Classes begin Tuesday for many children across Milwaukee, including in MPS. Some students will find brand new teachers greeting them. MPS and other schools nationwide have been facing a teacher shortage.
Hundreds retired here after the state passed Act 10, kicking out most public union rights. One way MPS and other schools have been filling vacancies is to employ young people from the Teach for America program. More than 100 have signed up to teach this year in Milwaukee.
Symona Gregory is standing in her classroom at Carver Elementary School, north of downtown. The desks are piled high with workbooks and supplies. The 24-year-old has posted a sign to welcome her first class of third-graders.
Gregory grew up in Milwaukee and says she’s always wanted to be a teacher. She says she used to “practice” at home.
“I have 12 siblings and they were my first students ultimately as I would create worksheets for them and have them fill them out, so this has always been a dream of mine,” Gregory says.
While Gregory is bubbling over with enthusiasm, she admits she may lack the experience to effectively teach kids this age, and especially if any face challenges. She graduated in December from Youngstown State University with a degree in pre-kindergarten. This summer, the Teach for America organization put her and other recruits through five weeks of rigorous training in Oklahoma.
“I did the reading block and then another teacher came in and did the math block and then we did PDs after that. We find out about curriculum and then getting back on the bus and going back to the dorm,” Gregory says.
Schools using Teach for America, or TFA, recruits also promise to provide intense mentoring on the job. Bryson Green, another Teach for America recruit at Carver, says he decided to give the program a shot after several friends did.
“All these influential people in my life are going on to do this. I know that I have a love and a passion for children because I’ve been doing mentoring and I’ve been doing tutoring. So, why not give it a try,” Green says.
Green recently finished his initial two-year commitment to Teach for America and is returning to Carver for a third year teaching second grade.
Garrett Bucks is executive director of Teach for America Milwaukee. He says TFA has been operating nationwide for a quarter century, yet its stint in Milwaukee has been fairly recent. It opened a chapter here in 2009. Bucks says Milwaukee seemed like a natural location.
“TFA starts on college campuses and in young professional communities across the country, finding people, both individuals who thought they would be going into teaching and folks who hadn’t previously looked at it, who are passionate about equity in education, who are angry about the disparities in education received by poorer students and students of color,” Bucks says.
Bucks says the first year in Milwaukee, the program recruited 38 teachers, and the numbers have been steadily increasing. This year, 130 teachers are in town, divided among MPS, charter and choice schools.
While the numbers have been trending upward in Milwaukee, they’ve been declining nationwide. NPR’s Education Reporter Claudio Sanchez says for the second year in a row, applications for TFAs are down 10 percent. He thinks several factors play a role.
“For almost 15 years, TFA grew by 20 percent a year which is amazing. But some analysts say the Peace Corps-like outfit has lost its luster and its appeal and there have even been protests on some college campuses. Some TFA grads feel the organization has abandoned its mission, namely to help students in the nation’s troubled, most impoverished systems," Sanchez says.
Sanchez says one criticism of TFA is that it has become a pipeline for independent schools where the need isn’t as great.
