Alex Caputo-Pearl, a teacher for more than 20 years and a member of Teach for America's inaugural class in 1990, is on the board of directors of Los Angeles' teachers union and is a co-founder of the L.A. Coalition for Educational Justice.

When Teach for America began, and recruited me into teaching, the program was primarily service-oriented -- placing willing people in schools that needed teachers. Today, its most important role is political, and that's a shame. Teach for America and its spin-off organizations, like the New Teacher Project and Leadership for Educational Equity, promote a dangerous “quick fix” model of school reform that is harming rather than helping urban schools.

If Teach for America wants to improve education, it needs to provide stronger preparation to its recruits and demand longer commitments.

A huge number of Teach for America alumni -- the majority having taught only two years -- have moved to charter management organizations, education nonprofits, districts and elective bodies. They left classroom teaching before refining their craft, and without participating in sustained schoolwide reform. It is in this context that the “quick fix” approach develops.

Teach for America and its partners wrongly think that it's O.K. to deem teachers "highly qualified" even when they've had little preparation and actual experience. Yet, this is the policy they promote. This leads to clustering of less-prepared teachers disproportionately at schools serving our most vulnerable children, which has been shown to have detrimental effect on students.

These programs promote the quick fix of charter schools. Yet, national studies find that charter schools are more likely to underperform than to outperform their counterparts serving similar children. Moreover, many charter schools -- for example, KIPP, the most historically linked with Teach for America -- systematically push out the most needy students, including special education students, English-language learners, foster children and those who struggle with disciplinary issues.

Teach for America and its partners encourage teacher evaluations based on student test scores, although most of their own members leave the classroom before they are subject to these measures. The most compelling research in the field shows these measures to be invalid and unreliable. Moreover, use of the measures creates disincentives for teachers to collaborate, and to teach our most struggling students.

Some of the most passionate, loving and skilled people I have ever met have come through Teach for America. There is a tremendous opportunity to bring about social change toward educational justice. But it must be based on stronger preparation, longer commitments to teaching and a genuine contribution to equity, not quick fixes.