TNTP

Pros

Fast-track teacher certification for degrees outside of Education.
Recognition as a licensed teacher and eligible for full-time salary with benefits.
Yearlong virtual and classroom coaching.
Online coursework to develop teaching skills.
You build a strong network with your cohort peers and training staff.
It is a tough, rigorous program, but one can make it work if truly called to the teaching profession.

When reading posts that complain about the money that TNTP gets from school districts and charging Teaching Fellows tuition, consider this: Teaching Fellows who successfully complete the 6-week summer training (PST or Pre-Service Training) receive an Alternative License which allows us to teach. This is at no cost to you. It's true that many people relocate and are responsible for living expenses during PST, but that's the choice we make if we want to become teachers. Academy coursework and in-person seminars begin in the fall and tuition is assessed for this portion. The State Department of Education requires student teaching and specific coursework in order to have the Alternative license upgraded to a Standard license in the future. Most people who come through this program do not have degrees in teacher education and if you take courses at a local college, it will cost more than TNTP's tuition.

Advice to Management

Hold everyone accountable to the same standards. It's understandable that you are trying to retain teachers and work with them, but follow through if you give a deadline for testing requirements to be completed. Several Teaching Fellows went through the program without passing Praxis or other tests and went on to be long-term substitute teachers. This diminishes the image of the program - you recruit the "best" but keep people who are unable to pass the reading, writing, or math portions of their tests. With the course modules, we were advised to treat it like college coursework and put effort into online assignments. Enforce that expectation! Some Teaching Fellows worked really hard while others put in little or no effort (one can tell based on the quality of Blackboard Discussion posts). Everyone in the cohort can see the required posts and there were people who received licensure without meeting the coursework requirements.