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
ETFO
Keeps Up the Fight Against School Information Finder.
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