Change: School Reform's "Red Envelope" Problem

There'll be lots of shiny young MBA types looking for jobs at the 2011 Yale SOM education conference later this week -- and lots of TFA and KIPP and New Leaders recruiters looking for new hires (87 pp Chrome-crashing PDF here).  But is that really the right thing for them to be doing at this particular point in the game? I'm not so sure.  

Hard as it might be for them to contemplate pivoting away from the programs they've dedicated their lives to and made a name creating, reformers might need to do just that to a much greater extent than they seem willing to do thus far (despite lots of lip service to the importance of movement creation and advocacy that's going around).

The logic is this:  programs like TFA and KIPP have shown what can be done, established a certain degree of credibility, and incubated a bunch of potential leaders.  But now those direct service programs are legacy operations -- sinkholes for money, time, and talent whose outputs however expanded or impressive they may be won't make a large-scale difference.  Except to those directly involved, it doesn't really matter if there are another 30,000 TFA teachers or another 300 KIPP schools (or at least I haven't seen any plan of action that translates more into different).  

I'm not saying they should shut these existing programs down, just that they should focus less on growth and coordinate.  The advocacy and engagement wing of the reform movement is fledgling, to say the least -- don't let anyone tell you otherwise -- and doesn't seem well-positioned to compete with its older and more established siblings to get the best people and the lion's share of the dollars going forward.  

Netflix saw what happened when Blockbuster held onto its storefronts too long.  Can reform leaders like TFA and KIPP (among others) do the same, or will they continue to push their own programs ahead despite the cost to the larger effort that they're part of?

Comments

[john thompson]

This reminds me of your suggestion that TFA get off the charter school pipe. They seem to be creating a narrower and narrower monoculture. Why not recruit outside their comfort zone, and accept kids who survived the toughest generational poverty and became the first in their family to make it to college. Why not recruit baby boomers and other career changers? Creating some diversity in their ranks would allow them to engage in a real exchange of ideas regarding the best paths to teaching effectiveness. Are they afraid that their model is so fragile that it would melt down if challenged by more people who've come up in the toughest schools, or have learned from decades of the schools of hard knocks?

[Patrick Riccards]

Seems if I were graduating from business school and looking to get into the K-12 education sector, I'd be looking to create the "next big idea." While one might learn a great deal working for a few years at TFA or KIPP or such, it is that next idea that may change the world.

[Gary S. Stager]

Your metaphors suggest that teaching is merely a speed-bump along the path to cashing-in on the privatization of public schooling. While education becomes a larger host for parasitic get-rich-quick schemes led by KIPP and TFA, don't forget that TFA now has several hundred thousand bitter failed teachers who may be mobilized politically to reek more havoc on the very public schools they pretend to serve.

Many of us take the education of children more seriously than a stock tip or stepping-stone to a bigger payday. Improving and preserving the nation's public school is a sacred obligation a great deal more nuanced, complex and vital than figuring out a new more profitable way of delivering Porky's 2 via a new distribution channel.

[Matt]

John, I think at some level, TFA is starting to do that. I was accepted with a pretty pedestrian GPA at Ohio State (which isn't exactly Yale), in part because I came from a more, ahem, demographically challenged background. They've certainly stepped up their recruiting efforts there to try and grab more people outside of the lily-white ivy league comfort zone.

The career-changer thing doesn't seem to be changing...I barely knew anybody who has over 30, and the organization just isn't family friendly at all. I can't imagine how you'd do Institute with a kid.

I agree with the principle of what you're saying here Alexander, which i guess makes at least one person who comments on your blog that agrees with you :)

[Julie Petersen]

John, TFA actually appears to be making an effort to diversify its corps (http://www.teachforamerica.org/admissions/diversity-in-the-corps/). Where they aren't diversifying is in the kinds of characteristics they believe will lead to good teaching, such as demonstrated leadership ability.

Alexander, not sure I agree with your and/or assertion about coordinate/advocate versus growth -- nor that these orgs are necessarily prioritizing one over the other. TFA itself is sponsoring some initiatives to encourage their growing base of former corps members to go into social entrepreneurship and politics and so forth. There are lots of ways to get to big impact, depending on context, so why not experiment with several approaches and learn from them? Growth adds more on-the-ground proof points that should make advocacy stronger and deeper, at least in theory.

[Jeff]

John:
I am instructing the students you are referencing in your post through Phoenix with many possibly being the first to potentially graduate from college in their families. In my experience working with this student population, I will relay that there is a problem within the public educational system in the United States and reforms are necessary, and that the TFA needs to broaden their horizons, as the charter schools do not support the large student populations that I am working with at the college level an we need to give more support the public schools and the teachers. I would like to see more consideration be given to the long term than the short, and teachers who are not there to do a job, but empower our students to do great things and college should become the norm for all students, as opposed to the one who finally succeeded, where the rest failed.

An interesting discussion, good points and arguments.

[Debbie]

As a college professor I see 100's of students now seeking letters for TFA because they can not find any jobs. Horrible. TFA from my view is a jobs program for people who need it least. This idea has run its course and needs to morph into a broader educational training program. I now refuse to write these letters of rec. because I have grown so depressed seeing what TFA has become. I can no long support their program. If you want to be a teacher, go to education school, not business school. Make a career. Have a dream.

[Alexander Russo]

great comments -- thanks to all

it's not that reformers aren't doing anything on the advocacy front, it's just that they're not (according to me) doing anywhere near enough. their main focus still seems to be the expanding the programs they've founded, so i guess i wonder if they really can do both and do them both justice at the same time.

that being said, the first page of the Yale SOM ed hiring booklet is given over to 50CAN, so maybe the tide is turning.

[Marc Porter Magee]

Is this an invitation to post our job listings? :-)

http://www.idealist.org/view/nonprofit/bCgbcd3KDXjd