Yale Daily News

Beitler's not a bad writer, but the reporting here is awfully suspect. He raises just enough doubt about the methodology and results of TFA's training program and selection process to pique our interest about this apparent controversy, but falls back onto TFA talking points and press materials -- even taking a page from Kopp's book! -- rather than try and pursue the argument further.

Of course, given that almost every major house for long-form journalism has published a TFA story in the last couple years, I think the choice of angle is a poor one, anyway. Particularly since the only people Beitler made an effort to talk to were recent Yale alumni, I would have been much more interested to see him stick with the angle he seemed to start with: What drives 10 percent of the graduating Yale class to apply for TFA? Lipstein presents the best example of someone who seems to just want to take a couple years off between college and making his fortune, and maybe hone his public speaking skills a little. But it would've been nice to get more of a feel for his teaching style than "Puppets ... whoa," and of course he's just one kind of person who takes these jobs.

For the future, it's worth thinking about a story that takes a harder look at TFA's Yalies (the successful ones and the ones who quit after a year, or a month -- and there are a LOT of them!), what kind of people they are, and what kind of teachers they make. I'm amazed that Beitler never sat in on one of these classroom sessions.