Does Ashley Juarez-Smith believe in larger class sizes and that teaching experience doesn’t matter?

Her mentor and employer Gary Chartrand is on record saying smaller classes don’t matter, which is strange because it is the one reform that has evidence that says it does work and Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson recently praised smaller classes as one of the reasons that Florida’s school system has improved. How far does Mrs. Smith-Juarez’s apple fall from the tree?

Then on the Chartrand Foundation site (Mrs. Smith-Juarez is the executive director), she uses misleading information to tout teach for America. If you didn’t know it Teach for America takes non-education recent college grads, puts them through a two-week access course and then places them in the districts struggling schools. To be honest I do think TFA does have a role to play but it is as a supplement to fill holes if needed, not the front of the line position that the school board has seen fit to give it over professional teachers and college of ed grads.

These are questions people need to ask.