The entire teaching staff has been sacked
Central Falls, Rhode Island is reeling from a firestorm of student, parent and teacher protest. Central Falls High School wasn’t making the grade with its standardized test scores and graduation rates, so the school board voted to fire the entire teaching staff. The 88 teachers are undoubtedly casualties of public schools trying to correct themselves.
Do they need money now?
That’s the standard bureaucratic response to these kinds of situations. If kids are failing, build better schools, develop more programs, buy more books, etc. Keeping education safe and up to date is valuable, but many argue the real problems are yet to be redressed. But before I get to that, let’s consider the Rhode Island teachers who were fired.
“I’m after school every day, I’m always available. I’m heartbroken. I’d do anything for this school system, I’ve done everything I can,” Teacher Frank Delbonis said to NECN Rhode Island. This seems to represent what many of the teachers are feeling. The local media reports they’ve even shared tears with their frustrated students.
No Child Left Behind in action
The Central Falls district – which not coincidentally is an economically disadvantaged area of Rhode Island – has consistently ranked in the bottom five percent of academic performance in the state. Superintendent Frances Gallo was given few choices by the federal government if the school was to continue receiving funds. These choices were:
- Close the doors
- Become a charter school
- Go the “transformation model” path, which would lengthen school days and make other changes
- Fire every teacher and start over
The teachers’ union felt their charges were doing everything they could in a difficult situation, so they wouldn’t sign off on option three. Gallo chose the fourth option, and the educators were let go. They’d been making gains with students, but the government considered these to be too modest.
The teachers may reapply at Central Falls or seek employment elsewhere, but the restructuring mandates no more than 50% of former staff may be rehired.
Are they all missing the point?
There are very convincing arguments that drilling for standardized tests, metal detectors in schools, armed guards and the like are not the solution. They certainly don’t seem to be the way to produce well-rounded, productive, creative adults. One teacher by the name of C. Johnson argues that teachers have lost power in the classroom and students know this. Thus, the students most in need of help have no incentive to listen.
C. Johnson’s idea is to retool public schools into three groups – those for disruptive students (RUDE schools), highly motivated students (CALM), and everyone else (MEDIAN). The ideas are quite interesting and I recommend you check them out if you’re into a common-sense solution to a problem that affects most of America. Hopefully, there is a prelude somewhere to students getting the attention they need and not more teachers getting fired. Bonds and perhaps internet loans will be needed for restructuring, but that might be a necessary expense. The system is broken and will not fix itself if we just throw money around.
