Fixing schools by firing teachers
Slash-and-burn tactics come to education. But in our race to repair broken schools, are we hurting kids?
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Central Falls High School in Rhode Island is one of the lowest-performing schools in one of the poorest communities in the state. It has a graduation rate of 48 percent. Only 7 percent of its students, the majority of whom are English language learners, are at grade-level proficiency in math.
Recently the district issued an edict to its teachers: longer hours and extra training, without what their union felt was adequate compensation. When negotiations broke down, the school board fired the entire staff -- 93 people including the principal, teaching assistants and 77 teachers. As things stand now, they will finish out the year, pack up their slide rules and chalk, and get out.
In Boston, meanwhile, mere hours after the state named 12 "underperforming" schools, superintendent Carol Johnson announced that the city will fire five principals and require the entire staffs at six schools to reapply for their jobs.
As part of Barack Obama's pledge to dramatically overhaul the American education system, schools across the country have been scrambling to turn around test scores and to dash for cash as part of a"Race to the Top" incentive program. Those that don't can find themselves in similar straits as those New England: facing full-scale firings or outright closure.
Speaking Monday on his promise to invest $900 million in turning around the school system, the president laid out a variety of tough-talking strategies for failing schools, "like replacing a school's principal