Teachers Union files state complaint over Obama-backed RI school firings

[Bluebear]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A teachers union has filed state labor relations charges over a plan to turn around one of Rhode Island's worst-performing high schools by firing the entire faculty.

The Central Falls Teachers' Union filed the complaint Monday. It says the firings were an unfair labor practice and accuses the school district of failing to bargain and not providing the teachers with enough information.

The board of trustees for the Central Falls district voted last week to fire more than 90 teachers and other staff members by year's end from the city's high school. No more than half of the staff could be hired back under federal rules.

President Barack Obama cited the firings in a speech Monday as an example of how there needs to be accountability for poor student performance.



http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQe6oVWR8RCYpv36bVIUomkB09NgD9E6LE680

[LisaM]

1. Obama's reaction makes me so angry I can barely think

Why doesn't he cite a few figures on how failing schools tend to be in poor and rural areas? We need a schools parity act.

[Bluebear]

4. 'We need a schools parity act.' - Wait until we have a Democratic President and Congress.

:silly:

[Captain Hilts]

17. Same here. I'm livid. I am somewhat familiar with that area. nt

[leftstreet]

2. K&InvisibleR

[bluestateguy]

3. I have no position on this issue

[951-Riverside]

5. Unions are destroying this country

Bad teachers are impossible to fire thanks to the unions. Food prices at unionized groceries stores are obscenely high. All they do these days is leech companies and government agencies dry then throw a fit whenever anyone says something negative about them.

[hughee99]

7. Good luck with that...

:popcorn:

[saracat]

Why do you have an Edwards avatar? He was a big union supporter.

it seems odd if you hate unions that you have an Edwards avatar.

[hughee99]

13. Me?

[saracat]

16. No. Post 5.. He is talking smack about unions but has an Edwards avatar.

[hughee99]

19. That's what I figured, just wanted to make sure.

:)

It was very confusing to me as well, but I'm also confused that someone who actually believe this (if it's not just bad sarcasm), could have managed to get to 1000 posts here.

[saracat]

8. Is this a joke? Did you forget the sarcasm thingy?

[tonysam]

9. You're fucking kidding, aren't you?

It definitely ISN'T fucking true you can't fire a public school teacher--it's done all the time, every day, and for stupid reasons while the asshole administrators get away with murder.

[Bluebear]

11. Are you a Democrat?

[Brickbat]

14. LMAO!

Come on, you can try harder than that.

[roguevalley]

20. thank your unionized teacher that you can write your rant.

[Bluebear]

24. +1

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Libertas1776]

39. Are you fucking for real?

Enjoy whatever it is your smoking, puke :eyes:

[Gabi Hayes]

41. how did you make 1000 posts? your is the single most ignorant

post I've EVER seen here, and that's saying quite a lot

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[spoony]

43. You must be one of them "New Democrats"

like Obama.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

50. Americans work more, earn less, have fewer benefits

and have fewer, weaker unions than any other western democracy. Oh, and this case has nada to do with bad teachers and the last person who claimed Germans were a race was Adolf Hitler.

[mrcheerful]

6. I can remember what it was like in the 60's when I had a teacher claim to me and a blind girl

that it was a waste of his time to teach us anything as we would only end up being a burden on the tax payer anyhow , so we were expected to show up in his class, keep our mouths shut and do nothing. He also allowed bullies to run roughshod on us in his class room, which ended after I beat the snot out of the toughest bully, they had to call an ambulance for his cracked skull, he shouldn't have picked on the blind girl the way he did. The school tried to fire him after it all came to light how he treated the disabled and poor kids, but the union protected him.

[tonysam]

10. Yeah, I'll bet it's true.

Keep spewing the "can't fire teachers because of tenure" bullshit.

[Bluebear]

15. 'they had to call an ambulance for his cracked skull'

his fiction writing is dark, too, n'est pas?

[Bluebear]

12. At least you passed your creative writing class though, didn't you?

[mrcheerful]

18. No I never took a course in creative writting, they never had it in the school I went to

they taught the basics reading, writing, math 1.

[roguevalley]

21. and of course, that is the way it is everywhere. Everyone is an

expert at teaching because they were in fifth grade. that teacher was an asshole. he's the exception. considering the abuse and minor ducats you get for this job, its a calling.

[Bluebear]

34. truer words never spoken

[WinkyDink]

47. Excuse me, but your anecdote omits a significant element: THE PRINCIPAL, whose JOB it was to

OBSERVE, DOCUMENT, OFFER A TIME-LINE FOR IMPROVEMENT, AND RECOMMEND PROBATION OR DISMISSAL.

"THE SCHOOL" IS JUST A WEE BIT TOO VAGUE, SORRY.

[NJmaverick]

22. Where is the concern for the poor students who are being hurt?

[hayu_lol]

23. Hate to say this about such a poor area that this school is in...

shouldn't the school board be firing the poor students rather than the teachers. Time for these laggard students to sign up at the nearest Charter School where their every need will be attended to...oh, I forgot, Charter Schools don't seem to accept poor students.

Lotta union busters on this thread...what part of Freeperville graduated them?

[Bluebear]

25. You said it.

[mzteris]

26. sorry - you have your facts wrong -

DEMOGRAPHICS 2009-2009

Charter Schools..... Metrics& %
White.......... 38.4%
Black.......... 29.7%
Hispanic....... 24.7%
Asian.......... 3.9%
Other.......... 3.3%

Non-Charter schools..... Metrics
White.......... 53.4%
Black.......... 16.8%
Hispanic....... 22.1%
Asian.......... 4.9%
Other.......... 2.8%

http://www.publiccharters.org/dashboard/students/page/race/year/2009

Charter Schools
Metrics&
Eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch.......... 48.2%
Ineligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch.......... 51.8%


Non-Charter Schools
Metrics&
Eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch.......... 45.2%
Ineligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch.......... 54.8%

http://www.publiccharters.org/dashboard/students/page/lunch/year/2009


****************
Annual Survey of America's Charter Schools 2010
CER Press Release
Washington, DC
February 24,2010
Data indicates that low-income and minority families make up the bulk of the parents seeking entrance into charters-meaning that new charter schools would primarily benefit low-income children and children of color. Already, more than 54 percent of students in charters are classified as poor, half of America's charter schools serve student populations where 60+ percent of the children are poor, and children of color comprise 52 percent of charter school attendees.

Surprisingly, charter schools have achieved their popularity not through big budgets that let them spend lavishly (in fact, the average charter school receives $3,468 less in state and federal funds than the traditional public school), but by offering programs, services, and teaching formulas that parents want but can't find in traditional public schools.

For example, about 54 percent of charter schools allow for the possibility of performance pay programs for teachers, an incentive system that parents favor. Charter schools are also more likely to be smaller than traditional public schools and offer more instruction time-other factors that increase demand. Interestingly, 76 percent of charter schools offer a specific instructional theme-with more than a quarter of the schools specifically designed to prepare students for college.

"Good charter schools offer a refreshing lack of bureaucracy and red tape, allowing these schools to serve students, teachers, and the community in more effective ways," said Kevin P. Chavous, a distinguished fellow at CER.

***************

some examples:

*****

Oakland's charter schools outperformed Oakland's district public schools on behalf of Asian, African-American and Latino students, as well as ELL and high-poverty students while they slightly trailed in the performance of white students. Of all subgroups, charter schools most significantly outperformed among African-American and socioeconomically disadvantaged students (a gap of 77 and 76 points, respectively).

"Charter schools in Oakland are shattering the myth which says that, if you are a poor or minority student, you will not do well in our public schools," said Peter Thorp, Chief of Staff of the California Charter Schools Association. "Charter schools are making incredible strides at succeeding with students that have not historically done as well in traditional public schools. We urge administrators and educators to closely and openly analyze what these laboratories of innovation are doing right so that we can stimulate improvements in district public schools."

The report also found that Oakland's charter schools are serving a significantly higher percentage of Latino students, a higher average percentage of high-poverty (low socio-economic status) students, roughly an equal percentage of African-American students, and a lower percentage of Asian-American and white students.

*****
In 1993, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin were recent Ivy League graduates teaching fifth graders in Houston’s inner city. The students were as much as two academic years behind their middle-class peers.

A year later, Feinberg and Levin started a classroom that operated nine hours a day instead of the normal seven, as well as on some Saturdays and during the summer. Within a year, the number of students performing at grade level in reading and math jumped to 90 percent from 50 percent.

Today the 50-pupil experiment has grown into the biggest U.S. charter-school operator, with 82 schools for poor and minority children in 19 states. The Obama administration cites the Knowledge Is Power Program, as the nonprofit system is known, as a model of the kind of education reform it hopes to spawn with $100 billion in stimulus money.

. . . KIPP has an 85 percent college matriculation rate, compared with 40 percent for low-income students nationwide, according to a 2008 report card on the organization’s Web site. About 90 percent of KIPP’s 20,000 students are black or Hispanic; 80 percent qualify for subsidized meals.

*******

[Hannah Bell]

46. mz. tetris's statistics come from the walmart-funded "national alliance for charter schools"

here's a little about them:

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools: We’re Public, Except When We Ain’t
Jul. 24, 2009

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has made no secret of its antipathy toward teacher unions and teacher voice in charter schools, despite the growing presence of unionized charter schools in the charter school world. In the month since the public announcement of the innovative Green Dot NY–UFT contract, their blog has been unable to bring themselves to even mention its existence in their daily round-up of news stories involving charter schools. Over the same period of time, it has managed to cover not only every other news story, but every anti-union opinion piece it can find...



All the usual anti-union, anti-public-school suspects: Broad, the Walmart Waltons, Bill Gates --

FUND EVERY PIECE OF SLANTED "DATA" mz tetris posts.

[NYC_SKP]

27. My R.I. teacher friends don't blame Obama. They blame Supt., who had FOUR CHOICES!!!!

While nobody there is happy, or proud, neither does anyone I've spoken with have the idiot streak that would blame the administration for this.

Union busting LOL. The school had to choose from four reform models:

...Weingarten said the local school superintendent abruptly halted negotiations with the local teachers' union. Weingarten said she personally appealed to Rhode Island's new education commissioner, Deborah Gist, to restart talks but was rebuffed.

The shake-up at Central Falls High School came after Gist identified it as among the worst 5 percent in the state. She ordered local school officials to pick from one of four reform models, including mass firings.

Superintendent Frances Gallo said she initially wanted teachers to agree to changes including a longer school day, offering more tutoring and receiving extra training over the summer. She offered the teachers more pay for some, but not all, of the changes.

Gallo said she resorted to firings when talks with the teachers' union broke down.
...

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/22713048/detail.html

The four reform models:

Final Rules Set for School Turnaround Grants

States, Districts Must Pick From Four Models for Grants to Fix Lowest-Performing Schools

December 4, 2009

-snip-

To get their money, states must target schools that rank in the bottom 5 percent in student achievement. In one change from the proposed regulations, the definition of lowest-achieving schools has been expanded to include high schools with graduation rates below 60 percent for a “number of years.”

The money will flow to states based on the Title I formula for aid to disadvantaged students, but states will award the money competitively to districts.

School districts must agree to one of four turnaround models: closing the school and sending students to higher-achieving ones; turning it around by replacing the principal and most of the staff; “restarting” the school by turning it over to a charter- or education-management organization; or implementing a mandatory basket of strategies labeled “transformation.”

During a 30-day public-review period for the proposed regulations, 180 comments were submitted, many of them critical of what was described as highly prescriptive reforms from the federal government. Critics said the models might not work in communities where teacher and principal shortages exist, where teachers’ union contracts pose barriers, or where closing an entire school isn’t feasible.

-snip-
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/12/04/14brief-b1.h29.html?tkn=QUVFjtaZOAG18XUc%2Fn90N6akQTBVdMIpNL9d&print=1

In preemptive defense of the plan lets keep in mind that schools don't HAVE to try to get these grants.
I think that the fourth option, "implementing a basket list of strategies", creates a lot of opportunities for schools that don't wish to apply the other three.

Blame Obama, blame Arne Duncan?

Nah, bullshit.

:patriot:

[Bluebear]

28. But of course they don't!

[NYC_SKP]

30. Superintendent Gallo and the staff could not come to terms. Why let them skate?

Somewhere in the three of the four options they had there had to be a different way.

Maybe the fact that they chose the most severe option, that they couldn't find consensus, is an indicator of some of the irreconcilable problems in that school.

:shrug:

[Bluebear]

31. Plus, as you said, the teachers have an "idiot streak"

[NYC_SKP]

32. Yes, I said the ones who blame Obama "have an idiot streak", yes I did say that.

And I say this as someone who was in the classroom for eight years, and since then has worked with teachers in most every state and with administrators.

My classroom experience was EXCLUSIVELY with at-risk and incarcerated youth, many with special needs or LD, most from low SES, with shitty parents and sometimes shitty teachers and administrators.

My guess is that you, too, have experience in the field.

Blaming the president and not looking at why the Super and the teaching staff couldn't formulate a different solution, to me, is simple-minded, Bluebear.

[Bluebear]

33. The "blame" on Obama is that he is PRAISING this, and at best he should stay out of it.

[NYC_SKP]

37. That's fair. It's not a proud situation for anyone.

I can agree with you on that.

Of all the things I have to deal with, the worst seem to be the nestled bureaucracies of education.

Working outward from the student, these are:

The classroom, (or unfortunately, six of these a day if it's not a self-contained classroom).

The teaching staff and their supervisor or director.

The supervisors and principal.

Principals under the super.

The super, principals, and the overseeing school board.

Then the state as an umbrella over these.

Then, finally, the federal government.

The students are lost after the first couple steps, all that's considered is 'data' after that.

Having worked with SFUSD and LAUSD as well as with many one-school districts, I can tell you that the last thing teachers and their students need is more grief from ever further away public officials. (The most inspiring learning environments I've seen have been the small school districts with lots of autonomy, even if they're low SES, low funds).

All that being said, Central Falls must have serious problems, and manifold problems among all stakeholders.

Something had to five, it's sad that they chose this route.

:patriot:

[Tailormyst]

40. Self delete

[ipaint]

35. Duncan has taken this republican slash and burn approach to countless

poor and minority neighborhood schools in Chicago. Much the same as in Central Falls the communities where appalled and protested.

If Obama does not advocate this approach then why choose to make an expert on mass firings followed by the forcing of charter and military junior high and high schools on poor communities the Secretary of Education.

There is NO feigning innocence by Obama on this one.

And if your friends don't lay the blame at Obama's feet for setting the stage for this type of corporate takeover, they will soon enough unless they teach in the well off areas where the challenges for teachers and students brought about by 30 years of conservative neglect and abuse aren't insurmountable.

[Tailormyst]

38. self delete

Not worth it.

[EFerrari]

51. How many times are you going to post it? Btw, I blame Obama

for his remarks attacking these teachers when he had his facts WRONG. A state audit had found this school was IMPROVING.

Do we now use the Arnie Duncan "one shot rule" on Obama?

[Starry Messenger]

29. Damn right.

The supes fake sad mutterings of regret and hand wringing over their "care" for the children is so hypocritical. They couldn't *wait* to do this.

[WinkyDink]

44. But the BOSSES---principals, super---oh, THEY are ACES, eh??

[Robb]

49. Interestingly, the principal was fired too, and the NASSP remains silent. nt