From the Times Union when discussing the
QEA initiative: For instance, Vitti said about 100 Teach for America teachers will
be stationed in Raines, Ribault and Jackson feeder schools, mostly teaching
middle and high school math or science.
Teach
for America is nationally known for steering Ivy League college grads to teach
in urban schools.
That Ivy League thing is incorrect by the way as TFA now
draws from most major colleges. Regardless Vitti’s love for TFA is not
supported by evidence. I can’t imagine a parent picking a TFA recruit over an
experienced teacher. Furthermore the QEA’s big selling point is to get our most
experienced and best teachers with our lowest performing students. TFA does the
exact opposite of what we know to be the best for them.
The following is from an assistant principal
in the same article: Carrie
M. Warren, an assistant principal at Rufus A. Payne Elementary, said more
experienced teachers at her school will mean her academically advanced students
will get more attention. Until now, she said, the school’s staff has been able
to focus mostly on struggling students.
“Now we’ll have a lot of senior teachers, with 10-plus years’
experience, who have taught students at different levels and who’ll know how to
pull from their bag of tricks,” she said.
10 plus years of experience, wow, a stark difference from
the TFA teachers without education degrees and just a five-week access course
under their belts. You see experienced teachers have a bag of tricks where
rookie teachers are often in survival mode. The thing is rookie teachers get
better, TFA teachers stay for two years and just when they are beginning to get
it they leave to be replaced by another rookie crop.
Fire Vitti now. And to think that he gave himself a perfect evaluation--the F--king nerve of this guy. How the hell do you even eval yourself? Get rid of him. I hate his administration and his style. He has to go, but wait, im sure that they will replace him with someone even worse like Rhee. Thousands of hard working teachers are being screwed over daily because of the toothless union and the uniformed public.
ReplyDeleteFire Vitti now. You have a guy with less than 8-10 years of classroom experience dictating policy and procedures to vet teachers and admins. Fire Vitti now and fire the people who appointed him. Again: Fire Vitti now.