This article was written by my future father-in-law who is a frequent visitor of our blog.  He also has no compunction against posting comments on our posts so I figured what the hell…let’s give him a soap box.  And I think you’ll agree that this is a fine first article.  I expect we’ll be seeing more from our good friend, Brooks.  -jake

The fiasco that is currently occurring in the Central Fall, RI, school system strikes very close to my heart.  For 18 years, I taught in a middle school that was less than a mile from the Central Falls city line.  This boundary is virtually seamless.  As you drive Lonsdale Ave. away from Rt 95, were it not for the signs, one could not differentiate Central Falls from Pawtucket or the Saylesville section of Lincoln.

Central Falls is a typical dying New England mill town, where the mill jobs have been shipped oversees and the mills closed.  One of the largest employers in town now is the Wyatt Detention Center, a privately run prison.  Central Falls cannot raise enough revenue to run its own schools, so funding education has become the responsibility of the state.  Rather than a traditional school committee, CF (as the locals refer to it) has a board of trustees to oversee the schools.  The city’s population is predominantly Hispanic.  The four term mayor is under investigation for corruption involving a contractor hired to board up foreclosed properties.

In an effort to improve school performance, several strategies have been utilized, notably a large number of administrative changes.  Of concern were low (but recently improving) test scores and a 48% graduation rate.  The school superintendent is new this year and her agenda from the outset has been somewhat less than “warm and fuzzy” with regard to the high school faculty.  In an effort to comply with new “Race to the Top” school correction initiative, one of four strategies can be implemented in consistently low performing shools, with  faculty firing being the second most harsh (school closing would be the harshest.)

As evidenced by their web site the CFHS faculty is pretty much on board with the school improvement proposals put forth by the superintendent.  The issue, as happens so often, is how teachers will be compensated for their extra hours of work.  There were proposals from both sides, but no agreement.  A deadline passed and the trustees decided to implement terminations.  The media screamed, “Teachers Reject School Improvements.” The talk shows blistered the teachers.  It was a stirring scene to see the video from the trustees meeting where one by one the teacher’s names were called and the teacher (dressed in red as a sign of unity) would stand and receive his or her termination notice.

So this has become a contractual issue and the terminations are nothing more than a labor relations strategy.  Rather than take the time to identify the truly substandard teachers (who hired them in the first place?) and follow the contract to pursue dismissal, it is more convenient to dismiss them all.  According to “Race to the Top” rules, dismissed teachers may re-apply for their positions, but only 50% may be rehired. Now there’s a strategy; hire a faculty composed of 50% people new to the system and probably inexperienced, certainly with a student population that has a 90% poverty rate and and the state’s highest English as a Second Language (ESL) rate.  I am less than optimistic about future test results.

Finally, I would like to close with something of an illustration from the Providence Phoenix’s “Phillippe and Jorge” weekly column:

Incidentally, as we search for reasons for the low test scores in Central Falls, we might consider what one district teacher once told Phillipe when he was working in education: due to the large numbers of Central American immigrants in the district, who often returned home during the winter to work, the teacher said, he once started the school year in September with 30 students and ended in June with 30 — all different from the original class.