The Lure of the Program Meets the Reality of the Classroom
“You remember your first-grade teacher’s name. Who will remember yours?” asks The New York City Teaching Fellows site ad for their alternative teacher certification program. The question is enticing for high-achieving college graduates and young professionals who are thinking about changing careers.
The Promises
“There is a huge difference between what is marketed to them, than what is the reality of the classroom,” said David Connor, a professor and mentor for Teaching Fellows at Hunter College. “They are told they are going to change the world. At first, many Teaching Fellows interpret their role as ’saving kids.’ They learn that kids do not need to be saved, they just need to be educated.”
People who oversee the educational system from a distance rarely grasp the complexities of how public schools function and the reality of classroom dynamics. The high percentage of teachers and educators who send their kids to private school, at significant expense, speaks volumes about how those ‘in the know’ regard public education.
The Successes
Set up in 2000 as an alternative certification program by the New York City Department of Education, the Teaching Fellows program aims to address the city’s teacher shortage in public schools, especially in needy neighborhoods and hard-to-teach areas like math, science, and special education. “Teaching Fellows allowed us to get certified teachers in the classroom quickly,” said Melody Meyer, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education. One of the program’s incentives is that it offers a subsidized Master’s in education.
This past year, Teaching Fellows received more than 19,000 applications and only accepted around 3,000 applicants, according the Teaching Fellows web site. The site boasts data that shows they are the largest alternative certification program in the country and among the most competitive:
* Over 8,000 Fellows are currently teaching in New York City’s public schools.
* Eighty-nine percent of Fellows begin a second year of teaching.
* Approximately 10 percent of all New York City public school teachers are Fellows.
The Failures
While Connor said the program keeps growing every year and has been successful at creating a sort of “teaching factory,” he also said, many Teaching Fellows have commented to him that the department of education has been misleading about the reality of what’s inside the classroom. We requested the most recent 2008 data from Teaching Fellows, and we found the turnover is high for the program to date–information the Teaching Fellows site does NOT boast.
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* Just around 114 of the 311 teachers who entered in September 2000 are currently teaching in New York City’s Public Schools
* Around 10 percent of fellows drop out before the end of their first year
* At least 30 percent do not make it through year three, and by the start of year five, less than half of the program’s members remain
“Retention is certainly a goal of the program, but it’s not the reason for the program. It’s more important to recruit the best teachers we can get, and always have interest from smart and talented applicants,” Meyer said.
The new data on teacher retention begs the question: Is the program more of a band-aid than a solution to the high turnover problem in inner-city schools? In the next part of our series on the Teaching Fellows program, we will address the question, “Is the city having trouble serving students with special needs?” with interviews with current teaching fellows who reveal that one reason for the high turnover rate in special-needs classrooms may be the poor preparation that the program provides for the real classroom experience.
For a nationwide look at our changing school systems, see the features on the Where We Stand site.
Unfortunately, the typical NYC classroom is stomach turning chaos…I say this as a 17 year veteran, still teaching emotionally disturbed students (a polite way of saying violent, diruptive, out of control kids)in the South Bronx…There is absolutely no leadership on the part of the administrators, it’s all about making it look good so they keep their larger paychecks, and subsequently their superintendents out of the classrooms… which is not hard, as no one really wants to look all that hard except at for the superficial, mindless bulletin boards…Anything and everything falls on the teacher, who is shredded of all dignity, and marginalized in every way possible.In order to survive, you must be a “yes man” rather than an educator, it’s not about the children, it’s about keeping the principal and their AP’s employed…how can you expect a 23 year old, fresh out of college, to navigate such dangerous waters…and I don’t just mean the inner city violent student…they leave once their 2 year commitment ends with the DOE…someone should be looking at the higher ups, rather than always finding fault with the teachers…in my 17 years with the DOE, I have NEVER, repeat, NEVER heard the words “Can I help you?” or “that’s my job, I’ll handle it” or try “Do you need anything in your classroom?” Now our “leadership” have computer screens to hide behind, so it is even more convenient not “to see”, not that they are looking!
[...] Ilene Chesler, Explore Charter School, Brooklyn, Special Education At P.S. 206 school in East Harlem, Special-needs kids were generally not regarded as college material, and therefore resources and support were minimal for those students and teachers, according to Ilene Chesler, a fifth-year special education teacher, who got her job through the alternative teaching certification program called New York City Teaching Fellows (see previous post). [...]
As a former NYC Teaching Fellow, I have to agree with what was stated in this article. The program does not prepare anyone for the actual classroom experience. It neither prepares individuals for the bureaucratic nonsense that exists within the Department of Education making it near impossible for students to actually be taught.
The mayor and the chancellor are not genuinely interested in the educational needs of our inner city kids nor are they interested in seeing to it that teachers are given every opportunity to do their jobs.
Principals, for the most part, dislike teaching fellows and so do many veteran teachers.
In the short time I was a teaching fellow working with children with special needs, I received zero support and/or guidance. I was coming out of the social work field and changed to a teaching career that was destroyed by the principal who hired me before I even got my feet wet. Its a shame but I’ve seen good teachers become disheartened by department of education politics and the teaching fellows does nothing to support it’s members. This particular alternative certification program is very misleading. It gives applicants the impression that they will receive all supports needed to become the best teachers possible. Teaching Fellows dropped me when I couldnt find a teaching job (which I had to find on my own) and only reinstated me when I landed something (two months into the school year). Of course, the entire time I was searching for teaching employment, I wasn’t earning a salary and was ineligible to receive unemployment because I voluntarily left the job I had to become a fellow. A new teacher with zero experience in teaching is going to have difficulty winning over a principal because of the lack of experience. I had so many doors closed to me by principals who had no faith in my ability because I was a “Teaching Fellow” and that is something that is never explained to applicants.
Why do you have Illene Chesler listed in this article? Illene Chesler is the WORST NYC Special Education teacher I have ever seen. She sucks at teaching and can’t be trusted with students. She verbally abuses students all the time. I’d think twice about hiring her for any position.
Ilene Chesler is the WORST TEACHER I’ve ever seen. She has no professionalism, verbally abuses the students and cannot teach if her life depended on it. SERIOUSLY. Kick her out! Ilene Chesler SUCKS at teaching.