Getting a job in NYC public schools: Teach For America vs. NYC Teaching Fellows

I still get questions about teaching in NYC from time to time, and they make me feel a bit like a dunce.

Yes, I taught in Harlem public schools for two years. I helped a few kids master reading comprehension and threatened many more with calls home, recess detention, and eternal damnation.

I’m no expert on how to be an amazing inner-city school teacher who could be portrayed by Jennie Garth in a made-for-TV movie.

I’m also no expert on how to be a good inner-city school teacher with her paperwork turned in and half her students in a straight line.

Two years was not enough time for me to get my shit together. I don’t think three years would’ve been, either.

Here’s a question from Jessica:

I just ran across your blog and can’t wait to work my way through it. I will graduating in May from the University of Illinois. I will be applying to NYC Fellowship and Teach For America. My husband is trying to get on with the NYPD. Anyways, we live in a small town in Southern Illinois and I majored in English and I love to write and…that’s all for now. Just wanted to say I like your blog. Did you apply to NYC Teaching Fellows, also? I have been researching both programs, but I would love to hear real life experiences describing why someone chose one over the other.

My response:

I applied to Teach For America my senior year of college and was in the first group of accepted applicants. I’d heard of NYC Teaching Fellows, but I mistakenly thought the program was only for New Yorkers.

If you’ve really read far back, you know that I dropped out of Teach For America when I was told to take a job in the South Bronx without ever visiting the school. That seemed shady to me. I already had teacher certification in Texas, so I decided to go to a job fair on my own to get a job.

I did. In a school with many Teach For America corps members and NYC Teaching Fellows, no less.

I’m no expert, so please take my personal observations with an entire shaker of salt. Do your research. Talk to people who were part of these organizations and will give it to you straight. In other words, do not just talk to recruiters.

Let me start with Teach For America. Members are almost always just out of college. Most have no background in education, but they receive training at an intense summer institute. Once they’re full-time teachers, they continue to attend separate Teach For America training. A perk of the program is that corp members receive an annual grant and a Master’s degree in education. Or they’re supposed to. I’m not sure if Teach For America pays for this higher education, or if it’s up to the corps member to cover.

The 2007 National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future reports, “Between 10 and 15 percent of each Teach For America corps class leaves before completing their two-year commitment. For comparison, nationally, 16.8% of all teachers left their positions in 2005. In the urban areas, where most Teach For America corps members serve, the teacher turnover rate was above 20%.”

Teaching in inner-city schools is tough. My former colleagues who were in Teach For America were still rookie teachers who struggled. They did, however, struggle in a structured sort of way. It was like a distinct, frantic dance - the Teach For America Duck and Cover.

I think the NYC Teaching Fellows admissions process is probably less competitive than that of Teach For America. (The recession surely affects this, though. They’re likely receiving record numbers of applicants now). Teaching Fellows tended to be a mix of recent college graduates and young professionals. I think it helped that some of them were older. It’s easier to establish authority when you have more than five years on your students.

This could just be my experience, but I thought the Teaching Fellows seemed more unflappable. I’m not sure what their training was like. Perhaps more practice and less theory? Being locked in a dungeon? They, too, work toward a Master’s degree in Education in their two-year service. I’m pretty sure they also get a grant.

In my first year of teaching in Harlem, none of the Teach For America members quit. Some talked about it, though. A few Teaching Fellows did. Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

I really respect anyone interested in either of these programs, but please do your homework and know what you’re getting into. I hope I’ve been somewhat helpful. Good luck!

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