Your May 15 editorial “Bad teachers out, bad teachers in,” about teachers “let go” but rehired under the Board of Education’s reconstitution plan, is itself a product of incomplete analysis for which your editorial board should be sent to re-education camp.
The board’s quick fix for poor performing high schools in ghetto areas is “blame the teachers.” With a few incompetent teachers still in the system, this solution has a nifty ring to it. But for the majority of dedicated inner-city high school teachers, this solution and your editorial are an affront.
The reading and math scores presented by freshmen at these schools is abysmal. With regard to reception of new information, their coping skills are non-existent. Yet the board and a new horde of consultants believe this will change by chanting the now-old mantra: every child can learn. But this hasn’t worked, so let’s find a scapegoat. Dedicated teachers are downgraded and let go for social ills not of their making.
The principals in the system know this and have picked up these fine professionals to help in their schools. This is not ironic, as your editorial states. It is evidence of a failed policy and poor editorial analysis.
