Troubled R.I. school hits bumps on road to education reform

Richard Kinslow, an English teacher who has not been calling out sick, said a new management team that was put in place was inexperienced and failed to offer support for teachers or crack down on rampant discipline problems, including what he said were physical and verbal assaults on staff members by students.

“We don’t have a sense of clarity from our leadership. We don’t have a clear sense of their mission or their vision. Communication has been, again, awful,” Kinslow said. “If I’m going to be thrown under the bus by my supposed leaders every day, where is my hope? Where is my sense of team? Why would I be working?”

But he said he was hopeful that a team of mediators coming into the school could encourage cooperation.

Central Falls High School became Exhibit A in a national debate on education reform when the school board last February authorized the firing of all teachers. The school was identified as one of the state’s worst, and after talks with the union broke down, the superintendent resorted to a new option, created by the Obama administration, that allows the dismissal of teachers at poorly performing schools.

For more on education reform:

U.S. public wants an easier way to fire bad teachers

730 U.S. schools trying to reinvent themselves

States that lost school money face reform dilemmas

With divided Congress, school reform faces a tough road ahead

Opinion: This ‘Superman’ doesn’t fly

President Barack Obama appeared to endorse the firings, saying drastic action may be warranted when schools show no signs of improvement.

The White House declined to comment this week.

Following months of negotiations, the teachers were rehired after agreeing to work a longer school day, undergo more rigorous evaluations, and provide more after-school tutoring. At the time, Gist said the changes would result in “dramatic achievement.”

That hasn’t happened.

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