Rhode Island Firings Put Federal Turnaround Rules, Unions in Spotlight

A low-performing Rhode Island school district’s decision to fire 93 high school teachers and staff has put new focus on federally mandated school turnaround measures.

The struggling Central Falls, Rhode Island school district garnered national headlines in February when Superintendent Frances Gallo announced she would dismiss the entire staff of Central Falls High School at the end of the academic year.

Gallo issued the decision after weeks of deadlocked contract talks with the Central Falls Teachers Union, which had resisted efforts to extend the school day by 25 minutes and submit to new teacher evaluation requirements and training.

Obama Lauded Firings

The district and union both agreed to return to the bargaining table and let the teachers return to work. But not before the firings won praise from President Obama.

“If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn’t show signs of improvement, then there’s got to be a sense of accountability,” Obama said at a March 1 event touting his plans to boost high school graduation rates.

“And that’s what happened in Rhode Island … at a chronically troubled school, when just seven percent of 11th graders passed state math tests,” the president said. “When a school board wasn’t able to deliver change by other means, they voted to lay off the faculty and the staff.”

Consistently Poor Performance

Gallo said her hand was forced by the state, which is under pressure from an Obama administration policy that ties $3.5 billion in federal school turnaround funding to stringent “accountability measures.”

Central Falls High School has been labeled as “in need of reform” and making “insufficient progress” every year since 2003. Turnaround remedies include tutoring and longer school days or can mean closing schools, replacing principals, and firing staff.

Obama’s praise drew the ire of teachers union officials, including American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who said the president unfairly “scapegoated” teachers.

Reformers Praise Firings

But reformers praised the president and district officials.

“What the firings have done is showcase support at all levels, from parents to the President, for standing up to the status quo and exposing them for the paper tiger that they are,” said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform in Washington, DC.

“It was refreshing to hear President Obama echo the widespread sentiment that we must do something right now to keep schools from failing our kids and hold adults accountable when they do,” Allen said. “But it would have been nicer to hear him speak out against the obstructionist culture of the teachers unions that all too often makes a continuation of these conditions possible.”

Teachers’ Merits Not Considered

Obama’s public support for the firings suggests opposition to the union agenda may no longer be exclusively a partisan issue, said Mike Antonucci, director of the Sacramento, California-based Education Intelligence Agency.

But Antonucci, who has covered teacher union politics for more than two decades, says he worries the drastic turnaround measures could end up strengthening the teachers unions’ hand.

“I’m sure a lot of people derive gratification from the superintendent hitting the union in the face with a two-by-four, but the mass firing actually enforces the union notion that the district is not allowed to differentiate between teachers,” he said.

“Of course the unions are upset that everyone was fired, but they would be even more upset if the district administrators had chosen unilaterally who was to stay and who was to go,” Antonucci said. “Other districts aren’t likely to follow Central Falls’ lead, but all of them would like more authority to fire.”

Union Power Remains an Issue

Antonucci says the Rhode Island controversy has less to do with requirements of No Child Left Behind and more to do with union power.

“The union’s biggest problem with NCLB when it was introduced was that it might counteract provisions in collective bargaining agreements,” he said.

But Allen says more school officials should emulate Frances Gallo’s tenacity.

“Standing up for Central Falls’ kids in front of a crowd of teachers and not wavering showed tremendous courage,” Allen said.

Ben Boychuk is managing editor of School Reform News.