Entire Teaching Staff of Rhode Island High School Fired

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-03-01 12:06:00 UTC
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When discussing education reform, the issue of tying teachers' jobs to the performance of students comes up on a regular basis. But wherever you fall on the performance-based evaluation debate, it should be clear that firing the entire teaching staff of a school isn't helpful to anybody.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened in Central Falls, Rhode Island, where every single teacher, guidance counselor, and and the principal and assistant principals at the local high school was fired in one fell swoop. School trustees claim the reason was students' declining test scores (although reading scores went up 21%), but apparently the trustees made this blanket decision after negotiations with the union to get teachers to take on extra duties without any additional pay ran didn't go over well.

Really, among over 93 staff members, not one of them was doing a good job with their students? They were all equally to blame for (in large part) low test scores? Even throwing out the possibility that other factors were leading to declining scores, it's difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that none of the teachers showed an ounce of promise in dealing with their students. It's equally hard to imagine that the school trustees bothered to look at individual cases to determine teacher merit and who should and shouldn't have been let go -- which is why the school district has been hit with accusations of "union busting" in disguise.

Besides the practicality of this questionable move, R.I. AFL-CIO president George Nee alleges that the mass firing is illegal (also "immoral ... unjust, irresponsible, disgraceful and disrespectful" ... but now he's just getting fancy). In the end, this sends a disturbing message that individual teacher performance doesn't matter, because when the going gets tough, your personal track record is nothing more than another stick into the fire.

Photo credit: Stacirl

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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