From Chicago Public Radio’s City Room:
The District [CPS] has come to rely on the turn around method to fix failing schools. The turn around calls for the entire school staff to be laid off and new replacement teachers hired. CORE member and teacher, Lois Ashford, explains.
ASHFORD: Somehow, we have become the problem for the social ills of certain communities. Teachers are being displaced after 15, 17 years.
The Caucus of Rank and File Educators has filed charges against the Chicago Board of Education under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, claiming that the “turnaround” policy of the Renaissance 2010 initiative has amounted to discrimination against African-American teachers in the Chicago Public Schools… Title VII prohibits formal or practical discrimination in hiring and firing practices–so even where a system is formally fair, if the practice or operations are discriminatory, legal action is possible.
[Attorney filing charges Jennifer] Purcell says the impact [of the turnaround program] on black teachers is no accident.
“This is not just coincidental,” Purcell says.
At six of the schools that were shut down after the 2007-2008 school year, more than half of the teachers before the turnarounds were African-American. So when the entire staffs of those schools were laid off as part of the turnaround, African-Americans were hit disproportionately hard, Purcell says.
“The more people who can call us or talk to us about who they are and how they were impacted by the turnaround, the more detail we can get,” Purcell says.
The Chicago Public Schools’ controversial turnaround program unfairly targets African-American teachers, who are laid off at a greater rate than non-minority teachers, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators says in [the] federal complaint.
“Turnaround schools are depriving students of the benefit of experience and knowledge of African-American teachers,” says Carol Caref, the treasurer of CORE.
Progress Illinois Questions the efficacy of the program:
Here’s an important point to consider: even at Howe [turnaround school], which has been lauded as a national example of turnaround success, test scores remain subpar, according to a recent feature in U.S. News & World Report. During the turnaround process at Howe, in the South Austin community, the number of African American teachers fell to 14 from 22. At the same time, the number of white teachers increased from 10 to 14, according to the complaint.
Substance News questions the deliberative body known as the Chicago Board of Eduation:
[Turnarounds schools were determined] without reviewing the facts or the record to rubber stamp the school closing policies of Arne Duncan…
Arne Duncan is now U.S. Secretary of Education, and Duncan has announced that he will expand ‘turnaround’ to every state in the USA.
This turnaround program is expanding and will continue to negatively impact students, parents, and teachers.Teachers who feel they have been negatively impacted by the turnaround process should contact coreteachers@gmail.com.
