9486 in the collection  

Pink slips at Central Falls part of disturbing trend

Three cheers.

By Annie Winfield, Bruce Marlowe and Alan Canestrari

As Central Falls goes . . . so too do the hopes of our state's students and teachers.

What is happening in Central Falls is symbolic of the harm we are perpetuating on students all over the country as the "urban-reform" juggernaut leaves in its wake the closing of community schools, dramatic increases in the drop-out rate, and unprecedented teacher retirements.

Make no mistake, Central Falls is under siege. But its challenges lie not in recalcitrant teachers, poorly prepared students or inadequate parents.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently announced that 5,000 "underperforming" schools across the country would be closed, as if this draconian solution would cause others to straighten up and fly right.

We have a long history in this country of blaming the least powerful among us.

We tell ourselves that success is the result of intelligence and hard work, and yet we willfully ignore the widening differences in resources, teacher pay, and curricula increasingly found between our suburban and urban schools.

It is as if we have all tacitly agreed that when it comes to public schools, there are our children and then there are other people's children, who just so happen to be largely poor, black and brown. Other people’s children need uniforms, authoritarian disciplinary policies and uninspired curricula. Other people’s children are taught by Teach for America "graduates" who have five weeks of training under their belts. Other people's children are best evaluated by tests of highly questionable validity. Other people's children have their schools closed.

In what can only be described as Orwellian, "reform" has come to mean a simple two-step: drill students with test preparation materials and then use their test scores to evaluate the worth of children, their parents, and teachers.

In our poorest communities, where teachers need the most support and students need the most innovative curricula, we find instead instruction driven by the tyranny of statewide tests. Meanwhile, in these same communities, teachers are increasingly subject to "professional development" that denigrates students and their families, puts millions into the coffers of test-prep corporate monopolies and threatens teachers with their jobs if they don't comply with the new "reforms.”"

Our poorest schools devote entire weeks of instructional time for test preparation (using pre-packaged materials created by the very same companies that sell the state its year-end exams). Meanwhile, subjects like social studies and art, music, theater or physical education have all but disappeared from the curriculum because they are not formally tested on the New England Common Assessments Program.

And the students who need these subjects the most, who need the broadest exposure to the world around them — other people's children -- are the children most likely to be denied such opportunities -- because they’ve just got to raise those scores.

But the NECAP results are the same year after year. Students in places like Barrington score well and those in places like Central Falls do poorly. Schools in wealthier communities have resources; they have well-established community and parental involvement and smaller class sizes. While urban school parents are shunned and judged, community factors like poverty and its attendant problems are ignored or discounted as irrelevant.

All school children deserve a solid system of public education, designed for the success of all. Teachers who have committed themselves to urban education need resources and support, they need to be asked their opinion; subjecting them to hysterical threats from administrators, more tests, and mass firings does not move us forward. With teachers' rights nullified, the pathway to restructuring schools according to corporate visions and market values will continue unabated.

Handing out pink slips to teachers in Central Falls is part of a disturbing trend being played out across the nation. Politicians have closed schools and disempowered teachers through the undermining of unions and their collective bargaining rights, and they have effectively silenced parents as well.

It's time for those who really know what's going in schools -- students, parents, teachers -- from across the state to make their voices heard.

Annie Winfield, Bruce Marlowe and Alan Canestrari are professors of education at Roger Williams University>/i>


— Annie Winfield, Bruce Marlowe and Alan Canestrari
Providence Journal
2010-03-10
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_winfield20_02-20-10_LVHF996_v8.3f8c58d.html

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>