Does It Help Schools to Fire Half Their Staff? « Diane Ravitch's blog

Does It Help Schools to Fire Half Their Staff? « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Does It Help Schools to Fire Half Their Staff?

by dianerav

The story below appeared this morning in the NY Post. It refers to a judge’s decision not to overturn the ruling of an independent arbitrator who stopped the Mayor from firing half the staff at 24 “turnaround” schools. The Mayor has had one very simple strategy to “help” schools and “save” students: He closes them. This time, to qualify for federal funds, he decided to “turn around” the schools by firing half the staff (no negative evaluations, just bad luck).  The union and the city went into binding 

Are U.S. Schools “Too Easy”?

by dianerav

Yesterday a report appeared by the Center for American Progress asserting that “schools are too easy.” It was widely reported in the national media. See here, here, here, here, and here.  For some reason, the media love stories that say either that our kids don’t know anything or they aren’t working hard enough. We have to turn up the pressure, raise standards, make the tests harder, test them more often. And then, when the schools devote every day to testing and test preparation, and when the arts and physical education have been eliminated to make more time for test prep, we don’t understand why kids don’t like school!
Ed Fuller, a superb researcher at Penn State University, was curious about the validity of these findings. He decided to review the Center for American Progress study. He decided that it did not provide evidence to support

Ongoing Drama at Central Falls High School

by dianerav

Remember back to the spring of 2010, when the district superintendent Frances Gallo in Central Falls, Rhode Island, threatened to close the high school and fire the entire staff because performance was so poor? Gallo was vigorously supported by State Superintendent Deborah Gist, and the threat of mass firings won the praise of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama.
Eventually an agreement was worked out with the teachers’ union, large numbers of staff left, and the tumult died down.
Now we learn that Central Falls High School has a much higher graduation rate, but teachers are saying–

Governor Scott Walker Said, “It’s Not Personal”

by dianerav

This teacher in Wisconsin disagrees.
When your class sizes grow larger, it’s personal.
When the classroom lacks the resources it needs, it’s personal.
When this teacher’s family must make do with less, it’s personal.
When the governor takes advice from businessmen but not educators about how to fix schools, it’s personal.
It just isn’t personal for Governor Walker.

Teachers at Green Dot Charter Schools OK Merit Pay

by dianerav

In a close vote, teachers at the Green Dot charter school chain endorsed a merit pay plan tied to test scores.
Although test score-based evaluation is highly unstable, the teachers decided to go along in hopes of qualifying for a bonus.
A teacher rated effective one year may be rated ineffective the next year, because there are so many factors beyond the teacher’s control that affect student scores.
The National Council on Teacher Quality thought this was a good move. So did Green Dot CEO, Marco Petruzzi,

Judge Says No to Bloomberg in 40 Minutes

by dianerav

The city of New York appealed to a judge to overturn the the decision of an independent arbitrator, who said that the city should keep open 24 schools it planned to close.
After only 40 minutes, the judge said that she would not enjoin the arbitrator’s ruling.
This means, for now, that the city must reinstate the hundreds or thousands of teachers who were fired at the “turnaround” schools.
If you read the article, you will see that the city is not at all happy and is mulling other ways to get free of the “binding” arbitration.