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What Higher Ed Can Learn from TFA
This weekend is the 20th anniversary summit of Teach For America here in Washington, D.C. So what are TFA's lessons for higher education? Here are a few:
-Alternatives to tenure can further education. Tenure plays an ongoing role in primary and secondary education, as well as in higher education. But some teachers, particularly younger ones, may be interested in non-tenure paths to higher ed teaching, just as "TFAers" are primarily non-tenured, and complement their tenured colleagues.
-Education schools have room for a lot of improvement. The success of many TFA teachers is well known, and the fact that they are not products of education schools. Ed schools should learn from the TFA. And trustees should be asking hard questions: which programs prepare successful teachers, and which leave them unprepared?
-Assessments are the friends of educators in pursuit of excellence. TFA relies on data: data on students, data on teachers, data on schools and school systems. Teachers differentiate lessons based on ability and the program builds professional development on data-driven insights. But in the higher ed world, this kind of accountability is rare. We are starting to see change with the Collegiate Learning Assessment. The recent study, Academically Adrift, shows that "on average, gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills (i.e. general collegiate skills) are either exceedingly small or empirically non-existent for a large proportion of students." Learning gains for education students were the lowest among the academic programs studied. Boards of Trustees need to insist on clear data about grading standards, academic rigor, and learning gains. They need to take action on the basis of that data.
-A culture of excellence matters. Teach for America and its alumni build transformational schools by expecting every child to learn. They accept no excuses. Higher education too often does the opposite: allowing kids to party rather than to learn and seeking to rationalize away poor performance measures.
-College students are not afraid of rigor. They rise to high expectations and sink to low expectations. TFA is a famously demanding program, and the graduates of our nation's flagship and top schools are eager to do what it takes. But while at college, too often they are coddled and not pressed, at least not academically. The result is a culture of partying, not of student achievement.
-Program closure can be good. No one would send his or her kid voluntarily to a failed program or school. TFA alumni in New York City, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, among other school district headquarters, pioneered aggressive school turn-around and accountability strategies: bad schools simply could not continue. It's the necessary complement to innovation. But in higher ed, under-subscribed and outdated programs often don't die--and they typically don't fade away. Only recently and rarely are colleges and universities closing programs.
-Reform is hard. Maintaining the status quo is easy. It's easy for politicians and it's easy for trustees. That's why so many people stop talking education reform when asked to take specific action. Trustees serious about academic excellence must prepare themselves for a tough campaign--just as Wendy Kopp prepared herself twenty years ago.
Whole books can (and should!) be written about TFA's lessons for higher education. But these few points show how common sense reform is needed in education--and not just at the primary and secondary levels.
Posted by Michael Pomeranz on February 11, 2011 at February 11, 2011 02:41 PM
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Comments
I agree with all of these points. It's funny how K-12 and higher ed are considered separate spaces when they ultimate perform the same role of educating our citizens.
I particularly like your 3rd point about assessments. Colleges don't seem to use assessments in a meaningful way. Yes, they determine a significant portion of your course grade--but that's it. Diagnostic and formative assessments should drive what students are being taught. I'm almost for some sort of universal assessment that can help measure progress over a college career. I honestly have no real understanding of how much I learned while a college student (I do think, however, that I learned something).
And I agree that the party culture at most colleges and universities has gone too far. But that's another issue.
Posted by: abcde at February 13, 2011 03:22 PM