The Boston Public School system will welcome teachers from the Teach For America program who will also be taking master’s courses at Boston University this fall, despite the Boston Teachers Union’s claim that they are not needed.
According to the BTU website, TFA agreed to a contract with BPS to provide new teachers in Boston Public Schools for the 2009-10 school year. The 20 new recruits set to arrive in the fall would earn $46,291, the same salary as a beginning teacher in the district, according to an article in The Boston Globe.
Kerci Marcello Stroud, an organizer for TFA in Boston, said the program’s goal was student success.
‘Our goal is to close the achievement gap and to make sure all children are receiving an excellent education,’ she said.
However, BTU president Richard Stutman said TFA is taking the easy way out by targeting school systems in Boston, a city that attracts many teachers.
‘They made a mistake by coming to a city that doesn’t need them and now they are afraid to pull themselves out of the contract,’ he said.
BPS Acting Assistant Human Resources Superintendent Bill Horwath said TFA teachers will only fill 20 to 25 positions of the 400 BPS has open and that BPS wants ‘to make sure we are keeping the good folks that we have here.’
Horwath said TFA’s teaching model would be a good addition to the school system.
‘They are usually very high caliber people coming out of top colleges and universities and have a proven track record of success and leadership,’ he said.
Margot Munger, a TFA member in Gallup, N.M., said her student teaching experience was vital to her TFA success and that a good teacher needs more than content to be successful.
‘The TFA corps members who are able to make it work are those who are able to manage their classroom,’ she said. ‘The people who go home crying are people who are very smart, but they don’t know how to manage a classroom of kids.’
Elizabeth Hamilton, who graduated from Pomona College, participated in TFA and now teaches third grade in Gallup, N.M., said that she did not feel qualified to teach after this training.
‘Long term planning was really challenging,’ she said.
BU Educational Initiatives Director Amy Slate is set to coordinate the partnership with TFA. She said in an email that the availability of TFA alumni mentors, classroom observations, regular meetings and school district support would mean that in theory, TFA teachers would be better supported than many first-year teachers.
Munger said she believes in TFA’s message.
‘Teach For America refuses to allow kids to be dismissed,’ she said. ‘They refuse to allow kids to be tossed through the cracks.’
Stroud said although Boston TFA members were upset with BTU’s reaction, they plan on staying.
‘We are coming because the school districts are asking us to come,’ he said. ‘We’ve talked to them, and we feel that we can have an impact here.’
College of Arts and Sciences senior Kelsey Grover, who will join TFA upon graduating and teach special needs in New Orleans, said she thinks BTU has the wrong priorities.
‘If the teachers care about the children, which is the most important thing, then [BTU] wouldn’t mind that Teach For America was going to send some teachers [to Boston] because it’s for the kids,’ Grover said.
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