Assigned Reading

Sometimes people want to open the door, they just don’t know how far. School leaders in Providencetown, on the Cape, have run into such a dilemma. They believe sex among children is inevitable, and therefore want to make condoms available for free, and without parent permission, in their schools. But at what age should condoms be provided? High schoolers? Middle school kids? Rather than make a tough, subjective decision, P-town officials decided to make condoms available to any kid who asks, including elementary students.

From an AP article:

Provincetown School Board Chairman Peter Grosso says because there is no set age when sexual activity starts, the committee decided not to set an age for condom availability.

And there lies the problem. Sexual activity doesn’t just “start”. Those who engage in sexual activity make the choice to do so. And as responsible adults — parents, teachers, nurses, counselors — we need to be black and white when guiding students toward making the right choices. And for tweens and early teens, some choices are the right choices. They shouldn’t smoke, drink, use drugs, eat too much junk food, drive a car, swim without a lifeguard, or stay up too late. And they shouldn’t have sex.

Providing these kids with condoms is shameful. Doing so without telling parents should be criminal.

Sunday’s Providence Journal featured a front page story about a partnership between the city of East Providence and Bradley Hospital. The program establishes classrooms in neighborhood schools for students with significant needs who would otherwise be bused to Bradley. The article’s author, Alisha Pina, celebrates the program as a win for everyone. Children go to school with their siblings and friends in the neighborhood, and the district realizes substantial financial savings in these troubled times.

Classroom teachers will tell you they are supportive but cautious of such programs, and for good reason. We should make every effort to educate kids in their neighborhood schools, and as federal law requires, do so in least restrictive environments. But we cannot succeed without significant special education support.

Budget cuts have left districts looking for new ways to save money. “Mainstreaming” of children with special needs has at times been instituted to cut costs. Placing children with special needs in regular classrooms with minimal support will save plenty of money, but is a disservice to all children in the classroom. Without the support of special education professionals, special needs students will require a significant amount of the classroom teacher’s time, depriving other students of the attention they need.

Most classroom teachers would champion an integrated program with the proper support to ensure all students succeed. When full-time co-teaching becomes part-time, or when districts replace special education teachers with instructional assistants, the mainstream model becomes one of cost savings rather than providing what is best for kids.

The Bradley partnership in East Providence sounds good. A significant number of professionals, both from Bradley Hospital and the district, are included in the model. Parents and classroom teachers should be vigilant in ensuring the district maintains the full-time support needed.

Nowhere in Pina’s long article did we learn the opinions of any East Providence classroom teachers. Because of this, we should remain cautious.

Congratulations to Dr. Fran Gallo.

Despite attempts to demonize the superintendent by unions and their friends in the media, Dr. Gallo stood strong for reform at Central Falls High School. Back in February, her proposals were all but ignored by the union, which insisted on more money for any additional time with students. This was money the city simply couldn’t afford.

So Dr. Gallo terminated them all. Teachers were most likely assured by the union leaders that their jobs were not in danger. But as hundreds of applications poured into Dr. Gallo’s office, and current teachers were forced to reapply for their jobs, it must have become clear that this was no bluff.

Tonight, the Providence Journal is reporting the two sides have reached an agreement that will allow all teachers to keep their jobs.

In return, teachers will have to “recommit to their jobs” and interview with the school’s new principal. They will also be expected to work a longer school day, provide more after-school tutoring, accept a new evaluation system and participate in “targeted and embedded” professional development sessions, according to a joint news release issued Sunday.

These conditions just happen to be the very same reform proposals put forth by Dr. Gallo at the beginning of the year. Whether teachers will be paid any additional salary is not yet clear.

Dr. Gallo has won this battle. And so have the students.

There are those who understand what is happening in Central Falls, and those who do not. The Providence Journal provides us with two columns of evidence in today’s edition.

As can be predicted, Bob Kerr’s column attempts to show that teachers are not to blame. He cites two students who graduated from CF High, and went off to college. These two young adults feel good about the education they received in CF, and look negatively upon Dr. Gallo, the superintendent who fired the teachers. Writes Kerr:

[CF graduate Justyna] Szulc says she is completely appalled by the firing of all the teachers at the high school by Supt. Frances Gallo. Szulc can’t understand how a woman who has been on the job only a few years can undo the work of people who have spent their careers there.

And the other student was quoted as saying, “It’s just a mess and for no reason.”

The teachers at CF High should be proud of these two young ladies. They undoubtedly played a part in their success. But Kerr didn’t take the time to meet with any of the students who dropped out, as more than half do each year. He didn’t speak to any of the more than half that are failing all their classes. He didn’t talk to them about their teachers, or their success after CF High. In reality, it’s been a mess for a long time.

Dr. Gallo is surely proud of these students. She just wants and expects more successful graduates from her school. Who can blame her.

But the situation in Central Falls is not about blame. The school is failing too many students, and the reasons are probably endless. We cannot continue with such failure, and therefore the players must change. Those satisfied with the status quo need to be thanked for their service, and then asked to move on.

Of course the teachers want to keep their jobs. They should only be allowed to do so, however, if they are willing to join in their school’s reform. Their expectations for students–all their students–must also increase.

Because despite the union garbage, the events in Central Falls are not about teachers. They are, obviously, about students. Julia Steiny understands this, as evidenced by her column this morning.

Inevitably, fingers will point accusingly at labor, at management, and most unkindly, at the kids and their families. But the time for blame is past. Kids’ lives are being ruined. The feds are right: 5,000 horrible schools should be closed, reconstituted, redesigned or handed over to a charter-management company.

It’s not about blame. The teachers are not being fired because they are blamed for the school’s failure. The teachers are being fired because they demonstrated, through their union leaders, that reform had to be negotiated. The teachers were thinking about themselves, and how reform would impact their lives. But schools are about kids. Steiny says it perfectly.

But it is time for the adults to come second. The kids must be first. However rude, ill-parented, or academically limited, all kids stuck in bad schools deserve better. And we the public need schools to teach those very kids to be much more successful so they stay off the welfare roles, out of prison and take good care of themselves.

Kerr celebrates two who succeeded. Steiny wants many more to experience such success. I’m with Steiny. All good teachers should be.

In approving Dr. Gallo’s turnaround plan at Central Falls High School, Commissioner Deborah Gist said:

I support doing whatever it takes to get the results we need and to do what’s best for the students in Central Falls High School. I know that there are many great teachers in Central Falls High School. Our goal is to ensure that we have highly effective teachers in every classroom in the school. I look forward to working with Superintendent Gallo and with others in the Central Falls community to advance learning for all of our students in Central Falls.

That’s really what it’s all about.

Despite voting against the termination of all the teachers at Central Falls High, Trustee BK Nordan spoke powerfully at the board meeting. According to the Journal, Nordan, who is also a teacher at the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program in Providence, said:

I don’t believe this is a worker’s rights issue. I believe it’s a children’s rights issue…By every statistical measure I’ve seen, we are not doing a good enough job for our students … The rhetoric that these are poor students, ESL students, you can imagine the home lives … this is exactly why we need you to step up, regardless of the pay, regardless of the time involved. This city needs it more than anybody. I demand of you that you demand more of yourself and those around you.

Yes! The teachers must understand that the union leaders are not doing them any favors. They need to act in the best interest of students. Their jobs depend on it.

Before I opened the Journal this morning, I made a prediction. Bob Kerr’s column would be a sympathetic feature story on the teachers of Central Falls, perhaps focusing on a single teacher whose heart is in the right place.

I was right. Of course, those familiar with the predictability of Kerr know my prediction wasn’t a difficult one.

George McLaughlin seems like a good guy, a veteran with lots of experience working with kids. And I’m sure his wife, who is also a teacher, is a fine person as well.

The union, with its back to the wall, needs to put its teachers in a sympathetic position. So the media blitz has begun. A new, professionally designed website has been created, with plenty of photos of kind-looking teachers. A rally, on behalf of teachers, is planned Tuesday. And someone got on the phone to Kerr, whom the unions undoubtedly knew would be an ally at the Journal. Kerr’s column even features the website URL and provides publicity for the Tuesday rally.

As the unions regularly do, they’ve made the issue about teachers. They know it should be about students, so they call the rally for teachers a “Save our Students” event. And the website outlining the teachers’ union’s position is called “Central Falls Students Deserve Better”. Despite the word “students”, the union’s goal is to save the teachers’ jobs.

I am not anti-teacher, as some would claim. I am a teacher. But I am intolerant of those teachers, and the union leaders, who make excuses for why so many kids in Central Falls aren’t learning. Teachers must have the flexibility to deal with the difficulties that hinder the communities in which they teach. Teaching kids in high poverty areas is particularly challenging. This is also true in schools with large numbers of immigrants, or students whose first language isn’t English. Urban schools have their own challenges as well. Wrap all this into a single school like Central Falls High, and the mountain peak may simply seem well out of reach.

Those who believe the challenge is too great shouldn’t be teaching at Central Falls High.

Our schools do not exist to provide jobs for adults. Schools have the uniquely important responsibility of educating our future. We, as teachers, must do whatever it takes to ensure success. Those unwilling should receive a smile, a handshake, and a polite thank you as they exit the building.

I’m sorry Mr. McLaughlin, it is not about “meanness” or pointing fingers (although it doesn’t help that your union will agree to the changes if more money is offered). It’s about fixing what is broken. It’s about doing what it takes to provide the very best education to kids that need it the most, those in the community you love.

If less than half of CF students are graduating, is it possible to say this is happening?

Those who believe the union fight in Central Falls is about education need only take a look at the rally flyer and post (“You’ve heard the corporate spin, now fight for workers rights! Support the Central Falls Teachers“) by Pat Crowley at the RIFuture blog. The flyer headline reads, “Injury To One – Is Injury to ALL.” It goes on to state the “outrageous act” by Dr. Gallo and Commissioner Gist is really about union busting. In bold letters, organizers call readers to a “union rally for fairness”.

To Crowley, this is a typical battle between corporate America and workers’ rights. No where does the flyer, or Crowley’s post, mention students. And this is precisely why the unionists will lose the debate for the teachers. The pink slips the teachers received in the mail today might be signed by Dr. Gallo, but the union may as well have paid for the postage. To protect union interests, these teachers may very well lose their jobs.

The flyer calls readers to a website, strategically labelled www.CentralFallsKidsDeserveBetter.com. Quite symbolically, a click on the URL shows that no such website exists.

**UPDATE**
A professionally designed website is now up and running at www.CentralFallsKidsDeserveBetter.com.

Two very different people had similar words to share today. The first is from Rick Hess’s new EdWeek blog Straight Up. Hess is an education policy wonk and is with the American Enterprise Institute.

[Harvard's Dick] Elmore bracingly terms “We’re in it for the kids” a “monument to self-deception.” He argues, “Public schools, and the institutions that surround them, surely rank among the most self-interested institutions in American society”–with school boards “training beds” for would-be politicians, superintendents sketching grandiose visions and then fleeing for cushier positions, and unions sacrificing student interests in the name of teacher job security.

The second is from Amanda Perreira, a Classical High School student and part of the group Young Voices.

I am speaking because students are the most important and central part of this issue. I am asking that for once, money, power and ambitions are put aside and that we remember the students and place their needs at the forefront of these decisions.

Amanda was part of a group of students who today rallied on behalf of superintendent Fran Gallo and her decision to fire the teachers at Central Falls High School.

Both Hess and Perreira, in their own words, share what I believe. Public schools have lost sight of the mission. Debate is no longer about what our children need, but rather what roles the adults should play. The arguments tend to be about money and time and responsibility. When the debate turns to students, it’s usually about pointing fingers. Educators blame the students, their parents, socioeconomics, and video games. Perhaps they all deserve some blame. But that doesn’t solve the problem, or move our schools forward.

Last summer I read Work Hard, Be Nice by Jay Mathews. The book chronicles the history of KIPP charter schools. The first KIPP classroom was in Houston, Texas, and a second followed in New York. Today there are KIPP schools in some of the poorest communities in the nation. The closest is in Lynn, Massachusetts. More than 85% of KIPP students go to college. Those who started the KIPP schools, and those who run them now, saw the need to change the way we educate children in poor, urban areas. Rather than lay blame, these educators work to fill the gaps in the lives of their students. They provide structured environments and put all their efforts into ensuring these kids succeed.

Should we expect anything less?

Today I’ve listened to a lot of teachers, most writing on the Internet. And despite my respect for so many of them, I’m disgusted by their words. They are supporting the teachers without reservation, demonizing Dr. Gallo, and promoting the low expectations that define the problem in Central Falls.

Many are complaining that we shouldn’t judge students or teachers using a single, standardized test. I agree. But when we learn that less than half of the students at Central Falls High School graduate, or that more than half are failing all of their classes, the testing argument becomes another excuse.

If public schools are to succeed, we as teachers must be less worried about our own interests, and instead, as Amanda Perreira said, “remember the students and place their needs at the forefront of [our] decisions.”

*UPDATE* Apparently those candles were not the only fires lit. With the threat of termination, the teachers now say they are willing to sit down with administration, and are open to reform measures. (NBC 10 video)

Oh my! I was critical of Central Falls superintendent Frances Gallo recently. In response to news that CF High School was, once again, one of the worst performing schools in the state, Gallo said of her district:

The climate is one of enthusiastic anticipation among our dedicated teachers whose desire to embrace this work exceeds expectation.

Sounds like administrative rubbish. Apparently it was. Today, the Providence Journal is reporting that Gallo plans to fire every teacher at the high school.

Gallo has complained that the teachers are refusing to go along with needed reforms, such as longer days and more time for professional development. Gallo has already indicated the principal would be replaced.

The union wants more money for the additional time.

MORE MONEY?

This school has been failing for years and years. Only about half of the students actually graduate. And according to the latest NECAP scores, about half were proficient in reading, about a third in writing, and, believe it or not, only 15 students were proficient in math. 15 students out of 208 enrolled.

I’ll be the first to argue that NECAP scores are not the only way, or even the best way, to judge a school. But clearly things are not working at Central Falls High School, and they haven’t been working for some time. These teachers should be doing whatever it takes to improve education for the students.

Instead, they hold a candlelight vigil? It’s times like these that I am embarrassed for my profession.

Commissioner Deborah Gist has declared this school chronically low performing. She has empowered the district to do what is deems necessary to improve the school. The district initially chose the option that allows it to replace the principal, increase learning time, and change instruction. But the union balked. So a second option has come into play: replace the principal and rehire no more than 50 percent of the staff.

RIFT president Marcia Reback is calling the district’s threat “blackmail” and “extortion”. She argues for a “two-way street” of compromise, the most disingenuous of union claims.

At this point there can be no compromise. The school is failing too many children. The district must do what it believes best for kids, not for teachers and staff. The teachers can agree to these reforms, or look for employment elsewhere.

Too much is at stake to take a candlelight vigil seriously.