I’ve been bugging the HR folks over at Seattle Public Schools for the past two weeks to explain two contradictory sets of data pertaining to teacher shortages in the district. One says there’s already a large pool of applicants applying to teaching positions in SPS and the other says there’s a teacher shortage which might be solved by recruiting Teach for America.

The first set of data is from the SPS HR website, which says that SPS advertised 766 positions for the 2010-2011 school year. The district received 18,588 applications overall for all posted positions (821 applications received on August 18 alone), of which 13,800 were teaching applications processed between April 26, 2010 and January 20, 2011.

The district staffed around 257 new teachers.

But a memo from SPS submitted with an application from the University of Washington’s College of Education to provide accelerated teacher certification to TFA recruits in Seattle says that there were 352 teaching positions vacant in 2009-2010, with a footnote explaining that that’s not the actual case (apparently it includes partial FTE positions).

In any case, the application from UW uses the 352 number in the SPS Vacancy Report to illustrate the district’s teacher shortage. But TFA opponents, including the Seattle teacher’s union, cried foul, arguing that the district was misrepresenting teacher vacancies.

So I asked SPS about the difference in the two sets of data two weeks ago: why does the SPS memo to UW say there is a shortage of teachers and yet the district is receiving so many applications?

SPS spokesperson Teresa Wippel says that “even though the data in the memo originally came from the district, it didn’t come from the HR department, so HR wants to verify that the data is accurate before responding to it.”

If the data didn’t come from HR, who did it come from and how was it derived?

The UW’s College of Education will present their proposed accelerated certification program to the Professional Educator Standards Board today. Dare I hope I can get some answers before that?

14 replies on “Still Confused By Data Being Used to Bring Teach For America to Seattle”

  1. CHICKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNN!!!

    I’m assuming that’s what the teacher’s union sounded like when they cried “fowl.”

  2. I am a pre-service teacher in Milwaukee, and the MTEA (Milwaukee Public Schools union) has been fighting off TFA for a long time. This is a really illuminating article written by the phenomenal journalist (who, full disclosure, is married to Bob Peterson, a 5th grade teacher in MPS for many decades who just recently was elected president of the MTEA): http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restric…

    She also has a great article about the “Waiting for Superman” film: http://www.notwaitingforsuperman.org/Art…

    I encourage you to do everything you can to keep TFA out of schools everywhere. Most teacher education programs are five years long–and not just to make the university money–being a teacher requires training on a lot of complicated stuff, and there is no way individuals who have only had a few weeks training should be in classrooms when certified teachers are being forced out.

  5. I don’t care if TFA “teachers” are really nice and really bright and really shiny…I don’t want anyone teaching my kids who has had a whopping 5 weeks of teacher training (all that’s required of TFA before they’re in front of a class) unless they’re teaching them how to ride a bike or something. Or maybe basic baking techniques.

  7. Couple of thoughts–

    First, I realize that this doesnt exactly address the discrepancy, but just because there are a lot of applications, it doesn’t mean that the applicants are necessarily qualified. It is possible to have a lot of applications for a job and yet it still goes unfilled because none of the applicants were suited for the position.

    Second, I have worked with TFA’ers and they were all dedicated and serious about their position. Some had a rough go of it at the start, but quickly got the hang of it. And let’s not forget that TFA is not the only route that people have to get into a classroom quickly. Most states, including Washington, have alternative routes to certification. These routes typically involve more prep than five weeks, but they are still very abbreviated.

    So that means that we’re saying that only people with Ed degrees should be teaching. The truth is, there are a lot of schools that exist that folks with an Ed degree simply don’t want to work at. At my school, a Title I school, pretty much all of the staff were alternative certification folks. The administration plain did not see applicants with Ed degrees. They weren’t applying.

  8. The UW College of Ed now has a dean who is a former TFA’er. There are a bunch of emails he sent to Wendy Kopp (founder) and friends that are just disgustingly sycophantic, where it is clear he does not have the best interests in mind for either the UW’s College of Ed nor the students of SPS; he is merely looking to make a name for himself as the guy who got TFA into Seattle.
    In Utah, the publicity is all rosy around TFA, but when you talk to many of the teachers, things are not so good. Lots of turnover, huge drain of time and energy on those who are mentors for the
    TFA, and some questionable things going on in the classroom by people who have 5 weeks of training. They mostly stick them in the low SES schools so the parents won’t complain.

  9. @7 You’re correct – Washington does already have alternative routes to certification that are quite good, and produce some strong, well-trained candidates. Why dilute it with 5-week trainees? I’ve seen what happens when requirements are lowered and the teaching force becomes even less-skilled – look to AZ, UT, and CA for prime examples. Plus the UW would be undermining their own Master’s program and giving tuition breaks to students who are most likely out-of-state students AND won’t be staying in WA beyond their two-year stint.

  10. I am intimately familiar with both the UW College of Ed and SPS HR and can testify that there are shady practices at both ends that hardly have Seattle’s students at heart.

    UW and SPS are interested in stupid politics and saving money. As one of the applicants to last year’s pool, I was selected by a principal to join the school staff, then waited upwards of 2 MONTHS AFTER the beginning of the school year to sign a contract. After I finally harangued HR about the holdup, they informed me that they made the decisions on hiring practices and not the school principal, I was not to be hired. The position was finally filled in DECEMBER, halfway through the school year. I am a highly qualified teacher and dedicated to my student’s successes but I am still without a job.

    How does HR know what’s best for kids? The simple answer is: they don’t. Their only interest is in saving money. After a huge budget cut in education this year, they are going to head right to TFA in order to cut corners and ensure they can fill the gaps with cheaper and underqualified staff.

  13. Watch out for the bright, shiny objects! This TFA stuff was, is, and will always be about breaking the union and putting reduced costs above quality education. There are literally 100s of applicants for many positions in all districts, so it is ignorant to say that NONE of them are qualified, but someone with 5 weeks training can do the job better.
    Stop vilifying teachers and start putting your energy into supporting their efforts to educate ALL students.

  14. We don’t have a shortage of teachers. We have a shortage of well-supported teachers. We have a shortage of people willing to work really, really hard in a very, very importnat job for pathetically, tragically little money.

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