These teachers are swimming against a relentless anti-public education tide. Naturally the superintendent will keep HER cushy job and perks.
More than a dozen teachers who were fired a month ago spoke Tuesday night about the upheaval in leadership and curriculum the struggling Central Falls High School has experienced for many years.
Five principals in seven years. Schedule changes. The elimination of department heads. And new programs about how to teach low-income, special education and English language learners how to read and do math — some of which worked and some of which failed miserably, the teachers told the city’s school Board of Trustees.
These factors, the teachers said, have more to do with the school’s poor performance than the effectiveness of the 93 teachers, support staff and administrators who were terminated on Feb. 23 as part of a dramatic reform effort.
“I’m being called ineffective. And I’m wearing a T-shirt tonight that says FIRED across the front of it, after 28 years of giving everything I could to the district,” said Kathleen Luther, a math teacher and the high school’s athletic director. Luther recited a long list of math programs the district has used over the past several years, including an approach that required students to depend on calculators rather than learn basic math skills. Luther said that is part of the reason why only 7 percent of the school’s 11th graders scored proficient on the state’s math test.
Providence Journal
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