bell rings.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know, he鈥檚 just not here! Why would I know?鈥� Susan says.
鈥淏ecause you hang out with him.鈥�
鈥淢m-HMM,鈥� Susan鈥檚 deskmate says.
Providence begins most of her lessons by having two of her students walk the rest of the class through My Favorite No, a review of the most common mistakes on the previous night鈥檚 homework and strategies for avoiding them.
Then it鈥檚 on to today鈥檚 lesson on how to transform quadratic functions by transposing them across an axis. She pulls up a computer program so the students, in pairs, can manipulate the functions and draw conclusions about them in a text box nearby. There鈥檚 some chatter and some smartphone fiddling, but nearly every student settles down and gets down to work.
Providence鈥檚 afternoon class鈥攁ccelerated algebra for 9th graders, all of whom are still learning English鈥攊s a different story. This time most of the computers freeze up, students are distracted, and there鈥檚 always a low rumble despite Providence鈥檚 use of a classroom-management app to try to keep the lesson on track.
鈥淲hy am I doing this so much today?鈥� she says, waiting for silence from her students for the fifth time.
Reflecting on the day鈥檚 lessons, Providence is clear-eyed about both her successes and weaknesses.
For one, she trusts her students to work together productively in groups far more often than she used to. The idea of My Favorite No came from her TFA coach, who challenged her to let students lead part of the lesson in order to boost engagement.
Yet she sees weaknesses in her ability to work with her English-language learners, partly a product of the minimal training TFA offers in that subject.
But even when she gets frustrated, as she did during her second lesson, she doesn鈥檛 pout or shout at her students. She says that one thing that has kept her moving forward has been a lot of support from her administration and her work colleagues.
It鈥檚 a reminder that teacher turnover isn鈥檛 just a function of attitude or training, but as reams of research conclude, the context in which teachers have to do their work.
鈥淚 can say as a whole it has a very supportive and collaborative staff and administration. And a lot of schools don鈥檛 have that,鈥� Providence says. 鈥淚 think not having it would change my perspective of whether I wanted to stay at this school and whether I would even stay in the classroom. I know there are other corps members [elsewhere] who are banging their heads against the wall.鈥�
A New Attitude
For years, TFA had hunkered down when faced with bad press. That has begun to change under Villaneuva Beard鈥檚 leadership.
She launched a series of pilot programs in 2014 to address recruitment and retention issues鈥攑art acknowledgment of the criticisms, part attempt to see if experimentation will lead to better results that could potentially be scaled.
In fact, it鈥檚 hard to keep on top of all the new pilot initiatives TFA has in the works, which include new approaches for working with ELLs, an increased focus on LGBT issues, and a partnership with a black fraternity to increase representation of black men.
But there are limits to those efforts, too. Members can innovate as much as they want, Villanueva Beard says, 鈥渁s long as the model is [that] we鈥檙e recruiting [teachers], we鈥檙e training them, and then they start in the classroom right away. ... We鈥檝e set the minimum standards of what is our model and staying true to that.鈥�
The organization鈥檚 decentralization has also brought new challenges for regions. The regions were already expected to generate most of TFA鈥檚 revenue, but the national organization doled that cash out as it saw fit, meaning more productive regions sometimes subsidized other ones. Now, regions鈥� funding will be more closely tied to outcomes.
With high student-achievement results in a district that has had a desperate need for talent, Dallas has been mostly spared. Not all regions have been as lucky. Several faced painful staff layoffs or shrank. In all, the organization has lost some 200 staff positions in 2015.
How regions will go on to define TFA 2.0 remains to be seen. In Dallas, at least, staffers say they鈥檙e up to the challenge.
Cheek, the region鈥檚 director of teacher-leadership development, is honest about what she thinks worked in Dallas鈥� revamped summer training and what didn鈥檛. The region had more corps members exit early in the first part of the year than usual. On the other hand, even first-year teachers were trying out inquiry-based activities, she says. What鈥檚 more, the local partnership with the Momentous Institute has led to better classroom management.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a difference in how our teachers address children, approach children, deal with discipline issues in classrooms. We鈥檙e seeing more of a relational approach from our teachers, even when they鈥檙e failing. 鈥ou鈥檙e going to fail at management [as a novice], you just are, but it鈥檚 what do you do when you fail that matters. Is that a relationship destroyer, or productive to relationships down that road?鈥�
Classroom Snapshot: Derrick Sanders
In a few months on the job, Derrick Sanders, a 10th grade history teacher at Spruce High School in Dallas, has learned a lot, and much of it reflects the region鈥檚 new emphases.
鈥淵ou walk up on the first day of school and you see all the kids looking at you. And you鈥檙e speaking and no one鈥檚 speaking back, and you鈥檙e shaking in your boots, hoping that you can establish some kind of rapport with them as quickly as possible,鈥� he said.
He has. He鈥檚 learned that good classroom management comes not from assuming an authoritarian stance but from student relationships, for one thing.
鈥淣ow I can say, 鈥榊our sister wouldn鈥檛 approve of the way you鈥檙e acting now,鈥� 鈥� he says about one of his rowdier students. 鈥淏ecause his sister doesn鈥檛 play鈥攕he takes the phones, she takes the video games.鈥�
When Dallas TFA director Hales asks him about what the organization could have done better to support him, Sanders says he liked the Dallas region鈥檚 heavier focus on equity and race issues. He liked having model lesson plans to study and execute, and just wishes he鈥檇 had more time to review them.
鈥淚 would have liked to have gotten those folders the first day. That was the toughest thing ever. We planned, but we didn鈥檛 plan for 90-minute classes,鈥� he says.
The bell rings. Sanders turns to the whiteboard, ready to teach.
