The Closer goes to work. Ten CPS schools targeted.
November 29, 2011
I reported on the new position at CPS: The Closer.
Oliver Sicat, officially known at the Chief Portfolio Officer, met the press with his boss J.C. Brizard to announce ten schools target for immediate turnaround.
Not closing officially. But that’s only because they claim there is no good school to send the students to if they formally closed them.
Some of the targeted schools have not even completed the million dollar reform efforts previously imposed on them.
But Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis immediately took issue with the announcement. “It is a very expensive and destabilizing process,” Lewis said of turnarounds.
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“Destabilizing.” Yes, that’s the correct word. I taught at a middle school that was restructured. Rather than work on the changes that needed to be made (e.g., school uniforms in middle school) BEFORE the restructuring, everything was left as was for the final year. The teachers were interviewed for their jobs. All the union people were sent to other schools, as were those closest to retirement age, including the MAGNIFICENT Art Teacher. (As one of the kids said–out of the mouths of babes,”What’s ART got to do with the test scores?!”–knew you’d appreciate that, Fred.) An L.D. Resource Teacher was reassigned to the intermediate school to teach a 4th Grade class (she resigned). The award-winning Math Teacher was sent to the Alternative Learning Center (which had no students until October). And on & on &–guess what?–the school DID NOT make AYP after it’s restructuring, either. In fact, none of the schools in the district made AYP.
Is there research that turnaround/restructuring actually works? (I think not.)
For a more realistic take on this (even as it is fiction), read the #1 Mr.Teachbad Blog favorite (under his F.ake E.ducation N.ews)–I believe it’s titled “Principal Replaces Student Body.” Oh, yeah, it’s not really fiction…didn’t Geoffrey Canada do this (replace/kick out a # of students) at the Harlem Children’s Zone?!