WP: Ohio principal expresses sadness over firing of VT principal for Arne's money.

[madfloridian]

This is one of the requirements for the Race to the Top money that makes the least sense of any of them. Well, that and replacing half the school's teachers.

I was glad to see this in the Answer Sheet forum by an Ohio principal.

Principal: Not the change I had in mind

George Wood is "principal of Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio, and executive director of the non-profit Forum for Education and Democracy, a collaboration of educators from around the country."

I am still not over the sadness and anger I feel over what happened to my colleague, Joyce Irvine. Even though I have never met her, I call Ms. Irvine my colleague because of the way her work as principal of Wheeler Elementary School in Burlington, Vermont, has been described.

As reported in the New York Times, parents are grateful for her leadership, she knows all of her students, she launched innovative programs, her teachers and her superintendent give her high marks, and even her U.S. senator has praised her work.

And she has been fired.

Yep, call it what you want (she has been transferred to a district administrative spot) but she has been fired because the children in her school, overwhelmingly poor and immigrant, did not get the test scores the federal government says they should have.

More from the WP about Ms Irvine.

As I have pointed out many times before, current federal policy has created at the local level all the wrong incentives.

When rewarded or punished solely on test scores schools are encouraged to push out or not take students who will not score well, narrow the curriculum to basic skills, cut out enrichment and engagement activities, and narrow teaching to rote memorization drills.

Joyce Irvine would not do any of that, and she is paying the price for it.

Here is more about her firing and why it happened. Not just her either. Other principals are paying a price so their districts can get Arne's discretionary funds. Never let a crisis go to waste mentality.

Principals pay a price so their districts can get Arne's money.

Ms. Irvine’s most recent job evaluation began, “Joyce has successfully completed a phenomenal year.” Jeanne Collins, Burlington’s school superintendent, calls Ms. Irvine “a leader among her colleagues” and “a very good principal.”

Beth Evans, a Wheeler teacher, said, “Joyce has done a great job,” and United States Senator Bernie Sanders noted all the enrichment programs, including summer school, that Ms. Irvine had added since becoming principal six years ago.

“She should not have been removed,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview. “I’ve walked that school with her — she seemed to know the name and life history of every child.”

.."Ms. Irvine was removed because the Burlington School District wanted to qualify for up to $3 million in federal stimulus money for its dozen schools. And under the Obama administration rules, for a district to qualify, schools with very low test scores, like Wheeler, must do one of the following: close down; be replaced by a charter (Vermont does not have charters); remove the principal and half the staff; or remove the principal and transform the school."

In June the Answer Sheet covered another principal paying the price so their district can get the funds. This one was in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Obama policy blamed for popular principal's reassignment

An elementary school principal in Lincoln, Neb., is being reassigned. District officials say that she's great and that the school's real problem is poverty. But , they say, the price for receiving millions of federal stimulus dollars is her reassignment.

"It is a direct result of the federal government infringing upon the local control of education, which we all find distressing," Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Susan Gourley was quoted as saying by the Journal Star.

Why is this happening? Because Elliott School, where De Ann Currin is principal, is expected to be among five Title I schools identified in Nebraska as among the lowest of the low-achieving schools, making it eligible for a portion of $17 million available to Nebraska. The money is part of $3.5 billion that the Obama administration has made available to help the most “persistently low-achieving schools” in each state.

Here are the 4 restructuring requirements for Duncan's money.

But to claim the Title I money, which is used to help high-poverty schools, Education Secretary Arne Duncan is requiring that each school district choose one of four “restructuring” options for each of the identified schools.

Two require closing the school and either reopening it as a charter or sending the students elsewhere; another requires that the principal and at least half the staff be replaced, and the last --the least onerous -- requires that the principal be replaced and other reform measures taken.

Real reform does not need to be that much of a burden. It does not require such drastic measures. It means hiring good principals, hiring good teachers....letting them do their jobs as educators. Set high standards, and allow various means to show they have been reached. Schools have always done that.

That is why there are classroom tests given, grades kept by teachers, portfolios of the students' work samples. Use them all along with standardized testing.

There will be no real change or progress as long as one test score is the ultimate decider of capability of a student, his teachers, his principal, and his school.

[fogonthelake]

1. The inherent logic of RTT is that only a few will make it to the top of

the tree for the blackmail money.

[DrDan]

2. it is the height of arrogance to assume you clearly know the

reason for poor test performance - and base the distribution of educational funds on it.

There are just sooooooooo many reasons that need to be considered - and the options offered are just wrong.

[madfloridian]

4. Or deciding the reasons for failure don't matter.

That's a scary part also.

I always thought you got to the root of a problem, its source. But in education that is not happening at all.

:hi:

[DrDan]

5. exactly - and who best to do that . . . . not another bureaucrat - that's for sure

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. But not sad enough to keep the principal and turn down the money

[dsc]

7. I can't imagine a principal who wouldn't quit to get their school that much more money

It is an offer they can't refuse.

[LWolf]

9. George Wood, the Principal expressing sadness, did not fire her. nt

[YvonneCa]

6. Joyce Irvine...Principal. Her story is mine...

...except that I was a teacher. MY principal told me they'd come after her if she didn't go after me...so she did. This is just wrong on SO many levels.

[madfloridian]

8. I am hearing...

about 700 in our county. They are not sure the new stimulus for education will go far enough to help. Other public workers also.

I hope I am hearing wrong.

I remember when Jeb said during his inauguration that his dream was to see the government buildings empty. When you privatize everything, you don't need government. Did I say he loves what Arne is doing for schools?

You have my sympathy.

[Starry Messenger]

10. k & r

[bertman]

11. This is criminal. The RTT is designed to keep the wealthy secure and

well-educated while providing poorly-educated serfs to do the scut work. The feudal system redux.

[madfloridian]

12. And while this happens..KIPP and TFA get 50 million each in fed money.

[caraher]

13. I wonder if there's a way around this

Not a perfect solution by any means - Race to the Bottom accelerates the ongoing destruction of our public school system. But if District 1 fires Principal A for the $$ and District 2 does the same to Principal B, what's to stop District 2 from hiring A and District 1 from hiring B?

It's still ridiculous, of course, uprooting good principals, but at least it would keep them in the schools...