The Logic that Drove Teach for America to Become A Replacement Labor Agency

Last night, during a very interesting thread on Teach for America on the Badass Teachers Association page which included some current and former TFA Corps members, one TFAer pointed out that the organization's destructive and pernicious policy of placing its members in urban school districts like Chicago where large numbers of veteran teachers have been fired is a result of it's desire to reduce "The Achievement Gap." And therein lies "tragic flaw" that has made TFA a destructive force in the American educational landscape. Thinking that the most effective path to reducing poverty and inequality in the United States is RAISING TEST SCORES in low performing schools is strategy so bizarre, illogical and without historical precedent that it should have been laughed out of the conference room, but it has not only become an article of faith in Teach for America, but to a cross section of politicians and school reformers throughout the nation. The fact that child poverty and wealth inequality have actually skyrocketed during the years this strategy has been pursued has not given the TFA leadership and their powerful friends pause; but evidence based thinking is something they seem to never apply to themselves. They continue with their slash and burn mission, even though everything they are doing, as the article below argues, is based on false assumptions

http://www.laprogressive.com/crackpot-education-reform/