A Rhode Island school district's decision to fire seventy-four teachers and nineteen staff members (the entire faculty of the school) at an "underperforming" school is generating some media attention. As someone entering the teaching profession, this is of particular interest to me. Is the answer to education reform really to start over with a blank slate? Surely not every teacher at Central Falls High School was underperforming?
There are, of course, other schools and districts that are looking to make teachers more accountable, to restructure their schools so that their students may achieve higher. (Whether that is judged by standardized tests, college admissions, graduation rates, student self-esteem, or something else is still uncertain.) But, if I am not mistaken, this is the first time a whole faculty has been canned. I don't know the whole story, obviously, but I really think that there should have been a more fair and systematic way to do things.
For example, were the underperforming teachers observed and assessed - and encouraged, or forced, even, to make adjustments? Were they notified that their jobs might be in danger because of the school's failing as a whole? I'm all for integrity ("doing the right thing even when no one is watching," as one of my seventh-grade teachers would say), and yes, one would hope that teachers give students their all regardless of tenure, unions, the presence of an administrator in their classroom, but let's be real: if someone told me explicitly my performance was subpar and my job was on the line, you better believe I'd be busting my ass to write the best lesson plans in the history of secondary math. Whereas if I didn't know, maybe I'd still be in La-La Land, thinking I was a fine educator with no impetus to improve, only to wake up without a job the next day. I have no data to back this up, but I think job insecurity might be a performance motivator.
Additionally, what about the teachers who were actually doing a decent job and were just the unlucky babies in the bathwater? Isn't that sending the frightening message that you're only judged on merit until you're surrounded by enough other people who aren't good, at which point your individual performance doesn't matter anymore? I realize this surely happens in industries across the board and that the truly good teachers will find employment elsewhere, but this all seems like unnecessary anguish for them.
Anyway, I think it is terribly unfortunate for the students at Central Falls. In one fell swoop, they've lost a significant part of their support system. In the long run, perhaps the town stands to benefit from new, possibly better teachers, but how do you really prevent recurrent teacher complacency and continued underperformance, and now with student distrust and antipathy complicating things?
The district is reaching out to programs like Teach For America, which looks good on paper, but I'm always surprised when people seem to look at TFA as the savior of failing schools. I might be the last person one would expect to say that TFA is an incredibly imperfect solution, but it's true, especially as the program relies mostly on people who have little or no experience in teaching whatsoever - not to mention people who will leave two years down the line. If failing schools are a wound, TFA is the Band-Aid, not the platelet: it covers up the damage but doesn't heal it. Still, I suppose an injection of the undeniable TFA energy and enthusiasm for education into Central Falls couldn't hurt.
It will certainly be interesting to see what changes in education reform and teacher accountability Arne Duncan's term brings. Is Arne Duncan the platelet? I don't know.
For example, were the underperforming teachers observed and assessed - and encouraged, or forced, even, to make adjustments? Were they notified that their jobs might be in danger because of the school's failing as a whole? I'm all for integrity ("doing the right thing even when no one is watching," as one of my seventh-grade teachers would say), and yes, one would hope that teachers give students their all regardless of tenure, unions, the presence of an administrator in their classroom, but let's be real: if someone told me explicitly my performance was subpar and my job was on the line, you better believe I'd be busting my ass to write the best lesson plans in the history of secondary math. Whereas if I didn't know, maybe I'd still be in La-La Land, thinking I was a fine educator with no impetus to improve, only to wake up without a job the next day. I have no data to back this up, but I think job insecurity might be a performance motivator.
Additionally, what about the teachers who were actually doing a decent job and were just the unlucky babies in the bathwater? Isn't that sending the frightening message that you're only judged on merit until you're surrounded by enough other people who aren't good, at which point your individual performance doesn't matter anymore? I realize this surely happens in industries across the board and that the truly good teachers will find employment elsewhere, but this all seems like unnecessary anguish for them.
Anyway, I think it is terribly unfortunate for the students at Central Falls. In one fell swoop, they've lost a significant part of their support system. In the long run, perhaps the town stands to benefit from new, possibly better teachers, but how do you really prevent recurrent teacher complacency and continued underperformance, and now with student distrust and antipathy complicating things?
The district is reaching out to programs like Teach For America, which looks good on paper, but I'm always surprised when people seem to look at TFA as the savior of failing schools. I might be the last person one would expect to say that TFA is an incredibly imperfect solution, but it's true, especially as the program relies mostly on people who have little or no experience in teaching whatsoever - not to mention people who will leave two years down the line. If failing schools are a wound, TFA is the Band-Aid, not the platelet: it covers up the damage but doesn't heal it. Still, I suppose an injection of the undeniable TFA energy and enthusiasm for education into Central Falls couldn't hurt.
It will certainly be interesting to see what changes in education reform and teacher accountability Arne Duncan's term brings. Is Arne Duncan the platelet? I don't know.
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