School board votes to renew Teach For America contract

The school board Tuesday night approved the renewal of a $1 million contract with the national program Teach For America over the objections of two trustees who questioned how well the results of the program have been monitored.

School Superintendent Kent Scribner recommended renewing the three-year contract with Teach for America, which recruits college seniors and graduate students to work as educators in 52 regions with the nation’s highest-need public and charter schools.

In 2015, the 25-year-old organization recruited more than 4,000 corps members nationwide. Since 2010, Fort Worth has agreed to hire up to 50 corps members a year, records show.

The district’s current agreement expires April 30.

“If we postpone the vote on this into the middle of May, we will preclude our ability to get these alternative certified teachers,’’ Scribner said.

Trustee Ann Sutherland first asked the board to table the vote until the district hires a permanent chief of human resources. But her motion failed after only Trustee T.A. Sims supported it.

“The question is not whether each teacher is weaker, the question is, what are we buying for our $1 million?’’ Sutherland said at the regular board meeting. “I do not think this should have been brought to the board without the data to support it.”

Sutherland pointed to a Houston study that compared the achievement gains of students taught by certified teachers compared with Teach for America members. The study said that certified teachers consistently produced stronger student achievement gains than the uncertified teachers during the initial years of teaching.

Also, Sims said, he took issue with how long the program’s young teachers stay with the district.

“I think we have to have something in place that assures us we’re going to receive the benefits of bringing people in … and keeping them here for a while,’’ Sims said.

Trustee Christene Moss agreed.

“If we’re going to pay that kind of money, it looks like we could make a stipulation of staying at least two years,’’ Moss said. Some recruits, she said, have quit after the first year.

Moss also said she wanted more information about exit surveys and evaluations of the recruits.

“Not saying I’m not supporting it, but we need to do a better job [of] evaluating them … to prove to the public that it does work,” Moss said.

Scribner’s recommendation passed 6-2, with Sims and Sutherland opposed. Trustee Ashley Paz was absent.

Trustee Norman Robbins called Teach for America a “very high quality program.”

Trustee Judy Needham affirmed: “These young, aggressive excited students may not be certified but they get in there and they know the math or the science.”

A higher demand for teachers paired by a drop in interest in the profession is creating a new era of teacher shortages in Texas. The state adds 80,000 to 85,000 new students a year, but significantly fewer college graduates are becoming teachers, school officials say.

Early this school year, hundreds of Fort Worth students were without a permanent classroom teacher because the school district couldn’t find enough qualified candidates to fill its vacancies.

The district had to rely on substitute teachers to handle students in roughly 16 classrooms in a district of 86,000 pupils, school officials said.

The large urban district has a tougher time drawing teacher applicants than its suburban neighbors, largely because of the challenges. In Fort Worth, 77.6 percent of students are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

In 2015-16, Fort Worth drew 4,000 applicants for approximately 887 open spots, school officials said.

By comparison, the Keller school district drew 3,000 teacher applicants for 250 open slots, officials said. Its 34,210-student population is 23.6 percent socioeconomically disadvantaged, officials said.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 9:23 PM with the headline "School board votes to renew Teach For America contract."