It stems from some guidelines Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, set down for states to receive their usual allotment of federal dollars for school improvement and some additional dollars he added as a carrot.
States have to identify their persistently lowest performing schools and adopt one of four methods of reform:
- school closure
- takeover by a charter or school management organization
- transformation which includes a longer school day, among other significant changes.
- turnaround which removes the entire staff, with no more than half rehired.
Rhode Island identified six schools, five in Providence and Central Falls High.
Given the rush to set up the guidelines for reform, the Central Falls superintendent, Frances Gallo, and the teachers union picked number 3, transformation.
“Gallo laid out six conditions she said were essential to transform the high school. Teachers had to spend more time with students in and out of the classroom, and spend more time with other teachers, improving their own skills.
Gallo said she could pay teachers for some of the additional duties — but not all. Gallo said she offered to pay the teachers $30 per hour to attend two weeks of professional development in the summer, and said she would try to find grant money to cover 90 minutes of weekly “common planning time” after school. All told, Gallo said the 74 classroom teachers — 56 of whom earn the district’s top step of $72,000 a year — would likely earn $3,400 more.
But Gallo said she didn’t have enough money to pay teachers for the other duties, including adding 25 minutes to the school day, tutoring students and eating lunch with them once a week.
Union officials said they were willing to make the changes but wanted to be paid for more of the extra work, and at a higher rate of $90 per hour.”
From a comprehensive article in Sunday's Providence Journal.
Talks broke down so Superintendent Gallo went to option 4, turnaround, and since state law requires school districts to let laid off teachers know about the next year by March 1st, she moved forward.
Clarification:
- Up to half the teachers can and will be rehired.
- A number of urban schools have had “turnaround” without the nation becoming aroused. Perhaps because Central Falls has only one high school it sounds like all the teachers in the district have been fired.
- Federal dollars are making a big difference here.
- Both the state education commissioner and the Central Falls superintendent could have easily delayed each step, but they obviously wanted to make their case loud and clear.