{"id":9952,"date":"2011-07-25T08:35:22","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T15:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=9952"},"modified":"2013-01-09T09:53:51","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T16:53:51","slug":"nau-researchers-voice-being-heard-in-national-education-reform-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-researchers-voice-being-heard-in-national-education-reform-debates\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU researcher\u2019s voice being heard in national education reform debates"},"content":{"rendered":"

When\u00a0Barbara Veltri<\/strong>\u00a0talks about education reform in America, she speaks with unvarnished urgency and does not flinch at being called an advocate. While her motivation is inequity in education\u2014what she calls \u201cthe civil rights issue of our time\u201d\u2014the focus of her research and her criticism is an organization known as\u00a0Teach for America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Veltri insists she is not on a mission to disband Teach for America. Instead, she is on a mission to change it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program is not working the way it\u2019s supposed to be working,\u201d Veltri said.<\/p>\n

Veltri, an assistant professor at Northern Arizona University, has gotten noticed in a national education debate that is drawing as much attention for its acrimony as it is for the issues.<\/p>\n

\""Learning<\/a>The focus of Veltri\u2019s panel will be a discussion about Teach for America. The rapidly expanding organization is not the only element of debate among educators and education observers, but it\u2019s a big one. The National Education Association recently \u201ctook a swipe\u201d at TFA, as have bloggers, newspaper columnists and others. Equally vocal and apparent are staunch supporters of the organization.Since publishing her book,\u00a0Learning on Other People\u2019s Kids<\/em><\/a>, in April 2010, Veltri has been mentioned in the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0by Diane Ravitch, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, and cited in a U.S. federal appeals court brief focused on education inequity. Veltri is also an invited panelist at the \u201cSave Our Schools\u201d conference in Washington, D.C., from July 28-31.<\/p>\n

Teach for America describes itself as a \u201cnational corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors and career interests who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization has grown rapidly since its inception in 1990, with more than 8,200 corps members reaching more than 500,000 students. Some of those\u00a0members have come from NAU<\/a>. Its annual budget, funded by a mix of public and private sources, now approaches $300 million, including a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.<\/p>\n

One former corps member with NAU ties is\u00a0Robert Kelty<\/strong>, Coconino County superintendent of Schools. Despite what he called \u201can exceptional experience\u201d with TFA more than 10 years ago, Kelty said he does not take a side in the debate, but continues his support for both Teach for America and colleges of education. Instead, he said, \u201cI support any organization trying to put quality teachers in struggling schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in a doctoral program at NAU while serving as superintendent, Kelty said he still appreciates the organization\u2019s focus \u201cto go where no one else wants to go.\u201d The mission resonated with Kelty as a young philosophy graduate who wanted to \u201cfind a way to participate in a program that targeted poverty elimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did just that, teaching in Crownpoint, N.M., and then in Flagstaff at Puente de Hozho Bilingual Magnet School, eventually being named Arizona\u2019s 2008 Teacher of the Year. The real challenge throughout, he said, and the challenge facing any teacher today, is being mindful of culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to be committed to creating a curriculum that\u2019s culturally relevant, engaging and innovative,\u201d he said. \u201cNo entity can truly prepare anyone for the challenges of the classroom, but if you have heart and strategies from established teachers, you can be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veltri said she does not dispute the need for \u201calternative pathways to the classroom\u201d to address the country\u2019s perceived education gaps, and she does not claim that Teach for America is entirely ineffective. But she does identify what she regards as its fundamental flaws.<\/p>\n

First, she said, members are ill-prepared for the classroom. Once accepted, corps members go through a five-week training course. But Veltri counters, \u201cYou cannot be trained in five weeks to teach any child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compounding the issue, Veltri said, is that corps members are sometimes placed in out-of-subject areas; for example, an anthropology major teaching math. \u201cThe biggest issue I find with Teach for America is that they\u2019re placing these rookies in special education,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s dangerous, it\u2019s unethical and it\u2019s illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Veltri suggested that corps members are displacing trained educators and diminishing opportunities for recent graduates of education programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got students graduating from colleges of education who can\u2019t find a job,\u201d Veltri said. \u201cThey\u2019re praying for an interview while TFA corps members are told \u2018come on down to the head of the line.\u2019 Something is wrong with that picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these points, Veltri said she is pressing for changes, not abolishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want to see TFA do is require corps members to take university classes in education before they get to the classroom, and to get them trained locally before they attend TFA training,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When\u00a0Barbara Veltri\u00a0talks about education reform in America, she speaks with unvarnished urgency and does not flinch at being called an advocate. While her motivation is inequity in education\u2014what she calls \u201cthe civil rights issue of our time\u201d\u2014the focus of her research and her criticism is an organization known as\u00a0Teach for America. Veltri insists she is…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-staff"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}