Mass firings in RI may signal new trend. Fire all the teachers.

[madfloridian]

This article indeed may be quite true....that firing a whole school may be the new trend in education. Arne approves of the firings in RI, and he is the big boss man.

So that may well be the trendy new style of education. I have been reading the threads on this topic, and it appears this Democratic forum overall feels that the teachers are finally getting what is coming to them. That'll show them...fire them all.

I just find myself wondering if when, if ever, the parents and the students will be held equally accountable. I doubt they will.

Mass firings at R.I. school may signal a trend

But Tuesday's move by Central Falls, R.I., Superintendent Frances Gallo to remove all 74 teachers, administrators and counselors at the district's only high school may be the first tangible result of an aggressive push by the Obama administration to get tough on school accountability — and may signal a more fraught relationship between teachers unions and Democratic leaders.

KANSAS CITY: May close half its schools

"This may be one school in one town, but it represents a much bigger phenomenon," says Andy Smarick of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C., education think tank. "Thanks to years of work battling the achievement gap and the elevation of reform-minded education leaders, we may finally be getting serious about the nation's lowest-performing schools."

President Obama was elected in 2008 with the support of teachers groups nationwide, but since then, he and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have taken up the cause of fixing the USA's most struggling schools. Duncan will soon release a list of 5,000 identified as most in need of reform.

On Tuesday, Duncan praised the district for "doing the right thing for kids."

See there? Arne agrees. Trouble is not any other factors are being taken into consideration. Not the kids, not the parents, not the surroundings of poverty, just the "bad" teachers.

The Christian Science Monitor makes an excellent point about this issue.

But firing all the workers?

"I'm not sure any CEO would let every worker go and start over again," says Steve Scullen, one of the study's authors and a professor of management at Drake University in Des Moines.

The only time managers do that in the private sector is when they want to play hardball with their unions. It's a message, not a productivity enhancer.

Playing hardball with unions....that's called union busting. And this administration approves of it.

IOKTUBIYAT

It's okay to union bust if you are a teacher.

More from the Monitor on the topic:

When high school teachers refused to work extra hours without pay, Central Falls, R.I., fired them all. Will that improve performance?

When managers want to improve performance of their companies, they sometimes close factories and lay off workers. But they never fire the entire workforce.

Everyone knows that's counterproductive.

So when the school board in Central Falls, R.I., fired all 88 teachers and staff at its high school, the move had little to do with productivity and everything to do with sending a message to teachers' unions: The status quo of poor-performing schools is unacceptable.

The move is part of a national shake-up that US Education Secretary Arne Duncan hopes to engender in public schools. He is forcing states to identify the bottom 5 percent of their schools and take one of four actions with each one: closure; takeover by an independent organization; transformation; or turnaround, which calls for firing all the teachers and rehiring no more than half of them in the fall.

I don't see the word "parents" mentioned. I don't see where the students are to be held accountable.

I don't see a mention of the poverty level of the area

The most constant and reliable predictor of standardized test scores is the income level of student families. Central Falls, RI has lots of families in poverty, almost 3 times the state average (30.1% compared to 12%). The percentage of families with income below 50% of poverty is more than twice the state average (12.5 to 5.2 percent). And these numbers were from before the Wall Street banksters ruined us.

Central Falls has only one high school, Central Halls High, and it has been on the NCLB "Needs Improvement" list for several years now. It is one of those schools that Arne Duncan has sworn to turn around, despite the fact that he nor anyone else plans to do anything about the grinding poverty that is the primary reason for the schools' low scores to begin with.

So Arne is on board with the message: "Fire all the teachers."

He will not demand apparently that the new schools taking over will be equally accountable...because there will be little regulation.

I am not sure what breaks the heart of this retired teacher the most....the fact that Democrats are finalizing the privatization of schools or that a Democratic forum cheers them onward.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. And they expect to replace veteran educators with what?

Kids just out of school without the benefit of liberal arts or experience in the classroom, paid yea how little, with less benefits, and expect them to stay for decades like the ones they just fired?

Oh shit . . .

[madfloridian]

3. Cheap labor will replace veteran educators.

[Larkspur]

4. Don't be surprised if you see H-1B visa holders from India being the new teachers

After IT jobs, nursing and teaching are the other professions being impacted by H-1B visa holders from foreign countries.

[Dr.Phool]

13. Cleveland started doing that about 15 years ago.

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. My district hires teachers from the Phillipines

Some don't speak English.

[liberalhistorian]

8. Yup, that pretty much sums it up

right there. I am sooooooo glad I never followed in my parents' footsteps and went into teaching, even though everyone just assumed that I would do so. I grew up seeing the daily shit they dealt with every single damned day and there was NO fucking way I was ever gonna subject myself to that. NO. WAY. And it's getting far, far worse, too. Mom's glad she retired when she did. And my stepdad came down with early dementia in his late fifties and is now institutionalized, so he never got to enjoy any retirement after spending his entire adult life working his ass off for other people's children, with little respect or appreciation and ALL of the blame even though many factors are beyond a teacher's control. FUCK. THAT.

[tonysam]

18. +1,000

It's a horrible, horrible job now. I wish students wanting to go in this field would vote with their feet and avoid it.

That way school districts couldn't treat teachers like shit because they are a dime a dozen.

[liberalhistorian]

27. I think that will start to happen within the next several

years or so, frankly, as more people get wise to the true state of the field. And there will be a huge amount of retirements the next several years, too, as the boomers exit. It won't happen right away, but a major shortage will start to happen about five or so years from now, especially in less populated areas.

[Go2Peace]

50. What stands out is not the incompetence-ideology, but rather the inhumanity. What are we becoming?

Just striking. Is there anyone here that does not see the insanity creeping through our society?

[tonysam]

60. It IS based on ideology, neoliberal ideology, Friedmanism,

whatever you want to call it. It has been demonstrated not to work time and time again, yet this poison has and continues to infect BOTH parties and including the White House.

I don't know if things can EVER be reversed.

[comtec]

85. I agree with your points.... but... ask your mom to talk about a favored student

and watch her light up.
To have that moment where the light goes on!, where there's that spark!

There is no feeling like causing that spark of understand, the cascade of learning...

I love to teach, to have that moment every so often, to really connect with a student.

But yeah...

The bullshit is only getting worse.

Don't be too hard on the profession - as I don't think you were - but understand the reasons why people teach, despite the horrendous abuse.

[roguevalley]

30. the usual shit that doesn't know squat and won't be mentored by

old goats like me. when I left teaching, several others did too. we lost about 400 years of experience. and that didn't count the time when 28 teachers took early by out.

[radical noodle]

64. They won't want them to stay for decades

They'll want them to leave when their rate of pay gets too high.

[olegramps]

86. They fired the wrong group.

Those who should have been fired are the brats that have no desire for an education along with their give-a-shit-less parents. Give the these fuck-ups an ultimatum, either you start applying yourself or your out of here. Far too many of these kids are only taking up spare and could care less. Its a waste of time and effort on them when they don't have the desire to obtain even minimal knowledge. Sorry, but I find several of Obama's appointments to be less than encouraging including this jerk-off Arne.

[Fumesucker]

2. Recced back to zero mostly because I hate drive by unrecs.. n/t

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

5. My father was a teacher

and I can tell you he felt many of his classroom challenges came from kids who had ZERO structure/discipline/values at home.
He spent a great deal of his time on the 'trouble makers' who may have come from dysfunctional environments.
Firing everyone as a managerial tactic is a recipe for disaster. If I was a veteran teacher, why would I want to go there to work? There is also this thing called 'institutional memory' that is present because of the length of time people have worked in a given place. That is gone now and will hurt everyone, students and staff, who come after........

[madfloridian]

7. I taught over 30 years. I cared. I worked hard.

But the school where I taught the last few years will probably be on the chopping block, one in which they fire all the teachers. Yet the teachers there are among the most devoted I have ever seen. It is in a high poverty, high drug traffic area, yet there is no excuse allowed any more in our zero tolerance country.

And yes, firing as a managerial tactic will be a disaster.

[tonysam]

21. And then when the teachers are fired, they can't ever work in their field again

thanks to disclosure questions on applications for districts and state licensing boards, which supposedly reveal a prospective teacher's "character." If mass firings are going to be the rule, those disclosure questions had better be outlawed, apart from criminal history questions.

[jgraz]

6. When we look back on the Obama presidency, Arne will be seen as his worst appointment

Worse than Rahm, worse than Timmeh, worse than Bernanke. Arne Duncan is fucking dangerous.

[madfloridian]

17. Trouble is that he is fulfilling Obama's wishes concerning public education.

That is the problem.

[tonysam]

20. He might well be the worst appointment by any president ever

and that includes all of those crooks in the Teapot Dome scandal, Watergate, etc.

[jgraz]

22. I think Rumsfeld has a pretty tight grasp on the top spot

But Arne could give him a run for his money.

[tonysam]

23. Let's say it's a photo finish

Arne has barely begun with his destructive program, aided and abetted and encouraged by the president.

[jgraz]

24. As long as I don't have to look at the photo.

[MattBaggins]

88. If I fail to vote for Obama in 2012 It will be because of Arne Duncan

The "Charter School" movement is about a bunch of for profit vultures smelling easy money to steal from the taxpayers.

[kwassa]

9. And where will they get replacements?

This whole "reform" movement is full of false assumptions.

Michelle Rhee's offer of high wages and no security didn't bring any rush of teachers to DC. What qualified teacher will want to teach in Central Falls, in a difficult situation without any job security at all? Teacher turnover is high enough as it is. 50% leave the profession in their first five years on the job. Who will go to a system that engages in mass firing as a management techinique?

[catrose]

14. well, yes

Who wants to work in a war zone when nobody's got your back? I quit teaching for good after the community college retroactively gave a passing grade to a student who had flunked out of program for nonattendance (national standards, not just the school's) and then sued the school a few years later when she wanted to go to law school and couldn't get in because of her grades. And that community college operated on part-time teachers, another abuse. No benefits, not enough salary to survive, never knowing from semester to semester if, when, what, or who you'd be teaching, despite the graduate degrees that were required.

[tonysam]

19. Teachers will be making daycare wages when this over

Seven or eight dollars an hour, no benefits. The profession is being deskilled to the point where now they are mere technicians, test prep instructors, and proctors.

[inna]

95. I'm afraid you might be right on this. (Not $7/hour, of course, but as close to the min wage as

they can get away with.) x(

[Brickbat]

10. As always, madfloridian, thank you for keeping me and others informed of all this. I have learned

so much from your work.

This particular story is heartbreaking to me, both as a union member and as someone who has teachers in her family and strongly support public education.

[madfloridian]

31. It is tearing me up inside to see it happening.

This country was built on a good public education for all, and that is ending.

[2Design]

11. I thought the administrators and board should all be fired and then

only allow certain students into the schools like the health insurance industry - cannot force students to learn if they have no interest and their are no jobs for them when they get done

[wolfgangmo]

70. So in your scenario

Teachers would be like claims adjusters.

"Didn't get an A last semester in math. That is a pre-existing condition. Claim denied!"

[2Design]

72. yes - if they are going to make teachers responsible for the

students in a codependent way instead of making the students and teachers responsible - yes they should get to pick the best students in their classes - it no longer becomes teaching - I think it is ridiculous that teachers are being subjected to these new WTF rules by this new administration - the nclb was awful and this is just as bad. It is union busting.

I have taken classes where others do nothing or on teams where I am suppose worked together but they don't - like the republicans - they do nothing and give themselves a raise every year while denying everyone else wage increases

[Dr.Phool]

12. It has to be a corporatist Democrat who does it.

A Republican could never get away with it. The die-hard Dems will overlook it.

Mikhail Gorbachev touched on a similar subject in an interview with the Nation about 6-8 weeks ago. He said that arms treaties could never pass under a Democratic president, because the right would have gone insane. He said Only Reagan could have accomplished it, because the right let him get away with it.

[madfloridian]

15. Democrats are approving of it because a Dem admin is doing it.

It is now possible to privatize public education, turning it to for profit education...because Obama wants it.

It's amazing how easily it is happening.

Watch the posts here, many who have stood for traditional Democratic ideals are now totally on board with this.

[Kat45]

34. Like when Clinton "ended welfare as we know it."

!

[LWolf]

75. +1

[Dappleganger]

16. Throwing out the baby with the bath water...

who is really going to suffer? Those kids!

[madfloridian]

35. Yes, but think of the profit.

Education will now be more profitable to test makers, test scorers, school management companies.

[Tailormyst]

25. This story is so sad.

Unfortunately many people commenting on it here on DU have no idea what Central Falls is like or the conditions the teachers teach in or the students live in.

Almost 90,000 people, mostly immigrants, piled into 1 square mile, yes, ONE square mile of ground. 98% live in poverty, the median household income is 22,000 (in the north east that is a pittance). English is not spoken in many homes.

There is little in the way of tax dollars for language programs, special ed, books, computers, social work, etc.

[madfloridian]

26. Nail on head. They don't care.

Because a Democratic administration is privatizing schools, shutting down public schools, doing shocking things....they accept it.

It is the Republican plan as well, just put in motion by Democrats.

IADDIIOK

If a Democrat does it, it is okay.

[Mopar151]

80. And there are how many bars in Central Falls?

Or Brockton, MA, or Bellows Falls, VT? Pretty good poverty/quality of life indicators. I talked to a primary teacher from BF a while ago - she has kids that do their schoolwork in Mom's car, 'cuz it's the only quiet place in their mad house.

[Last_Stand]

28. This should turn out well...

Fire all the teachers, defund and close all the public schools.
Keep the kids fat dumb and happy selling them entertainment and garbage.
Ship 'em off in the next war.
Rinse and repeat.

[Hannah Bell]

29. i'm waiting for the day when the sick pigs who create the conditions of poverty and inequality

which are the #1 cause of educational failure will pay for their crimes of humanity.

[Starry Messenger]

32. I'm sure we're going to start seeing this in more states.

It's an option that is part of being qualified for the "Race to the Top" funds. A district must be willing to union bust to get their hands on that pittance of money set aside for schools. Which cash-strapped district is going to say no to that? It's sickening.

[ljm2002]

33. It is tragic...

...that we have allowed the free market ideologues creep into every aspect of our lives, including education.

The right wingers are masters at distortion, and they love to take test cases like this and use them as talking points. They will point to this one school and extrapolate from that that all public schools are awful, and that teachers should not expect to be kept on when the school fails. Soon, they will move the goal posts, and more and more schools will be "failing" and then they will have an excuse to fire even more teachers...

Anyone who does not think this is planned is not paying attention.

There has been a concerted assault on our public schools, and it is now reaching a crescendo. And sadly, it looks like it may be successful in destroying what was once a great success story.

Subtext: race and class.

[jonathon]

36. Excellent work following this highly important subject! Thank you

I have to admit, I don't think I would have kept up with this subject hardly at all if you hadn't been so thorough in your postings

[madfloridian]

37. ....

I appreciate your comments. :-)

[eecumings]

40. One former teacher

to another. Each year, we thought students and working conditions could not get worse. They did. When I started teaching, if I had trouble with a student, I called the parents, and we straightened out the problem. Later, parents generally threatened to sue me if I tried to help their children. At the end, we had so many children who had drug and alcohol problems, they did not understand right from wrong. Their parents were usually absentee keepers. Duncan has no knowledge of education and would be scared out of his wits if he had to face a class with 40 discipline problems in it. Wonder how he would react to a student standing up, walking toward the door, and informing him that "he had to go piss?" In so many instances, the corporate owned president has appointed exactly the worst people for important posts. Duncan seems to be his crowning achievement.

[proud2BlibKansan]

52. "I have to fucking PISS!"

That's what an 8th grader said in class this year right before she stomped her foot and stormed out of class.

She was 'counseled' by the principal and sent back to class with a big grin on her face.

[hay rick]

38. Devaluing education.

The drive to privatize education is not occurring in a vacuum. It fits neatly into a larger pattern of converting our political and economic system into a plutocracy. I think of the plutocrats as looters. They see America's vast middle class as an unprecedented opportunity for plunder. Their object in this case is to suck tax dollars out of education and into corporate profits. The easiest way to do that is to cut teacher's wages and benefits.

Notice that most failing school systems are preceded by failing local economies. Low family incomes is the single most reliable predictor of failing schools. After the plutocrats have shipped the factories and their union-represented good-paying jobs out of town and after Wal-Mart and the big box stores have replaced family businesses that once sustained middle class families- the tax base withers and the dispirited families that remain find that the local schools also begin to fail. In the newly impoverished community, people are told that charter schools can be had at lower cost and they offer choice! And, of course, they haven't failed- yet.

Our society has been experiencing declining median incomes for at least a decade. At the same time, we have been outsourcing more work, particularly our manufacturing base. In terms of education, we are reducing the demand for skills. The fewer skills needed can then be supplied by a cheaper, less capable educational system...

[Hannah Bell]

82. +10000000000000000

[Jefferson23]

39. Dreadful to read that Duncan applauded this move!

The high school inherits students who are performing well below grade level when they arrive, and the teachers are expected to perform
a miracle I guess. When the students were passed on to the high school the administration had to have signed off on that, no accountability for them?

Another thing that ticks me off about Duncan is his use of talking points to address a serious concern. The screaming meme, the teachers will
be fired and all will be saved is beyond disingenuous.

I would like to see the plan displayed for the new staff, I want to see the results at the end of one year, preferably an independent review.

I want to see all the razzle dazzle that will take place now that these losers are gone. :sarcasm:

[Hawkeye-X]

41. Obama needs to fire Arne and replaced him with a REAL labor-education Dem

not some right-wing thug.

Thanks, Obama, for screwing education for our children in the future.

I have 1 year old son, and I'm already contemplating on sending him to a private school that will break me.

I was educated by many wonderful teachers - which are union members (my aunt was one) - in a public school setting.

And that was 17 years ago.

It's gone down the toilet, it seems.

And Bennet (my US Senator) used to be the superintendent of the Denver Public School system. He's wholly unqualified to be an U.S. Senator. That's why I'm backing my boy, Andrew Romanoff.

Hawkeye-X

[elleng]

42. Fire those who refuse to comply with their duties.

Hell of a lot of nerves, to refuse to make the efforts to improve a disabled school, whose students' families earn 1/4 of what staff earns (if they're lucky.)

[mikehiggins]

51. Did you leave off the sarcasm notice?

where/when/how did the teachers refuse to perform their duty?

Oh, when they refused to work extra time for free?

And its the teachers' fault that the surrounding population is poverty stricken?

Do you have any idea what you are saying?

This is something out of Atlas Shrugged where the rights of the individuals were trampled on in the name of some "trendy" politics.

I'm no Rand-ite (at least not for several decades) but she got that mindset down pat.

How long until we get back to the good old days of serfdom?

[canaar]

58. The school was demonstrating significant improvement

as measured by standardized test results (the holy grail stamped out of pot metal without buffing out the the hydraulic press ridges of reform). Double digit growth in reading scores (I don't want to get hammered for inaccurate info but my recollection is around a 20% growth rate. Note that a zero % growth rate equates to a year of increased learning for a year of instruction). The mathematics scores increased far less dramatically (3% is my recollection).

So tell me once more how the teachers refused to perform their duties. Remember now, at zero % growth rate, the student standardized test scores would match the average instructional/learning rate for the nation. In other words, those students learned at the average rate for the nation.

Please enlighten me about these teachers refusing to perform their duties within the context of grinding community poverty and all of the dysfunction that attends extreme economic disadvantage.

What will likely get lost is that not only will this school get an entirely new staff, the stars will align to shower this school with financial resources to ensure that this grand experiment in mass firings will appear to be the REAL reason why the school has become a model of success for the nation.

Excuse me now while I go puke.

[Jakes Progress]

65. Thanks for being part of the problem.

It is your right to have an opinion whether you know anything about the subject. So laden with the mindset created by neocons like bill bennet and grover norquist, you come on this thread and spout the drivel that the corporate media has planted in your willing brain. It is your right to do so. So enjoy blabbing about things you don't know of. Since this will be the hallmark of the graduates of the future's corporate education system, that makes you a forerunner.

[proud2BlibKansan]

66. So because the people in this community are poor, the teachers should work for free

Gotcha.

[Hannah Bell]

83. 30% transiency. maybe they could put all the families under house arrest.

[AwakeAtLast]

43. There are some devastated students in this district who will never get over this

There are some students whose only role model is a teacher. I'm sure it is no different for this district. The valuable relationships formed between teacher and student have shredded. These kids are not losing one of their teachers. They are losing ALL of their teachers. How will they cope? It seems that not one school board member has thought about that. So sad. :(

[madfloridian]

44. Because it is not about the children. It is about profit.

The impact on the children does not matter.

[roody]

45. Performance = only test scores

[madfloridian]

46. That is right. It's a shame. That does not judge performance well.

[apimomfan2]

47. I wonder about the curriculum in these "charter" schools.

I image these "charters" will teach faith-based science and some version of Right-wing Christianity. It's a way to get to your kids. The Dominionists are salivating.

[madfloridian]

54. Yes that could happen, since they will not be regulated.

In fact religious schools with money problems are becoming charters to get taxpayer money. They pinky promise they won't teach faith-based science or religious tenets. But since they are keeping the same staff and leadership....I find that hard to believe.

[LarryNM]

48. More of the Continuing War on Working Class Americans

The children will be dumbed down and whatever jobs they get will come with less pay, security and job rights. Afterall, that's what they did to their teachers and it is a Life lesson. What standards, if any, will the for-profit owners be held to regarding test scores, enrollments and finances? What's to keep them from taking the loot and dumping what's left as they have done elsewhere. The difference in this phase of the War on Working America from most of the past is that it is being felt by middle-class, well-educated, mostly White Americans, as well as the "others". A solution may lay in a network of thriving,self-sustaining Communities.

[Bluesbreaker]

49. Bad policy and bad politics

This was a stupid move by Arne Duncan. He's not going to score points with the base and he's going to undermine any hope of actually improving our public schools. Unions will not be supporting this union-busting administration again. At this rate, Obama will be lucky to get a majority of the Democratic votes in the next election, never mind the total vote.

[Starry Messenger]

57. +100

You're a good egg. Please post more. :)

[mistertrickster]

55. Most of the teachers unions I know are forbidden to go on strike.

This puts them in a weak barganing position.

Maybe the teachers should all decide not to renew their contracts at the same time. Let the bastards try to find 80 teachers in ten different disciplines.

[mopinko]

56. students are fired every day. it's called expulsion. and parents actually

also loose custody of children all the time as well. schools are required to identifiy child abuse and neglect and report it.



not every school that undergoes this kind of reconstruction looses their union, or even all the teachers (they are usually allowed to reapply). they get an infusion of good teachers eager for a challenge, instead of teachers worn down form the challenge.

somewhere, somehow, someone must be accountable for failing schools.
i applaud these actions.

[Starry Messenger]

62. The word you want is spelled "lose" nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

68. LOL

[MadHound]

63. No, they do lose their union,

And the teachers that replace them aren't necessarily good, but they are cheap and compliant. That's the whole point.

Teachers who get beyond the five year mark aren't "worn down from the challenge," rather they have tons of valuable experience that walks out the door, and it is these long time teachers that aren't going to be rehired because they would have to be paid too much. Nor will they get an "infusion of good teachers" since what the superintendant has already said is that she is looking to replace the teachers that she fired with new teachers and teachers from Americorp. While new teachers can indeed be good teachers, staffing a school with all new teachers is asking for disaster. As far as Americorp teachers go, I don't think that it's fair to skimp on the classroom credits like Americorp does.

This move is simply cheating the students out of any chance for a decent education.

[mopinko]

67. what chance would that be?

the whole point is that there wasn't much of a chance.
you are projecting your opinions and your own issues, not facts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

69. And firing the whole staff does what exactly?

[canaar]

73. You are reporting your own opinions, not facts

Unlike your totally unsubstantiated statement about new=good and old=bad.

Pot, meet kettle.

Until the country no longer requires the existence of a permanent underclass, educational disparity will not vanish nor will the corporate-cons' amoral polished sleight of hand misdirection be identified for what it is.

Your superficial assessment of what it takes to fix educations is as foolish as trying to cure melanoma by placing a bandage on it while uttering sanctimonious babble.

[Starry Messenger]

76. canaar I was going to say Welcome to DU

but you've been here awhile. I hope you will chime in again soon. The education fights here are going to need every ally. At any rate, thank you for your support. :thumbsup:

[canaar]

81. Thank you for the welcome

I am a younger retired teacher who has for some time now taken a second career in a field that supports education. I retired, not because I no longer enjoyed watching the light come on in childrens eyes but rather because more and more, each day that passed I felt as though I was being required to ensure that that light was kindled only rarely and then only when I was able to escape the weight of systemic expectation.

A good teacher can never be good enough for the kids and can never be bad enough to meet systemic expectations.

What weighs most heavily on my conscience is that I bear some responsibility for the too many 'blame it on the teacher' blowhards for my failure of courage and resolve to be able to retain confidence in my effectiveness while keeping the tiny souled elites at arms length while helping those blowhards to be, to develop critical thinking and analytical skills.

[Starry Messenger]

91. So true--

"A good teacher can never be good enough for the kids and can never be bad enough to meet systemic expectations."

[mopinko]

89. well, in chicago

until recently, all you got was the babble. you didn't even get the bandaid, so.....

but in point of fact this whole plan started here in chicago, where it cleaned out some of the worst blackboard jungles in the country.
look, i understand that in a lot of places union teachers were squeezed out and idiots were brought in, private companies made a lot of money, etc, etc. but in point of fact, it can be done right. and it can make a difference for the members of that same permanent underclass. those schools get the shit that falls to the bottom. here, when they were cleaned out, they got the best of the best.
it CAN happen that way.

[olegramps]

87. Why don't you enlighten us with some of your "facts."

[Supersedeas]

59. a direct reflection of the focus on aggragate cultural agenda driven focus on "group" outcomes

instead of isolating the performance of individual teachers and individual students, politicians and administrators are focused on the aggragate performance of entire schools and particular groupings of students into demographic sectors within a school district.

meanwhile the achievement of individual teachers and the relative progress of individual students is lost in the shuffle. i suppose some pols and administrators believe that indescriminantly ripping experienced teachers out of the classroom and 'installing' new teachers, unfamiliar with the particular needs of individual students, will establish aconducive/productive atmosphere of learning.

do you get the feeling that our teachers and school are being held hostage by those with a political agenda?

[tonysam]

61. Yep. n/t

[alp227]

71. IMPEACH ARNE DUNCAN. NOW.

Before it's too late and our education system goes the way of the Roman Empire.

[Better Believe It]

74. Isn't that what union busting employers always say? "Fire them all if they won't work on our terms

[Nikki Stone1]

77. Madflo, it's about union busting.

Clear Channel affiliates (like KFI in LA) spend all afternoon screaming about public employee unions and teachers. It's practically non-stop. Barack is a traitor in this regard. So are the Democrats.

[Jim Sagle]

79. What are these 'Democrats' of which you speak?

:wtf:

[Nikki Stone1]

90. Arne Duncan, Antonio Villaragosa among others

The Democratic politicians--allowed by the party--to sell off the schools to the highest bidder.

[YvonneCa]

78. For sure, it's a trend. LAUSD...

... here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/fremont-high-teachers-vow-to-surrender-jobs-in-fight-over-mandated-reforms.html

[Enthusiast]

84. I am all for public education. nt

[emsimon33]

92. Obama has been a bitter disappointment on so many levels

He seems determined to ax murder every group that made up his base. The election in 2010 will be a blood bath and the Obama inner circle will say that it is because he has not been Republican enough. They will not place the blame on themselves for running on a platform of change and then just doing more of the same while marginalizing their base.

[Norma Druid]

93. A Fair Deal for Teachers

I also am furious at this business of teacher firings and turnarounds. Some years ago I took teacher education and concluded that teaching below college level is rather like being chained to a rock to have vultures eat your liver. You do your best and can´t depend on support from anybody.
My father told me the truth about all this privatizing - it is an effort to create a permanent underclass, a phrase he picked up from 1930s socialists his parents didn´t even know he knew. That is a good description - a huge pool of kids who can´t meet some arbitrary standard and can therefore be foisted off with just enough education to be the modern hewers of wood and drawers of water. These descriptions seem right in line with the corporatization of everything we´re seeing nowadays.
I worry especially because I have a grandson with Asperger´s, brilliant but difficult. His older sister is also brilliant enough to be bored by ¨teaching to the test¨. I thank God their educational needs are currently being met in a small county.
Recently I learned my own Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County (Tennessee) system has been hit by the corporatizing bug. Cameron High School is in a light industrial/housing project neighborhood. Right now it is home to pupils speaking 40 languages. (In Nashville? What a change from my childhood!) This school has just been informed that it is failing and will be taken over by a private entity. I wonder about the fate of these children, because I doubt any private entity is going to want to work with 40 languages, especially in a poor neighborhood.
I read most of your posts, Mad Floridian, and am glad to have you pounding away at education concerns. Thanks!

[Starry Messenger]

94. I just wanted to say thank you.

Great post. I've noticed a few low-count but long-term posters who have been coming out to support public education and teachers and I just wanted to say it's really appreciated. Don't be afraid to post more. :thumbsup: