RI Teachers Fired at Central Falls High School
Drastic Solutions for School Improvement
The connection between teacher effectiveness and student achievement may not be what it seems. What is not being told is that Central Falls High School serves a population of students who live in poverty and struggle with the English language posing additional challenges to academic achievement.
According to the NECAP results (New England Common Assessment Program), of the Central Falls High School students who participated in the assessments, 22% were identified with Limited English proficiency with English as their second language compared to 3 % for the state. Twenty-three percent had an IEP (individualized education plan designed for students with special needs) compared to the state average of 17% and 85% were classified as economically disadvantaged compared to the state average of 35%.
This small town of approximately 18,000 people occupies an area only 1.2 square miles with a population of 15,652 people per square mile compared to Rhode Island's population of 1003 people per square mile. 72% live in rental units compared to the state average of 37%.
Clearly, the demographics for Central Falls High School varies drastically from the demographics for the state, posing challenges for educators in meeting the educational goals set for students. Although students from Central Falls High School do perform below the state average, according to Providenceabc6.com Central Falls High showed significant gains (10 points or more) in Reading for 2009. Clearly, progress is being made.
Although measures to improve student performance, particularly for those who face the difficult challenges of poverty and limited English proficiency, must be put in place to address the growing needs of students, school failure cannot and should not be placed on the shoulders of teachers alone. Administration must step up to provide leadership and garner public support for programs designed to meet the individual needs of students. The community and parents must be willing to invest in the resources needed to bring about positive change and not simply expect teachers to fix the problem without the required resources and commitment from all stakeholders to improve education.
Published by Nannette Richford - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle
Nannette Richford is an avid gardener, teacher and nature enthusiast with 4 years experience in online writing and a lifetime of personal journals. As an award winning writer for Demand Studios, Richford has... View profile
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12 Comments
Post a CommentFire the board!
Thanks for giving some information on the school demographics I haven't heard anywhere else in the news reports on this issue. Puts things into perspective.
unfortunatley this sounds more like union busting rather than a real concern for education. The American education system is always looking for the "cheap" fix rather than a genuine overhaul of our antiquated system. Shame on Superintentent of schools Gallo and President Obama as educated people they should know better than to blame one group of teachers when its the system that is broken.
85% low income. 23% legal/illegal aliens. 22% special ed. Probably serious gang and drug activity in area. The teachers probably were doing the best possible. I wonder if the principal and assistants were supporting the teachers.
To fire the entire staff is ridiculous. Teachers are a valuable commodity. The new, younger teachers will cost less, but they won't be as good as teachers w/ years of experience. Shame on this school district.
In the private sector you get select the materials used to make a product. Teachers do not get to select their students.
If, for whatever reason, your company puts out a bad product. I mean everything that happens there stinks. Well..... one way or another, in the private sector, you will soon be out of a job.
And Amy Louise, I guess you won't have to worry about that day care bill anymore.
Will you?
Why should teaching be any different?
Would the amount of extra pay offered have offset my cost of additional child care? Would they allow me to flex my schedule to leave early on Monday nights to arrive on time for the college class I must take in order to keep my certificate up to date? Teachers are not cloistered clergy. We have families, academic responsibilites and committments in the community. I love my job but too many people see teaching as an 8am-3pm/9 months of the year "cush" job. If it was really that great and that easy EVERYONE would teach. Would you?
Please be more accurate with your reporting.
-62 full-time teachers at Central Falls High School earned a grand total of $3.94 million in 07-08, for an average salary of $63,780.
-28 of those teachers (45%) have Master's degrees or higher.
-41 of those teachers cannot advance further on the salary schedule, indicating long employment with the district.
-The administrators at that school took home an average salary of $98,620.
-The district administrators took home an average salary of $123,230.
as per
http://themoneytrail.org/documents.php?id=585
http://themoneytrail.org/documents.php?id=583
Also:
-12% of the parents have high school degrees
-Densest population of any school in any district in RI.
-School is already over crowded (literally they don't have space for all the students).
-25% of the students are English language learners and need ESL courses.
I am an elementary teacher in Ontario Canada. The school I work in consistently does poorly on provincial testing. Like the highschool highlighted a large majority of our students are English language learners or simply have parents with low literacy themselves. For the RI school board to conclude that the students performance is a direct result of ineffective teaching is irresponible. I am quite sure that in other RI schools there are numerous ineffective teachers that won't get fired because their students have significant support at home so their test scores won't be low. I am very effective in my position as a grade 3 teacher. In fact I have improved the reading scores of all of my low reading students. Many of which were reading at the kindergarten level entering grade 3. Should I be fired because they are going to do terribly on ONE test? Somewhere down the line I think society has forgotten that the most important influence in a child's life and academic success is their parents