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

[DisneyBamaFan]

To a large extent I agree, except that I don't think that the union and the teachers thought there was a real risk of "Plan B". I think they're truly shocked, as is everyone else.

That is like sending in your letter of resignation and being shocked that your boss accepts it....

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

To a large extent I agree, except that I don't think that the union and the teachers thought there was a real risk of "Plan B". I think they're truly shocked, as is everyone else.

I guess that showed them, eh?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

That is like sending in your letter of resignation and being shocked that your boss accepts it....

I had that happen once. I was really shocked. Only b/c I had multiple bosses. Except the ones I worked with were shocked that I resigned and wished I hadn't.

I didn't realize people could accept resignations. So when my upper boss did, my feelings were kind of hurt. But then again, she was the reason I was quitting--so I shouldn't have been that shocked that she wouldn't be sad to see me go. She was a very mean individual with some chip on her shoulder and none of us "trainees" liked her very much.

In this case--I did quit without notice though. So I was gone regardless. But I still remember how naive I was when I got shocked that she called to "accept" my resignation.

 

[daughtersrus]

You guys are beating this to death without discussing the real reason that these teachers were fired. It is really simple. The school has to be turned around. The administration put together a plan to turn it around. That plan required more work from the teachers at a fair rate ($30/hr). The teachers refused, demanding more money ($90/hr). The district cannot afford that rate, so the whole plan was scrapped and Plan B went into effect. The teachers knew that there was a real risk of Plan B if they didn't accept the conditions.

So, in a nutshell, the teachers quit.

There are always two sides to a story.

http://www.centralfallskidsdeservebetter.com/thefacts

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

That is like sending in your letter of resignation and being shocked that your boss accepts it....

I'm just saying that firing a whole school full of teachers is so extremely rare (has it been done before?), that the threat of doing it sounds empty, and therefore I think the teachers were very surprised that it actually happened. Should they be? I guess not!

 

[shrubber]

It proves that admin isn't.

Social promotion has increased over the years and in some cases teachers are not allowed to "fail" a student. His poor snowflake feelings may be hurt.

Now if a teacher is willfully concealing a student's lack of knowledge, then that is the teacher's fault.

Citation?

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

There are always two sides to a story.

http://www.centralfallskidsdeservebetter.com/thefacts

Yeah, I have read both sides. I stand by my assessment that they brought this on themselves. I make no judgment in assessing blame for the school's failure, but the teachers knew the risks and decided to roll the dice for more money. They lost...

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Citation?

There are several teachers who have posted in this thread and others over the last few days of students who were allowed to move to the next grade who should have been kept back...

 

[daughtersrus]

Citation?

http://www2.ed.gov/PDFDocs/socialprom.pdf

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Citation?

Nope!

I won't have the teachers who told me write me a note either.

It happens, it happens a lot. It is unfortunate.

ETA: you are welcome to google it--much information on the topic. The reason that it is used...COST!

 

[MM27]

Citation?

I'll be the citation In my district and many others that I am aware of, the parents have the final say in students being retained. We put in retentions in February. I have four of them in right now. That's out of 44 students in two classes. One parent is fighting it already and I can guarantee you that the child will go to the next grade next year.

As a teacher I get so annoyed when we are blamed entirely because if it were up to me the kids that I put in for to be retained would be retained. My hands are tied once I put the retention in the principal's hands. I continue contact with the parent and hope that from March to June the child will have made enough progress to move to the higher grade,but the parents rule because the districts don't want to spend the money it would take to take them to court. My district just lost 9 million dollars thanks to our new governor, so I can guarantee you that they won't be spending a cent on court cases. Same thing happens when we put in referrals for Special Ed testing. Parent says no and the child is left to suffer. But yes, it's all the teacher's fault

 

[daughtersrus]

It looks like low test scores in RI are not just in this school. Maybe the state board of ed should be fired as well.


http://newsblog.projo.com/2008/02/ri-11th-graders.html

 

[FireDancer]

In my district and many others that I am aware of, the parents have the final say in students being retained.

This might be the stupidest thing I have ever heard.* It is like they are legislating the Peter Principle.


*Though from the statistics of the school in question I suspect a quick read of some English Lit papers would quickly supplant this. Well, provided I read it out loud.

 

[daughtersrus]

Yeah, I have read both sides. I stand by my assessment that they brought this on themselves. I make no judgment in assessing blame for the school's failure, but the teachers knew the risks and decided to roll the dice for more money. They lost...

I still haven't found anything besides the one link posted her that says that they wanted $90/hour. The link that I provided earlier shows that they did agree to the term and were trying to negotiate.

I also found this.

http://www.projo.com/news/bobkerr/kerr_column_21_02-21-10_1IHGEOS_v14.32a7a3b.html

 

[castleview]

So I was going to pick my child up from Homework Club today and ran into a friend who teaches at another school in our district. I said "Whatcha doing here?" She said she came down to tutor a student, but he didn't show up. I guess that's the teacher's fault.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I still haven't found anything besides the one link posted her that says that they wanted $90/hour. The link that I provided earlier shows that they did agree to the term and were trying to negotiate.

I also found this.

http://www.projo.com/news/bobkerr/kerr_column_21_02-21-10_1IHGEOS_v14.32a7a3b.html

I saw it somewhere else, too. Can't remember where. But they were told that there would be no negotiation. They didn't believe them.

Edited to add - that article addresses blame for failure - but this isn't about that. It is about moving forward.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

So I was going to pick my child up from Homework Club today and ran into a friend who teaches at another school in our district. I said "Whatcha doing here?" She said she came down to tutor a student, but he didn't show up. I guess that's the teacher's fault.

Now you're just being silly.

 

[kpm76]

I still haven't found anything besides the one link posted her that says that they wanted $90/hour. The link that I provided earlier shows that they did agree to the term and were trying to negotiate.

I also found this.

http://www.projo.com/news/bobkerr/kerr_column_21_02-21-10_1IHGEOS_v14.32a7a3b.html

Here's another link......

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/rhode-island-school-fires-74-teachers/story?id=9911693&page=2

Why is everyone questioning it when it's in black and white?? The union doesn't even dispute it. They came up with the hourly rate based on the teacher's salary (they earn between $70,000 - $78,000) and the number of days they work (180).....if you take $78,000 plus $27,300 for fringe = $105,300 divided by 180 = $585 divided by 6.5 hours/day (that's the length of the school day) = $90/hour

 

[shrubber]

interesting, getting rid of all the crappy teachers and replacing them worked in Chicago....
http://chicagoweekly.net/2010/02/04...transforming-chicagos-worst-public-schools-2/

Harvard Elementary School in Englewood was a teacher's worst nightmare. Kids ran in and out of classrooms in the middle of class, started fights, and swore at faculty. Principals cycled through without making any impact. In 2007, less than a third of Harvard students passed the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), putting the school in the bottom ranks of Illinois public schools.
...
Koldyke approached Duncan with his idea for turning around the lowest-performing schools in the district. "The kids stay, the adults leave, and we would train this cadre of residents and put them in en masse into a school with new leadership," Koldyke says. Duncan, meanwhile, was launching CPS's Renaissance 2010 initiative, which aimed to close failing schools and open one hundred new ones by 2010, a goal CPS is on track to meet. Although CPS counts AUSL's turnaround schools towards that total, Feinstein makes clear that "to me, it was never about Renaissance 2010 with our program." Unlike many Renaissance 2010 schools, AUSL's turnaround schools aren't charter schools, don't receive Renaissance 2010 funding, and are staffed by unionized teachers.
...
Barrett's instinct was right. "They came in and they just changed this school from bad to excellent," she says. "I was shocked, because being here so long I didn't think anyone could change it." Between 2007 and 2009, while the average composite score on the ISAT in both the city and state crept up a few points, Harvard's score nearly doubled, from 32 to 56 percent. Today, students at Harvard arrive in uniforms, walk quietly in the halls, and treat teachers with respect. "At the old Harvard, you would tell them they would suffer the consequences, but the children who wouldn't listen knew they were going to get out of it," says Barrett, who says their attitude was, "Well, go ahead, tell the teacher, go ahead tell the principal, what they gonna do?" "You don't hear nobody here saying, 'Well, go ahead, tell Mr. Cowling, what he gonna do?' They don't say that here."

 

[castleview]

Now you're just being silly.

I am being silly. But I'm just pointing out some of the attitudes toward education that teachers deal with. Stuff like this is normal unfortunately - and this is a fairly successful school.