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Boosted by KIPP founders' support.
The following is a guest post by Jesse Alred, a 14-year veteran teacher in Houston public schools who made contact via a comment posted on the www.sfschools.org blog. I thought his commentary and question deserved wider circulation. I haven't fact-checked or edited Alred's commentary.
By Jesse Alred
I am a veteran teacher from Houston seeking a dialogue with current and past Teach for America teachers regarding what appears to be a pattern of TFA leaders and alumni in school district leadership positions espousing conservative ideas and profiting from close relationships with reactionary corporations, while self-righteously proclaiming they
are the new civil rights movement. I first became aware of this when a former local TFA director, now a school board member, recently proposed to fire teachers based on test scores and opposed allowing us to vote to have a single union.
The conservative-TFA nexus began at the beginning, when Union Carbide sponsored Wendy Kopp's initial efforts to create Teach for America. A few years before, Union Carbide's negligence had caused the worst industrial accident in history, in Bhopal, India. The number of casualties was as large as 100,000, and Union Carbide did everything possible to minimize taking responsibility for the event. Not only did Union Carbide provide financial support for Ms. Kopp, it provided her with other corporate contacts and office space for her and her staff.
A few years later, when TFA faced severe financial difficulties, Ms. Kopp wrote in her book she nearly went to work for the Edison Project [later renamed Edison Schools Inc., now again renamed EdisonLearning] and was all but saved by their managerial assistance. [Note from Caroline: KOPP Is married to Richard Barth, a former top Edison Schools executive who is now president and CEO of the KIPP Foundation.] The Edison Project, founded by a Tennessee entrepreneur, was an effort to replace public schools run by elected school boards with for-profit, corporate-run schools.
In 2000, two brilliant TFA alumni [Michael Feinberg and David Levin], the founders of KIPP Academy, then joined the Bushes at the Republican National Convention in 2000. This was vital to Bush, since as Texas governor he did not really have any genuine education achievements, and he was trying to prove he was a different kind of Republican. And everyone knows about Washington, D.C., schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's prescription for improving education: Close schools rather than improving them, and fire teachers rather than inspiring them.
Wendy Kopp's idea for Teach for America was a good one. TFA teachers do great work. But its leaders often seem to blame teachers, public schools and teachers' organizations for the achievement gap. By blaming teachers for some deep-seated social problems this nation has, they are not only providing an inaccurate critique; they also feed conservatives more ammunition to use in their 28-year war against using government as a problem solver.
Our achievement gap mirrors our country's level of economic inequality, the greatest among affluent nations. Better schools are only part of the solution. Stable families are more able to be ambitious for their children than insecure, overworked and struggling ones. Our society has failed our schools by permitting the middle class to shrink.(It's not the other way around.) As more people are starting to recognize, we need national health care, a stronger union movement, long-term unemployment benefits, generous college funding, immigration reform, trade policy, freedom for alternative lifestyles and reductions in military spending to bolster the middle class.
Ms. Kopp claims to be in the tradition of the civil rights movement, but Martin Luther King would take principled positions—against the Vietnam War and for the Poor People's March—even when it pissed off powerful people. His final speech, the night of his assassination, was on behalf of striking Memphis sanitation workers. In his last book, he argued for modifying American capitalism to include some measure of wealth distribution.
I would like a dialogue about what I have written here. My e-mail is JesseAlred@yahoo.com. You as an individual TFA teacher have a responsibility here because your work alone gives TFA leaders credibility (it's not the other way around).
Comments
I would guarantee that if a skillful reporter really checked into TFA, they would find that Kopp's whole story is a fabrication PR piece.
I am not sure I agree with Amy, but I would like to know more.
I recently wrote about a program in Illinois that in many ways is the anti-Teach For America. I think it's an interesting model but I haven't heard people talking about it yet. Go here to read my analysis: teacherrevised.org/2009/04/13/grow-your-own-teachers-the-anti-teach-for-america/
Dear Jesse,
TFA is able to operate thanks to private funding from corporations but I find your argument that TFA somehow promotes or advocates a conservative agenda to be lacking evidence. TFA's mission is to effect societal change, but only when it concerns education. To criticize it for not railing against a particular corporation's past is to miss the point and goal of TFA.
Likewise, why criticize TFA for working with a presidential candidate(Republican or Democrat) when they are trying to bring the shortfalls of education in this country to the attention those in power. To say that their support was "vital to Bush" is both unsubstantiated and in my opinion, giving TFA too much credit for the outcome of the 2000 general election. Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of TFA is that its mission is not rooted in any particular social dogma, thus appealing to both Republicans and Democrats.
Finally, you seem to criticize Michelle Rhee's new approach of rewarding teachers based on student achievement instead of seniority. This is a position that has been adopted by President Obama as well and he will certainly face stiff opposition from teachers' unions across the country. I would refer you to articles in the press about this dating to March 11, 2009. It is by no means a "conservative" approach and to demonize an approach simply for sounding conservative is not productive.
I have been a lifelong Democrat and I have seen personally what a difference TFA can do and I would challenge anyone to find evidence to the opposite after being in the trenches with some of these individuals. (This is not to discredit the wonderful work that traditional, professional teachers do every day across this country.)
Just to address the first comment, I think a lot of skilled reporters have written about TFA and if that story was actually out there I think it would have been located already.
But more to the point of the actual article, I think your misguided in your attempt to put a political party to the work of TFA. First, I am a corps member, and while we don't run studies of our political makeup, the anectdotal evidence would suggest that we actually tend to be more liberal than the population as a whole. Therefore, many of the people in TFA would agree with many of your positions on how to expand the middle class. Yet, that is not our mission, as stated we believe that every child deserves an excellent education. Therefore, our solutions do tend to be researched-based and focus on what is going on in the schools. You are right to state that there is a correlation between socio-economic status and performance in schools. Yet, there has not been a causative tie found there because students have been able to succeed in those communities. As well, the blame the students and the world they live in mantra has actually been the more conservative argument over the last twenty years. While there are diffferences in the way that students are raised in different communities and that some techniques do prepare children more for school, I think we start traveling a very dangerous road when we isolate that as the problem. Actually, the most cited tie in low performance of students is teacher expectations. This should make sense if you consider that minorities who are middle class and in higher performing school districts tend to be underrrepresented in advanced classes and score lower on tests than there white peers. Therefore, there is an issue with teachers that we need to talk about as a country.
TFA is an organization that believes that placing teachers with the mindsets of high expectations, rigor, and belief in the mission in the classroom can close the achievement gap that is present in the country. If we don't use data and tests to track that closing of the gap then we don't know if our goal is being achieved. As a teacher, when you see significant gains being achieved in your classroom on tests that compare them to their more affluent peers then the next step is to say, "how do we expand these successes for our children?" So yes, judging a teacher off the data and the gains in their classroom, as we judge any other employee in this country is valid.
This should not put us at odds with unions, which the majority of Teach For America corps members are a part of, this should put us on the side of students which is where we must be. Ultimately, the ideas of merit pay, extending the amount of time for tenure track, and even the removal from classrooms for a proven lack of results also shouldn't be anti-union, associated with any political party, or ideology. Those are pro-education steps that say that teachers play an important role, the unions are an important part of this process, but not everyone who is teaching should be and there are people out there who would be great teachers who need to be attracted to the profession. This stance has been validated by our current President who clearly doesn't see us as a conservative organization judging by the numbers of TFA alums in his administration and his continued support for our organization as a model for his entire service mission.
As far as who we as an organization or the alums associate with for future non-profit ventures--- we associate with the people in power because that keeps us funded and we rely on that funding to operate because we do believe in this mission. We rely on money and allies to function as a non-profit (as all of them do) and make no apologies for that truth. As far as judging us based on our donor list, I don't think its valid. Unless Wendy Kopp was a participant in Union Carbide's actions or our organization supports those specific actions, we don't---we support education equality, then its really an invalid addition to your argument. As for the civil rights movement---its there. Its what takes young adults from college educations that would have put them in the top corporations, graduate schools, professional programs, and offices in government to lowest performing school districts in this country to struggle and risk failure because they believe that educational inequality is the continuation of the civil rights struggle. Because they believe that until education is equal and until the students we teach can be looked at as students who can achieve this country can never reach its ideals, they become teachers and lifelong advocates on the mission of education reform. There was disagreement within the civil rights movement about how the goal would be achieved, but I think it would have been a mistake for the NAACP or the student movement to have accused the other side of not working in the movement. Please disagree on the method of reform, but your idea that we are part of the vast right wing conspiracy is off base. I think even Hilary Clinton would agree with me on that.
Rahul and Taylor:
I understand that many rank and file Teach for America teachers and alums are liberals, and that is why in my open letter I was reaching out to you.
I thoroughly approve Teach for America, and the work of your charter schools, but I was writing in response to a particular group of school reformers who had their start in your organization, and which includes its founder, who have made decisions and taken positions that may be at odds with the beliefs of many Teach for America members,
I do think it matters who you ally with. If you agree with me that closing the achievement gap requires reform on a range of issues, including national health care, workers having a protected right to organize, immigration reform, generous college funding and tuition freezes, long-term unemployment benefits during this economic downturn and a redirection of resources from military adventurism to domestic needs, then please consider whether aiding and abetting those who oppose us on every one of these issues is worth support on education alone.
Its not about "social dogma," its about what works, and we need these innovations because stable, secure families have a better chance of finding hope and building ambition for our families.
By the way, candidate Bush in 2000 would not have given KIPP's founders and students prime-time coverage during the Republican Party's national convention if they did not see substantial benefit. Convention time before a tight race is not time politicians do their charity work.
For all the good you do, and the good I have done in my fourteen years as a teacher, neither veteran teachers nor Teach for America has come anywhere close to proving we have a formula for closing the achievement gap.
Any honest answer as to who is to blame would have to include the society, parents, teachers, politicians, and the students. Most of all, I would identify powerful corporations as the source of the problem, because their political interventions prevent us from achieving through public policy a more equitable society.
But the TFA elite, as distinguished from TFA teachers, focuses on only one player in this miserable drama--the teachers--and they seek to eliminate teacher tenure and diminish our organizations. The effect of this would be to make teachers too scared to voice their opinions about their own work. Contrary to the notion that teachers are the problem, I have found teachers are the strongest advocates of education. You do not want to strip the strongest advocates of any influence.
Finally, I wrote the letter because I was once a student activist, and I know when you are young you can be sucked into things, (or when you are old for that matter), but I wanted you to take a look upward, at the top of your organizations, and ask them some questions.
This comment made my jaw drop:
"Actually, the most cited tie in low performance of students is teacher expectations."
Teacher expectations are most decidedly NOT the most cited tie in actual academic research with low performance of students. That would be socioeconomic disadvantage.
Perhaps teacher expectations are the "tie" most cited in anti-teacher propaganda -- and if TFA is citing it, it's easy to see why TFA would be at odds with teachers' unions.
This is a real quote from Mike Feinberg regarding Federal Express. Maybe he should do a commercial for them, the way he did for George W. Bush in 2000.
"When Federal Express started, the U.S. post office, which is a government monopoly like public school districts, was making "yes, buts." Yes, but people don't want overnight shipping guaranteed. Yes, but it's too expensive . . .
When FedEx got to a 10 percent market share, that's when the U.S. post office learned how to do next- day air shipping. So FedEx didn't hurt the post office, it actually made them better."
Mr. Feinberg's metaphor fails because FedEX will take any paying customer. KIPP takes students whose families who apply to a school with longer school days, two hours of homework per night, Saturday schools twice a month and an extra month of school. What does taking the most committed students from working class communities do to the neighborhood school?
The architect of KIPP's expansion is a Houston businessman and a self-professed "capitalist intellectual" adjunct professor at (White) Rice University, named Leo Linbeck III. The following are some blog posts he gave through the Belmont Club. I really can't believe how everytime I do a google search on KIPP or Teach for America supporters something slanted comes up.
"The Taliban Certainly know, That Obama would sure like to go, So give him a push, Off the ol' Hindu Kush. They promise to send him some blow?" (dated March 7, 2009). "Its start was a home mortage bubble, which triggered some terrible trouble, Then along came Barack, and the rest of his flock, who turned the whole nation to rubble." (dated March 9, 2009)
"Your point about needing to repeal the sixteenth amendment is a good one." (october 27, 2008). "Bush fought a two front war: one front in Iraq; the other in the United States. He won the first and lost the second." (January 22, 2009). "In my experience, the education reform movement within a city is a tight club. Everyone knows everyone else, and they work closely together." (october 4, 2008). "But Obama, well he could go places Ayers couldn't go, win over people Ayers couldn't work with, champion issues Ayers couldn't champion. He was a tool." (october 4, 2008)
Re: "I think a lot of skilled reporters have written about TFA and if that story was actually out there I think it would have been located already." In 2002, when I completed my two-years with TFA, a friend told me about a study that found TFA teachers DID become more politically conservative after fulfilling their commitments. I'm trying to find this study, but haven't yet. By politically conservative, I mean that they feel less convinced that the government or public works can solve the national crisis that is the achievement gap. In other words, they leave the program jaded about the simplistic solution TFA offers: high expectations. As Taylor, a current TFA-er says, "Actually, the most cited tie in low performance of students is teacher expectations." This is the message from TFA. And in my nine years as an educator, I've learned that it's not as clear-cut as that.
When I look back at this one year later three things strike me:
1. How much a candidate like Obama can inspire and how much he can deflate when the president pursues moderation in the face of opportunity to do so much more. American life is pretty complicated, lots of people living busy lives, and when you are the president you better show your people something pretty fast or they will lose interest, and the other side will grab the energy. Obama seems to think he can win the middle class by being calm and competent, that a tall dark Michael Dukakis can do better than a short Greek one, and he might be right. The middle class historically has fixated on manners and appropriateness, sometimes over genuine quality and substance. But you can go from the front to the back in politics real fast if you gamble wrong, or the other way too!
2. How arguments in our political culture, as compared even to Great Britain, much less to continental Europe, make so little difference. The trick in American politics is to line up monied backing among elites. With local elite backing, TFA and charter schools can just keep repeating stupid arguments until they sound true through reptition. American political competition is about congeries of local elites, as much now as it was fifty or one-hundred years ago. Even minority politicians in the cities compete for campaign cash from America's own version of Big Brother. FDR always had to maintain the southern local elites to ensure reelection, which is why he did so little on race.
3. How weak the TFA's central argument is--that higher expectations alone solves the achievement gap. Almost no adults, conservative or liberal, agrees with that.
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