Reforming Our Schools: Nonacademic support for students is essential
Guest blog by Anne O'Brien/Edutopia
Anne O'Brien is a project director at the Learning First Alliance, a Teach for America alumna, and a former public school teacher in the greater New Orleans area.
Many times education reform debates are framed with an us versus them mentality. It doesn't matter what you are arguing for, there is always a clearly defined group working against you. The media also provides the reformers versus the establishment (never mind those members of the establishment who are doing innovative reform work all over the country). Teach for America (and other alternative programs) versus traditional teacher preparation programs (never mind that at a school level, in many cases, TFA teachers are learning great things from their traditionally prepared counterparts, and vice versa). (more...)