Seattle might end a teacher turf tussle

UPDATE 3/22/12: The Seattle School Board voted 4-3 to extend the contract wtih Teach for America.

The Seattle School Board votes tonight on a program that brings new, young teachers into the district’s lowest performing schools.

The idea behind Teach for America is simple. It’s like a Peace Corp program for education, recruiting college graduates to work in the nation’s lowest performing schools.

The controversy behind Teach for America is huge. While the recruits are enthusiastic, they are not educators.

They don’t have full certification and most haven’t even had classroom experience beyond an intense five-week training program. Districts have to pay $4,000 per educator for the TFA training.

Once the young educators finish the training, they’re paid about the same as a first year teacher, who has a teaching degree.

Although TFA instructors across the country are generally put in jobs that are hard to fill, some teachers’ unions don’t like outsiders coming in taking jobs that they say more qualified educators want.

In Seattle, there are six TFA educators in Aki Kurose and Washington Middle Schools, South Shore K-8, and Rainer Beach High School.

The chair of the Seattle School Board’s curriculum and instruction committee recommends ending the Teach for America contract because:

“There is no shortage of fully-certificated teachers, both experienced and novice in the Seattle area; Novice teachers, with only five weeks of training, in high poverty, high-minority schools are serving our most vulnerable students; and the contract has been strongly opposed by our Seattle Education Association labor partners.”

The Union says its biggest concern is placing uncertificated and inexperienced teachers in classrooms with “some of our most challenged students.”

Before the board votes on a recommendation to terminate they program, they’ll hear from passionate people on both sides of the issue who have already filled the 20 public comment slots available during the meeting, with another dozen on a waiting list to testify. I’ll be listening to hear if any students speak.

Students know who the good and bad teachers are, and parents do too.

In my 12 years as Seattle Public Schools mom, we’ve only had one teacher who I would describe as “awful.” That educator, who had the most experience in the building in terms of hours served in the classroom, set kids the class back at least two years. An eager college grad with five-weeks training would have been better in that case.

How important is a teacher’s credentials and classroom experience to you?

Related:

A classroom teacher’s typical school day

Rating teachers like Microsoft employees

AP file photo