Over the weekend, there was some excited talk about the agreement that was reached in the Central Falls saga. The union and district found common ground, it was reported, so now the troubled school can move on in a new and more promising direction.
But all of the details I'm reading have me pretty discouraged.
On the personnel front, all of the teachers get their jobs back without having to reapply. They just need to "recommit" to their work.
The school will have a longer schedule, and there will be more professional development for teachers and tutoring for students.
But this set of interventions is straight out of the unsuccessful NCLB restructuring "other option" playbook. If this is what "turnarounds" look like under the Obama administration, I'm even more pessimistic about this line of work. (Note that school officials are calling the agreement a "transformation" plan--that is one of the administration's four turnaround options.)
In total, based on what I'm seeing so far--and I'm open to being convinced otherwise--I'm hard-pressed to call this a victory.
--Andy Smarick
Update I: ??Rick Hess is??more optimistic about the situation than I.
Update II: ??I just heard from someone in Rhode Island that I trust on these matters, and that person is confident that the agreement is solid and will be good for reform. So maybe I'm just an incorrigible worry wart.