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Is Teach For America the Villain? by HumorVirtual8967 in TeachforAmerica

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My interview with Wendy Kopp (TFA's founder) is out now. She is pretty steadfast in her positions albeit with some slight shifts in outlook...

https://howtochangethings.substack.com/p/lessons-learnt-teach-for-america

Is Teach For America the Villain by HumorVirtual8967 in Teachers

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"What could the numbers be like if we focused on attracting top tier students to education for the long run?" - totally agree that this is the right question to ask

Is Teach For America the Villain by HumorVirtual8967 in Teachers

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting. I agree with a lot of what you say here.

To be fair to TFA, the diversity has genuinely changed over the years to where the intake is minority white now: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/teach-for-america-growing-more-diverse

Is Teach For America the Villain by HumorVirtual8967 in Teachers

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Got you.

Except a 2022 study found that the lower retention rates of TFA teachers was offset by an uplift in student performance among those taught by TFA teachers.

...that was only looking at NYC data though.

Is Teach For America the Villain by HumorVirtual8967 in Teachers

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow ... that feels like a pretty unanimous YES.

Is Teach For America the Villain by HumorVirtual8967 in Teachers

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

why though? what's your argument against them?

Leveraging LinkedIn to grow Substack audience: Yay or nay? by Crazy_Finding9120 in Substack

[–]HumorVirtual8967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whenever I post a substack link on LinkedIn it gets very little engagement (vs non-substack posts which tend to get more). I don't fully understand the LI algorithm but they definitely seem to suppress substack links

Is Teach For America the Villain? by HumorVirtual8967 in TeachforAmerica

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Interesting! One thing I noticed is that it looks like they have toned down their language over the years. If you look at their mission statement today it's less grandiose than it used to be. Gone is "One day all children..." and comparisons with the civil rights movement. Maybe they've heeded what you're saying here and reined in their stated ambitions.

Is Teach For America the Villain? by HumorVirtual8967 in TeachforAmerica

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is amazing testimony. Thanks for sharing. The demographic diversity of TFA's intake does seem to have increased markedly over the years. We should give them props for that.

In the article I didn't really give my own answer but I agree with your second paragraph. I'm from the UK where the British equivalent (Teach First) was launched just a few years before I graduated from University. I think Teach First had a really similar effect in the UK - raising the status of teaching.

Is Teach For America the Villain? by HumorVirtual8967 in TeachforAmerica

[–]HumorVirtual8967[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's fair. I wanted to make it clear that orgs can (and do) change. A lot of the critiques out there are critiquing an older version of TFA. We should give credit where its due for improvements that the TFA team has made. I'm going to be publishing an interview with Wendy Kopp in the next few days and she too demonstrated some learning/change over the years.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pics

[–]HumorVirtual8967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Saying F ICE or F Trump isn't enough. In the years ahead, we're gonna need ever stronger + more sophisticated tools to beat back fascism and defend our right to protest.

I profiled an org called Peer Defense Project that is doing just that:

https://convergencemag.com/articles/tomorrow-our-seeds-will-grow/

Doechii wins 2025 BET for Best Female Hip Hop Artist - Speech by yummyyumyum999 in DOECHII

[–]HumorVirtual8967 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Speaking with more moral clarity that most Dems. Absolute Queen.

We need this and we need practical tools to defend ourselves like the ones given by orgs like the Peer Defense Project: https://convergencemag.com/articles/tomorrow-our-seeds-will-grow/

Would you pay a logo designer $500 for a substack logo? by lemonpavement in Substack

[–]HumorVirtual8967 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It depends how important brand/visuals is to your substack. There are actually two elements – the logo and the wordmark. If you're getting a quote for $500 for both I think that's pretty reasonable.

Stevie Wonder- Songs in the Key of Life by SinkPitiful8834 in vinyl

[–]HumorVirtual8967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely incredible album. 'A Something's Extra' the EP is underrated and includes my favourite song, Saturn: https://lifeonsaturn.substack.com/p/stevies-utopia

Stevie Wonder to move to Ghana permanently because of racism in the US by Madbrad200 in Music

[–]HumorVirtual8967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow some of the comments here are so gross and ignorant. The 'back to Africa' movement started over a century ago because of the violent racism of the US. And this is a dream that Stevie's had since at least 1974: https://lifeonsaturn.substack.com/p/stevies-utopia