Anthony Cody spent 24 years working in Oakland schools, 18 of them as a science teacher at a high needs middle school. He is National Board certified, and now leads workshops with teachers focused on Project Based Learning. With education at a crossroads, he invites you to join him in a dialogue on education reform and teaching for change and deep learning. For additional information on Cody's work, visit his Web site, Teachers Lead. Or follow him on Twitter.
Flipping the Script on Turnarounds: Why not Retain Teachers instead of Reject Them?
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At the Education Writers Association conference on School Improvement last Saturday, I was a bit of a contrarian. Many speakers suggested we need to "break the culture" at failing schools. A number suggested that the reason federal policies were not working was because too many schools were choosing the least disruptive option from the four allowed, and therefore were not firing enough of their lackluster staff. I asked one speaker if perhaps we might rethink the need to fire so many teachers given the recent research on the negative effects turnover has on student achievement. "That depends," he replied, "on whether you think old dogs can learn new tricks."
As I described in my post Monday, the data emerging from the current generation of turnarounds, many of which have embodied this "fire and replace" approach, have been disappointing. Even defenders are backpedaling, saying we must "recalibrate expectations." Perhaps we need to do a bit more than recalibrate.
When it came to my presentation, I took a different approach from most of the turnaround experts. I started with the story of the high poverty Oakland middle school where I taught for