The reason I am posing this question to you all is because of the events that took place in Central Falls Rhode Island where the entire school administration was dismissed after years of school failure. Seventy-four teachers and 19 staff members will lose their jobs in a former-mill town with an unemployment rate of 13. 8 percent. While change is definitely needed towards improving the all the schools, but especially the high school, firing every teacher may not be the right approach. Central Falls H.S. graduate rate is less than 50% and only 7 percent are efficient in mathematics according to an article in the Central Falls Journal, which appeared in the NY Times.
While this approach of firing entire school administrations is not a new one, rather low-performing districts in New York and Chicago did the same, is it the best answer? It's hard for me to think that all 74 teachers were bad teachers, that just cannot be the truth. I think school district board members are always looking to blame teachers first for a school's failure, when that might not always be the case. I think we need to blame the system of how we run our schools, how we value teachers, and the passage of NCLB (No Child Left Behind) as big pieces to this failure pie.
For most of these kids, these teachers were family to them. This town is stricken by high unemployment, poverty, and broken families. By firing the entire staff, the state, the board is hurting the kids. That is what makes articles like this so upsetting because you are affecting the students in so many ways. Just because you change teachers, it does not necessarily mean that the problem will be solved.
Bringing in Teach for America teachers, as the article suggested does not mean good changes will necessarily occur. I really hope that good change is on the way, but who really knows. In my opinion, most Teach for America teachers are inexperienced and under qualified. What this district needs are talented, highly qualified, experienced, well-balanced and emotionally strong teachers and administration. If the district does not hire these type of teachers, then the district should at least pay and help those "bad" teachers improve.
Even with a strong facility, a school district like Central Falls still needs adequate funding to even have a chance for succeeding. In most districts throughout the country they rely on property taxes as the main source of revenue to run the public school districts. Well if you live in a town with an unemployment rate of 13.8% and a high poverty rate, how is a district supposed to have an adequate amount of money to run its schools? You cannot simply blame the administration for underachieving school, rather you must look at the entire picture. By having 74 more unemployed people in the town just adds to this budget deficit that the district is seeing.
Why not work with the teachers and administration that is already there to help them improve their teaching abilities. Why not figure out why these kids are not graduating from high school versus just firing an entire staff. I think the school board looked for a "quick fix" to the problem that has multiple layers. Why not ask the kids why they are not graduating? After reading this article so many kids talked about how these teachers were such inspirations or family to them. These kids want to succeed, but they are in a hard environment. The high school is carrying such an intense burden and I do not think that the board really sees that.
In order to fix our public school's we need to see the entire picture of why schools fail versus just saying that a new administration will have success. We need to stop putting band-aids on a broken system, and start fixing the broken system from the ground up.
