9486 in the collection  

Young, inexperienced teachers recruited to New Orleans

Ohanian Comment: Teach
for American asks only for a two-year
commitment. I think of my own limitations in my
first couple of years as a teacher and I
shudder. But let's be realistic: New Orleans is
in crisis. Let's also be clear: Katrina wasn't
the only crisis put on the schools. All the
existing teaching force was fired; as Toppo
points out, this was done to make way for all
the newly minted teacher from outfits like
Teach for America. To call all existing
teachers unworthy and all Teach For America
recruits as exemplary is, at best, loony. At
worst? I don't even want to go there.

The positive thing about this story is that
older students are coming back. Let's hope they
get all the help possible.

By Greg Toppo

NEW ORLEANS — Amid the tag-team commotion of
three new teachers prepping a science class for
summer school finals one recent morning, one
teacher sits alongside a student for what seems
an eternity.

The exchange is perfectly ordinary, except that
in post-Katrina New Orleans, little is
ordinary.

The student, a young mother forced to move four
times in the 15 months after the storm, is 20
years old.

Her teacher is 22.

For years, a tough state retention policy led
schools to hold back students who didn't
measure up. After Katrina, many simply stopped
coming to school.

Meanwhile, state officials in 2006 fired
virtually the entire city teaching force,
paving the way for recruitment organizations
such as Teach For America and teachNOLA to
bring in hundreds of recent college graduates
and twentysomething career changers, an effort
intensified this fall.

The result is a teaching force among the
youngest of any in the USA, teaching a student
body that is most certainly the oldest.

"As long as they're willing to teach me and I'm
willing to learn, everything's all right," says
20-year-old Kiera Cheneau, who entered Carver
High School in August. She grew up in the hard-
hit Lower Ninth Ward and admits that she wasted
years "clowning around or not willing to
learn."

After the storm flooded her neighborhood, she
moved to Atlanta, San Antonio, Houston and
Brookhaven, Miss., before returning in December
2006. The mother of a 3-year-old boy born three
months before Katrina struck, Kiera says she's
"ready to just get it over with and do what I
have to do."

Trying to get involved

Her summer school science teacher, 22-year-old
Liz Kraus, also grew up in New Orleans, in the
Lakeview section. Her home, like many there,
was destroyed, but by 2005, Kraus was studying
French and history at Tulane University. The
school was badly damaged, and she spent a
semester in Michigan, graduating last spring
and starting a neighborhood organization called
Beautify Lakeview, which assists families in
rebuilding homes and cleaning landscaping
areas.

"I just wanted to find ways to get involved,"
says Kraus.

Likewise for Devin Meyers, 23, a photographer
who came to New Orleans to start a non-profit
that donates original photos to community
groups.

"As many people have, I got stuck here because
it's an amazing city," he says.

Fresh out of college

Both found jobs through teachNOLA, an arm of
the New York-based New Teacher Project. It has
recruited more than 300 teachers so far. Teach
For America has recruited 444, including 254
this fall. Most TFA "corps members" are fresh
out of college and commit to a two-year
assignment. The push has visibly changed the
city, says Meyers. "When you go to a bar or
meet people your age, odds are they're going to
be teaching."

Superintendent Paul Vallas welcomes the new
talent, calling them "the best and the
brightest." But others, such as United Teachers
of New Orleans president Larry Carter Jr.,
worry the neophytes aren't getting training
they need.

"They want to do well, but when the district is
providing professional development
opportunities that are not relevant to help
them cope with the things they're dealing with
in the classroom, they get frustrated," he
says.

Ana Menezes, teachNOLA's site manager, says her
teachers got 180 hours of training this summer.
Like Kraus, who will teach high school French
and history, many come with "deep content
knowledge" and a drive to work hard. "Our goal
is to prepare them to be successful on the
first day of school," Menezes says.

Meyers, for his part, says he knows he'll learn
on the job. "Teaching in general has always
been training on the fly," he says.

But Carter says the effort shortchanges veteran
teachers who labored for decades with little
support — and who are often ignored by the new
recruiters in favor of youth.

"It's a good day for the city — don't get me
wrong — but the frustration of a lot of veteran
teachers … is that we've experimented enough."










— Greg Toppo
USA Today
2008-09-11


---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>