Masquerades as a Social Justice Foundation When In Reality They are Glorified Head-Hunters
Pros
Fast track to becoming a teacher. Pre-Service Training teaches essential behavior management skills. A feeling of camaraderie with your other fellows
Cons
Doug Lemov is treated like a God and the only voice in education--he is one person and while the book is good and helpful it is not the Bible for new teachers that the program claims it is. Teach Like a Champion does not fix every problem and every situation. Teaching is very hard and there are not easy answers. TNTP will hold your certification over your heads to get the evaluation they want. There are too many hoops to jump through, and ultimately the program is nothing more than a head-hunter organization that likes to claim it finds teachers who will stay, whether or not the situation is a good fit. You are threatened with not passing if you do not take the first job offer, and in one case the program accepted the job for the fellow before they were ready to accept it. She was placed in a really bad situation and will not remain at the school another year. I saw too many fellows that AZTF had been put in bad situations leave their schools and many felt they were set up for failure. In the end, it cost them over 6K, and they do not have anything to show for it credit-wise, meaning they have to start from scratch with a different program. If I could do it again, I would have applied with a different program, because aside from pre-service training, I do not feel this program has done anything more than any other program would and I would take an 18 month program through a community college over this any day. Do not be mislead by what TNTP claims, there is no added prestige with the program, and principals rarely care about what program you come from as long as you are certified. This program was stressful, and overall contributed very little to my success as a teacher. My school provided me with far more support and coaching than this program did this year. Additionally, the way in which AZTF handled the end of Pre-Service training was degrading. I lost the respect I held for the program when they let the fellows go in the manner that they did. In response to the fellows who observed what happened this summer, TNTP stated that "some people are not cut out to be teachers". I feel that this was the "go-to" response for AZTF when a teacher did not fit their mold or voiced any objections. It is the teachers who do not fit the mold that often make the difference. I have not spoken to more than a handful of teaching fellows who are happy at the end of this year with their decision to remain in the program, and those who were cut were accepted right away into other programs and were much better off for it.
