Fire all the Teachers!

This is what's coming folks....all this School Board has done is pre-empt the new rules coming from the Feds.  Now of course, how a completely new faculty are supposed to not only maintain the gains in reading in math but improve them hasn't really been explained yet.  But it sure is easy to blame the teachers, isn't it?

-- A school board in Rhode Island has voted to fire all teachers at a struggling high school, a dramatic move aimed at shoring up education in a poverty-ridden school district.

In a 5-2 vote Tuesday night, the board approved the plan by Frances Gallo, superintendent at Central Falls School District, to discharge the teachers, administrators and other personnel at Central Falls High School.

The firings, which will be effective at the end of this school year, came after the district said it failed to reach an agreement with the teachers' union on a plan for the teachers to spend more time with students to improve test scores.

A union spokesman called the firings drastic and cited a 21 percent rise in reading scores and a 3 percent increase in math scores in the past two years.

The school district said 93 people -- including the principal, three assistant principals and 77 teachers -- were fired. The teachers' union said the firings affected 74 classroom teachers plus a number of other educators such as guidance counselors and reading specialists.

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On Reading & Retention

Indiana Citizens was pleased to see this response from Carole Craig (NAACP) to Sunday’s Star on the Retention Law ( Senate Bill 258).  The Star picked two "experts" who just happened to agree with the policy and apparently the paper's position.  Certainly, we want reading to be a priority but this just shows another punitive effort that ignores focusing on the child.  Craig also points to the clear research on retention and dropout rates (which....we thought was a priority).
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Retention isn't answer to reading problem

Having spent more than 30 years in urban education, currently as a consultant working with the NAACP to promote equity in education, I would never advocate that children be promoted to the next grade without having the appropriate skills. However, as research over the past 30 years shows, retention is not the answer either.

One of the first indicators of who will struggle in school and eventually drop out and be relegated to a life of poverty is the child who cannot read by third grade. However, studies show that a child who is retained is no more likely to be a successful high school graduate with the ability to complete college than the one who was socially promoted.

The issue becomes, instead, how can a child get through third grade without the necessary reading skills?

Elementary principals will tell you that they have no desire to socially promote such a student. They will tell you that they don't have needed resources and that more than likely these children came to school without preschool and kindergarten experiences, which are not fully funded for full day in Indiana.

Principals will tell you that more volunteers for mentoring and tutoring and more business and community partnerships are needed since teachers don't have the time to provide enough one-on-one instruction.

Rather than mandate retention, I would like see a public report from every Indiana school at midyear with the number of students who are not on the path to having reading skills needed to move on to fourth grade. I recommend that schools be required to list the strategies, resources, programs and partnerships being used to eliminate the problem (including a request to the Indiana Department of Education for help). I recommend that the number of staff members not considered proficient through the district performance evaluation process be listed.

If these are resource and personnel issues, how can children be punished through retention only to receive more of what didn't work? Instead, shouldn't proper action be taken by the Department of Education at midyear to ensure that every child be provided with what is necessary to succeed? If these children are suffering from not having preschool and kindergarten, then why not mandate and fund these for all students, as many states have already done?

Craig, an education consultant, is NAACP co-chair for Greater Indianapolis and the state

Politics that Hurt Kids

Amidst all of the calls for improving student achievement and teacher quality we get more cuts that will further impact struggling schools.  Do More with Less seems to be the mantra.  Note that those schools with the highest needs (read urban schools) will be hurt the most, yet again.  We need to remember these disastrous years for Indiana education come election time.



Educators: Only cuts left are ones that will hurt kids
Indiana schools are struggling to trim budgets 4.5 percent

By Andy Gammill, INDY STAR

Posted: February 22, 2010

Even for schools accustomed to cutting their budgets, this year may go down as the most brutal.  Districts have gone far beyond snipping the easy things, such as travel budgets and training costs, and moved on to job cuts, school closures and just about everything else.

The Indiana State Teachers Association estimates that 4,500 school jobs will be lost based on what districts have said. At least five districts in Indianapolis are considering closing schools or already have closed them.

Decatur Township Schools is cuttingathletic coaches and paring extracurricular activities. Mt. Vernon Schools has ceased printing newsletters and stopped hiring substitute teachers. Franklin Township Schools will charge fees to play sports or ride the bus.

After state tax revenues came in below what was anticipated, Gov.Mitch Daniels erased an expected increase in school funding from last year and ordered even deeper cuts. The result: Each district in the state must cut 4.5 percent from what it had planned to spend this year in its operating budgets.  Educators are warning that the cuts will have an impact on children and communities. In most districts, the costs of salaries and benefits make up 80 percent to 90 percent of that operating budget.

"The potential is pretty devastating when you look at the state as a whole," said Nate Schnellenberger, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association. "It would eliminate a lot of non-core programs that are valuable to students -- art, band, journalism. It could change things for years to come."  Many districts are turning off the lights to try to save a little on electricity, and in several, administrators are taking pay cuts.

Dennis Costerison, director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials, said those districts that had already been losing funding are the worst off.  "We have districts right now having to make these tough, nightmarish types of decisions," he said. "Others are able to make it through for another year. If things don't improve, they'll be in those situations."

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Failing the Children in Indiana

Indiana Citizens agrees that the Indy Star needs to be congratulated for continuing to push the conversation on public education--long overdue.   This article says that the problem lies in "parents who took too little interest, teachers who were inept, a school district bureaucracy that is unresponsive and a community uncertain how to help" but a piece that is missing is the continued cut to funding for public education which translates to bigger class size, lack of counselors and social workers in schools, and good professional development for teachers.  This is a big gap in the analysis....calling for volunteers and mentors is a good thing of course but don't forget that the city has to do it because the state has left its children out in the cold.

9 problems we must overcome to help save our children

By Andy Gammill and Robert King

Posted: January 31, 2010

1. Children start out behind >and many never catch up.

2. Without the ability to read, their options will narrow.

3. Teachers are key: Two bad ones in a row, and a child may never catch up.

4. Children's basic needs must be met before they can learn.

5. When children change schools or homes, education suffers.

6. For good or for ill, kids will take their cues from parents and neighbors.

7. Without their community, students can't succeed.

8. Children won't have a chance to learn if outside distractions can't be controlled.

9. Children are held back by a sprawling, unwieldy bureaucracy that gets in the way.

Lesson: Failing the children fails the community. It's our future, too.