Teacher Firing Lunacy at Central Falls HS in RI

We can only hope that we are reaching the logical end of the failed policies of the Bush administration that for some reasons, Obama and Duncan have decided to retain. The entire staff of Central Falls HS in Central Falls Rhode Island has been fired with only the possibility that half may be rehired. Of course, Central Falls is a very poor community and lack of educational success is overwhelmingly correlated to poverty but nevertheless, the trustees and management of the school board with nobody else left to blame except themselves and the teachers, surprisingly chose the teachers.

The ‘fire the teachers’  bomb came out of the regulations around the Bush era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) options for school turn-around that have been retained by Obama. They include a series of options which escalate through turn around teams, close and reopen as charter school, close and send kids to other local schools, all the way to fire the principal and the entire staff and start over. All have been tried from California to Chicago and all have failed to date but this may be the first one where the staff was actually fired rather than reassigned and possibly the first HS. The data on turn-arounds is just not very positive because it totally ignores the underlying social and economic conditions involved and places the blame squarely on the staff. No wonder any teachers who can use their qualifications and certification to end up in the suburbs eventually make the change.

The firings came after long negotiations that involved teacher retraining and lengthening the school day. The board wanted to lengthen the day without full compensation. The teachers eventually balked as the demands just became too onerous. The fact of the matter is that if exactly the same teachers were working at the most affluent school in RI everyone would marvel at their success.

There has been a great deal of research in recent years that points to the fact that a high quality teacher in the class is the single most important ingredient in educational success, nudging out class size that most agree is #2. The problem is one of interpretation. Most of the research is American and American classroom teachers vary much more widely than Canadian teachers. The schools in hard to serve areas, characterized by inner city ghettos, rural southern or Appalachian poverty, Aboriginal and Hispanic and other poor communities, are full of uncertified teachers, Teach for America uncertified rookies, real teachers from states with low  teacher standards like the south again, and other lower level “alternative route” teachers.

Research from the University of Chicago, confirmed by many follow-up studies, points out that indeed, highly qualified teachers make a big difference but they define quality as teachers with an excellent education themselves, certified by high quality teacher training institutions and having at least 3 years experience as their idea of quality. Fill schools with these types of teachers, progressives say, and you will solve many of America’s problems. Naturally, quality teachers like this do not work cheap because they are people with options.

The conservative concept of a good teacher is based on a teacher with good test scores on standardized tests and the ones who do not make it should be fired. They try anything they can to deny poverty is a factor and when confronted with the obvious evidence, shift the focus to so called “value added assessment or yearly gains in test scores no matter the starting point. The fact that study after study, even by fairly conservative organizations like the RAND Corporation say this is highly unreliable, doesn’t deter them. Academic research they don’t like is called “spin”.

Almost every nation that regularly whips the USA on international comparisons has only a fraction of America’s relative poverty. Finland at the very top has about 4% real poverty compared to the USA at 16%.

Diane Ravitch when presented with the Central Falls situation said, “When the crime rate in a city is high do we fire the police force?” Exactly.

Negotiations continue as the invective flies, the injunctions and court cases begin. Stay tuned.

Both Obama and his education secretary Arne Duncan,have endorsed the firings. The AFL-CIO has condemned them and transmitted their anger and disappointment to Obama.

http://www.educationnews.org/ednews_today/66834.html

                                                                                                       

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My daughter called a week or so ago and asked me if I could research which schools in her area, had French Immersion programs. She attended one herself and married a Franco-Onterien so there is a small debate around whether my granddaughter will attend a French First Language school or a school with a French Immersion program..Full Story