First, Let's Fire All the Teachers!

[depakid]

Imagine that you are a teacher in a high school in a high-poverty district. Many of your students don't speak English. Some don't attend school regularly because they have to earn money or babysit with their siblings while their parents are looking for work. Some come to school unprepared because they didn't do their homework.

But you are idealistic and dedicated, you work with each of the students, you do your best to teach them reading, writing, science, math, history, whatever your subject. But despite your best efforts, many of your students can't read very well (they are struggling to learn English), and many of them don't graduate. If your school eliminated all its standards, you could easily push up the graduation rate.

About 45 minutes away is another high school in a much better neighborhood. Its statistics are far better than yours. The children are almost all born in the U.S., and their parents are almost all college graduates with good jobs. Their kids don't go to school hungry, they have their own room and their own computer, and they have stellar test scores to boot. Their graduation rate is very impressive, and most of their graduates go to college.

What is to be done about the first school? President George W. Bush signed a law called "No Child Left Behind," which required constant improvement. The Obama administration wants to rename the law but they too reject any excuses for low performance and low graduation rates.

Recently, the school committee of Central Falls, Rhode Island, voted to fire all 93 members of the staff in their low-performing high school. Central Falls is the smallest and poorest city in the state, and it has only one high school. Those fired included 74 classroom teachers, plus the school psychologist, guidance counselors, reading specialists, and administrators.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan thought this was wonderful; he said the members of the school committee were "showing courage and doing the right thing for kids." The kids apparently didn't agree because many of them came to the committee meeting to defend their teachers.

President Obama thought it was wonderful that every educator at Central Falls High School was fired. At an appearance before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on March 1, the President applauded the idea of closing the school and getting rid of everyone in it. At the same meeting, President Obama acknowledged Margaret Spellings, who was President George W. Bush's Education Secretary, because she "helped to lead a lot of the improvement that's been taking place and we're building on."

Well, yes, the President is right; his own education reform plans are built right on top of the shaky foundation of President Bush's No Child Left Behind program. The fundamental principle of school reform, in the Age of Bush and Obama, is measure and punish. If students don't get high enough scores, then someone must be punished! If the graduation rate hovers around 50%, then someone must be punished. This is known as "accountability."

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/first-lets-fire-all-the-t_b_483074.html

Apparently, this sort of accountability is limited- and inapplicable to banksters, fraudsters, corporate criminals & torturers.

[Bozita]

1. KBR gets $2.8 Billion NO-BID contract - Must've used up all that accountability on those teachers

[msongs]

2. let's fire all the kids who flunk the tests cuz they put no effort into learning nt

[stray cat]

3. First - Never fire anyone - a lifetime appointment with pay increases whether you work or not

[la la]

4. what? n/t

[Bozita]

5. Banksters?

[Matt Shapiro]

8. Another jealous hater of teachers.

No one is saying that a teacher who is completely derelict in her/his duties should not be fired (with due process). That's not what's happening here. There are no reports that I have seen showing that the teachers at Central Falls High are not working very hard despite difficult circumstances. Quite the contrary. Their students are even standing up for them.

They are being held responsible for low graduation rates caused by factors that are beyond their control -- poverty, high % of students who do not speak English, etc.

It is simply unfair. Even a stray cat should be able understand that.

[Tutankhamun]

6. The idea is to destroy public education. That creates a cheaper workforce (read: slave labor)

It also creates a dumber populace (read: republican voters).

I'm a teacher, and I know what I'm talking about.

[MissDeeds]

7. I agree

I was a public school teacher too, and now am a professor of education. A dumber populace is easier to deceive and control. What is being done to public education in this country is a disgrace.