Dramatic shake-up planned at 12 Boston public schools

[tonysam]

Similar shit as in Central Falls, only a different school district in a different state, and the fact the staff wouldn't be fired from the district:

Boston school officials announced yesterday that staff at six schools will have to reapply for their jobs and five principals will be replaced after the schools were listed among nearly three dozen statewide that will probably be declared “underperforming’’ and subject to drastic change.

Overall, 12 Boston schools face being listed as underperforming, slightly more than a third of the 35 schools statewide. The list includes the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, long considered a barometer of Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s effectiveness in improving the city’s schools over the past 16 years.

The state’s action was the first under a two-month-old law requiring dramatic changes to overhaul the state’s lowest-performing schools. Superintendents will have three years to turn around these schools or face a state takeover.

In announcing the shake-up, Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said the schools must have top-notch staffs to successfully turn them around. She emphasized that staff members are not being fired and that employees not rehired could find work at other district schools.

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I like this comment at Susan Ohanian's site:

Reader Comment: Here's a lead-pipe cinch guarantee. Instead of replacing the teachers and principals, if the students who attend Weston High School or those who attend Acton-Boxboro Regional were moved into the Jeremiah Burke and vice-versa--with no changes in teachers--Burke would be a high-performing school and Weston or A-B would be on the defecate list. . . .

[FBaggins]

1. Similar, but not the same.

These teachers aren't being fired... just shuffled around.

Which, of course, only slightly offsets the fact that they ARE (on inadequate information) being told that they're losers who don't know how to teach.

On THAT count it's the "same sh1t" - but the problem isn't local, it's national.

[madrchsod]

3. duncan did the same thing in chicago...

"fired" the teachers at closed schools and made them apply to his charter schools/academies. he took the cream of the teachers and students and dumped the rest back into the public system.

duncan-obama`s plan for public education is separate and unequal and union free.

[YvonneCa]

6. "...they ARE (on inadequate information) being told that they're losers who don't know how to teach"

...You words are KEY to what is happening. Each state and district is doing a variation on this. Mine...based on inadequate information (student test scores).. listed and then targeted teachers for removal at each district school. Then they started bullying teachers on that list to try to get them to leave on their own. Some did. Some retired just to be away from the bullying.

Now they are doing 'Golden Handshakes' to get senior, more experienced (think expensive) teachers to leave.

For me, the point is that teachers, nationally, are being disrespected and made scapegoats for everything that is wrong in public schools when they are not. I have come to believe the motivation is 1) money, 2) they want newbies they can shape into doing whatever reform is decided upon.

[tonysam]

7. And 3)

Teachers are a dime a dozen, and that is at the core of why they are treated like dirt by school districts and their administrators.

[madrchsod]

2. the union busters strike again!

duncan did such a wonderful job in chicago that obama wants him to do it nationwide!

oh silly me ..they know we won`t vote for the republicans so we are stuck with them....

i guess being an independents is looking better everyday.... what a shame i`ve been a democrat for over 50 yrs.

[BunkerHill24]

4. Oh no! No way English High is on that list. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. First they came for the high school teachers in the urban core . . .