Tunji Adebayo

By Tunji Adebayo

The California State Board of Education just adopted a new accountability system acknowledging that the quality of a school is about more than just test scores. Parents will now have access to vital measures that provide them with greater insight into how a school may serve their child, such as college preparedness, language growth among English language learners and the rate at which students are suspended.

This more nuanced accountability system is an important step forward for our state, but it’s equally important to recognize how we got here. Before the board voted, they listened to a diverse group of more than 100 parents, students and teachers like me from across the state.

Before I made the trip to Sacramento, I asked my students at View Park Preparatory Charter High School in Los Angeles to vote if I should stay and teach that day or if I should share my thoughts with the board of education. My students voted for me to testify to ensure that our voices be heard.

So I told the board that we need an accountability system that will provide families with clarity and equity. I spoke about Marco’s mom, who works multiple jobs and has half the eighth-grade education Marco has achieved. Marco’s little sister once translated his mother’s question to me, “What high school should Marco go to?” An equitable accountability system is one where Marco’s mom could easily understand the performance of schools in her district to make the right educational choice for her son.

I also told them about my mentee Jayson’s mother, who deserves to know that the school he attends potentially performs in the bottom 20 to 30 percent of schools statewide. An equitable system would give her the tools and information to help her steer her son to greater educational opportunity.

And I shared with them my perspective as a teacher. We need a system that acknowledges that more than the bottom 5 percent of schools need support to improve. We need an accountability system that will clearly communicate how schools are doing and how student subgroups are doing in order to improve outcomes for all students. With a clear system in place, we can have an honest conversation about how schools are doing, and get creative about how we can better meet the needs of students like Marco and Jayson.

I returned to my students, following the state board’s vote, with two key lessons. First, that standing up for what you believe in is always worth the effort, and second, that you have to keep speaking up to achieve significant and lasting change.

Our work to create a more equitable school system is far from over. The accountability system the state board ratified does not go far enough in providing clarity and transparency for teachers or parents, but incorporating multiple measures is a step in the right direction. As I often tell my students though, the struggle and work continue, and it’s critical that those in power keep hearing the voices from those of us who are closest to students–parents and teachers.

In the months to come, a great number of decisions will be made at the state level that will shape how we measure, support and hold schools accountable. Not only will we need to further develop our new accountability system – determining how to measure certain performance indicators, for example – but we will also have to make sure it works coherently and in concert with the accountability expectations outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the new federal law our president signed to replace No Child Left Behind.

Over the next year, we will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape our school system to ensure that it more equitably serves students like Marco and Jayson, but whether we will succeed in doing so is far from certain. If we are to truly transform our schools for the better, teachers, parents and students must be active participants in an honest and collaborative process. The reality that the teachers and parents who joined me in Sacramento know is that closing gaps in access, resources and achievement in our district is no easy task. But it is the definition of equity, and we certainly can’t rise to the challenge without acknowledging where we are and where we need to go as an education system.

When I returned to school after my trip to Sacramento, I told my students about the meeting, but more importantly, I told them about the diverse people who were there speaking on behalf of students and families across the state. The students, parents, teachers and other community members at the meeting understand the collective impact of speaking up for our students. There is still work to be done to ensure equity is woven through the state’s policies, but together we can ensure these policies work for students and the communities that surround them.

Tunji Adebayo is a teacher at View Park Preparatory Charter High School in Los Angeles and a member of Educators 4 Excellence-Los Angeles.

By Benjamin Feinberg

Teachers unions often argue that the “last in, first out” policy is the only fair way to lay off teachers. Reformers say that LIFO protects bad teachers while indiscriminately getting rid of young and creative new teachers.

The way we lay off teachers will become more important as Los Angeles Unified School District enters yet another budget crisis.

Let’s ignore the policy argument for a moment and instead focus on LIFO’s effect. Ironically, this policy supported by teachers unions ends up benefiting charter schools.

To get a good understanding of LIFO’s impact, we should look back to 2009, when LAUSD laid off 1,806 teachers.

THE YEAR I WAS LAID OFF

This happens to be a very personal subject for me because I was laid off that year.

I started my teaching career in 2008. Three weeks after the first day of school, Lehman Brothers collapsed, and the economy went into a tailspin. At first, this didn’t really hit the teaching sector hard, but by February it became clear that layoffs were coming. And then, on May 15, 2009, 5,618 LAUSD teachers received layoff notices.

Many of those layoffs were rescinded, and those whose notices were not rescinded were told that we could sub for ourselves and stay at our schools. But from a more personal perspective, getting a layoff notice makes you panic.

That is exactly what I did. I. Freaked. Out.

As a relatively risk-averse person, I chose to apply for a new teaching job.

And who was hiring?

Charter schools. Oodles and oodles of charter schools.

I was hired at Aspire Public Schools, one of the fastest-growing charter networks in Los Angeles. My girlfriend was hired at Partnership to Uplift Communities (PUC Schools). My friends got jobs at Green Dot, Synergy, Para Los Niños, Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools (ICEF), the list goes on.

In fact, of my Teach For America (TFA) cohort who received layoff notices that year, only 21 percent were rescinded, 18 percent decided to sub for themselves, and 57 percent headed to charter schools. LIFO took a bunch of young, excited teachers who already had a year of experience under their belts and pushed them into charter schools.

FROM DISTRICT TO CHARTER

But it gets better. Charter schools are rapidly expanding in Los Angeles, meaning that good teachers can quickly rise through the ranks of charter schools and become administrators.

Out of that group of 22 TFA corps members who were laid off, five are now charter school administrators, one is a charter school recruiter, and one worked for the California Charter Schools Association. One person who decided to sub for themselves is now running for a spot on the LAUSD School Board on a pro-charter ticket (although he would say that he isn’t just pro-charter, he is pro-good-schools).

What do these teachers have to say about their shift from the district to charter schools after getting laid off?

Michelle Wilson, who was laid off from Gardena High School, found a job at Synergy Charter Academy. “I saw that I was serving students from the same demographics,” she said. “I also worked with more colleagues who were passionate and willing to make changes in and out of the classroom to impact students.” She is now an administrator at Green Dot.

Casie Little was laid off from Bret Harte Middle School and has worked at three charter schools since. She left LAUSD feeling defeated but says that when she joined a charter school, her enthusiasm for teaching was rekindled.

“I discovered a passion for curriculum planning, instruction and assessment that I never knew I had.” She is now an administrator at Wilder’s Preparatory Academy Charter School.

Casie has strong opinions about what successful schools look like based on her experience.

“When I hear or see other admin that don’t uphold the values I was shown at PUC and at the two schools I was at Green Dot, I know that it’s not best for kids and that data backs that up.”

A FUTURE THAT ISN’T LAUSD

These are young educators that could have been part of the LAUSD family. Instead, they were booted out without evaluation. They were let go of simply because they were new.

From my perspective, unions shoot themselves in the foot by supporting LIFO. The policy supplies charter schools with a stream of fresh young blood, who could have been a boon for traditional public schools.

These teachers are becoming leaders who will lead the way toward a new educational landscape. And, unfortunately, that future isn’t in LAUSD.

Benjamin Feinberg is an eighth-grade math teacher at LA Unified’s Luther Burbank Middle School. Follow his blog at schooldatanerd.com.

This article was published in partnership with Education Post.

Reflexive opposition to Teach For America (TFA) is commonplace and the arguments against the organization are recycled regularly: Corps members are ill-prepared, they don’t stay in the profession, or they primarily teach at charter schools.

It’s rare to come across fresh or fair takes on TFA, much less from someone who is a former corps member and has taught at public schools both traditional and charter.

School Data Nerd is the nom de plume of Benjamin Feinberg, an eighth-grade math and science teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School, in Highland Park, who uses public data to guide his thinking on educational issues rather than resorting to rhetoric or politicking.

Feinberg, a TFA corps member in 2008, was curious to see how many people from his cohort were still teaching, so he took to Internet voyeurism courtesy of LinkedIn, Facebook and Google to find out. (Feinberg admitted his approach was more snoopy than scientific.)

Click here for the full story from Education Post, and read LA School Report’s profile of Feinberg here.

A handful of San Francisco elementary school principals facing an urgent need to fill positions for the fall have hired Teach for America recruits despite the school board’s vocal opposition to the organization.

In May, the board severed the district’s partnership with Teach for America, which supplies enthusiastic if inexperienced teachers to thousands of schools in lower-income communities across the country.

The principals, including those at Bret Harte, Lakeshore and Flynn elementary schools, knew the board’s position. But with a big teacher shortage weighing on them, they said politics mattered less than finding the best teachers to put in front of children.

The principals, who have so far taken on eight candidates from Teach for America, didn’t break any rules.

The hires are intern-credentialed teachers, among several dozen such interns who will be teaching in city schools this year while enrolled at a university to earn a full credential. What makes them unique is they are still with Teach for America, often called TFA, and will be supported throughout the year by the organization.

The hiring of Teach For America members, though, clearly was in opposition to the school board’s will. Board Vice President Shamann Walton was “livid.”

To read the full story in the San Francisco Chronicle, click here. 

Middle school science teacher Tunji Adebayo was honored by Teach For America at Monday night’s benefit.

Science lessons set to rap music. Aspirations in envelopes pinned to the ceiling. And a commitment to live alongside students.

Tunji Adebayo, who teaches 7th and 8th grade science at Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter Middle School, was honored Monday night for his innovation and dedication at Teach For America’s “Celebrating Changemakers in Education.”

“Tunji’s dedication to his students is limitless, especially to young black males,” Lida Jennings, executive director of TFA LA, told the 350 guests at the Petersen Automotive Museum gathered for the group’s third annual benefit dinner.

Adebayo, 25, who was born in Nigeria one month before TFA was launched, is in his third year of a profession he hadn’t planned on. A TFA representative reached out to him while he was studying dietetics and nutrition science at the University of Georgia, and he’s never looked back.

“I’m staying in education no matter what,” he told LA School Report before receiving his award Monday night.

After his first year teaching and commuting into South LA from Long Beach, Adebayo moved to the neighborhood, around 51st and Vermont. For him, “It’s essential to live in the community,” he said.

He often sees his students in the area, particularly on weekends when he is at the farmers market, which is near a mall with a movie theater.

“It’s a blessing to live and understand some of their struggles on a daily basis. It makes it more real, to become a part of the community.”

The middle school, one of 12 operated by the Inner City Education Foundation, serves 264 students in grades 6-8, and 74 percent are African Americans, compared to 8.4 percent in LA Unified. The school’s student population identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged stands at 77 percent, the same percentage as LA Unified students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. And 13 percent have disabilities.

His commitment to helping other African Americans started in college, where he noticed that other “young black males didn’t accomplish what I did because the expectations and support weren’t there.”

His parents, who both have masters degrees, brought him to the United States at age 5 and always stressed education.

“It’s not that Nigeria doesn’t have great schools, but a college degree from the U.S. has respect,” said Adebayo, the youngest of nine who grew up inspired by motivational speakers. “I was expected to achieve greatness, so that’s what I did.” The other young men he saw, “They weren’t pushed.”

Pushing for greatness is part of his mission as he teaches biology, chemistry and physics at the charter school to about 35 kids at a time using a blended learning model. He has his students set goals monthly, holds “Motivational Mondays,” goes over assignment grades as a class and notes when students have gone the extra mile.

“I let them know I appreciate them when they go out of their way” in their work. The key is love, and caring. “Most are deprived at home.”

But when he knows they can do more, he calls them on it. A notation he uses to challenge students is “DCE,” for “didn’t care enough” to get an assignment done on time. “My students can make up everything,” he said. “I want them to have a work ethic. If you work hard enough, be creative enough, you can aspire” to greatness.

Another motivation are the lyrics he sets to popular songs and records for his students. He calls them “lyrical dissections.” The lyrics include science definitions and lesson content. “They ask, what does this mean, and it clicks in their minds” when it’s set to music.

At first he wrote all the lyrics, but now, “I write the hook but make them write the verse.” It’s an alternative assignment; other students might choose drawing or making something. “Do whatever you can to make them engaged.”

• Listen to Tunji Adebayo’s science-driven rap lyrics, including “Who Do You Love” and “Get Your Force Up.”

Some of his students don’t have computers at home, so he makes his classroom and technology available to students before and after school and during lunch.

“But I don’t baby them, because in high school no one cares about your excuse, they care about results.”

Pinned to the ceiling in his classroom are envelopes, Jennings said, containing the students’ goals. “They only need to look up to see their visions and ambitions,” she said.

“Tunji has a lot of tricks up his sleeves,” she added, describing how he once “gave himself a time out, and the class respectfully waited for him to collect himself and get back on track.”

“I never would have been a teacher without Teach For America,” Adebayo said.

What makes him stick with it? “Prayer,” he said. “God told me I have a lot more to learn and give. So here I am because I am still learning and still giving.”

His advice to new teachers: “Be creative. There’s always a way.”

Other “Changemakers” honored at the event included LA Unified school board president Steve Zimmer, who joined TFA in 1992 working as an ESL teacher at Marshall High School in Silver Lake. Jennings said she has met monthly with Zimmer in her three years as executive director. She said they don’t always agree, but “Steve has welcomed me into this community.”

The leadership team of KIPP Raíces Academy, which last year was the only LA Unified school to win a National Blue Ribbon award, received the “School Changemakers” awards: founding principal Amber Young Medina, principal Chelsea Zegarski and assistant principal Yesenia Castro.

Alissa Changala, who teaches at USC Hybrid High, received a “Classroom Changemaker” award alongside Adebayo, and Karen Heilman, TFA LA’s advisory board chair, received the top honor of the night, the “Regional Changemaker” award.

Lida Jennings with students at Camino Nuevo Kayne Siart.

By Lida Jennings

In many ways, Los Angeles is the birthplace of Teach For America.

It was at University of Southern California 25 years ago that Wendy Kopp gathered 500 idealistic corps members for the very first summer training institute and launched them into teaching positions at high-poverty schools in Los Angeles and across the country.

Today, more than 2,600 teachers and alumni work inside and outside of Los Angeles schools toward our big goal – that one day, all children will have access to an excellent education. Our national footprint is now 50,000 teachers and alumni strong.

The Teach For America model has become familiar. We recruit top college graduates and professionals to teach for at least two years in hard-to-staff, low-income schools and to go on to fight for educational equity wherever their lives take them. That model has produced countless education leaders, including LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer and UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. Since joining the TFA corps, they have dedicated their lives to public education.

Twenty-five years in, our organization has evolved. While our critics rely, sometimes loudly, on outdated notions of who we are and how we serve, one need only look at the way our corps has changed to see the new face of Teach For America-Los Angeles. We are proud to have one of the most locally connected, diverse and persistent teacher and leadership corps to date.

Jaime Ballesteros is a 2014 TFA corps member who teaches science at Amino College Preparatory Academy. (Credit: Teach For America)

When we were founded, less than a quarter of our local teaching corps had ties to California. Every year since 2009, our corps has been at least 50 percent locals, surpassing 65 percent for the second time in 2015. These corps members have returned to their home communities or school networks to teach.

In 1990, about 26 percent of our Los Angeles teachers identified as people of color, and our historical average is 42 percent. But times have changed. Our newest cohort is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever – with more than half of our first-year teachers identifying as Latino and over 80 percent identifying as people of color.

While great teachers come from all backgrounds, excellent teachers who share the lived experiences of their students can be powerful role models. Our Los Angeles corps now includes teachers who lived most of their lives as undocumented immigrants, those who are the first in their family to graduate college, and some who were taught – and mentored – by Los Angeles corps members themselves. Their ages range from early 20s to mid-50s, as many people use our accelerated route to change professions later in life.

Victoria Hong, a 2011 TFA corps member, taught early childhood education at Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment (PACE) and now conducts Asian American outreach for a nonprofit. (Credit: Teach For America)

Once our corps members get into the classroom, they get hooked on the impact they can make for kids. Teaching is the most popular profession among our alumni. About 65 percent of our Los Angeles corps members stay in the classroom beyond two years, and 60 percent of alums work in the education sector in a variety of settings longer term.

Many go on to lead schools as principals, including at more than half of KIPP LA schools, where low-income students are beating the odds. On average, just one in 10 students from low-income communities graduate college. But at KIPP LA, 72 percent of its alumni are persisting in college.

And then there’s Ana Ponce, who joined the Teach For America-Los Angeles corps in 1991 and now leads an eight-school system. In her role as CEO of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy she has demonstrated that campuses comprised almost entirely of English language learners, in some of the poorest and densest neighborhoods of our city, can excel.

When our alumni and corps members work together at the same schools, we see transformational results. Manual Arts High School students with disabilities jumped 71 points on the Academic Performance Index in a year where the special education department was staffed primarily by Teach For America-Los Angeles corps members and alums.

Our alumni run school boards and teachers’ unions, set state and national policies and provide legal and healthcare access to families. Eighty percent work in roles impacting education or low-income communities. We bring people into the civil rights movement of our time and they contribute for the rest of their lives.

Our impact in Los Angeles should only compound. More than 1,000 of our teachers and alumni are under 30 years old. I envision them continuing along a collaborative path with partners like LAUSD, Educators 4 Excellence, Families in Schools and Great Public Schools Now to move educational equity to the next level at district and charter schools alike.

There is still a lot of work to do to reach the day when all children in Los Angeles have access to a quality education; too many students still attend chronically failing schools. But Teach For America has been a part of the fight for the last 25 years, and we will keep driving educational change for as long as it takes.

Lida Jennings is the executive director of Teach For America-Los Angeles. She joined TFA in 2010 with more than 20 years of experience in the higher education and corporate retail sectors, including serving as Assistant Dean at the RAND Corporation and the Director of the full-time MBA Program at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. She is a board member for Endeavor College Prep and a member of the Loyola Marymount Graduate School of Education Board of Visitors.

The petition points out that the teachers from the organization will be trainees but does not acknowledge that the district is allowed by law to hire a small number of special education teachers that are not fully credentialed.

Under the strict guidelines of the Modified Consent Decree (MCD), which oversees the district’s adherence to special education laws, 88 percent of LA Unified’s special education teachers must be credentialed. According to the recent independent monitor’s report, which oversees the MCD, 89.7 percent of the district’s teachers were credentialed as of Oct 15.

The online petition essentially calls on the district to go above and beyond what the MCD calls for and have 100 percent of its special education teachers credentialed. The petition says, “LAUSD senior staff needs to go back to the drawing board to create partnerships with reputable teaching programs to recruit teachers who will be qualified on Day 1 and are likely to remain committed to the teaching profession.”

The petition’s authors include a number of outspoken and well-known critics of charter schools, including Cynthia Liu of the K-12 News Network and Anthony Cody, a co-founder and board member of the Network for Public Education.

The petition points to the high level of Teach For America teachers who do not remain in the profession and the fact that the Broad Foundation, which is at the forefront of a new effort to expand charter schools in the district, has funded TFA. Several LA Unified school board members have voiced opposition to the charter expansion plan, and the board will be considering a resolution at its December meeting to condemn it.

“TFA is one of the tools that Eli Broad is using to attack our schools and undermine the very fabric of the public school system in Los Angeles (his foundation is a top funder of TFA). Our elected leaders just endorsed that by approving this contract. It should be rescinded immediately,” the petition states.

TFA is an organization that recruits recent college graduates to sign two-year contracts and teach in districts with a large percentage of students from low-income families. The recruits are not required to have majored in education and only receive a few weeks of training.

TFA responded to the online petition, saying it “does a disservice to the district’s students and to the dedicated TFA corps members working alongside their fellow teachers to expand opportunities for these students. Our program helps to meet local demand for teachers and long-term education leaders in public schools. We’re proud to be an ally in the special education community, working with families, communities, and partner organizations, and it’s disappointing to see the critical work of our special education corps members mischaracterized.”

Under the consent decree, which was the outcome of a settled class action lawsuit accusing the district of being out of compliance with special education laws, the district is not required to go above the level of 88 percent of its special education teachers being fully credentialed. With a teacher shortage currently striking California and the nation, finding credentialed teachers remains an ongoing challenge for LA Unified.

The independent monitor’s report did express some “serious concern” that the district was just above the cutoff point for credentialed teachers and said, “It is possible that this increase of provisional and intern teachers is due to the state and national shortages in qualified teachers.”

Sharyn Howell, the district’s associate superintendent of the Division of Special Education, acknowledged that finding credentialed teachers is a challenge but that she was not concerned LA Unified will slip below 88 percent.

“There is a shortage of special education teachers and providers across the nation,” Howell said, responding to questions about the independent monitor’s report, not the online petition. “The district has a rigorous recruitment, but it would be a false assumption on our part to say we could greatly increase the number of credentialed special education teachers on our staff because we just would’t find them.”

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By Emilio Solano

Growing up Mexican-American in a predominantly white community in Oregon, I never had a Latino teacher. I remember men of color working as security guards and coaches, but no one of my ethnicity led a classroom. Even in our textbooks, Cesar Chavez merited just a paragraph.

While many Los Angeles residents know we are facing a teacher shortage, there is a second shortage threatening our schools that is less familiar: a diversity shortage. Statewide, 73 percent of students in California schools are nonwhite, compared with only 29 percent of teachers. It’s one of the largest diversity gaps nationwide. LA Unified has recognized the problem. In a memo last month to LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines, a human resources officer said recruiting diverse teacher candidates from colleges and universities around California “will continue to be a challenge especially as Latino and African American college graduate data remain unrepresented.”

Last month, the Albert Shanker Institute released a report sounding the alarm on teacher diversity. It found that the teacher work force has gotten less ethnically and racially diverse, and more female, compared with student populations. The diversity gap reportedly has had an adverse effect on students, particularly students of color, whose test scores and completion rates continue to lag behind their white peers in California and beyond.

To spur achievement, the Shanker report points to diversity as one possible solution. Teachers of color “tend to have higher academic expectations for minority students, which can result in increased academic and social growth among students,” it says.

But where to find the teachers? Southern California districts and charter networks count Teach For America-Los Angeles among their reliable partners for diverse, high-potential leaders for classrooms and school administration. This year the Teach For America-Los Angeles corps of first-year teachers is more diverse than ever before: more than 50 percent identify as Latino, 13 percent as African American, 13 percent as white and 12 percent as Asian American.

Among all LAUSD’s K-through-12 teachers, whites remain the plurality, at 39 percent, with 35 percent Latino, 10 percent African American and 10 percent Asian America.

When I got my first job teaching through Teach For America, it was at a school in Inglewood that was 97 percent African American. I realized very quickly that I couldn’t rely on a shared Mexican-American identity to inspire learning. While my students were interested in my background as a man of color, our differences forced me dig deeper. I examined my 8^th grade U.S. History curriculum and found ways to extend the conversation and find connections for my students. The curriculum became U.S. History through a Black History lens. If I couldn’t be a mirror as a teacher, I wanted to make sure I was able to create reflections of my students in the content.

Still, the demographic gap weighed heavily on my mind. For part of my master’s thesis, I interviewed all sorts of students and families about their preference for the race of the teacher in the classroom. Most of them said they didn’t care about race — as long as teachers are strong in the classroom. Like them, I had witnessed many teachers excel with students of different backgrounds, and I had seen teachers of color rely too much on their commonality. However, we cannot ignore the opportunity for additional impact that teachers of color can make.

After moving to my current school in predominantly Latino neighborhood of Echo Park, I remember my student Carlos asking,“Mr. Solano, are you Mexican?” Admittedly, my light skin does not give me the “traditional Latino” look. When I responded strong with a “Yes!,” Carlos replied, “I knew there was something different about you! You remind me of my brothers!”

From that point forward, Carlos came to me with whatever challenge he was facing. While I could not pretend that my upbringing in Oregon was the same as his in Echo Park, we grew closer in our similarities and learned from our differences. The personal bond formed over a common identity translated to outcomes in the classroom, as well.

But as the Shanker researchers attest, it’s not just students of color who benefit from diverse teachers; all students do. Positive exposure to diverse races and ethnicities, especially in childhood, can help reduce stereotypes, curb implicit biases, promote cross-cultural friendships and prepare all students to succeed in an increasingly diverse state. And, perhaps, become culturally responsive teachers.

Ultimately, educational equity goes beyond the race and ethnicity of our teachers in the classroom. Just as important as who teaches, is what they teach. As a Latino teacher of students of many races, I believe there is incredible value in being the mirror, but also in holding the mirror. Students should see their reflections in what they learn as well as who is teaching.

Emilio Solano teaches 8^th grade ELA, history and ethnic studies at the Sandra Cisneros Campus of the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy.

Now, one organization is tackling the issue head on: Half of this year’s Teach for America (TFA) recruits are people of color.

In Los Angeles, the ranks of TFA’s minority teachers are even greater. According to the organizations’s latest numbers, 70 percent of incoming teachers in the metro LA area, which includes LA Unified and other surrounding districts, identify as non-white; nearly half received federal Pell Grants, which are given to low income students; half are the first in their families to graduate from college, and 10 of the new teachers are recent immigrants who earned federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, which means they are eligible for employment.

“I’ve seen the difference it can make when a student is able to see him or herself reflected in that teacher in the front of the classroom,” said Robert Whitman, principal at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles Unified.

Whitman has hired a number of Teach For America corps members in the last three years, including 13 who are starting in the school year that began last week.

Last year, people of color accounted for 56 percent of incoming teachers and 60 percent came from low-income communities.

The shift to non-whites in teachers is a result of the group’s change in recruiting strategy. The organization has been heavily criticized in the past for dispatching fleets of young, white, mostly affluent college graduates to poor schools made up predominantly by students of color.

This time, applicants were also screened for “a deep belief in the potential of all kids, often informed by experience in low-income communities” and “perseverance in challenging situations.”

Several studies have found that teachers of color can serve as role models for students of color, and when students see teachers who share their racial or ethnic backgrounds, they often view schools as more welcoming places. Students of color also do better on a variety of academic outcomes if they are taught by teachers of color.

The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, based on 2011-2012,   pegs California’s teacher “diversity gap” at 43 points: While 72 percent of students were of color, only 29 percent of teachers came from a minority group. In LA Unified, 74 percent of students were Hispanic, while just around 34 percent of teachers were Hispanic.

By the latest LA Unified statistics, for 2013-2014, nearly 60 percent of district teachers were non-white.

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/in-a-shift-teach-for-america-is-hiring-more-non-whites/feed/ 0 https://www.laschoolreport.com/most-teach-for-america-teachers-will-end-up-at-charters/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/most-teach-for-america-teachers-will-end-up-at-charters/#comments Thu, 01 Aug 2013 16:50:25 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=11361 Over the next couple of years, Los Angeles will see an influx of more than 700 teachers from Teach for America, a non-profit that recruits college graduates, trains them, and places them in public schools across the country.

Most of them will end up in charter schools. Of the 340 teachers teaching in Los Angeles this year, about 90 percent are going to charter schools, according to Lida Jennings, the Interim Executive Director for Teach For America Los Angeles.

“There are few vacancies for new teachers in LAUSD schools,” said Jennings. “There are obviously experienced teachers, that take priority over new teachers in LAUSD’s hiring process.”

Some schools, like charters, pilots and some Local Initiative Schools, have direct control over hiring new teachers to fill vacancies. In other schools, LA Unified controls who is hired.  A large part of Teach for America’s job is learning where the vacancies are and sending out resumes to try and get its teachers placed.

The 700 new teachers are made possible by grants from the Walton family, the richest family in the world and owners of the Walmart chain, which gave $20 million to the New York City based non-profit. That money will go toward the “recruitment, training and professional development of nearly 4,000 first- and second-year teachers,” according to a press release.

In 2012, Teacher for America had over 10,000 teachers around the country and an operating budget of over $200 million. Prominent Teach for America alumni include former Chancellor of Washington, D.C. public schools Michelle Rhee and LAUSD Board member Steve Zimmer.

UTLA President Warren Fletcher did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Previous posts: Compromise Protects “Intern” Teachers – For Now; What Next for Teach For America?; Stuck in the Middle: Steve Zimmer

Some key takeaways related to cost, growth, effectiveness, and variations among programs and requirements for what are officially called “intern” teachers are highlighted below.  Or, you can read the entire piece here:  Alternative routes to teaching become more popular despite lack of evidence.

“The number of alternative programs nationwide has skyrocketed, rising from 70 programs in the 2000-2001 school year to 658 in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and these programs now make up 31 percent of all teacher preparation programs in the nation.”

“In California, alternative programs are called “intern programs” by the state, and refer to programs where participants teach in classrooms during the program, usually as the teacher of record. And most so-called alternative routes are actually run by traditional university programs, although that may be changing.”

Some California schools such as Loyola Marymount University require as many as 1,600 hours of student teaching, while others like Chapman University and Fresno Pacific University, require less than 500 hours.

“Alternative routes may also be more convenient—and less expensive—than a university.”

“During the 2009-10 school year, teachers prepared through an alternate route accounted for 10 percent of those attempting to pass a performance assessment in California, a requirement before earning a credential. These teachers also had the lowest pass rate on their first attempt to take the exam of all candidates.”

“You can’t talk about it, you can’t have conversations about it, you can’t see videos about it,” said one of the teacher resident trainees about the importance of realistic experience in the classroom. “You actually have to see it and you have to be in it.”

Previous posts:  Compromise Protects “Intern” Teachers – For Now; Districts Wrong to Rely on Interns, Teacher Says; What Next for Teach For America?; Where The TFAers Are

The piece takes a look at the much-discussed school reform organization as it goes through a key transition of leadership and size.

Two new co-CEOs have taken over from founder Wendy Kopp, and the annual budget that in 2012 was $320 million is expected to go up to half a billion dollars within the next three years.

How has it survived so long, how does it continue to grow and thrive, and what are the challenges to its continued expansion?

Reporter Kronholz boils the organization’s successful growth (if not large-scale impact on educational outcomes) on things like regional innovations (Houston’s content coaches, Jacksonville’s localized summer institute, South Dakota’s rural principal leadership incubator), and its willingness to create and scrap ideas that don’t pan out.

As has become increasingly common in recent years, TFA’s new national leaders are focusing as much on what alumni do as what they accomplish in the classroom:

“[Co-CEO Matt] Kramer also paints a vision of TFA as an instigator of change, producing alumni that TFA expects—just expects—will become the sort of shake-up-the-beast leaders who will “do something radically different” for the schools.”

However, TFA won’t share its specific leadership goals. And the organization is hampered by the need for more local and regional heads, says Kronholz.

Four of the regional leadership spots were empty earlier this year, and plans to expand to two new (unnamed) cities) were scrapped for lack of management talent.

How interesting that an organization with such a surplus of applications for initial teaching spots is having trouble finding enough qualified candidates to staff its own expansion.

Cross-posted from This Week In Education

State Probes Burbank Third Grade Cheating Report
Burbank school officials say a third-grade teacher has been put on leave after a student reported a got help with answers on state standardized tests. KPCC
See also: LA Times

State Toughens Regs for Interns Teaching English Learners
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing will now require non-credentialed Teach For America teachers and other intern teachers to receive more training in how to teach English learners and to get weekly on-the-job mentoring and supervision. EdSource

Democratic Party Schism Over Scandalous Schools: Gloria Romero, Slimed by Teacher Unions, Says Sober Up
A few days ago, the teachers union wing of the California Democratic Party tarred the growing numbers of breakaway Democrats who, in sync with President Obama, point the finger at teachers unions as a big obstacle to fixing crappy schools. LA Weekly

LA Mayor’s Race: How the Candidates Stand on Your Issues
Even though the mayor doesn’t have any direct authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District, many voters said they want the next major to play a role in education. KPCC

As Restorative Justice Spreads, When Do You Suspend?
Critics of suspensions, and the zero-tolerance policies that fuel them, advocate for restorative practices, which have been making inroads across the country to demonstrated positive effect. But restorative practices take time, in a way that simple punishment does not. EdWeek

Help on the Road to Higher Education
Parent College gives fathers and mothers an introduction to campus life so they can help their teenagers gain admission. LA Times

A Curriculum Crunch for California
While education reformers in Sacramento continue to obsess about how easy it should be to fire teachers and how important tests should be in evaluating their performance, almost no one is talking about the central issue of what students are supposed to be learning in the near future. LA Times Editorial

Hawthorne Middle School Teacher Wins Honor
A teacher at Bud Carson Middle School in Hawthorne is among three to be named California Teachers of the Year by Project Lead the Way, a nationwide nonprofit that partners with schools to offer a hands-on engineering curriculum. Daily Breeze

Educators Want Concrete Data to Build New API Indicators
In the search for a more perfect school accountability system, classroom teachers and district administrators joined school advocates in a call last week for more concrete indicators – like daily attendance, fitness marks and discipline records. SI&A Cabinet Report

Teacher Dismissals: How Do We Protect Children and Safeguard Teachers’ Due Process?
Fire them. Dismiss them. Send them back. Let them languish in “teacher jails” while investigations drag on for months — or even years.  There’s got to be a better, quicker and fairer way to get rid of teachers who truly do not belong in the classroom and support those teachers who do. Huff Po Op-Ed by Tamar Galatzan

Deasy Should Be Thrilled With Union’s No Confidence Vote
It means he’s shaking up the moribund Los Angeles Unified School District and bucking the union that has battled every education reform proposed to protect the livelihood of its teachers – a livelihood that has put a stranglehold on education. LA Daily News Editorial

‘Willful Defiance’ in L.A. Schools
A proposal to prevent the suspending of students for a relatively minor infraction deserves the approval of the school board. LA Times Editorial

Sal Castro Dies at 79; L.A. Teacher Played Role in 1968 Protests
Sal Castro, a veteran Los Angeles Unified School District teacher who played a central role in the 1968 “blowouts,” when more than 1,000 students in predominantly Latino high schools walked out of their classrooms to protest inequalities in education, died in his sleep Monday after a long bout with cancer. LA Times
See also: KPCC

Teachers Dislike Breakfast in the Classroom Program, Survey Finds
An L.A. Unified program to serve breakfast in the classroom to make sure students don’t start school hungry has increased pests, created messes and cut down on instructional time, according to a teacher survey released Monday. LA Times

Teach for America: California Schools Need Their Talent
The English Learner Authorization embedded within the intern credential is a very hot issue for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing due to the concerns over incomplete education and preparation of intern teachers who serve students who are English Learners. Silicon Valley Mercury News Op-Ed

District’s Voting Rights Called Into Question
Latinos make up 42 percent of ABC Unified School District, located in Southeastern Los Angeles County. They are the largest ethnic demographic in the 30-school district, but the last time a Latino was elected to the seven member board was in 1997. EdWeek

Family Fee for Half-Day State Preschool Likely to Be Rescinded
A much-disputed daily fee for families with children in state-funded preschool programs will likely be removed from next year’s state budget. EdSource

Teacher Dismissal Bill Off and Running With Committee Approval
A bill intended to make it quicker and less costly to dismiss teachers received a 7-0 approval from the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday, and its author – the chair of the committee, Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo – received much praise from her colleagues for taking on a contentious issue. EdSource
See also: Sac Bee

Calif. Districts’ Waiver Bid Now in Review Phase
The U.S. Department of Education and a band of outside peer reviewers are now weighing the details of a precedent-setting waiver application from nine districts in California that want flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act even though their state’s bid for a waiver was unsuccessful. EdWeek

L.A. Unified Filling Security Jobs Created After Newtown Shooting
Los Angeles Unified has hired more than 750 security aides in response to the 26 deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. About 250 openings remain. LA Times

California’s Prop 30 Gains Could Be Eaten Up by Crisis in Teacher Pension System
A recent report from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found a $70 billion shortfall in state teachers’ retirement plans — and that deficit has the potential to suck up a significant amount of Prop 30 revenue. HuffPo

Atlanta Cheating Scandal Reverberates
The criminal indictments last week of retired Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly L. Hall and 34 other educators for their alleged roles in a far-reaching cheating scandal could have widespread fallout and potentially undermine efforts in other school districts to improve the academic achievement of poor and minority students, according to education leaders. EdWeek

Winners of Head Start Grant Re-Competition Announced
Every one of the four California Head Start operators required to compete for their federal grant in a new process aimed at improving program quality was told Tuesday that their grant had been renewed. But some of those grants will be smaller next year, as the money will now be divided between additional grantees. EdSource

Educators and Safety Experts Reject NRA-Funded Plan
Leading educational and school safety groups rejected key recommendations of a National Rifle Association-funded school safety report released Tuesday. MSNBC

5 Disruptive Education Trends That Address American Inequality
Fixing how we teach our children is of paramount importance. What if the solution also started to fix America’s broader socioeconomic problems? New ways of thinking about edtech just might start that process. Co.Exist

Calif. Bill Would Require Panic Alarms in Schools
Lawmakers gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would require panic alarms to be installed throughout school campuses in California, but only if the federal government pays for it. AP

School-to-Prison Pipeline Presents Growing Concern for Administrators
Federal mediators and public school administrators in Meridian, Miss., have reached a landmark agreement to launch a rewards-based disciplinary plan, aimed at keeping in the classroom more black students who routinely received harsher disciplinary action when accused of relatively minor infractions. LA Daily News

An Urban School District That Works — Without Miracles or Teach For America
Union City makes an unlikely poster child for education reform. It’s a poor community with an unemployment rate 60 percent higher than the national average. Three-quarters of the students live in homes where only Spanish is spoken. A quarter are thought to be undocumented, living in fear of deportation. WaPo Opinion

Report: Cheating on Standardized Tests in 75 Percent of U.S. States
The National Center for Fair & Open Testing issued a report Thursday that tallies cases of cheating on standardized tests in 37 states across the country, including notable cases in Southern California. KPCC

SBE Allows Higher Student/Teacher Ratio for Online Charter Schools
California’s State Board of Education approved waiver requests this month increasing the pupil-to-teacher ratio for independent study students at several online charter schools. SI&A Cabinet Report

Michelle Rhee, ‘a Public School Parent’?
In the course of reporting a story about Michelle Rhee, the controversial former District of Columbia chancellor seeking to take her brand of education reform to statehouses across the country, the Los Angeles Times asked her spokeswoman a simple question: Do Rhee’s children attend public or private school? LA Times

From the Lunch Line to the Stage: LA Cafeteria Worker Featured in New Play
A new play that tackles healthy eating in schools by following the life of a lunch lady opens tonight. Among the performers is a Los Angeles Unified School District cafeteria worker who will take to the stage for the first time at age 58. KPCC

Inland Empire School District Repeats as Finalist for Academic Prize
The Corona-Norco Unified School District was named as a finalist Thursday for the prestigious Broad Prize, which honors academic excellence by minority and low-income students in urban districts across the nation. LA Times

Intern Teachers: Special Ttraining Is Needed to Teach English Learners
magine your family transplanted to a new country. Neither you nor your children speak the local language; the education system functions entirely differently. Who do you want teaching your child: a teacher who knows how to teach both academic subjects and the new language to non-native speakers, or a teacher with little to no training in either?  San Jose Mercury Sun Opinion

California Schools Chief Strikes Tone of Optimism in Annual Address in Lawndale
In a speech addressing the state of education, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Thursday celebrated a recent wave of voter-approved taxes that are expected to stabilize a dire education budget, and touted other initiatives that would bring still more tax dollars to public schools. Long Beach Press-Telegram

California Needs to Fill Teachers’ Pension Gap
Last week the Legislative Analyst’s Office told the Legislature it needs to get serious about closing a $73 billion shortfall in the California State Teachers’ Retirement System over the next 30 years.  What would getting serious about closing that gap mean? Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Editorial

Head Start Programs Across the State Cut Services, Children
As the federal sequestration budget cuts kick in, Head Start providers across California are struggling to decide how to absorb the shortfall without hurting children. EdSource

SBE, School Groups in Settlement Talks Over Statewide Benefit Charters
At issue is a section of the Education Code that gives a charter operator the right to submit a petition directly to the state board for approval of a charter school that operates at multiple sites throughout the state. SI&A Cabinet Report

Miramonte Family Presses Forward With Lawsuit Against LA Unified School District
Depression, anxiety and insomnia have become almost daily challenges, according to the mother of a student allegedly abused by a teacher while attending Miramonte Elementary School.  Her family is among the 71 not included in the settlements negotiated between 58 families and the Los Angeles Unified School District. NBC LA

SoCal Olympians Mentor LA Students to Encourage Fitness, Health
While Olympians fight for the gold medal at prestigious international events, California kids are working to pass their own mandated fitness tests at schools throughout the state. These two groups come together in a program called Ready, Set, Gold! KPCC

How the Principal Is Trying to Prevent Finger-Pointing at Carpenter
One parent is afraid to schedule play dates for her daughter anymore. If the play date is at her dad’s house 45 minutes drive away from the Studio City area, suspicion is raised. Patch Studio City

Protect California’s Innovative Teacher Preparation Programs
Last week, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing could have taken a dangerous path, changing the requirements for “teacher interns” in a way that would have limited the ability of some of our best teachers to reach the students who need them most. San Jose Mercury News Op-Ed

Fragmented Data Systems a Barrier to Better Schools, Experts Say
The fragmented nature of data systems in school districts, a lack of common data standards across states, and the financial challenges of providing professional development to data users in schools combine to leave many districts and states struggling to provide meaningful, real-time data about student performance to educators. EdWeek

Public Education Being Privatized, Educators Say at League of Women Voters Meeting
Efforts to privatize public education trace their roots to movements to cut back on taxes, and their consequences vary from more emphasis on high-stakes testing to a less educated citizenry and less freedom for college teachers. Monterey County Herald

Stop the Pink Slips
Change in timing in teacher layoff notices makes sense, but the real goal should be to stop the layoffs. My Desert Editorial

States to Consider Financial Literacy Requirements for K-12 Students
Schools have long tried to impart money management skills to students through a variety of programs: elective classes in partnership with banks and nonprofit groups, after-school programs that teach economic basics and “life-skills” to round out a student’s academic education. KPCC

Lawmakers Eye Early Childhood Expansion
Prekindergarten is the hottest issue under the sun these days, ever since President Barack Obama made it a focal point of his State of the Union address, then released the bare bones of a plan to expand prekindergarten access to more low-income 4-year-olds. EdWeek

“I don’t dismiss the idealism of new college graduates. I’m sure their desire to “make a difference” is sincere, but it is not enough.” (Read the whole thing here.)

Last week, a state commission voted to ratchet up requirements for alternative certification teaches who work with English Language Learners – limiting the future use of these teachers in LAUSD and elsewhere.

Previous posts: Compromise Protects “Intern” Teachers – For Now; Where The TFAers Are

This decision came as a relief to hundreds of teachers in LA, including the 300 Teach for America (TFA) teachers currently in LAUSD classrooms.

“We’re cautiously optimistic about the rule-making process moving forward in a way that allows TFA to thrive and serve kids, and to improve the overall the profession of teaching,” said Teach for America’s Vice President, Shannon Blankenship.

But they’re not out of the woods yet. The CTC’s final recommendations on alternative certifications could have a big impact on Los Angeles schools.

The effectiveness and legality of alternative certification teachers have been debated in the courts and the US Congress on and off since 2002, when the Bush Administration determined that they were considered “highly qualified.” (For a history of the debate, read this recent history by LA School Report editor Alexander Russo.)

The majority of Teach for America’s teachers receive their credentials through intern credentialing programs, so the CTC’s decision could have blocked many TFA teachers from teaching.

Concerns about the decision the CTC might make were heightened because its head, Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, is one of the most consistent critics of alternative certification programs like TFA.

In the weeks leading up to the Thursday meeting, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy signed onto a letter opposing restrictions on the use of intern teachers. The California Federation of teachers and some civil rights groups signed a letter urging the CTC to end the practice. A Thursday LA Times editorial came out against eliminating the alternative credential option.

TFA alum Rigel Massaro

One of those who testified against allowing alternative certification candidates to teach ELLs was a TFA alumna Rigel Massaro (pictured, courtesy EdSource Today).

Previous posts: Where the TFAers Are; LAUSD Leadership Shares Stage with Big-Money Donors; Study: Test Scores Help ID Good Teachers

Runoff Campaigns Kick Off, City Hall Girds for More Cuts
The mayoral campaign entered a new phase Wednesday, as Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel began positioning themselves for the May 21 runoff. LA Times

Both Sides Claim Win in Costly L.A. School Board Race
The coalition, a political action committee aligned with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, raised nearly $4 million to spend in support of of Ms. Anderson, Ms. Garcia, and Antonio Sanchez, a candidate for an open seat in District 6. Mr. Sanchez will be back on the ballot in May for a runoff against Monica Ratliff. EdWeek

Higher Standards Coming for State’s Intern Teachers
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing signaled Thursday its intention to increase training requirements for intern teachers, including Teach for America members, before they’re allowed to teach any of the state’s 1.4 million students who are English learners. EdSource
See also: LA Times, SI&A Cabinet Report

Essential Steps for Charter School Authorizing Outlined
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers has released its 2012 Index of Essential Practices for charter school authorizers. EdWeek

Parents, Students Concerned Amid Mass Teacher Layoffs
More than 60 educators in El Monte received pink slips, prompting protests. NBC LA

Teens Get Free Gowns, Jewelry to Sparkle on Prom Night
Lizette Espino is a Cinderella story.  For that matter, so is Young Sun. And Rya Ekberg-Wust. And the more than 50 other Los Angeles Unified teens who entered a Hollywood dressing room on Thursday wearing their usual jeans-and-T-shirts and emerged modeling sleek satin gowns, beaded one-shoulder formals and soft chiffon party dresses. LA Daily News

Review: ‘Girl Rising’ Shows the Power of Education
“Girl Rising” mixes documentary and narrative filmmaking to show how education lifted nine girls out of poverty and cruel circumstances. LA Times