The author graduated from Central Falls High in Rhode Island in 2003.
Under the advisement of Superintendent of Schools Frances Gallo, the Central Falls school committee in Rhode Island voted 5-2 to fire the entire faculty, 93 people total, including the principal, three assistant principals and 77 teachers at Central Falls High School on Feb. 23.
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This decision did not come as a surprise to any of the teachers. Gallo had been threatening the mass firing for months in an attempt to pressure the teachers’ union to accept the terms of the so-called “transformation” model. Under the approved “turnaround” model, the school is allowed to re-hire no more than 50 percent of the previous staff.
State Education Commissioner Deborah Gist mandated an overhaul of the “failing” high school through one of four models. The “transformation” model included an extended seven-hour school day, weekly after-school tutoring for one hour, having lunch with students, holding 90-minute weekly meetings to discuss education and taking two weeks during the summer for “professional development.”
The other two options were closing the school or turning it into a charter school.
Gallo’s “transformation” model did not include pay for the added hours of work, nor did it include negotiating with the teachers’ union. In fact, Gallo stated that she was firing the teachers because the “union insisted on negotiating over the terms of the transformation.” This lack of respect for the teachers and the union is criminal.
Commissioner Gist’s mandate to overhaul the school was reportedly implemented in an effort to raise the students’ low test scores, which are amongst the lowest in the state of Rhode Island, along with decreasing the dropout rate, which is reported to be about 50 percent.
Helping students in poor areas means funding education, not firing teachers and busting unions
A teacher at CF high school, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told PSLweb.org, “… the dropout rate is measured inappropriately. If a student moves out of the district … that student is counted as a dropout, even if he or she graduates from another school. If a student stays back and takes five years to graduate, that student is counted as a dropout. … People move to CF because of the inexpensive housing. They move out because of job loss or other reasons. In other words, we are penalized for being a poor community.”
Central Falls is one of the poorest cities in the state and the country, with a median income of only $22,000. Of the 800-plus students at Central Falls High, the only high school in the city, 65 percent are Latino, most whom speak English as a second language. Yet somehow, these facts do not get taken into account when looking at test scores.
Standardized testing such as the NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) is culturally biased, and does not adequately “assess” a student’s knowledge. Imagine having to take a test in another language that you barely understand. Is it really possible to do well if the student does not even understand the questions?
Many students also lack “initiative” due to the inability to pay for college. If students know they cannot afford college, then why would high school matter to them? The same teacher added in her interview with PSLweb.org: “My major concern is the number of undocumented immigrants at the school. These students and their families are in fear that they will be discovered and deported. Many of them do not finish school because they can’t go to college without papers. This is a common occurrence.”
These are the real issues that face Central Falls High School students every day. I know this personally. I graduated from Central Falls in 2003. I experienced first-hand families of friends struggling to make ends meet; students trying to juggle full-time jobs needed to help their parents pay bills and also trying to finish school work on time.
I remember students skipping school, not because they did not care, but because they knew they could never afford to go to college. I know of students who were undocumented, some who were deported. Those who were not deported had no access to college due to their legal status in this country.
Life for us students was never easy, but it was our valiant teachers who helped us through our constant struggles. The Central Falls teachers not only helped their students better themselves academically, but emotionally as well. The teachers respected their students, and in return they were given respect back. What these teachers instilled in their students cannot be measured by any standardized test.
Superintendent Gallo does have one thing right, however—the students of Central Falls do deserve the best. They deserve a chance, an opportunity and the right to a higher education and equal quality of life. Most importantly, they deserve to not be treated as a statistic. They deserve change, but not the kind being handed down by the school board.
What Gallo, Gist and the board tragically got wrong were to unjustly blame the hard-working teachers, many of whom spent their entire careers as dedicated educators at the school.
As a graduate of Central Falls and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, I stand firmly with all the teachers, students and families of Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Our teachers have struggled alongside us and now we must all struggle alongside them. Reinstate the teachers! Defend the union! Fire Superintendent Gallo! Public education is a right!
