User:H0n0r/ldh

It is clear from the evidence that TFA is bad policy and bad education. It is bad for the recruits because they are ill-prepared. They are denied the knowledge and skills they need, and many who might have become good teachers are instead discouraged from staying in the profession. It is bad for the schools in which they teach, because the recruits often create staffing disruptions and drains on school resources. The schools don't get the help they need, and more lasting solutions are not pursued. It is bad for the children because they are often poorly taught. With their teachers foundering, they are denied opportunities to fully develop the skills they need. They often lack continuity in instruction and are frequently exposed to counterproductive teaching techniques that can destroy their inherent desire to learn. Finally, TFA is bad for teaching. By clinging to faulty assumptions about what teachers need to know and by producing so many teaching failures, it undermines the profession's efforts to raise standards and create accountability. In TFA, no one is accountable for what prospective teachers experience and what they learn--and no one is accountable for ensuring that children get teachers who are prepared to help them learn. As Jonathan Kozol has observed, "Charity is no substitute for justice."

There are alternatives to putting ill-prepared recruits in classrooms for a revolving-door trip into and out of teaching. These alternatives are what the children need. And we must all speak for them.

Who will speak for the children? By: Darling-Hammond, Linda, Phi Delta Kappan, 00317217, Sep94, Vol. 76, Issue 1