Central Falls, Rhode Island Superintendent Fires 88 Teachers for Failing Kids.
Central Falls is a city in Providence county, Rhode Island. It has the distinction of being the smallest city in the smallest state. It is a poor city with median family income around $22,000. Hispanics and Latinos make up 48% of the population. English is a second language for most. Many residents are transient workers moving often or returning to their native countries. School attendance has always been a problem.
In January, Central Falls High School was identified as a "persistently low performing" school and placed in the bottom 5% of struggling schools. Federal mandates state that such schools must select one of four methods to improve....
Closure.......Close the school.
Take over....... Have a charter or school management organization run the school.
Transformation......Require a longer school day and make other significant changes.
Turnaround......Fire the entire faculty, staff and principal.
Initially School Superintendent Frances Gallo and the teachers chose the transformation model, but they could not agree on what to do. Superintendent Gallo's plan called for....
Adding 25 minutes to the school day.
Submitting to more rigorous teacher evaluations
Provide tutoring before and after school
Eating lunch with the students once a week
Attending after school planning sessions with other teachers
Attending and participating in a 2 week training seminar during the summer.
However, talks broke down when Gallo offered to pay the teachers for only some of the extra work and at a rate lower then that what the teachers' union wanted. The teachers (who earn between $60,000 and $70,000 a year) also wanted 100% job security.
Gallo gave the teachers' union one week to decide to accept her conditions, and they did not. As a result 88 teachers, the principal and various staff were fired, effective at the end of this school year. However, 50% may apply for their jobs for the next school year.
For the most part, the majority of teachers, students and parents are very unhappy with the decision to fire everyone. School attendance at Central Falls was improving and teachers were already tutoring before and after school. Test scores this year were slightly higher than last year's. Teachers say they already go the extra mile for students. The economic conditions of the families, plus the fact that English is not the first language of a majority of the students, make teaching at Central Falls High School extremely challenging. Above all, they want to be paid more for their extra work.
Sources:
CNN News
http//www.projo.com/education/content/central_falls_high_school_chafee
The Providence Journal
Wikipedia
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36 Comments
Post a CommentI second Patricia's comments .
Teachers in Arizona would love to be paid $70,000 per year! Often, only administration (principals, etc) are paid that highly.
it seems schools all over are having problems of some sort or the other.
I think in Illinois they had similar problems and it was because of segregation, funding and illegal activities that were eventually uncovered that brought in an outside management team. I'm not sure that worked either. Sad, I'm a believer that we as parents need to manage our childrens care, including education.
Well, they certainly had to do something. Whether this is the right thing or not I don't know. But, I hope that however they resolve their problems they do resolve them. Education is critically important, especially at times like this.
It's a double edged sword here. Teachers are responsible for the kids learning, but the parents are MORE responsible. If this was a school in a depressed neighborhood where the parents were poor and both parents worked, they kids might not have been getting the help and support they needed at home. Teachers can't do everything. But if they were all truly slackers, then, hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Wow, I'm surprised they are allowed to do this. Teacher accountability is important but teachers can only do so much without parental support, community involvement, and proper state funding.
I heard this on the news and it sounded like something needed to be done. I recall in MS, we had a school system taken over by the state. They were having similar problems. Fortunately, with a little housecleaning and changing, they're in much better shape today. Good reporting.
When I went to school, they called kids who just slid by "lumber" and the teachers who called them that, were the ones who let them slide!
Our schools are feeling the same kind of results. The children are the ones that are going to suffer for it. Where will it end?