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Teach for America Setting Sights on Preschool
March 2, 2007
You can never learn less, you can only learn more.
-R. Buckminster Fuller
-R. Buckminster Fuller
According in a story in Education Week (February 9, 2007), that move reflects both a growing demand for early-childhood teachers and a demand from TFA corps members themselves, according to Catherine Brown, the director of Teach For America’s early-childhood initiative. Over the years, she said, participants assigned to higher grades have often said of their students, “‘If only I could have gotten to them younger.’”
With the 65,000-student District of Columbia public schools, as well as most states across the country, pledging to increase enrollment in public pre-K programs �" and teacher turnover in preschool classrooms a persistent problem �" the availability of more college-educated teachers is likely to be well received. A recent study on the early-childhood workforce in California, for example, recommended that policymakers work to attract “well-educated young candidates” into the profession. So far, 12 TFA members are working in early-childhood jobs in Washington, and another 15 are spread throughout the country, in such disparate places as Camden, N.J., Houston, and an American Indian reservation in South Dakota. The organization’s goal is to have 150 corps members working in preschool classrooms by next school year.
Part of TFA’s ongoing support for corps members here, in fact, will be visits to highly rated preschools in the Washington area so they can observe experienced teachers. An online discussion group also has been created, with the help of corps members who already have experience teaching in preschool classrooms, as a resource to give the new teachers a place to ask questions and share comments.
Read this complete story (You must register with Education Week to view this article)
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Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsUnited States
I really hope that they are out there advocating for these pre-k teachers to be paid a reasonable wage. We can educate many early childhood teachers but if we cannot compensate them similarly to k-12 teachers we will continue to have issues with turn-over of staff. Which we all know leads to an abundance of other issues.
Wheelock College
Lincoln,, MA, United States
I'M glad Teach for America is interested
in preschool education, and I am very interested in how they will be trained to teach this age group - at the critical period in human learning, where mis-education in the schools can undermine their learning at full potential, and at a most vulnerable period, where resiliency can be built or lost.
I thought readers would enjoy, if you haven't seen it, some new research in which the researchers found that good teachers in pre-K have learned to follow the same "rules" that are used in
"improv" to interact with children. Since all studies I've ever seen relate successful teachers with one characteristic called "responsiveness" this "improv" model for interaction may be the most accountable tool for evaluating whether teachers have learned to teach responsively, no matter what they are trying to teach. Apologies to the researchers for forgetting your names;
it's in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and all the good pre-K teachers who see it will recognize its validity.
Heavenly Gifts Day Care
Puyallup, WA, United States
I read ExchangeEveryDay at 5:30am with my morning coffee, as my first infants and toddlers arrive. I am encouraged, inspired and motivated to not give up in my daily mission to prepare my students for life's lessons inspite of the meager wage the State and private pay parents give me. Being a self employed/business owner, teacher/Caregiver and employer, I would love to see young passionate teachers spend time in my family child care home setting, blessing my students with their enthusiasm. The next generation of teachers will be awsome!
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