You can always tell it's Spring. First, the weather is changing; second, it's budget time; and third, state mandated tests are taking place in many schools. Regarding the latter, two interesting pieces recently came to my attention. The first was a news item that the entire faculty and administration of Central Falls High School in RI had been fired. The second was a blog post by a friend of mine (http://gael-lynch.blogspot.com). In the first instance, the entire faculty was fired due to the poor performance of students on standardized tests. In the case of the referenced blog post, the author, somewhat jokingly, refers to her salary being tied to test scores. Maybe after she reads about that RI school system, she'll see that there's no humor in the situation. This is in my view a very alarming event. It raises a number of questions regarding public education. But first, let's be clear about a couple of things. First, every single student who chooses to attend a public school deserves the best quality education available. Second, every single student, along with his/her parents, have the responsibility of being partners in this adventure. This means they will give it their 100% best shot. Without these two situations in place, student success will be elusive-at best.
So now the questions:
Why was the entire faculty fired? Were they ALL incompetent? How did the powers-that-be make that determination? What measures did they use besides one test?
Did the Board of Education take into account other variables in a student's life besides the quality of their instruction? I remember, back in the day, when a principal stated-in writing (and I still have that very evaluation)-that he was giving me a larger then usual number of 'difficult' students because I was supposedly 'good' with them. Invariably those 'difficult' students did poorly on tests. Would it have been fair for me to have been fired?
Is that all schools are about? Test scores? Should educators be focusing on other things?
The implications of all of this are extremely important. I believe strongly that poor teachers should be made better-or dismissed. But there is no question that there are millions of outstanding teachers out there knocking themselves out every single day trying to deliver quality education only to be told time and again by their students that they didn't do their homework or they weren't at school because they didn't have time, or they were on vacation, or they had other things to do, or they just plain didn't feel like it! Where's the shared responsibility? Where are the other partners in this exercise we call education? I'm retired now so I don't have a direct stake in this issue but my grand children are headed into the fray and I have friends in the thick of it, so I'm still interested. Where's it all headed? Finally, on a related note, President Obama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, applauded the firing of the teachers. Great! Now what?
2 comments:
Well, Arne, if I recall, applauded Michele Rhee too, right. Remember that cover of Time with M.R. holding the broom. Scary to think that these people think they have a clue about the true pulse of the school. We've had many a discussion at school about how classes get balanced. I've been asked to take a certain group of readers...and writers too, b/c they struggle. Sure I get stronger students too, but it's a quandry for certain. We will lose our ability to be collegial, b/c we'll become competitive. This is so wrong. I joke about it, b/c I can't imagine how they could strike a balance and find a fair approach. But I wonder, also, if this could become a new maneuver for the BOEs to manage the high end of the pay scale, if you know what I mean. Scary, you're right.
Oh, and George...could you add question marks to the first two sentences up there, and correct quandry to read quandary? Jeesh. See what happens when I get fired-up?!
Post a Comment