Saturday, August 16, 2008 It's the teachers, stupid! POST A COMMENT As a survivor the public school system -- including a bout at one of the most dangerous High Schools in the Bronx - (NYC)... 'I can testify that the biggest problem at inner-city schools -- (aside from threat-to-life issues) is what you don't see -- all the dropouts.... but, for those that stick it out, it does become so much about the quality of the teachers; which is why I think "Teach for America" might have something. Let's face it, there is no easy band-aid fix; as this Newsweek article points out: "the American system of education is broken..." -- poor kids without money are basically screwed. Repairing it, begins with better teachers: "The single most important factor in student achievement is the quality of the teacher. And yet, we have no effective system to attract, train, retain and promote high-caliber candidates for our schools. Today's teachers score in the lowest quartile of college grads and too many of the schools that train them are diploma mills." - Teach for America basics: The two-year program "recruits high-performing college grads to teach in low-performing public schools." And while the teachers are paid the same as other new teachers, Teach for America actually helps to pay off the participants student loans. More than that is how this program has raised the stakes by sparking a join-the-cool-club-mentality among recent grads: "Among the candidates: 11 percent of seniors at Yale, 10 percent at Georgetown and 9 percent at Harvard. This summer, 3,700 corps members who were carefully culled for their leadership skills through TFA's data-driven, envy-of-Wall Street selection model underwent an intensive, five-week crash course in teaching." I know for myself, the difference between ending up locked up in jail or finishing college -- came down to a few memorable teachers showing me some of life's possibilities. Source: Newsweek Labels: College Students, economy, Education, Poverty Divide, race relations, Teach for America posted by Henry Cruz at 4:34 PM 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home     ARCHIVES October 2005 . November 2005 . December 2005 . August 2007 . September 2007 . October 2007 . November 2007 . December 2007 . March 2008 . April 2008 . May 2008 . June 2008 . July 2008 . August 2008 . September 2008 .