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Teach for America coming to Alabama

Posted on Mar 08, 2010 in News

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College graduates will teach in some of Alabama’s highest-need schools

On the same day the Alabama Legislature blocked Gov. Riley’s plan for implementing charter schools, the Teach for America’s (TFA) arrival to Alabama was announced on Feb. 13.

TFA is a non-profit program that employs college graduates to teach in low-income schools around the U.S.

The project recruits an elite corps, who are prepared to assimilate into their assigned school’s staff for two years.

In the next year, 30 graduates from across America will join underserved schools in Alabama and contribute to education equality in the 2010-11 school year.

In 2012 and 2013, 60 others will be added to the corps.

The organization will place teachers in public schools in Selma and in Hale, Lowndes, Marengo, Perry and Sumter counties.

According to the TFA, nearly 17,000 alumni are currently impacting more than 450,000 students every year.

TFA represents a thread of hope for the state’s educational system, as Alabama is one of the 11 states that do not have charter schools.

These schools receive public money but are freed from some regulations public schools must abide by.

While bureaucracy gets in the way of public education stepping forward, TFA comes in good timing.

“We are very excited to come to Alabama to work in closing the educational gap in one more state”, said Kerci Marcello from TFA.

TFA will be implemented in six Alabama counties, but specific schools have not yet been selected.

The University of Alabama is a partner that helped bringing TFA to the state, and it will provide the opportunity to TFA’s teachers to enroll and peruse a Masters degree in education.

UAB Honors program previously sent their students to the TFA.

USGA president Hernandez Stroud was selected in late 2009 to teach in Philadelphia for the next two years, starting this summer.

For him, TFA is one of the programs that aims to close the achievement gap in education.

He said that one of the solutions for America’s educational system is a combination of variables.

“Access to good schools, living in a good community and parent education” are a few of the variables he believes are essential.

TFA is, for him, one of the programs trying to improve the situation. And the program’s coming to Alabama is easily justifiable.

“It is clear that we need an educational reform,” Stroud said.

Even though TFA has many good intentions, there are some questions regarding teacher preparation.

In the book “Relentless Pursuit,” for instance, Donna Foote describes her experience among the struggles of unprepared teachers trying to adapt to the classroom environment.

Hernandez Stroud stated that TFA looks for good GPAs and resumes, but most importantly, it looks for “people who are passionate about teaching”.

To diminish inexperience and improve teachers’ performance, TFA prepares them for the two-year contract with a series of programs.

Some of the corps members already have teaching experience, since the education program at UAB requires internships in schools.

“Research shows our teachers are effective”, said Marcello.

According to TFA statistics, 94 percent of principals who work with Teach for America teachers report that they have made a positive impact on their schools.

Students Jade Delisle, Lindsay Swain, Patty Wang and Christopher Watson will also join forces with TFA in 2009-10.

Email: helenacorcao@gmail.com

 

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