Central Falls High School Student Protest: 'It's Not Teachers' Fault' School Is Failing

Fifty Rhode Island high school students walked out in protest earlier this week -- to demand the administration include their voices in the effort to reform the failing school.

This isn't the first sign of trouble at Central Falls High School, which has a troubled past.

The school struggles with poor student test scores. In February, the school board took a drastic action in an effort to help spur reform: they fired the principal and the entire teaching staff.

A few months later, teachers were rehired and a turnaround plan was put in place to help the school improve.

At Wednesday's organized protest, students voiced their hope for a better school and explained that teachers aren't to blame for low test scores.

ABC6 News interviewed students at the protest.

WATCH:

Comments

[Ariel Bonzai]

03:16 AM on 01/15/2011

These kids are why we teach. Very inspired and inspiring.

Students need to be heard too.
Join us at Perdaily.com.

[bergerqueen]

05:09 AM on 12/23/2010

I have to children in a decent public school and both have been watching a lot of movies during class time. When did movies become an alternative to teaching? I'm sure things will gear up after the holidays and the testing machine will take hold but it's this uninspired alternative that makes me wonder just what is going on and why this sort of thing is allowed. Teachers decide that it's not worth it to teach a lesson and the students don't get taught. Then, they pile it on and inundate the kids with too much work because they've fallen behind. And the kids suffer. I'm much rather allow my kids to sleep in then send them off to an educational system that does not take itself seriously.

[Ron Diaz]

03:47 PM on 12/21/2010

Excellent perspectiv e on education.
http://www .youtube.c om/watch?v =zDZFcDGpL 4U&feature =player_em bedded

[Bryan Morris]

07:50 PM on 12/20/2010

It's time the American people and politicians woke up and saw the big picture: The Business Model does NOT work in education. Collaboration, not competition, is what fosters better teachers and students. NCLB and RttT undermine this further.

People complain about the cost of education... "bust the unions!" they say. How about, "arrest the profiteers"?
ETS makes billions a year by charging outlandish prices to test our kids. They do this by government mandate, and with NCLB and RttT, they do it for every child.

[hawkseye]

05:19 PM on 12/20/2010

There is the teacher, administrators, the student, his/her parents and the community and culture. All are responsible. It's just easiest to blame the teachers---a very lazy way out.

[Jeff Rosenbury]

06:33 PM on 12/20/2010

Nearly all organizational problems are the fault of management. That the school administration fired everyone (rather than the under-performers) shows it was not the fault of the teachers but of the administrators.

Institute voucher based schools. Most will fail, but some will succeed. The successful schools will then eliminate the unsuccessful ones.

[romdrom]

11:56 AM on 12/20/2010

Not everyone is college bound. We need to bring technical training back to schools. We need the arts and more music. Or if we are starting up charter schools maybe that's a good place for the trades. Or vice versa, charter schools for college bound. But to think that every peg fits one hole is a waste of time.

[Andrew Wojtkowski]

10:53 AM on 12/20/2010

What is failing our school system is the "No Child Left Behind" attitude we have as a country about education. And no, and my point has nothing to do with Bush.

Let's face it. McDonald's NEEDS employees. Some people just don't have what it takes. I know that is hard to accept if it is your son or daughter, but it's the cold hard truth. If you can't take the heat, go find a trade school.

Not everybody can be an Einstein. But even then, he dropped out of school because of how poor our school system was (and still is.) And so long as we cator towards the lowest performing students, the higher performing students get bored and do not live up to their potential.

Fortunately, Einstein was able to continue his pursuits after dropping out, but it makes you wonder how many people followed in his footsteps yet did not have quite the opportunities he had post-High School?

As 'becut' mentioned below, teachers spend 80% of the time trying to get students to WANT to learn, leaving only 20% of their time actually teaching. We are short changing our country's geniuses and those on the higher-half who actually have a chance of amounting to something later in life, while trying to force people through who will inevitably end up in the same place they would if they got an F.

Even worse, our colleges are now following suit.

[mamacat]

07:58 PM on 12/19/2010

It borders on the absurd, to think that class sizes have risen from 25 to 40 here in California, and there are still those blaming the teachers and their union for the failure of the students to learn. With 40 pupils, it takes a superman to be a successful teacher.

[romdrom]

11:48 AM on 12/20/2010

If only 40. I had 53 second language acquisition students from Latin American countries, Russia, China, Viet Nam, Iran, and Turkey

[mamacat]

04:32 PM on 12/20/2010

Wow. That is mind-numbing, and very sad.

As a youngster I was put in a class with other pupils from immigrant families who were having trouble with American English, and the personalized attention was invaluable. I think there were fewer than 20 in the class. How much help can a teacher offer with 53 pupils, even if all of them are cooperative?
Kudos to you!

[hawkseye]

05:23 PM on 12/20/2010

I just nominated you for sainthood, rom.

[Ariel Bonzai]

01:33 AM on 01/15/2011

please join us on perdaily.com
we need strong voices like yours

[ohtartuffe]

07:31 PM on 12/19/2010

Here's an instance of teachers and students working together for a common goal...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po9qy-tjeYw

[LeFlaneur]

11:22 AM on 12/19/2010

Its simple. Here's what's wrong with our public schools in no particular order:

Poverty; overly high student to teacher ratio; poor teachers protected by overly aggressive union; good teachers not paid enough; deteriorating facilities; uninvolved parents; schoolboards overly concerned with "values"; a political class that sidesteps the public school system and is therefore personally unaffected by it.

All we have to do is fix the above problems and our schools will improve!

[becut]

07:05 PM on 12/19/2010

Overly aggressive unions?????
Without the unions teachers would be killed. Some of these inner city kids are so angry and frustrated (due to no fault of their own - Social Promotion and Excessive testing) that the teachers get abused by their disrespectful, disruptive, and defiant behaviors. Administrators force you to keep your problem students at the expense of the students who really want to learn. Only teachers with tenure will use their right to suspend students from class, but the new teachers won't because they are afraid for their jobs. Administrators are evaluated by the number of students suspended or expelled, and the very parents that you never see for parent conferences, will call the district offices and complain about the school administrator if they kick their kid out.

Some of my classes are 80% dicipline and 20% teaching. Some of the good kids are so tired of the teacher having to spend so much time on dicipline just to be able to teach.............teachers want to teach but if out of 35 students 10 of them can be severe dicipline problems and can control the amount of material the teacher can cover.

[romdrom]

11:51 AM on 12/20/2010

I had students showing up daily on drugs... not the same drug, varieties of drugs, and had to keep them in class. Acid, pot, along with my tweekers. Couldn't make anyone happy, except the principal who refused to deal with the problem . Only kid ever called on anything was the one who offered me a joint in front of the coke machine guy. Principal HAD to do something about him.

[hawkseye]

05:29 PM on 12/20/2010

In my opinion, poor teachers are protected by lazy administrators, frightened school boards and by unions to whom teachers pay big money for legal protection. The protections are necessary because of incompetent administrators and boards. The rest of your post is pretty much correct.
And it is not simple as you state in your first sentence.

[LeFlaneur]

06:22 PM on 12/20/2010

yes the "simple" was a joke. And I'm willing to step back from "aggressive unions" in favor of the more nuanced explanation you gave.

[Skepticat]

10:53 AM on 12/19/2010

You want to reform schools - reform the economic system and reverse the national slide towards poverty, then remove the view that the primary function of education should be to enrich huge corporations. It is no accident that most of the current standardized test mania is being pushed by politicians involved in privitization partnerships.

[glockman]

11:37 AM on 12/19/2010

Since the turn of the century, schools have existed to produce good, obedient grist to add to the working classes. Schools are not places of learning (just enough learning takes place for the workers being produced to function), they are manufacturing plants, turning out mindless drones who have no sense of individuality or individual liberty.

Education is a one size fits all mill. And this will never change because we refuse to change it.

[hawkseye]

06:59 PM on 12/20/2010

You are correct about preparing students for the workforce. The schools are also intended to be giant baby=sitting operations. Main Street businessmen want students off the streets and out of their stores for as long as possible each day.

[teacher39years]

02:05 PM on 12/19/2010

The disparity between rich and poor has never been greater. Title 1 funds were given based on Free and Reduced Lunch count in an attempt to equalize resources between rich and poor schools. No Child Left Behind took 20% of Title 1 Funds and put them into private hands. The Bush Brothers and some of the richest people in the United States are very invested in privitization.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/school-turnaroundsreform/sponsors-tell-story-of-jeb-bus.html

[Andy Bradford]

10:46 AM on 12/19/2010

Well actually it is sometimes the teachers fault.

I have experienced the lack of enthusiam some of the teachers have towards their subjects.

As well as letting COACHES teach the most important subjects like math, science.

[becut]

08:19 PM on 12/19/2010

Whattttt??? TEACHERS ARE THE only ONES that REALLY care EDUCATION :

-The Administrators ONLY care about placing excessive paperwork demands on teachers; they never come to visit classes to make sure students are respecting the educational process;
-The students know if they don't pass one test or do any homework, through Social Promotion they will be PROMOTED to the next grade level EACH year with their peers (until HS when, they are expected to pass the exit exam and they can't ,so they drop out). I have to give out pencils and paper all day long.........they don't even come with supplies to do work.
-The parents don't check with the teachers or don't have the language and subject skills to help with home practice..........out of this guilt they blame the teachers when these kids really need assistence at home.
-The politicians created the policy of Social Promotion (SET UP for poor families not paying attention). I call it passing them to PRISON. The politicians are in bed with the corporations to privatize education and the prison system, with public funds.

We have always had private schools. Why don't these companies open schools with their own funds. Isn't this the way the free market works. No, they want public money. The politicians do not want to pay for public education for immagrants children anymore.

Corporations are about the bottem line............class sizes will be 50-60 students.
- TEACHERS ARE THE ONLY ONES BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE..............WOW!!!!!

[democles]

10:05 AM on 12/19/2010

These kids are learning one the central tenants of the new American paradigm. We go after the weakest members of society so that the wealthiest can prosper.

[teacher39years]

10:27 AM on 12/19/2010

Absolutely. There's not much more they can do to the poor people. The Teacher's Unon is the largest union and represents one of the last remnants of the Middle Class.

[Ariel Bonzai]

02:29 AM on 01/15/2011

Breivity is the soul of wit.
Lend your eloquent voice to ours at Perdaily .com

[Steve Rockett]

11:20 PM on 12/18/2010

For 36+ years I worked with people with disabilities. In my capacity, I had an opportunity to meet with teachers, administrators and students. Overall, I was delighted with the educational system and the people involved. I was particularly impressed with the students and their parents. The next generation is worthy of the transfer we will bestow on them. We have many fine young people coming up. The No Child Left Behind program, however, is a disaster. We need to have vocational preparation programs, not just traning in college preparation.

[teacher39years]

10:31 AM on 12/19/2010

No Child Left Behind centralized power over Education to the Federal Government. It also became a doorway for corporations expand their interests in taking over schools. Race to the Top will be worse.

[Galia Hannah]

10:10 PM on 12/18/2010

Bill Gates has a destructive impact on U.S. education. His foundation had the absurd notion that breaking up large public high schools into smaller ones would help, so he spent $2 billion before his smaller schools failed. Not having learned anything from his failure, Gates has now decided, contrary to evidence and research, that charter schools and standardized testing, will help public schools. Gates ignores reality and pushes inane ideas.

[democles]

10:07 AM on 12/19/2010

Let us not forget that charter schools, by and large, are for profit corporations who are making long term sweetheart deals, with public funds, to purchase 'educational products' from companies like Hearst (Cathy Black), New Corp (Murdock), Microsoft (Gates) and others.

[teacher39years]

05:17 PM on 12/19/2010

His foundation is providing him with a hefty deduction on his Federal Income Tax.