INFORMATION PRESENTATION
Where: Student Life Center meeting rooms
When: Tuesday at 7 p.m
Teach for America might not inspire debate on many college campuses.
But here, where graduates join the program in high numbers and Peabody students and professors question its legitimacy, the program can be a hot-button issue.
The program “gets our nation’s most promising future leaders and puts them where they can do some real good,” said junior Jake Ramsey, an on-campus recruiter.
Teach for America has more than 3,600 members in its current corps, 14 of which are recent Vanderbilt graduates in their first year of teaching.
But only 2 percent of the education corps were education majors in their undergraduate career, leading some to believe corps members are well-intentioned but underqualified.
“There are some very gifted college graduates who can fairly quickly pick up what they need to begin teaching,” said Marcy Singer-Gabella, an education professor.
“But I think the issue is that the teachers need to understand not only the subject matter they’re going to teach, but they also have to have the ability to design learning experiences and to organize the subject matter in ways that make that subject matter accessible to diverse groups of learners.”
However, proponents of the program argue that leadership on campus can be transferred to the classroom.
“If you are able to be a successful and competent leader in your college and extracurricular activites, you can be a leader in the classroom as a teacher,” said senior Allie Federoff, also a campus recruiter.
Teach for America corps members undergo a five-week training camp that uses practice, observation, coaching and study to “develop the foundational knowledge, skills and mindsets needed to be highly effective beginning teachers,” according to the program Web site.
And an independent survey of school principals reported in 2005 that 95 percent of principals called corps members’ training at least as good as the training of other beginning teachers.
But some still wonder how much can be learned in a relatively short time.
“It takes time to dig into your subject matter deeply to understand the really important ideas, what it would look like from the learner’s point of view, and how you might cultivate their understanding, and not just do it with one person, but do it with multiple kids,” said Singer-Gabella. “It doesn’t happen overnight — it’s very difficult.”
The brevity of the corps members’ tenure also raises questions.
“It’s problematic for (the corps) as individuals because they haven’t learned how to teach yet, and the people they’re serving need expert teachers,” Singer-Gabella said. “It’s problematic for the system, because it doesn’t move the system of education forward to have these people work temporarily, coming and going from jobs, and not seeking to help take on the changes that need to be made in the broader sense.”
Statistics show only 23 percent of corps members continue to work at their original jobs after the required two years, but 63 percent do continue to teach or study education.
And, according to Ramsey, the program has a positive net impact on students.
“If we can move forward and provide all the children in this nation with equal opportunity in the field of education, we can end cycles of poverty that have been going on for a really long time,” he said.
