Teacher corps flees

Teacher corps flees
School too violent for group
By KATHLEEN LUCADAMO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Teach for America, known as the Peace Corps for struggling urban schools, has sent its teachers to the worst crime-ridden schools in the nation.

But one Harlem school is too dangerous � even for them.
The national group pulled about 10 of its teachers from Intermediate School 172 after one of them was threatened and others were assaulted last year, the Daily News has learned.

And Teach for America is refusing to send any corps members back to IS 172 until order is restored, sources said.

It is believed to be the first time the organization has blacklisted a school anywhere in the nation in its 16-year history.

"The feeling was the administration hadn't addressed the questions of security with our teachers," said an official at Teach for America, who asked not to be identified.

The official described IS 172 as a "rough school," then added, "We want to go back into this school because schools like this are where we are needed most."

Teach for America sends its instructors to about 1,000 schools in low-income regions across the country; 250 of the schools are in the five boroughs.

Since Teach for America abandoned IS 172, the school has only gotten worse, several teachers told The News.

English teacher George Ticoras said he had a chair hurled at him by a student and has been assaulted several times by kids.

"I'm not shocked that I am at a school that is violent and where kids are underperforming," he said. "I'm shocked that the Education Department has no plan to improve things."

Teachers said students routinely roam the halls of the W. 129th St. building, pushing their way into classrooms where they don't belong and pulling fire alarms.

"I have told teachers to lock their doors for their personal safety," said Sandy Haiman, who is paid to mentor five rookie teachers at the school.

Haiman, a retired teacher who worked 27 years in city schools, said she has never witnessed a school as out of control as IS 172.

"I have to wear earplugs � that's how bad the noise level is," she said.

School officials insist that they are improving safety, but agreed with Teach for America's decision to leave IS 172.

The local instruction supervisor, Jean-Baptiste Jecrois, said school bosses did not want "a high number" of Teach for America corps members at IS 172 because they only commit to working at a school for two years.

Jecrois said the "fragile school needs stability."

However, the school has gone through three principals in four years. Its current principal, Curtis Andrews, has no experience as a top administrator, and of the 48 teachers working at the school, 20 are new hires.

It is plagued by four times the number of major crime incidents tallied at the average city middle school, and a stunning 90% of its students fail to meet math and reading standards.

When Jecrois was asked whether any Teach for America members had been assaulted last year, he declined to answer.

"I can't comment on what happened last year because I wasn't in charge then," he said, acknowledging that safety at IS 172 was a concern. He said the number of security agents has been increased and noted that the school has installed metal detectors so students cannot smuggle weapons inside.

"The school is much safer," he said.

But teachers union President Randi Weingarten said educrats in Harlem's Region 10 were slow to crack down on violence.

"For Teach for America to pull out of that school is unprecedented," she said. "Given our own experience with IS 172, I have no doubt it was safety reasons and lack of support."

Target: Blackboard jungles
Teach for America is the brainchild of Wendy Kopp, who believed that promising college graduates, regardless of their focus of study, could help the nation's most troubled schools.
As part of her senior thesis at Princeton University in 1989, Kopp devised a plan to create a national teaching corps. A year later, she created Teach for America with private funding.
She selected 500 core members, trained them in Los Angeles for five weeks and assigned them to struggling schools in six cities, including New York.

The group's slogan declares: "Students growing up in low-income communities are seven times less likely to graduate from college than peers in higher-income communities. What will you do to address this injustice?"

Teach for America corps members agree to work two years, and group has 3,500 members in more than 1,000 schools.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is one of the program's biggest supporters, and 800 corps members are in 250 city schools this academic year.

Kathleen Lucadamo


Originally published on March 6, 2006