Pros
This program uses “Teach Like a Champion” techniques which are good management strategies. My co-fellows were wonderful!
Cons
I’ll start with this disclaimer: I quit pre-service training 6 weeks into it. Before beginning the program, I read all the negative reviews but thought I would be one of the successful ones. While there are people who make it through all the way to licensure, I would say you have less than a 10% chance of getting your license in your first year. While this is a rough estimate, the fact that TNTP won’t release the percentage of how many fellows make it through is very concerning. So, my first suggestion to you, purely based on chance, is to find another program. Some state education departments offer “Alternative Route to Licensure Programs.” Or, you can get your teaching license online through “Western Governors University” which is fully accredited and very inexpensive. Right now I am working on my license and teaching full-time through one of these programs. If you’re still set on TNTP, seriously consider these cons: — Dishonest Recruitment: TNTP preys on idealistic individuals and hints that people who don’t make it through PST simply weren’t “cut out for it” or “weren’t willing to put in the effort.” While this may be true for a few, here is the reality: there is a HUGE variation in classrooms and in the individual support you will receive. Your chances of making it through PST depend on a variety of factors, not only your individual effort. So when they recruit you and basically say “you will be successful if you read Teach Like a Champion, believe in your students, and put in a lot of effort,” they are not being honest. They over-recruit knowing full-well that you have a good chance of not making it through PST. — Minimal teacher support: The first day I began teaching and most every day after, my students were out of control: screaming and running around the classroom. I seldom saw my coach. By the third day, management told my co-teacher and I that the problem was us and only us; we weren’t engaging the students enough. Yet, we didn’t have technology in our classroom, we didn’t have engaging materials or manipulatives, we were strongly discouraged from playing engaging games with the students and, most importantly, we didn't have another adult in the classroom to support us. When I told my coach that I didn't have enough money to buy more engaging materials she replied with a snobby "I spend at least $2,000 a year on my class!" Of course, she has a salary. In my opinion, it is completely, and morally wrong to throw inexperienced teachers into this type of environment with so little support. Now that I’m a full-time teacher in another program, I look back in disbelief at the way TNTP treated me and other fellows. In conclusion, run far away and look elsewhere. TNTP causes potentially promising, good teachers to leave the profession and never look back. So sad for students who would have benefited from these forward-thinking, change-oriented individuals. I’m honestly disgusted by the TNTP program.
