I always find the “only two years” argument interesting. Any school can benefit from a high-quality teacher whether that teacher stays for one year, two years, or more. The gains that students make in the classroom and the material learned is not lost because a teacher leaves.

Furthermore, high needs school districts have a difficult time retaining teachers period regardless of teach for america. In fact, my school district alone has a difficult time retaining teachers for a FULL year. In my first year of teaching, we lost 3 new first year teachers over the course of a few months (NONE of whom were affiliated with TFA). We recently (within the past week) hired a teacher who will work for the campus until June and not return next year, also not affiliated with TFA.

When examining teacher effectiveness, we measure student outcomes and student success. Retention is a complex issue, and first and foremost, why do teachers WANT to leave high needs schools? Until this issue is addressed, teacher retention will be a challenge.

Lastly, when I look at the quality of teachers on my own campus, specifically non-TFA teachers who have 5+ years of experience, I’m not impressed. Anyone can photocopy a worksheet, have students read the textbook independently during class, then sit behind a computer for the period. Is that really someone we want to retain? I’d rather have a rockstar teacher for 1 year than a mediocre teacher for 10.

TFA and its supporters are trying to break the teachers’ unions plain and simple. The plan looks something like this:

1 Get the richest, whitest, most conservative new teachers to make a very temporary commitment to breaking the cycle by which new teachers become unionists.

2 Cook the books to make TFA teachers seem to be wildly effective.

3 Work with administrations that wish to attack union rights fought for and earned over the past 40 years.

Two years is not a commitment. Two years is building a CV to get into grad school. Systemic change in those districts served by TFA will only occur when and if TFAers make a commitment to become part of the community- long term.

I’m just finding your website now, and I wanted to thank you for your candid assessment of TFA and Institute. I am a NYC ‘04 alum (I attended your workshop in the summer of ‘04 and read your book as well), and my first year was very similar to the one you describe in Reluctant Disciplinarian. While I was proud of many things my students accomplished, especially during my second year, I felt so burned out by two years of teaching that I decided to leave the education world. I have no regrets about joining TFA — I probably never would have had the opportunity to teach otherwise — but I do wish I had done some things differently.

My biggest complaint about TFA Institute is information overload. Maybe I was just not organized enough or disciplined enough to turn the stacks of binders and tips into a coherent PLAN for my first week/month/semester of teaching. But I honestly think that pre-service Institute should focus on what to do as a first-year teacher. Some of the higher level ideas and more ambitious curriculum suggestions should be withheld until a later time and place, whether that’s subject matter meetings during the year or even a “mid-commitment Institute” during the summer between the first and second years. I definitely would have benefited from a 1-2 week refresher Institute; that would be the perfect place to discuss “riskier” lessons and more ambitious teaching practices.

As for two years vs. three years: Like Mary, I felt great about completing my commitment after the fact, but I don’t think it would have stopped me from leaving if I felt compelled to do so. I knew so many people in my corps who left after one year (or even sooner in a few cases). On the one hand, I definitely think I would have gotten over the hump from my second year to my third year if I had stuck with teaching. On the other hand, I already felt totally burned out — emotionally and physically. So much of the TFA experience is dependent on your environment (for example, I was a “lone ranger” at my school, as my advisor called me, with no TFA cohort for support). Increasing the commitment to three years may not just affect application rates but also completion rates.

Thank you again for your candid advice. I think a good number of incoming corps members would benefit from pushing their TFA curriculum books aside and reading through your book instead.