An Education Horror Show A case study in public school failure and lack of accountability.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-education-horror-show-11562532467
The National Education Association held its annual convention this past weekend, and the Democratic presidential candidates made their pilgrimage to promise the teachers union more money—and even more money. One word we didn’t hear on stage was “Providence,” as in the Rhode Island capital city whose public schools were recently exposed as a horror show of government and union neglect.
Peeling lead paint, brown water, leaking sewage pipes, broken asbestos tiles, rodents, frigid and chaotic classrooms, and student failure were all documented in a 93-page review by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. The review was conducted in May at the request of the Rhode Island education commissioner, and it deserves attention nationwide as an example of government failure.
“Very little visible student learning was going on in the majority of classrooms and schools we visited—most especially in the middle and high schools,” the report says. “Our review teams encountered many teachers and students who do not feel safe in school. There is widespread agreement that bullying, demeaning, and even physical violence are occurring within the school walls at very high levels.”
No surprise, then, that only 5% of Providence eighth graders on average scored proficient in math in the 2015 through 2017 school years. That compares to 21.3% in Newark, N.J., where students have similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Low-income students in Worcester, Mass., not far away, were twice as proficient as those in Providence.
“Teachers did not press students to become engaged with the mathematics instruction, resulting in a variety of student off-task behavior: chatting with peers, checking phones, staring into space, or, in some cases, taking phone calls and watching YouTube videos,” the report says. Student performance actually drops the longer students spend in Providence schools. Proficiency in English fell from 18.7% of students in fifth grade to only 8.5% in eighth.
One student reported that “my best teacher’s desk was urinated on, and nothing happened.” Another noted a teacher “was choked by a student in front of the whole class. Everybody was traumatized, but nothing happened.” One district leader observed, “the students run the buildings.”
One culprit are policies that discourage student discipline. Rhode Island Democrats in 2016 passed legislation backed by the American Civil Liberties Union that limits school suspensions, which progressives claim discriminate against minorities. Teachers are reluctant to punish students, and violence and misconduct make it harder to retain good teachers.
The reviewers also note that collective-bargaining agreements limit the ability of school principals to fire lousy teachers. “In the case of an abusive teacher, s/he is placed on unpaid administrative leave but then ‘lawyers up’ through the union and ultimately returns to the classroom,” one principal noted.
Another principal was forced to accept a teacher with a history of falling asleep in class and lying about grades. “We fought her placement but the union prevailed,” the principal said. Teachers who skip school face few repercussions.
By contrast, Providence charter schools have been “successful,” the reviewers note. But the city council can’t decide “whether to expand charter schools or to pause their growth.” “If we went the charter route, we would circumvent a lot of issues,” one council member said. “But I don’t see the Providence Teachers Union going anywhere.”
That’s for sure. The union’s latest political focus is “evergreen” contracts that stay in place even after they expire, giving the union more leverage in negotiations with the school district. Student results are an afterthought. Democratic Mayor Jorge Elorza reflected the liberal political class’s low expectation by telling the Johns Hopkins reviewers he’d give Providence schools a C grade.
Democrats as ever blame a lack of funding, though the district spent nearly $18,000 per pupil in 2017—about 50% more than the national average. In a system with any accountability, this would all be judged a disgrace and people would be fired. But this is a government failure, underwritten by entrenched union power. That’s why the Democratic presidential candidates won’t show up in Providence, but maybe Donald Trump should.
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