Teach for America Displaces ‘Old School’ Instructors in New Orleans Area

By Maloney, Stephen

When Mary Chastain was faced with the daunting task of hiring teachers to start the new Langston Hughes Academy Charter School in 2006, she knew where to turn.

The Teach For America alumnus turned to the service teaching organization to help her meet the educational aspirations of the fledgling school. The Hughes faculty now sports 17 current and former TFA members, and all of the school’s administrative leaders are alumni.

But while school leaders such as Chastain are welcoming TFA members with open arms, some in the education community favor more experienced teachers in permanent roles.

Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan considers education to be just as important to society as proper health care, but said programs similar to TFA don’t exist in the medical field.

“I don’t think we would even seriously entertain the possibility of such programs,” Monaghan said. “If we had hospitals that we weren’t able to staff with fully licensed and professionally trained doctors, it would be a crisis and I think it would be a crisis of confidence as well.”

Monaghan faces an uphill battle in New Orleans, where Hughes is not the only schools to see an increase in teachers with ties to TFA.

TFA Greater New Orleans Region executive director Kira Orange Jones said the corps’ membership in New Orleans has nearly tripled since last year.

“We are in 90 schools in the Greater New Orleans Region, up from about 30 last year,” Jones said. “We are impacting about one in four students in the area today. We have about 360 teachers and 100 alumni working in schools, and many of our alumni are school leaders. Three years ago we were placing about 85 teachers per year, so this is a significant effort.”

Teach For America recruits high performing recent college graduates from all areas of study to spend two years at urban and rural schools throughout the country.

Since members are fresh out of college, Jones said they are able to infuse failing school systems with the kind of energy and leadership necessary to bring about drastic change in districts struggling to attract new teachers.

Monaghan said the corps’ popularity points simultaneously to the desire to help failing schools among college graduates and more ominously to a decline in those choosing teaching as a lifelong profession.

“What is happening to a profession that it makes it so very, very difficult to attract individuals whose life pursuit is to go into this field? It speaks to the grater problem in regard to the teaching profession as we continually have a problem attracting individuals that define teaching as a career,” he said.

Introducing inexperienced teachers to a struggling school for a period of two years, no matter how talented and able the teachers are, does nothing to build a sense of community within the school, Monaghan said.

Jones said more than 60 percent of corps alumni nationwide choose to stay in the education field in some manner, either in the classroom or in administrative roles.

While 100 Teach For America alumni work in area schools, about 150 more have chosen to remain in New Orleans and work in other fields, and that number will only grow as current corps members complete their two year terms, building a community of current and former members, Jones said.

“We are building an alumni base of leaders who have taught successfully in our schools and who are playing a critical role in ensuring that the movement that has begun here is sustained,” Jones said. “That’s what we’re looking to do.”

Credit: Stephen Maloney

(Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires)

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