This just in from the Chicago Teachers Union:
NEWS RELEASE
Turnarounds and the Systemic Assault on Experienced Black Educators
CHICAGO – In addition to 54 elementary schools slated for closure this year, the Chicago Public School district wants to “turnaround” six other neighborhood school campuses. The management contract will most likely be awarded to the Academy of Urban School Leadership (AUSL). The turnaround model is not about educational improvement. No study has ever shown that firing and replacing an entire school staff, from the teachers to the clerks and lunchroom attendants, has any positive impact on student learning, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) reports.
There are clearly benefits to receiving a full-time social worker, additional assistant principal, teacher aides in each classroom, an additional $420 per pupil, and $300,000 for the school. Those are resource investments that can help improve teaching and learning environments, and help schools organize to improve. Corporate reformers however, will never embrace a school improvement strategy based on resource investments that does not also involve an assault on dedicated educators and school staff.
It appears the only purpose that the firing and replacing of staff serves as part of a ‘turnaround’ is to discriminate against experienced, expensive educators, especially educators of color,” said CTU President Karen Lewis. “School turnarounds have disproportionately affected black educators in the past, and last year’s turnarounds are no different.”
According to CTU research, out of the seven turnaround schools with majority Black teaching staff prior to turnaround, only CVCA maintained the same proportion of Black teachers with their replacements.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Interesting piece about targeting black educators. I found that when our school board “zero-based” a supposedly failing school in our local area (high poverty, high minority, physically isolated from the rest of the county) back early in the NCLB regime, most of those dismissed were local residents and union members. Doesn’t that say something about whether those making the decisions used unbiased judgment? The result 10 years later is that the reading and math proficiency has not changed dramatically.
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In districts nationwide there is a concerted effort to get rid of experienced teachers because they are “too expensive”. It isn’t necessarily done by closing an entire school, but, bit by bit, year by year, the established methods of teaching are being chipped away, leaving opportunities for privatization of many schools. Beyond the CC issues, there are efforts to minimize all efforts to “secularize” schools. Without educating students to get along with differences of opinion, religion, class, background, and goals, unrest will grow in the United States. But, if you look to those who are financing this “change” … you will see why.
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This is terrible news. This goes along with everything else that ALEC is promoting. I agree that this is not about ensuring that all children receive a quality education. In fact, this is more about an attempt to limit the quality of education for some of our children. It is also about the continuing war on women since many elementary school teachers are women.
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AUSL turnarounds are no better than anything else and achieve nothing with the possible exception of profiting from being connected to those in power. http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3100 In addition to what’s in the linked article, one must also point out that AUSL itself was “turned around” and then given a second chance at the school it was just evicted from, a school whose kids have been used as lab rats for every single toxic experiment of reform, all of which have failed miserably and have further harmed the school’s community. http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2217
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Don’t you just love the names they give themselves? Of all the “Real Turnarounds” I have seen they only replaced the principal as “The Fish Rots from the Head.” It is all about leadership and there is none there. You blame every employee no matter the reason. Paint them with the red letter A and cause them problems throughout their career. When you get to the top of the salary scale now the game is to get rid of those at the top of the salary scale, ready to vest in lifetime benefits or have caused trouble trying to protect students and parents. My friend in L.A. has a data base of over 600 teachers falsely accused and terminated or about to be terminated without the legally required Skelly Hearing, not in the required 60 days as the union, UTLA, assists the district in this, no due process, no verified charges, even when the real police do an investigation and find nothing, and without personal knowledge. Is this enough? I even had this audited in 1997 by the Auditor of the State of California. I am a democrat and guess who fought this audit, democrats. I was helped by two republicans, one of whom is now D.A. of San Diego and just did not refile charges on a falsely charged teacher. They risked their political careers on this issue for teachers. Think about it? This audit is Oct. 1997, 96121. Today, in spite of an agreement between LAUSD and the State to not do this anymore it is now worse than then. It has been going on for a long time. Watch the LAUSD Board Meeting Tuesday for some fun.
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Not only is this reconstitution of schools discriminatory to black teachers but veteran teachers. This is the district’s method of replacing them with young, TFAers at half the cost. We have a number of these done in LAUSd and they make the situation worst, not better. The fact that their is no research or study that confirms replacing all staff at schools results in better performance, the other motive has to be get rid of the veteran staff and teachers.It’s a stupid practice done by stupid school districts with no clue.
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They’re starting to do the same thing in Milwaukee. Five schools are being “closed” and changed to voucher schools. All teachers were “excessed” (a nice name for fired)-these same teachers were then put at the bottom of the list of all who apply for new jobs in the school system. We have a union busting governor; when he’s in the state, and a legislature that is determined to bring down the public school system at the cost of our children.
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Isn’t it time the ACLU look into the violations of the rights of the teachers? What about the rights to an education for the children? Our children are loosing ground each and every day with the continual eradication of the public school system in this country. Someone or some group must STOP this.
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That’s what happened in New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina. All of the teachers and administrators of Orleans Parish Public Schools were fired. OPPS had a majority black education force. At least 80% of OPPS teachers were black. Now, the teaching force is 80% white while the students are black.
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we need some Watts Rebellion action like in’65!!!
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