[OccupyCU] Harvard Students Ask University To Cut Ties With Teach for America

[David Johnson via OccupyCU]

  Harvard Students Ask University To Cut Ties With Teach for America

Screen Shot 2014-10-02 at 8.31.26 AM
Organize! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/organize/> 
Education <http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/education/>, 
Privatization <http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/privatization/>, 
Teach for America <http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/teach-for-america/>
By Shafaq Hasan, www.nonprofitquarterly.org 
<https://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/24906-harvard-students-ask-university-to-cut-ties-with-teach-for-america.html>
October 2nd, 2014
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A dozen Harvard University students, members of the Student Labor Action 
Movement <http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/slam/> (SLAM), assembled outside a 
university building on Friday, September 26th, calling on President Drew 
G. Faust to cut ties with Teach for America unless the AmeriCorps 
program makes major changes to its organization.

The group's demonstration comes as part of a larger movement initiated 
by United Students Against Sweatshops 
<http://usas.org/campaigns/education-justice/>, which holds that holds 
that Teach For America is working to privatize education through its 
relationships with big-name corporations that are threatening the 
sanctity of public education. The group had a TFA Truth Tour 
<http://usas.org/2014/03/23/tfa-truth-tour-to-expose-dark-side-of-corporate-education-reform/> 
during March and April earlier this year, wherein protests were 
scheduled and executed on college campuses, including Harvard University.

In their letter to President Faust, the student group outlined the 
reforms they would like to see within the organization:

  * Send Teach for America participants only to areas where there is a
    teaching shortage
  * Work to provide these participants with more training and education
  * Eliminate the ties the organization has with such corporations as
    Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil, and JPMorgan Chase.

"We're calling on Harvard to support and provide the resources for 
people who want to have lifelong careers in public education, not people 
who want to teach for a couple of years and then go to law school or 
business school," said Blake A. McGhghy, a group member who directed the 
SLAM's campaign on Harvard's campus.

Harvard has had a substantial history and relationship with Teach for 
America with nearly one in five seniors applying to join the 
organization 
<http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/12/is-teach-for-america-good-for-america> 
in recent years. Last year, 29 graduates from the university's class of 
2014 joined the program.

In response to the movement's criticism of Teach for America, co-CEO 
Matthew Kramer issued a statement commending the program's mission and 
efforts to help children from low-income and sparse opportunity 
communities throughout the country.

"In order to one day end educational inequity, we need to be fostering 
leaders in all fields related to education," said TFA recruiter Tess 
Nicholson. "People at Harvard care about education, and the need for 
dialogue is here."

In addition to SLAM's demands for reform, Teach for America has also 
received some measure of backlash following the decisions of the Durham, 
N.C., and Pittsburgh school districts to not renew their contracts for 
the 2015-2016 academic years 
<https://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/24763-durham-school-district-declines-to-renew-teach-for-america-contract.html>. 
Along with concerns similar to those of SLAM as to the privatization of 
education 
<http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/4/teach-for-americacontractpittsburgheducation.html>, 
Pittsburgh cited Teach for America's close relationship with charter 
schools as part of the reason for their termination of the contract. (In 
Los Angeles County alone, nearly 90% of Teach for America participants 
are placed in charter schools 
<http://dailytrojan.com/2014/09/25/teach-for-america-must-work-on-shortfalls/>.) 
Colorado school districts also questioned recently whether Teach for 
America could address the diversity gap that exists in their communities 
<https://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/24804-colorado-questions-teach-for-america-s-use-in-highly-diverse-schools.html>.

In the end, TFA has no evaluations that are significantly without 
dispute in terms of proof that they improve the outcomes for low-income 
students. Plus, it uses up north of $300 million each year. Now is the 
time when we might want to look more carefully at ROI, unanticipated 
consequences, and the reasons behind scaling one particular response so 
heavily.---Shafaq Hasan

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