Rhode Island Teachers Take the Blame

President Obama was praised by many during his campaign in his desire to change America’s schools. His vision for a change was two-fold – it would hold both teachers and parents accountable for a child’s education.  As the events in Central Falls, Rhode Island unfolded last week, causing all teachers and administrators at Central Falls High School to be fired, and earning praise from Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, I have to question the President’s sincerity.

Last Tuesday, the Rhode Island Commissioner of Education approved a school district’s plan to fire all 88 teachers at Central Falls High School.  This move reflects what has been going around in cities across the country as school administrators aim to improve academic performance in some of the poorest communities in the nation. Even though this past school year saw multitudes more teachers fired in other cities – 229 in DC, for example – the firing of all 88 CFHS teachers promises to spark more attention and controversy as it is a blatant declaration by the school board and the RI Department of Education that teachers are the major contributor to low performance among students.

Central Falls Superintendent, Fran Gallo, blames the teachers union’s inability to settle a contract dispute that would require Central Falls teachers to work longer school days and take on added responsibilities with little or no compensation, and many people in the blogosphere seem to have sided with the superintendent. However, if she intends for this issue to highlight the problems with unions, she has another thing coming. It would be a lot more effective to keep the really good teachers than to start at square one. It would certainly be useful to have some strong veterans around in building a new school.  Anyone who has secretly wished he or she could quit a job to see how the boss handles things on his or her own might be interested to see how this one plays out. To be clear, the district has the right to hire back no more than 50% of the teachers it fired, but it’s possible the damage has already been done.

And while teachers are already arguably the most underpaid and undervalued of any profession, it is indeed possible to take advantage of them further, and this union dispute is a great example. Requiring teachers to work longer hours and provide students with extra help seems reasonable, except that teachers are already required to work long hours. No school district in the country allows its teachers to leave school when the bell rings every single day of the school year.  At the end of the school day, teachers attend faculty and departmental meetings and provide office hours. These things are par for the course in a teacher’s contract. Additionally, many are strongly encouraged by their administration to take part in task forces, after school programs, and additional workshops. Let’s not forget that teachers must take a certain number of credits and in many states are required to earn a master’s degree within a few years of entering the profession.

Gallo and Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist can blame the union, but the fact remains that in one broad stroke, they eliminated every employee of the high school, strongly suggesting that the move is the answer to the school’s educational woes. If we follow their logic, we’d have to assume that they are planning on replacing these teachers with more competent ones, and possibly hiring teachers who are willing to take the job without the support of a union. I’d like to know what expertise these two are going to find, or better yet, what are they looking for? Many teachers will say they feel like a subject matter expert, a therapist, parent, and police officer, all rolled into one. It’s likely the people most qualified for the job are the ones who have been teaching at CFHS for the bulk of their careers.

So clearly everyone from the President of the United States to the lowly school superintendent is in favor of holding teachers accountable. But what about that other piece of the puzzle – what about the parents? What is the administration doing to hold them accountable? That was part of the original plan, after all.

The problem with holding parents accountable is that no one knows how to do it. It is a lot harder to educate a community of adults than it is to require more from a group of teachers. This is where politicians can get a little shady. They know it is going to be really, really difficult to truly change a community and bring a group of people out of poverty (in fact, doing just that might anger a lot of their constituents, who might actually discourage empowering a poor and uneducated community –  but we can open that can of worms another time). So since this effort would be so monumentally complex, politicians need to find a way to appease the public, who has noticed the schools’ deterioration. Teachers turn out to be a decent scapegoat – it of course makes sense to blame the ones who are at the front of the classroom. But failure to attack our education problem at its core is going to yield more problems.

It’s doubtful that next year’s staff at CFHS will be able to make miraculous gains in student performance, especially since the current staff has been making consistent gains, but just not at the rate that the state of Rhode Island projected. And if miraculous gains are reached, we had all better take a really close look at the other changes the district has implemented.

The biggest problem with this political farce of blaming teachers is the misuse of tax dollars and its inevitable effect on any chance of true reform in the future. Lawmakers are paying a hefty sum to give the appearance they are taking action, and while they spend our money to maintain their images for the next election, the real problem gets neglected. Eventually someday someone will realize that communities need to change if schools are going to change, but until then, more money will go down the drain.

What many are calling “No Teacher Left Behind” has sparked an outcry in the education community. In some ways, it could end up being a good thing for teachers that the state of Rhode Island had enough guts to cut to the point of the issue that many districts have been skirting around for years, because it is drawing attention to the issue of education reform.  The idea they are putting forth shouldn’t sit well with any of us, and hopefully the dramatic move will enrage enough people to create a platform that studies the real issues that affect education in our country. For now, if the President’s administration wants to round up a bunch of teachers and call that improvement, I’ll be looking for a different kind of change.

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