Not So Special Education: Alums Describe Chaos Inside Teach For America
Did TFA teachers feel like teaching in the corps was their Civil Rights moment? When did they change their mind? Were Teach For America special education teachers ready to teach on the first day of school? What did they do when a mysterious $7,000 bill appeared in their mailbox from a TFA partner? This and more in Episode 4 of Truth For America.
Truth For America is a podcast that provides voice to educators, parents, students and other stakeholders about Teach For America. Episode 4 is co-hosted by Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig and Dr. Jameson Brewer. They are joined by Mike and Rebecca, recent TFA alums assigned to classrooms of Special Education students. They reflect on their experiences with TFA and “partner” institutions of higher education.
Also listen to the first three episodes of Truth For America on YouTube below. The views expressed by Teach For America alums in Episodes 1 and 3 represent experiences from across the nation (Houston, Georgia, New Jersey, Colorado etc). In Episode 2 we had a pleasant but disagreeable conversation with a representative from Education Post.
You can check out new episodes hot off the press and much much more by following my YouTube channel. You can also listen and download the Truth For America program from iTunes while you are on the road here.
p.s. To see all of Rebecca’s short film clips for TFA corp members click here.
For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on Teach For America click here.
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Cloaking Inequity 
Although it is hard to forgive a system which brought inexperienced greenhorns into our district’s lowest-income schools to “take over our classrooms and fix our students” (and in the process painfully pushing older teachers like me completely out of teaching) but — I have watched too many of the young, idealistic teachers brought in by “reform” face endless abuse, endless harassment and endless blame to not see that they, too, are being viciously victimized by the lies behind a Big Money school reform.
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