Looking for a teaching job? Rhode Island is hiring 74 at one school!

[shrubber]

Hero!!! They are going to fire them all!

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/rhode-island-school-fire-teachers/story?id=9866139

Gallo had a choice of four federally guided models to propose for Central Falls High School, and her first choice, and the one the teachers rejected, was the "transformation plan," which included changes such as lengthening the school day by 25 minutes as well as required training for faculty members during the summer.

The plan also asked teachers to eat lunch with students once a week and to submit to more rigorous evaluations.

When the teachers said no to the plan, upset that they would not be getting paid for working longer hours, Gallo said she had no choice but to shift from her "improvement" plan to the "turnaround" model.

Glad to see there is some common sense left in the world.

 

[Cindy B]

Good for him. In our unionized state, that would never fly in a public school. I have heard of similair situations in a charter school where many teachers were removed.

 

[SaraJayne]

If you dig a little deeper, you'll see there is much more to the story.

 

[disykat]

I guess I'm confused as to how any employee could see an extra 1/2 hour each day without pay plus losing one lunch hour a week as something they would be thrilled about. That doesn't sound like something people would volunteer a "yes" for.

I can see firing someone for actual work refusal, but firing them for not voting yes to it?

I would work extra to keep my job or to do a job well, but I wouldn't vote "yes" to that policy.

 

[Jen414]

Wow!!!! I don't have time to dig deeper, but definitely will later on. A few thougts:

As a teacher (which I am), I would not want to be one of the "new" teachers hired--who will be the mentors as most of the staff will not be there? Mentor teachers are very important to new teachers--they give invaluable advice that you can not get from a book. With a whole new staff--even half of a new staff--it will basically be the blind leading the blind. This sounds like it's probably a challenging place to teach; new teachers will need much guidance here, more than they would in a suburban high school. I would also not want to be one of the fired teachers that is rehired. Morale will be at an all-time low and with half (or more) of the staff new, veteran teachers will have to shoulder more responsibility than they normally would. Most new teachers hired at challenging schools are usually totally new to the profession as a school like this is not somewhere where people with experience usually transfer to.

As a parent, I would feel uncomfortable with the education my child would be receiving with that many new teachers. It really is a incredibly high percentage of inexperienced teachers in one building.

I wish this school and its students good luck over the next few years. I hope they are able to straighten themselves out so these kids can get a good education.

 

[shrubber]

I guess I'm confused as to how any employee could see an extra 1/2 hour each day without pay plus losing one lunch hour a week as something they would be thrilled about. That doesn't sound like something people would volunteer a "yes" for.

I can see firing someone for actual work refusal, but firing them for not voting yes to it?

I would work extra to keep my job or to do a job well, but I wouldn't vote "yes" to that policy.

They did refuse, that's the point.
A 'no' vote is a refusal.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

They did refuse, that's the point.
A 'no' vote is a refusal.

That's the way that I see it, too. Changes were required to turn around an under-performing school, and the teachers refused to give the system a try. When you get what amounts to a negative performance review, you don't say no to changes that might turn around your performance. Of course, I hope that someone is looking at the school administrators, too...

 

[castleview]

I don't think throwing the baby out with the bath water is a good idea. I'm sure plenty of good dedicated teachers are getting fired along with the lazy, bad teachers.

It's not hard to fire a teacher as long as you document your case along the way. It's sad if basic administrators weren't doing their job and now this superintendent is doing a blanket firing.

Sort of off topic, but I was talking with a friend who lives in Rhode Island not far from this town. She said if you saw the area, you'd be impressed that the failure rate was only 50%.

 

[snowy76]

From the article:

"A state survey of the school's demographic identified that 96 percent of students are eligible for free or reduce lunch"

I think the reporter meant reduceD

Anyhow, that is an extremely impoverished school. I can't imagine the stress of teaching there and I would probably have voted no as well. Actually, I can imagine it, because I did teach at a school with that demographic. And since it WAS a charter school, we were required to eat with the kids with no say. There IS something to be said for having 20-40 minutes of separate space away from your students, time to regroup and recharge. You are operating on full throttle all day, what with the behavior issues and social issues that come with poverty.

That's not to say you can't make more kids succeed in that environment. I had tremendous success in my first two years at the school I was at. But emotionally and personally it drained me, and for a time it damaged my family life. I was working in overdrive the entire time. If I was given an ultimatum of the type described in the article, I probably would have told the superintendent exactly where she could put her restructuring plan.

I don't see any mention of the parents connected to this school. Where is their share of the responsibility for this predicament?

P.S. We've had this happen in some districts around here... the district simply moves half the teachers to other buildings so they're officially fired from the building in question, but don't necessarily lose their jobs entirely.

 

[golfgal]

It will be interesting to follow this school and see that next year the test scores aren't any different with the new teachers either .

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

It will be interesting to follow this school and see that next year the test scores aren't any different with the new teachers either .

That would prove very little. One would have to track these students over time, not one year from now, right?

 

[SaraJayne]

At what point do the students take responsibility for themselves?

 

[MM27]

I don't see any mention of the parents connected to this school. Where is their share of the responsibility for this predicament?

There is no responsibility for the parents. That is what everyone from our president down doesn't seem to understand. They wonder why there are high performing schools and low performing schools. They blame the teachers, but they never look at the parents, what the students do when they go home, what their life is like, etc.

I called a parent last week because one of my students is constantly distracting the class. He barks, he does backbends over the back of his chair, yesterday he was singing "play that funky music white boy" at the top of his lungs. He sits and prevents 21 other kids from getting an education and mom's response to me was, "When he's at school, that's your job" I explained to the mother that when he is drumming on his desk with pencils, I can take the pencils away, but then he starts with his fingers and hands. Unless she wants me to tie his hands together, there's really not much that can be done.

Had to get the principal involved and mom is going to be told tomorrow at a meeting that every time he is a disruption, they will be calling her to pick him up. She refuses to do anything because it's not her job when he's at school.

My line is and always will be, If they come out of me, I'll take full responsibility, if not, then my time with them is limited and someone else will need to share that responsibility with me.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

There is no responsibility for the parents. That is what everyone from our president down doesn't seem to understand. They wonder why there are high performing schools and low performing schools. They blame the teachers, but they never look at the parents, what the students do when they go home, what their life is like, etc...

So, instead of refusing the changes, perhaps the teachers could have agreed to the changes with other criteria/considerations. They can't just say no and expect that there wouldn't be consequences. This is the world that we live in. Sometimes we just have to roll with the punches...

 

[golfgal]

That would prove very little. One would have to track these students over time, not one year from now, right?

Wrong. Kids move from teacher to teacher every year and they are tracked just that way now. They expect miracles in a year from the current teachers, they should expect the same from the new crop.

So, instead of refusing the changes, perhaps the teachers could have agreed to the changes with other criteria/considerations. They can't just say no and expect that there wouldn't be consequences. This is the world that we live in. Sometimes we just have to roll with the punches...

I am so sure that the teachers took one look at the contract and said nope. These negotiations are a LONG and ongoing process and I am sure the teachers proposed concessions and this was the best the district would come up with.

How would you respond if your boss said you now have to work an hour a day longer and you lose your lunch break, oh, but we aren't going to pay you any more--nevermind that they are already working more then they are contracted for and not getting paid for THAT either.


I say FINALLY some teachers stood up to "society" and stopped taking the blame. Every time a school gets a bad report it is automatically the fault of the teachers. Sorry, NOT EVEN CLOSE. It starts at home first and finally and until THAT situation changes even the best teacher in the world isn't going to be able to do much. We have a few teachers in our district that came here from some pretty bad inner city schools. They are PHENOMENAL teachers yet they got a lot of grief in their old district because the students weren't performing . It is amazing how all these kids they are now teaching seem to be getting top scores on ACT/SAT/AP's, etc.

 

[kpm76]

I live in RI and have been watching this unfold. Central Falls is one square mile and the densely populated area in the state. It is arguably the poorest area in the state. The graduation rate at the high school is 48%. There are 19 year old "kids" in classes with 14 yr olds. More than 70% of the students are Latino, many of whom come from homes where Engligh is a second language. I am not really going to get into the politics of all of this, but I will leave you with this......the teachers at the high school earn between $70,000 - $78,000 while the median household income in the city is $22,000........

 

[MM27]

So, instead of refusing the changes, perhaps the teachers could have agreed to the changes with other criteria/considerations. They can't just say no and expect that there wouldn't be consequences. This is the world that we live in. Sometimes we just have to roll with the punches...

I didn't read the article yet, I was just responding based on this thread. As someone else said, contract negotiations sometimes go on for a long time. In my district we worked without a contract for a year and a half a few years back because the sides just couldn't agree. I wonder if it was as simple as here are the changes, teachers say no, so they fire them. Was there room for compromise somewhere in there?

We're going through this all right now as they are trying to institute longer school days but then they turn around and say that budgets are being cut and programs like summer school may be done away with. This is the whole issue that we had with NCLB. Anything can sound good on paper, but when you don't have the money to fund things and cut staff and programs, how can you expect the results that you were aiming for?

 

[golfgal]

I live in RI and have been watching this unfold. Central Falls is one square mile and the densely populated area in the state. It is arguably the poorest area in the state. The graduation rate at the high school is 48%. There are 19 year old "kids" in classes with 14 yr olds. More than 70% of the students are Latino, many of whom come from homes where Engligh is a second language. I am not really going to get into the politics of all of this, but I will leave you with this......the teachers at the high school earn between $70,000 - $78,000 while the median household income in the city is $22,000........

What does this have to do with it? They are being blamed for the lack of performance at the school then asked to work longer hours for NO more pay and they will STILL be the fall guy when the test scores don't improve next year either-all for nothing. Sorry, I wouldn't do it either.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

...How would you respond if your boss said you now have to work an hour a day longer and you lose your lunch break, oh, but we aren't going to pay you any more--nevermind that they are already working more then they are contracted for and not getting paid for THAT either...

I have been asked to do a whole lot more than that before. I would say, "Whatever it takes to get this turned around." Then I would make sure that I was a part of the solution. I would not say no unless I had another job in hand.

Like I said before, I live in the real world. There are consequences for telling your boss no - even if you are right and he/she is wrong.

Note - I never said that this is the teacher's fault (the poor performance of the school). But that doesn't change to order of power...

 

[kpm76]

What does this have to do with it? They are being blamed for the lack of performance at the school then asked to work longer hours for NO more pay and they will STILL be the fall guy when the test scores don't improve next year either-all for nothing. Sorry, I wouldn't do it either.

You obviously didn't do all of your research because they were offered $30/hour for the 2 weeks of professional development they were asked to attend in the summer and $30/hour for the 90 minutes of common planning time during the week. The union wanted the teachers to be compensated $90/hour There were a few extras they were asked to do that they would not be compensated for but guess what, there are a lot of people out there doing the jobs of 2 people but they are not complaining because they are happy to have a job. I used to be a government employee and when grant funding was cut, so were positions. A lot of my colleagues absorbed the workload of people who left because it was that or lose your job. I can tell you one thing, there is not a lot of sympathy for these teachers in this state with our unemployment rate at 12.9%.....