Only 22 of 86 faculty left at Boston school after 3 years of poor leadership.

[madfloridian]

Boston English is one of the "turnaround" schools, a solution Arne Duncan has designated for schools that don't test well enough. It's really a cruel tactic which ignores union contracts, years of experience, and ability. But he's the boss, and it's allowed.

Hired as a savior, the young, new principal upended everything at English High but this: the pattern of failure


Sito Narcisse was English High headmaster three years. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff)

They inspired her and pushed her when she felt like giving up. And when Salma Hussain delivered the valedictory speech at English High School in 2010, she singled out eight teachers who helped her rise to the top just four years after arriving in Boston from Bangladesh, speaking no English.

“My teachers were my second parents. They were the ones who always helped me, no matter what I needed,” Hussain said. “Ms. Pred-Sosa, Ms. Drew, Mr. McShane, Ms. Silas, Mr. Hogu, Ms. Rodriguez, Ms. Follenweider, Mr. Beyer. I will never forget what you did for me.”

Just two years later, seven of the eight teachers Hussain praised are gone, most of them casualties of a radical transformation under a little-tested, 30-something headmaster recruited by Boston school Superintendent Carol R. Johnson to turn around one of the most troubled high schools in the state.

An extraordinary three-quarters of English High’s teachers and administrators have quit or been let go during the past three years, school records show, as headmaster Sito Narcisse pushed through one controversial initiative after another — from school uniforms to single-sex classrooms to eliminating the grade “D,” forcing students to earn a “C” or fail. Teachers who did not go along with Narcisse’s approach were “not the right fit,” in his words, and he sent 38 of them packing, while dozens of others retired or resigned.

Eliminating the D grade? Forcing teachers to give a C or F? That's pretty radical.

Under Arne Duncan's reforms, Narcisse was freed from any union rules in hiring and firing. He could experiment however he wished.
After all since the school was failing the new rules toss any planned, organized, knowledgeable changes out the window.

One part really shook me because I was a teacher, a good one, and this kind of stuff would have made me ill. The history program director was let go when he suggested instead that a new hire by Narcisse could go first. He had no experience, Narcisse was carpooling with the new guy. The principal denied any connection but the experienced program director had to go.

This is NOT education reform. It is education in total disaster meltdown. And no one is speaking out about it at all. Just a few bloggers who are mostly ignored.

[Me.]

1. I Guessed

The gist of this story before I read the OP. So how long before Narcisse (I can't help but reflect on the likely origin of his name) is booted out?

[madfloridian]

2. His new position this year is a promotion apparently in Maryland.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/bulletin/article.aspx?id=237562

"Board of Education Makes Nine Administrative Appointments

During its May 8 business meeting, the Montgomery County Board of Education approved the following administrative appointments:

- Sito Narcisse, currently headmaster, The English High School, Boston Public Schools, as director of school performance, Office of School Support and Improvement"

[madfloridian]

3. It's like in our district failed principals are promoted to county level...

It's amazing how that happens.

[Me.]

5. In Nyc The Great Grab Is On

Thanks to Bloomberg and Klein. Schools are being taken over or forced to share space and the regular schools are being pushed around. I will be sp glad when Bloomberg is gone

[No Elephants]

4. FYI: Boston has had the same Democratic mayor since 1993 and had another Democratic

mayor before him. (His predecessor, however, is a turncoat on pro life grounds, as if Democrats were not pro life when he ran for Boston mayor as a Democrat in 1984 and 1988.0

Anyway, the OP is probably the work of our current Mayor, Thomas Menino, who years ago announced his desore/intention to be Mayor for Life.

Given how many favors he has handed out and how many people Boston now employs, he will probably get his wish.

In his old school Massachusetts accent, he is fond of speaking about "public-private pahtnahships." So, "chahtah" schools are probably right up his alley.