RI teachers who were fired had to assemble and listen to their names read out loud.

madfloridian

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Tue Aug-31-10 11:18 PM
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RI teachers who were fired had to assemble and listen to their names read out loud.

What a shameful thing to do. This was the Central Falls, RI school in which all the teachers were fired because the school was low-performing. It did not matter if they were good teachers, it did not matter that this was a high poverty area. They just fired them.

This was a high-degree of humiliation for them....having their names called out like naughty children.

Some of them are back at work this year, but they do not yet have a contract. That means they care enough about their work to be there daily not knowing when they will next be fired.

Fired, then rehired, Rhode Island teachers reflect on painful lessons

Dale Dearnley has taught science at the high school for the past four years. Earlier this year, she was fired from her job

Last February, the board of trustees for Central Falls, Rhode Island, voted to fire all of the teachers and staff of Central Falls High School after the school had been persistently labeled as low achieving.

..."In total, 93 members of the faculty at Central Falls High School were laid off. They gathered in the school auditorium and listened to the Executive Board call there names out, one by one. They wore red, the school color, as a sign of unity, but for the teachers it was a demoralizing moment.

..""The people that agreed that I needed to be fired have never been in my classroom, never spoken to me" Dearnley said. "As a matter of fact, my name was pronounced wrong....It was just so devastating to hear all these teachers that have been dedicated and I know and love and their names aren't even being pronounced right. It was devastating," Dearnley added.

The president praised these firings, as did Arne Duncan.

Obama praises firings of RI teachers

President Obama thought it was wonderful that every educator at Central Falls High School was fired. At an appearance before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on March 1, the President applauded the idea of closing the school and getting rid of everyone in it. At the same meeting, President Obama acknowledged Margaret Spellings, who was President George W. Bush's Education Secretary, because she "helped to lead a lot of the improvement that's been taking place and we're building on."

Well, yes, the President is right; his own education reform plans are built right on top of the shaky foundation of President Bush's No Child Left Behind program. The fundamental principle of school reform, in the Age of Bush and Obama, is measure and punish. If students don't get high enough scores, then someone must be punished! If the graduation rate hovers around 50%, then someone must be punished. This is known as "accountability."

Interestingly, the superintendent of that district is well-known as graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy. Where their fellows are in charge, the "reform" is moving quickly...too quickly.

At the time of the firings, the Washington Post's Valerie Strauss made some pertinent comments which I appreciated.

Duncan tried a lot of things during his more than seven years as Chicago schools chief: shutting down schools, hiring experts in turning around schools and firing a lot of people. The results? To put it nicely, there was no Chicago miracle. Some schools improved, others didn't.

That's because grand gestures don't work to improve schools. It would be nice if they did, but time and time again, we've learned they don't. Making schools work is a very difficult job. There is no one thing to blame; there is no single remedy that works for every school or district.

Decision to fire all of RI school's teachers is sad and desperate.

Grand gestures don't work. Massive turnarounds and firings don't work. Education can't be fixed like that.

That the RI teachers at Central Falls had to sit in an auditorium and hear their names called out like that was humiliation....plain and simple.

There has been enough of that now under this administration. The climate has been set by Arne Duncan that makes it okay to show teachers no respect.