Weekend Reads: What’s behind TFA’s big shake-up

  • Teach For America laid off hundreds of employees, including some executives, as part of a reorganization that shifts energy to local regions. (EdWeek)
  • Lost in the reorganization: TFA’s national diversity office, at a time when teacher diversity is a goal. (The Atlantic)
  • A former teacher points to Randi Weingarten’s criticism of that change and asks, why isn’t the AFT doing more to diversify teaching? (Huffington Post)
  • An alum argues that while TFA has boosted its own diversity, the policies that have allowed it to thrive in cities hurt teachers of color. (Edushyster)
  • The Duplass brothers explain the school choice storyline on their hit show, “Togetherness.” (KPCC)
  • Urban schools need more black men teaching. Maybe President Obama should be one of them. (New Yorker)
  • New legislation could dramatically reshape Detroit’s schools. What you need to know, via our new newsletter. (Chalkbeat)
  • All around the country, teachers can’t afford to live in the communities where they work. (NPRed)
  • A researcher who was suspended a lot as a child is working to give teachers tools to make different discipline choices. (Chalkbeat)
  • A top Success Academy official explains why the network eschews the “no excuses” label. (Observer)
  • A top teacher whose blog post went viral explains why he’s using his platform to talk about segregation and why he sees potential in a “third way” of discussing education. (The 74)
  • Why do Massachusetts schools succeed where others don’t? Funding is one reason. (Seattle Times)
  • A photographer who teaches in a Brooklyn school shares her tips for working with middle-schoolers — and some of her phone photography. (Medium)
  • Sarah Carr: The teacher-tenure debate ignores the fact that “most teachers are neither lost causes nor leading lights.” (L.A. Times)
  • A satirical video depicts what the first day of school looks like for the kids of Common Core critics. (Funny or Die)
  • The professor behind #HipHopEd reflects on his first day as a teacher in an excerpt from his new book, “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood … and the Rest of Y’all Too.” (Ebony)