The Hartford Board of Education will be voting on whether or not to continue its contract with Teach for America, originally signed in 2011.
Approval would mean a three-year contract, costing Hartford a total of $650,940, with budgeted amounts increasing in each of the three years. The first year would budget for up to 60 TFA members, 70 in the second, and 80 in the third.
Teach for America sends its members into urban and rural schools with five weeks of training. The attrition rate of TFA staff is astounding. According to a policy brief published by the National Education Policy Center, over 50% of TFA teachers leave after two years and 80% leave after three years.
The same brief determines that TFA is, under the best of circumstances, akin to a bandage for schools that struggle to hire staff.
What makes Hartford Public Schools such a challenge to staff that an agency which relies heavily on recruiting out-of-state is needed? With such continued high rates of unemployment in Connecticut, it’s unclear that this demand exists.
Using peer-reviewed research, the NEPC’s policy brief states: “TFA teachers are not decidedly or substantially better than non-TFA teachers.”
The Board of Education agenda:
Yesterday, there was a #ResistTFA Twitter chat organized by Students United for Public Education. A selection of those tweets sheds light on attitudes toward TFA have shifted in recent years:
The BOE meeting originally scheduled for February 18th has been moved to February 24th due to snow. It will begin at 5:30pm in the Journalism and Media Magnet Academy, 150 Tower Avenue. For those who can not make the meeting, or who simply prefer to put their thoughts into writing, the email addresses of current Board of Education members can be found here.