Obama's 'Race To The Top' Drives Nationwide Wave of School Closings, Teacher Firings

[HiPointDem]

83. Yeah, just because RTTT *mandates* that state ID their lowest 5% of schools & submit them to

Last edited Wed Jan 16, 2013, 04:19 AM - Edit history (1)

remediation plans that all involve firing teachers & closing schools -- doesn't mean it's actually happening...

Right.

Rhode Island:

Rhode Island teacher firings, a Race to the Top case study

One of the first high-profile examples of President Obama's public education reforms comes from Rhode Island, a participant in Race to the Top (RttT). Superintendent Frances Gallo, overseeing the persistently failing Central Falls High School, decided to fire all the school’s teachers after the teacher union proved to be the road block to reform... Because the intervention plan was refused, the superintendent had to resort to a different model of school reform – the turnaround model -- which involves firing the majority of the faculty and staff... The mass firings came about because of Rhode Island’s participation in RttT. Such bold moves are required of the states participating in the RttT...

http://www.examiner.com/article/rhode-island-teacher-firings-a-race-to-the-top-case-study


Tennessee (for *you*, "nashville lefty&quot

Tennessee, as part of the state’s winning Race to the Top application, created the Achievement School District (ASD) in 2011 to turn around the state’s bottom 5% of schools. With 69 of the 85 schools in the bottom 5% located in Memphis...

http://turnaroundzone.org/

The state-run Achievement School District is preparing to take over 10 more Memphis City Schools and has released a list of 14 it will choose from. WREG reports the ASD will decide by December which schools will be run by it or by partnering charter school organizations... ASD — which has a stated mission to move the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state to the top 25 percent — took over five Memphis City Schools at the beginning of this school year...

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/blog/morning_call/2012/11/state-preps-to-take-over-10-memphis.html

Between 130 and 150 Memphis City Schools teachers are being recommended for termination for poor performance ....Principals identified the poor performers based on the teacher evaluation process instituted this year, plus three years of student test data.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/may/16/up-to-150-city-teachers-face-firing/

Six Memphis Schools Added to State Turn-Around Effort
Friday, December 14th, 2012, by Daniel Potter

The state will take control of six more schools in Memphis, and try to turn them around after years of dismal test scores. The move doubles the number of schools in Tennessee’s Achievement School District. The ASD aims to take schools steadily ranked in the state’s worst 5 percent, and make them among the best in just a few years. In Metro a half dozen schools were eligible, along with about 70 in Memphis – all with lots of poor students...Today state officials announced they’ll turn several schools nearby into charters...

http://wpln.org/?p=43916


Between 16 and 31 MCS Schools to Close Next Year

The Achievement School District is closing 10 schools. They won't really say that's what they're doing, and they would argue that the school buildings will be in use to educate children. But the ASD's "takeover" of 10 schools means that the staffs of 10 schools will be applying for new jobs for the 2013-14 school year.

The TPC recommended that the Shelby County School Board close 21 schools. That would bring us to 31, and that is, admittedly, unlikely. But Superintendent Kriner Cash has been clear that he thinks he will propose about a third of that number to be closed. That puts us in the 6-8 range.

So while 31 closed Memphis schools would be an unlikely outlier, this community is looking at between 16 and 18 schools worth of staff looking for jobs. That's a huge number of schools to close, and an unfortunate number of solidly middle class folks getting nervous...

http://schoolingmemphis.blogspot.com/2012/11/between-16-and-31-mcs-schools-to-close.html

I am a teacher at one of those schools in Frayser, a neighborhood the Achievement School District (ASD) seems to have targeted since they took over three schools there last year. The article notes that 6 of the 10 schools taken over will be run by charter operators.

I attended the meeting last night at Pursuit of God in Frayser, an impoverished and predominantly black neighborhood. The crowd was angry that their children’s teachers were going to be fired and that their children would have to adapt to a whole new school. They spoke about the great current teachers in their schools. They wanted to know what was going to make these schools better, and there was no one from the ASD who could explain that.

I expected an article in the local paper to mention the atmosphere at the meeting. The media ran this segment:

http://www.wmctv.com/story/20049306/tn-asd-getting-set-to-take-over-more-memphis-schools

And the paper did not report on the events of the meeting. The shot of the crowd was purposefully taken while most of them were in the other room getting refreshments. There was no other coverage of the meeting in the media.

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/11/10/a-teacher-describes-parents-reaction-to-privatization-in-memphis/


You notice how they never say "we're closing these schools/laying off these teachers because of the RTTT mandate"?

But in fact, it was RTTT that set the whole process in motion. TN got RTTT money; the identification of 5% low-performing schools is mandated by RTTT, & these schools were put into the newly-created "Achievement School District". The new teacher evaluation system was a RTTT mandate (it's the way they ID the 'bad teachers' so they can fire them.)

Some schools were given to charter schools (=layoffs of staff already there); some are slated for closure (=layoffs); some are in turnaround or transformation (=layoffs), and some are still awaiting their fate.

RTTT is driving layoffs, school closures, and the turnover of public schools to private charter operators. Absolutely, unquestionably.

But the media doesn't make that clear.

Gee, I wonder why.


You can go to any state that has applied for RTTT funds (not even *won* them, merely applied, because you have to change state laws & start putting systems in place just to *apply*) -- and note the consquences.